Nelson Mandela’s iconic Madiba Shirts up for sale at New York Fashion Institute of Technology’s Museum
The family of the late anti-apartheid leader is selling his personal belongings including ten colorful patterned Madiba shirts he wore on formal occasions to help build a memorial garden in his honour.
The charm of Madiba Shirts goes beyond fashion as these shirt loose batik shirts are an integral part of Indonesian and Malaysian craft culture. The Madiba shirts were named after Mandela’s Xhosa clan when former Indonesian President Suharto presented him one in 1990 after he was released from prison, where he was locked up for 27 years for fighting to end apartheid.
Apart from roughly 100 items, these ten alluring shirts worn by him on formal occasions, including to meet Britain’s Queen Elizabeth in 1998 and 2003 are in the sale on display at the New York Fashion Institute of Technology’s museum for three weeks as a way to educate and inspire diverse audiences and students.
According to a report on Reuters, Patricia Mears, deputy director of the museum said, “The Madiba shirts are much more than a fashion statement. They reflect about our entire world, how we view the world, how we want to advance our society and our cultures. This is a statement way beyond just being about personal enhancement. It is saying something about how we can change the world through dress.”
A four-page poignant letter written by Mandela to the commanding officer of Robben Island Prison in 1976 while imprisoned on Robben Island has also been put on the auction, it has the stamp from Robben Island prison.
