Even as dress codes seem to loosen, the suit keeps a hold on menswear as the ultimate formal attire.
In 2016, The Suit, a short film written and directed by Jarryd Coetsee, was screened at the 19th Zanzibar International Film Festival, winning a Special Mention by the jury.
The Suit, which features South African actors John Kani and Phuthi Nakene, is set in Sophiatown in the 1950s and tells a tragic love story between three characters, Mr Maphikela, his wife, Mathilda, and the suit, a two-piece dark suit, complete with a shirt and tie; resting on a hanger, the suit is like a ghostly presence, the uninhabited fabric figure of Mathilda’s lover, whom her husband surprised her in bed with. After the lover flees, leaving his suit behind, Maphikela demands that Mathilda carries the suit with her all the time, publicly humiliating her for the affront.
The Suit is based on a story by South African writer Can Themba, published in 1963 in The Classic, the literary journal founded by Nat Nakasa and Nadine Gordimer. The archness of love and the tension between the characters bring an agonising tempo to the narrative, and the suit hangs around, like a dark…
