Welcome to Onesie World!

About Onesie World
Onesie World aims to bring people together through the making and wearing of onesies! For the Vrystaat Arts Festival (http://www.vrystaatkunstefees.co.za/ ), Onesie World will be set in the city of Bloemfontein, South Africa. Bloemfontein is a city that is still burdened with the legacy of Apartheid where the different suburbs / townships are divided across racial and cultural lines. By presenting Onesie World in this city, we have the potential to assist in the softening of cultural boundaries – we can bring together different communities to feel a sense of unity and togetherness.

Our goal is to make 600 onesies! These we will give away for free, for people to take on the condition that they keep it on until they go to bed that night! A big part of the project is to explore how, by dressing similarly, it can draw us together and shift the way we relate and engage with each other.

Working with a creative team, including students from the Fine Arts Department of the University of the Free State and industry professionals, we have developed a unique print design for the onesies – they will truly be limited edition and speak to the place, Bloemfontein, and its people, across the diverse cultures and ethnicities who call this beautiful city their home.




About me
I am an artist and designer based in Melbourne who creates fashion experiences / performances that study the social affects of fashion, dress and clothes (https://www.adelevarcoe.com/). This is my first project in South Africa! Here I am exploring how clothes can bring people together and soften cultural boundaries in a divided community.

We're almost there with our funds but need just a little bit more to develop this amazing project to its full potential. Aussie dollars in South African Rand will go a long way!

About the people involved in the project
This project is indeed a collaborative endeavor – the pattern that the onesies are based upon was developed in partnership with students from the Bloemfontein Fashion Academy and students from the Department of Design and Studio Art, specializing in Fashion, from the Central University of Technology.

We’re engaging with and activating various sewing groups across the city, working with two community sewing groups, the first situated at the Leinaeng Library, in Rocklands, Mangaung, and the second comprising community members from Bloemfontein; students from the Central University of Technology and Bloemfontein Fashion Academy will also be making their fair share of onesies.

Amateur and professional musicians will form part of a Sewing Machine Orchestra – they will play with sewing machines as musical instruments, lifting the spirit of the event, creating a performative spectacle and potentially getting people dancing and moving together in their onesies.



The team:
Artist – Adele Varcoe
UFS Curator – Angela de Jesus
Vrystaat Arts Festival Director – Ricardo Peach
Production manager – Corneli van den Berg from Audeamus Studios
Branding – Johannes Deetlefs from Silverrocket Creative Design
Photography – Kezia Gerber from Audeamus Studios
Creative team – Ndukenhle Mpanza, Nkatso Motaung, and Marjorie Human
Onesie makers – Leinaeng Library sewing group, Doretha Jacobs and Bloemfontein community members, students from Bloemfontein Fashion Academy and Central University of Technology, Annette’s Creative Sewing, and Elrie Joubert
Musicians – Dewald Bux, Osiriis, Kay da Word, Adri Maryke Smit, Jaco de Wet, Belinda and Ditaba Kotsi
Sound – Creative Kilowatt

What your support will pay for

·        Musicians, onesie makers, banners and equipment!!

We have the funds to print the unique design on enough fabric to make 600 onesies!

We need your help to make the event, where we distribute the onesies to the community, a wonderful and spectacular performance! Your contributions will go toward benefitting and supporting local artists, fashion designers, musicians, and dancers; printing costs for information points, event labels with A-frames and banners to accompany the performance, and a myriad of logistical and production costs involved in a project of this magnitude.

The performance event is happening on 21 July at Hoffman Square in Bloemfontein

Please support this project to bring communities together through art and fashion. THANK YOU!


Rewards
We have a selection of rewards ranging from oringinal drawings that capture moments from the project by Adele to a CD recording of the amazing music the musuicans are making with the sewing machine! To a lino cut print by Ndukenhle Mpanza who collaborated with us to design the print that covers the onesies! And a gold onesie!!

Example of Xany's photographs


Ndukenhle Mpanza's Lino Cut


The GOLD ONESIE! Looks like this but gold!