Maasai Leather Fringe and Beaded Olekesana Skirt Kenya Sidley Collection

A magnificently beaded leather Olekesana (woman's skirt or cap) from the Maasai. It is made of goatskin or sheepskin decorated with beads on the surface. Some of them may have a particular design for a specific category of wearer. The skirt is embellished with ochre. Such skirts were as garments and part of married women dress. Such capes would be worn by women from the day they would get married until their death. These capes/skirts can still be seen worn by women during important ceremonies.

Provenance: Niña Sidley Collection

After a long career in publishing, Niña Sidley returned to her first love: collecting the art, artifacts, and textiles of the world’s indigenous peoples. Part of her mission has been to educate others and to honor the extraordinary creativity, ingenuity, and heartfelt messages these handmade works send from their makers. Niña believes this deep respect for tradition and beauty inspires and ties all of us together as one world.

We do not recommend laundering textiles, and do not accept returns of textiles which have been laundered in any manner. Even dry cleaning is too much for some of these antique textiles. For some of them, a very gentle HAND washing (NEVER MACHINE, on any setting) in cool water with a very gentle detergent works, but even then, dyes may not be colorfast, and fabric may be less strong than it appears.

Length(in): 50.0
Width(in): 42.0
Bead strips size (in): .75-1.25 wide.

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