Colour coding and its meaning in Zulu women's beadwork in fashion design and decoration
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Date
2002
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Abstract
The topic of this thesis is informed by the writer's observation of the trend
wherein modemist and traditionalist Zulu women tend to wear. as style,
colourfully beaded outfits to decorate their fashion and wear. The colourful
regalia is found in ceremonial dress, like isidwaba (cow-hide skirt) and other
forms of dress made of cloth and textile. and decorated in beads. The
decoration. as observed, is often designed to fit in a particular mode of
interpretation, thus promoting the notion of fashion as form of
communication interaction and definition of status. It is the hypothesis of
the present writer that beads. designed and patterned in a specific way
tend not only to communicate certain literal and figurative or poetic
meanings, but also to declare fashion as a medium of communication, very
much like ordinary speech does. In the context of this thesis Zulu womens'
beadwork is a form of colour coding, literary and poetic speech
communication and a declaration of fashion as a medium of social
interaction, status, and social display. Thus, wearing their colourfully
designed beadwork and fashion, Zulu women are always highly visible and
recognisable.
The thesis is thus confined to introducing the angle of fashion as statement
and medium of literary and poetic communication in the creation of the
modem and traditional status of a Zulu woman through beadwork. Colourcoding
is key because the power of beadwork to communicateThe focus on Zulu Women is for the sake of creating a focus group of study
and more so due to the observation by the present writer that in the
context of modemist and traditionalist Zulu society, real or imaginary, it is
women who wear more beads compared, to any other social group.
meaningfully very much depends on the design and patteming of colours.
Description
Submitted for the fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts
In the Department of IsiZulu Namagugu at the University of Zululand, 2002.
Keywords
Beadwork, Art, Zulu, Zulu women--styles,, Zulu women--fashion, Colour coding