The drama at the jubilant wedding ceremony of Skeem Saam’s Mapitsi (Mogau Motlhatswi) and Thabo Tbose Maputla (Cornet Mamabolo) was not courtesy of gun-toting mother-in-law, Meikie (Harriet Manamela).
Mapitsi’s wedding gowns took centre stage as the couple tied the knot in a joyous and emotional ceremony last week.
Mapitsi was the quintessential bride in a beaded lace bodice and Duchess satin mermaid bridal gown. This was her main wedding look by Hlamalani Baloyi of Legally Red Bride.
“The theme was sexy, but not too revealing, to show a clean classy look and the dress had to be white and not off-white. We decided to go with the mermaid look because it shows off the silhouette and makes you look taller.”
Baloyi’s work has been on our screens before but this was her first television wedding. She was nervous but decided to tackle the task head-on, by viewing it as just a normal wedding.
“I’ve done a lot of weddings but it’s TV! And I was like I have three weeks to do a wedding, what if something goes wrong? It was nerve wrecking at first…after the wedding was aired everyone was talking about the dress and I was like, yes! We did a great job.”
Baloyi says that though the deadline was tight, it was between two to three weeks, compared to her normal schedule of meeting with a bride six months before her wedding, but everything went off smoothly.
“It was easier than the average bride, it wasn’t as stressful as I anticipated. When I needed them for a fitting, they were available… there wasn’t too much adjusting of the dress either because with the average bride, you can adjust the dress until the week of the wedding because brides often have goals of losing weight for their wedding.”
The 40-year-old businesswomen grew up watching her seamstress mom sew. She also fell in love with the craft and took her drawing skills to Wits Tecknikon, now known as the University of Johannesburg to pursue her Fashion Design Diploma. She’s been running her business since 2009 and is based in Maboneng.
Even though we haven’t been having that many weddings in the past year, Baloyi says she’s noticed a growing trend where the popularity of what is referred to as "white weddings" is dwindling, thus creating a trend where brides fuse their traditional wedding attire with modern elements.
“[This] is really exciting because you get more creative when doing that because it is not just the Western or just the traditional, the fusion of the two brings out your creative element.” she says.
Somebody who understands exactly what this fusion is and managed to showcase it so well with Mapitis’s second outfit on her wedding day is Tebogo Singo. Singo owns clothing business Lady Mantis, she’s been making clothing for more than 10 years now.
0 of 2
“They wanted a modernised Sepedi outfit… so instead of using the lines like how you would when making a traditional outfit, we chose to use the colours.”
It took the 39-year-old two weeks to work on the dress, as she had to change the design of the dress. It initially was a one arm design but the show’s stylist felt the look didn’t work.
“I had to redo the collar and take out the one arm thing, so it took two-and-a half weeks.”
Singo is no stranger to the Skeem Saam set, she also designed and made Rachel’s traditional wedding dress as well as her bridesmaids. She also designed Meikie’s dress for her and John Maputla’s vow renewal ceremony.
She also worked for the show as a wardrobe mistress for four years.
“I couldn’t do the same thing, over and over again so I wanted to do other things, like I’d rather create dresses and then they buy dresses from me, I prefer that because I get to be creative. I get to do what I want.”
Lesotho-born Singo says her grandmother inspired her to pursue a career in fashion design, as she often used to sew garments , especially church outfits for people in the community they lived in.
Singo says she went to school in Parktown to study fashion styling, so that she could understand different body types and personalities.”
“I love fashion, I love clothes, I love style and I just love beautiful things.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.