Object Details
- Label Text
- Traditional African clothing starts with the minimum required to fulfill norms of modesty--the attire of youth is the beaded cache-sexe, the small apron-like garment that covers a woman’s pubic region. Young girls add beads to a single strand of beads they received as infants to create beaded belts with a panel or long fringe skirt. Generally, the longer the panel or skirt, the older the girl is who wore it.
- Description
- Cache-sexe in the form of a tubular waistband formed by three tightly rolled cloth cores wrapped with strings of beads and a green beaded fringe. A beaded panel with a vertical chevron design of gold, red, dark green, pink, white and black beads hangs from one end. There are two buttons on one end.
- Provenance
- Colonial Administrator, Natal or Cape Colony, South Africa, early 1900s
- Mrs. Percy Paris, Natal or Cape Colony, South Africa, early 20th century to 1943
- William F. Brodnax III, Washington, D.C./West Indies, 1943 to 1999
- Exhibition History
- Ubuhle Beautiful Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence, Anacostia Community Museum, Washington, D.C., December 8, 2013-January 4, 2015
- TxtStyles: Fashioning Identity, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., June 11-December 7, 2008
- Content Statement
- As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
- Image Requests
- High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
- Data Source
- National Museum of African Art
- Maker
- Zulu artist
- Xhosa artist
- Date
- Late 19th-early 20th century
- Credit Line
- Gift of William F. Brodnax III
- Medium
- Cloth, glass beads, plant fiber, copper alloy and iron buttons
- Dimensions
- H x W x D: 13 x 28.8 x 24 cm (5 1/8 x 11 5/16 x 9 7/16 in.)
- Type
- Textile and Fiber Arts
