Mandela Foundation unveils fashion line
Nelson Mandela’s foundation is to launch a new international clothing line named after Mr Mandela’s inmate number at Robben Island Prison.
The 46664 apparel line features colourful clothing that is intended to “make wearers look good on the outside – and feel good inside”.
Profits from the foundation’s project will help sustain the its charitable gifts, while boosting South Africa’s textile and clothing industry, officials said at a news conference at the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
The 46664 line features colourful men’s sportswear and African-influenced women’s wear, all designed by Seardel, a textile and clothing manufacturer based in South Africa.
Mr Mandela was the 466th prisoner at Robben Island, a penal colony in the Atlantic off Cape Town, in 1964. The anti-apartheid icon spent 27 years in prisons for fighting white rule. He became South Africa’s first black president in 1994, winning office in all-race elections that spelled the end of apartheid.
Golf shirts and jerseys carry a small embroidered upheld palm symbolizing Mr Mandela’s hand and alluding to his challenge at the 46664 London concert in 2008 for “new hands be found to lift the burden”.
