📖 Collectible Series "Fashion in South Africa"

How Cape Town Became the Wardrobe of Three Continents

and why, at one point, women were forbidden from looking too good

I promised to tell you about the Dutch, the British and Asian traders, and to show you why Cape Town became a place where three continents came together.

And it all started, as it often does, with geography.

Look at where Cape Town is located. It sits practically at the edge of Africa, at a very convenient point along the sea route between Europe and Asia.

Ships sailing around Africa would stop here to replenish supplies, rest and then continue their journey. That is why people, goods and objects from different parts of the world began meeting in the Cape relatively quickly.

Europe. Asia. Africa. Fabrics, clothing, jewellery, new habits — all of it came together in one city.

But there is an important part of this story.

Not everyone from Asia came to the Cape of their own free will. And certainly not everyone came here to trade.

Many were forcibly brought here by the Dutch East India Company from India, Ceylon, Indonesia and other parts of South and Southeast Asia.

In 1658, the Cape became a colony where enslaved labour was used. And people brought with them everything that cannot simply be left behind on another shore: languages, religions, crafts, customs and, of course, clothing.

🇳🇱 Dutch Fashion at the Other End of the World

Dutch officials and settlers brought their own fashion with them: European fabrics, lace, bonnets — women’s headwear that covered the hair and was often tied under the chin — corsets, and a very familiar desire to show through clothing who you were and where you stood in society.

Even on the other side of the world, wealthy women in the Cape tried to keep up with the latest European fashions.

But right beside them existed a completely different visual world.

In the clothing of the early Muslim communities, headscarves, turbans, unusual conical headwear, wooden sandals and other details brought by people from South and Southeast Asia remained part of everyday dress.

🇬🇧 And Then Came the British

In the 19th century, under British rule, even more English fabrics and ready-made clothing appeared in the city. Tailored suits, military uniforms and Victorian ideas of what a “respectable” person should look like became part of the picture.

With so much European influence, you might expect Cape Town to have turned into either a little Holland or a copy of London.

But it didn’t.

Instead, people began mixing everything together.

• European cuts with local materials.
• Familiar dresses with beadwork.
• European clothing with headscarves and details brought from Asia.

And this is where something much more interesting than an ordinary fashion story begins to happen.

👗 1765: When Dressing Too Well Became a Problem

And now for the absurd part that stopped me in my tracks.

1765.

The authorities of the Cape Colony prohibited women whom the colonial administration classified at the time as Free Black from appearing in coloured silk, fine lace, decorated bonnets, curled hair and accessories.

And do you know the best part?

The reason.

Their outfits were so impressive that, in the eyes of the authorities, these women were placing themselves on the same level as the wives of European settlers. And sometimes, apparently… they looked even better than them.

I mean… just imagine that level.

Clothing already carried so much power that it had to be regulated by law.

And this is perhaps one of the clearest examples of how clothing in the Cape was never simply about looking beautiful. It communicated origin, social position and the boundaries between different groups of people.

🧵 This Is Where Cape Town Style Begins to Take Shape

This, I think, is where that distinctive Cape Town style begins to emerge.

Not as one particular outfit.

Not as a single fashion trend.

But as a habit of taking details from completely different worlds and using them to tell your own story.

So when you see a tailored blazer, bright fabric, beadwork and a headscarf all appearing in the same look in Cape Town today, it is not some random fashion combination.

Cape Town has been doing this for centuries.

And there is another interesting twist to the story.

Several centuries ago, the Cape looked to Europe and adopted its fashions.

Today, that direction is gradually beginning to reverse.

South African designers are now taking to European runways themselves, winning major international awards and bringing ideas, fabrics and stories from here with them.

But we will get to that.

📖 The History of Fashion in Cape Town

📖 **Part 1**

📖 **Part 2**

👉 In the Next Part

We’ll move on to sewing workshops, the first large-scale manufacturers and the period when clothing became an important part of Cape Town’s economy.