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Suno

Dress

Maker

Suno (American, est. 2008), design label
Max Osterweis and Erin Beatty, designer

Title

Dress

Year

2009

Medium

  • Cotton plain weave,
  • block printed

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Cotton plain weave,
  • block printed

Materials

cotton, silk

Geography

Place Made: Kenya

Dimensions

Center back length: 96.5 cm (38 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Label: Suno; [size] XS (sewn along the inside of the center back neckline
Paper tag pined to garment:
Suno
Spring/Summer 2009
This first limited collection of 1000 unique pieces from SUNO was produced using vintage kangas collected in Kenya. Kangas are large colorful rectangles of printed cotton that have been worn by the women of East Africa since the 19th century. There may be slight imperfections in the fabrics that come from their years of use, but every piece in this collection was chosen for its quality of design, overall condition, and feel.
Each garment is one of a kind.
#196 or 1000

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Museum Purchase

Object Number

2009.65

Type

  • Costume

Exhibition History

“Insnared with flowers, I fall on grass"
Jun 10, 2014 – Mar 08, 2015

Label copy

This limited-edition dress by the New York label Suno showcases a wax-resist-printed kanga fabric collected in Kenya by the firm’s founder, Max Osterweis. Kanga fabrics are rectangular lengths made to be wrapped around the body and designed with a border, a central pattern, and often a Swahili saying. Made and sold for decades in East Africa, they were originally fabricated by machine in the Netherlands in imitation of Javanese hand-drawn wax prints.

The Swahili phrase forming part of the floral border-“Wewe ndiye dawa yangu” or, roughly, “You are my medicine”-was popularized by Tanzanian musician Remmy Ongala.

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Image use

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Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Suno (American, est. 2008), design label
Max Osterweis and Erin Beatty, designer
Dress, 2009
Cotton plain weave, block printed
Center back length: 96.5 cm (38 inches)
Museum Purchase 2009.65

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Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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