A Madiba shirt is a batik silk shirt, usually adorned in a bright and colourful print. It has become a well-known nickname for batik shirts in South Africa, being popularised by former South African president Nelson Mandela. It is named after Mandela's clan name "Madiba", an honorary title adopted by all members of his clan.
The Madiba shirt was designed by Desré Buirski and first worn by the then newly-elected president at the dress rehearsal of the opening of South Africa's first democratic Parliament in May 1994. Mandela has worn this style of shirt many times since.
Famous quotes containing the word shirt:
“Each morning the day lies like a fresh shirt on our bed; this incomparably fine, incomparably tightly woven tissue of pure prediction fits us perfectly. The happiness of the next twenty-four hours depends on our ability, on waking, to pick it up.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)