Rich Mnisi’s Ku Hahama Collection and The Outsider Shirt by Nompumelelo Nhlapo
The duality of the moon and the sun exists in dances this way and that in many eyes. Our experiences of the world lend us many lenses to see the beauty of celestial bodies. And it seems through every lens, the sun is the yin to its yang, the moon and vice versa. Placed on the ceiling of the roof of the home that Mother Nature resides in, these bodies are a reminder of the relationship between two opposing or different elements.
The Bible lends us the lens to see the sun and the moon as heavenly sculptures sculpted by the creator. And from this story of creation, there is a fable of the sun and the moon quarreling with the creator about who should rule the sky. This fable lends us the lens to see the sun and the moon as two rival princes. In addition, this sibling rivalry is a race to be ordained by their father. The duality of the moon and the sun remind us of how much of our world exists in two. Almost everything, even when asymmetrical, is part of a yin and a yang.
2 Birth Stories of Duality in Fashion
When we read the birth story of Rich Mnisi’s trans-seasonal ’21 collection we saw the sun and the moon. This is the lens he lent to us through this story that he introduces as a nightmare his mother woke up from. In addition, it is a lens through which we see a terrible marriage between a yin and the yang. And in reading the birth story of Nompumelelo Nhlapo’ s The Outsider shirt, this concept of duality, the yin and the yang, the sun and the moon, dwelled with us.
For Mnisi, our lives exist within this dance between yin and yang because ‘to live is to embrace this duality’.
