MBOISA 2013: Pebble Dress

The winner of the Most Beautiful Object in South Africa 2013 is the Pebble Dress by Gavin Rajah. This dress from Gavin Rajah’s Spring/Summer 2013 couture collection was created out of leather pieces that were moulded into pebble shapes and then embroidered onto mesh by hand. The leather pebbles are placed to create a gradation of colour with rose gold blending into chocolate. Rajah’s studio worked with the Klein Karoo Co-op on a technique to foil ostrich skins last year. After the foiled leather attracted interest from Chanel and other international fashion brands, the studio decided to create their own textiles in foiled leathers. Rajah developed the pebbled fabric in February 2012 and debuted it in his collection in July. The garment is handmade and has been created without seams in pure couture tradition.

Nominated by Malibongwe Tyilo, Blogger, Skattie What Are You Wearing?

“The Pebble Dress combines to great effect some of the most relevant design influences at the moment: leather, ombre, texture and craft. Their unity creates a completely resolved design piece. At first glance, your eye is attracted by the complete garment and it's almost scale-like appearance. A closer look reveals the incredible amount of work and precision that has gone into creating not only the garment but also an entirely new fabric.”