In 2022 I was visiting my family in South Africa and was looking for an article of clothing made of shweshwe. I was at a local market in Hermanus when this pink bucket hat caught the corner of my eye. I immediately noticed that it was made of the material and it happened to be the only one available at this woman’s booth! So I purchased it without thinking twice and wore it pretty much every day after that.
Knowing that there are so many more prints of shweshwe, I started thinking about how to get more of these hats.. so I reached out to the vendor that I bought it from and they directed me to Lesley. After some discussions, Lesley agreed to make 40 more hats which were sold over the summer of 2022.
Since then, Lesley has shared this work with Albertina and Felecia, two fellow South Africans that she trained in her sewing workshops. Together they made all the hats for 2023 and will be making the next batch of hats coming in 2024!
