Missibaba’s latest collection honours a local source of wonder
Chloe Townsend and Lizel Strydom, the dynamic duo behind South African luxury accessory brand Missibaba, have entitled their latest collection ‘The Reference Section of The Sea Point Library’.
It’s an intriguing and poignant label for anyone who knows the building, or indeed for anyone who has a thing for libraries, in all their retro glory.
Yes, most are a little dated, smell a little musty and look like they’ve known better days. However, if you look past this into the books themselves you’ll find inspiration packed to the rafters – something Chloe and Lizel discovered during the week they spent there, noses buried deep in art, design and gardening books.
“Looking closer to home for a source of endless beauty and wonder led us to the incredible Sea Point Library,” says Chloe. “We spent a week trawling through the reference section. It was absolute heaven!”
The building itself, a wonderful example of Tropical Modernism, has been a favourite of Chloe and Lizel’s since they first set eyes on it years ago. They knew it was the perfect place to get the creative juices flowing and that’s exactly what happened.
The resulting collection is vibrant, quirky and, as always, beautifully hand-crafted, made up of appliqué and cut-out techniques that embellish the surface of the bags.
There are three patterns in various colour options. The Quilt was inspired by an image of an Amish quilt in the Museum of American Folk Art. Then there’s Tropicana, a by-product of a watermelon print paper-cutting session.
“After cutting the multitude of pieces that make up the many watermelons we started playing around with the negative space in the offcuts and created The Tropicana.”
The third is The Pineapple Scallop, another offcut paper creation. “We used the cut-out watermelon pieces and combined them with a pineapple top to create the vivacious pineapple scallop.”
The bags are crafted from a selection of buttery soft tan and navy charcoal leathers, all locally sourced, and can be found in a variety of on-trend styles.
“There are the Gaucho, Traveller, Nairobi and Cha-Ching styles – each being uniquely transformed by the wide array of detail, pattern and print we’ve explored and developed. We are particularly excited about the Delicious Monster’s Quilted makeover – it looks absolutely amazing!”
If you are in Cape Town you can head over to the Missibaba store at 229 Bree Street. Alternatively visit the Jozi shop at Shop 3 Wrenrose, 64 St Andrew Street, Birdhaven, or shop online at www.missibaba.com.
Words by Emily Pettit-Coetzee / Girl About Town PR
Images – Missibaba
