#WomensDay2018: Celebrating colours and cultures with Merle Payne
As an inquisitive child, the sawmill close to her home became her playground and she became fascinated with the simplistic artwork of a man from the cookhouse.
As a little girl with a curious mind, Merle Payne became inspired by the patterns and drawings of the cultures local to where she grew up at the Sapekoe Tea Estate.
As an inquisitive child, the sawmill close to her home became her playground and she became fascinated with the simplistic artwork of a man from the cookhouse.
Frans Nkampe entertained a young Payne with his charcoal drawings on lime-washed walls. After cooking pap on an open fire, he would take a stick, poke it into the coals and begin drawing typical Shangaan flowers, much to the delight of Payne.
She was further inspired by how the Shangaan women dressed on a Sunday, “I wanted my own Shangaan skirt, with all the ruffles, so I begged my mother for my own one. She made me more of a Spanish skirt and I just wasn’t satisfied, I didn’t get what I wanted.”
The attention to detail in the local attire is what she liked most, “I am inspired by the thought and care put into each piece. A person from a poor background can take a cheap fabric and turn it into something of extreme value just by the number of hours they have put into it.”
Payne’s life thereafter was extremely colourful with many twists and turns. She spent 18 years as the owner of ‘Pearl’s’, a vintage clothing store in Johannesburg which stocked attire from the 1920’s and 1930’s. There she learnt to unpick and remake dresses and soon began designing wedding dresses. In 1994 she made the decision to leave the shop and the business to her staff.
With life taking another interesting twist, she became a freelance Art Director in the film industry, “It was the first time in my life, at probably 50 [years old] that I had to learn some discipline, I had to keep books and receipts, it was new to me,” she joked.
After a few years, she received a call from Danie Odendaal from Kyknet’s ‘7de laan’, “I was so full of it, I told him that I only do overseas commercials,” Payne said with a giggle. However, she did open up to the opportunity and became the soap opera’s Art Consultant, “I just slated everything, the decor, the clothing, everything. Everyone hated me at first.”
Whilst working as the Art Consultant, she met a British man who she slowly fell in love with. One weekend they visited her family home at the Sapekoe Tea Estate and he had a vision of turning the old house into a weekend get away spot.
The renovation work started and with the house revamped, the couple decided to move in permanently. However, soon after, the both decided to go their separate ways and Merle stayed living in the house, “I really thank him for changing my life but I quickly went into panic mode. I had given up everything, I really thought ‘What am I going to do?’ ”
Merle looked back to her childhood for the answer, “Ever since I was a kid, I always had a love for theatre, for costumes, for dressing up.”
She combined this with the knowledge of Shangaan cultural drawings she had learnt from Frans Nkampe as a child.
Merle researched traditional clothes and decided to fuse elements of a number of cultures into one garment. She proudly showed off the skirt she was wearing, “The studs are more of a Zulu tradition, the buttons are more Xhosa. The mirror is often used by a traditional healer.”
Suddenly her brand ‘Barok’ was created and she took up a gallery space in Johannesburg to showcase her items of ‘wearable art’. A small, loyal band of followers pushed her business forward and she soon moved on to creating cushion covers and handbags.
Her style is a fusion of ideas, cultures and recognisable icons, “It is about celebrating colour and playing hard, it is over the top, over-embellished.”
Merle’s work would not be possible without the help of the strong women that surround her. Her team compromises of herself and three women, Salvation Chauke, Marian Mangane and Virginia Ramohlola.
Virginia Ramohlola has been part of the project for 15 years, “I am more comfortable doing this that anything else. I learn every day and I draw my inspiration from this very room – there is a lot going on here.”
The band of women are a formidable force and the end product of their efforts truly beautiful and unique.
As an added decoration to some of the pieces, the team create small handmade medals. The reason is simple says Merle, “If you are a woman and doing a good job, you need to give yourself a medal, because no-one else is going to.”
