Madiba Magic: Man maketh the shirts

Desré Buirski becomes teary when she describes how she came to dress the world's most-admired statesman.

The pride and honour she experienced in seeing then president Nelson Mandela wearing one of her shirts in 1994 is almost impossible for her to relate.

Buirski's family emigrated to the US during apartheid. She returned to South Africa in 1992 after Mandela's release, desperately wanting to be part of the historical moment. In the same year, she opened her first clothing shop at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.

Describing the experience as if it was yesterday, Buirski explains that she wanted to make a difference, but had no idea how to. She decided to take one of her silk shirts to Mandela as a gift when he made a public appearance at the synagogue on Marais Road in Sea Point.

''I wrapped up my business card in the shirt, went up to Mandela's car and knocked on the driver's window. He told me to give the package to the bodyguard, who put the shirt in the boot," she says.

On May 10 1994, Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa's first black president at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, and shortly thereafter started wearing a patterned silk shirt - Buirski's shirt. The style quickly became part of his public identity.

Buirski was at the gym when a friend called to tell her to buy Die Burger newspaper.

"There he was, standing in his glory as the first democratically elected president, wearing my shirt. That's how the Presidential shirt brand was born," Buirski says.

In January 1995 Buirski got a letter from Mandela on his presidential letterhead. It read: "In the making of our democracy we need more Desrés."

From then on Buirski supplied Mandela with shirts - more than 150 of them.

He defined the style of what has become known as the "Madiba Shirt".

The shirts have been worn by iconic and influential men from Bruce Springsteen to Morgan Freeman and Vusi Mahlasela, and they are now available all over the world.

Nicola Savage, the marketing director of Presidential Shirts, explains that the Presidential brand is the retail umbrella that encompasses Presidential Shirts, Bayede!, From King Goodwill Zwelithini, and a range of women's clothing.

"The Madiba Shirts are made in silk and cotton, and are based on the traditional batik shirt made by Indonesian craftsmen," says Savage.

"The art of batik is highly specialised, and one shirt takes up to four weeks to finish, including hand-painting layer after layer of wax, dot by dot, before dying each vibrant colour onto the shirt," she says.

The Presidential winter collection, Generations, has been completely made in South Africa for the first time, and the occasion is being marked with a "look book" by photographer and stylist Trevor Stuurman.

As a brand influencer and fashion blogger, Stuurman says every Presidential shirt has a name and a moral value it stands for.

"They're more than just printed and hand-painted silk shirts. They are a part of Madiba's signature look that we can all share."

Stuurman says the best way to wear a Presidential shirt is with a smile, loyalty and integrity.

"Wearing a Madiba Shirt makes you walk taller. It's a way to carry yourself."