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Welcome to Season 6!

Shades and Layers is here with a brand new season, featuring fashion and textile designers, as well as other black women crafters and makers shaping culture across the world. In between there will be episodes from beauty, hair and personal care entrepreneurs.

The first guest for the season is South Africa's quintessential multi-hyphenate, Maria McCloy. She and I are former business partners and our friendship dates way back to university days. In this conversation, we discuss her path to being a designer of  iconic African-influenced fashion essentials in her hometown, Johannesburg. How she juggles fashion with being a sought after entertainment industry publicist and filling dance floors with her choice of vintage and modern African tunes when she deejays.

We discuss many culture related topics like wax print being synonymous with African fashion, cultural appropriation, infrastructure limitations and opportunities, and the many other dynamics that influence the trajectory of the cultural industries of the African continent.

It's a conversation of the ages and not to be missed. 

MENTIONS AND LINKS IN THIS EPISODE

Black Rage Productions - co-founded by Dzino, Maria McCloy and Kutloano Skosana in the late 90s, they documented South Africa's urban culture through television shows, an online magazine and through the independent record label, Outrageous Records.

As a publicist, Maria McCloy represents many clients in the cultural space, including  legendary South African musicians  Thandiswa Mazwai , Nakhane, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, as well as Zimbabwean artist and activist Kudzanai Chiurai.

South African media heavyweights Tim Horwood and Sylvester Chauke

Maria McCloy's Tedx Talk

South African veteran fashion designers, Marianne Fassler, Ephraim Molingoana, David Tlale and Thula Sindi

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