By Buhle Andisiwe Made
Inspired by Issey Miyake, a Japanese fashion designer, and David Tlale, a South African fashion designer. Shiba Sopotela has a passion for fashion.
“I’m hung up on the threads I’m addicted to,” she says, using the quote from Tumblr fashion blogger, ‘Littlefashionbox’. Sopotela encapsulates this statement as she lives through her passion for costumes and design as the head of wardrobe at the Rhodes University Theatre.
The Cape Town native is now based in the small town of Makhanda at the Rhodes University Drama Department. You can find her in front of the stage, directing cast members on movement during showcases, or in her fortress – the university’s costume room.
Sopotela started her journey straight into fashion; studying Fashion Design at Cape Tech, now known as Cape Peninsula University of Technology; she was approached by a director for costume work at the Artscape Theatre Centre in Cape Town. This resulted in an internship at the theatre and by the second year of her fashion studies, “I knew that my love was with theatre,” she proclaims.
Photo: Buhle Andisiwe Made
After gaining experience at the Artscape Theatre Centre, Sopotela moved on to work as a freelance costumier for a decade and, in that period, collaborated with artists such as Mamela Nyamza, curator, choreographer, and activist and Chuma Sopotela, a performer, director, and actress. With such notable names, Sopotela developed a robust portfolio and network.
Throughout her freelancing, the costumier enjoyed the pleasures of motherhood in the Mother City because her career afforded her more time with her son. She also emphasises that to enjoy one’s craft fully, discipline is a sound basis, stating, “It’s all about discipline and living your life,”, especially as a freelancer.
Sopotela found a thrill in freelancing. The costumier elaborates that the dynamic environment of freelancing is contagious and exhilarating – the convivial of working on projects and engaging with different people. Working with the students at Rhodes’ Drama Department evokes the thrill all over again. She reassures her students by telling them, “This space is one where you can find your joy and learn in the process.”
Getting involved in the Rhodes Theatre is fun for the customer as fueled by her passion for working should not be about having a mundane, “calculated routine”; the value is of experience and experimentation and creating a story through costume. A simple hat, tie, and blazer can have many characterisations and stories.
As head of the costumes at the department, Shiba, along with other educators, listen to pitches from the students about their desired projects. From that point, Sopotela works alongside the director to produce and interpret each and every outfit for cast members.
Aside from the Drama Department costumes, Shiba indulges in haute couture or high fashion. “There’s a difference between buying something in a shop and me making something.”
Sopotela says she would not mind opening her own boutique one day, where she would create women’s clothing. Her love for fashion and design spans far beyond ever having men’s wear, as she describes it as repetitive and uncreative.
“I always tell people I had one marriage in my life, and that’s art,” Sopotela says.
