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Victor Stiebel (1907–76), in his obituary in The Times, was described as a well known and highly esteemed British couturier. Yet, for the first eighteen years of his life, Stiebel lived unremarkably in Durban, South Africa, with his middle-class colonial family. In an article written by a fashion historian who appraised his importance within the British fashion industry, Stiebel is described as the quintessential English designer. How did this 'Englishness' develop and what evidence do we see of this quality in his autobiography South African Childhood () that covers his childhood years? The leap from Durban to London and his subsequent career as a court dressmaker and couturier, plus designer for Hollywood stars including Vivien Leigh and Katherine Hepburn, is vast, but it is one that Stiebel eagerly made. The bridge, this article argues, is the very 'Englishness' that Stiebel encountered in his home and the colonial society of Durban in the Edwardian era in which he grew up. Life in the colonies concentrated this quality in its settlers probably because of their distance from the metropole rather than their proximity. This article sets out to examine what form this 'Englishness' took in Stiebel's life and work, evident visually in his dress designs according to fashion historians, but also, from a literary historian's point of view, in his autobiographical writing and written correspondence, particularly that with the actress Vivien Leigh.

South African writer Ronnie Govender's work linked to Cato Manor, in Durban, urgently aims to fill an "empty space". This is due not only to a lost childhood and nostalgia for an erased environment, but also to a sense of anger that a place like Cato Manor has never received the attention that other sites of apartheid forced removals – say District Six and Sophiatown – have. This urban township area was declared a "non place", it seems, not only by the apartheid government but also by the post apartheid chroniclers of the past. This makes Govender's task all the more urgent and poignant. If he doesn't keep the Cato Manor of the 40s and 50s, and the histories of the descendants of indentured Indian families who lived there, in particular, alive in our memories, then who will? – one can almost hear him asking. Opsomming Suid Afrikaanse skrywer Ronnie Govender se werk verbonde aan Cato Manor, in Durban, poog om dringend 'n "lee ruimte" te vul. Dit is nie bloot te wyte aan verlore kinderjare en heimwee vir 'n omgewing wat uitgewis is nie, maar ook gebelgdheid dat 'n plek soos Cato Manor nooit dieselfde aandag geniet het as ander areas van gedwonge verskuiwings tydens apartheid, byvoorbeeld Distrik Ses en Sophiatown, nie. Hierdie dorpsgebied is as 'n "onplek" verklaar, nie net deur die apartheidsregering nie, maar ook deur die postapartheid kroniekskrywers van die verlede. Dit maak Govender se taak soveel meer dringend en aangrypend. Indien hy nie die Cato Manor van die 40's en 50's en die geskiedenis van veral die nasate van Indiese kontrak arbeiders wat hier gewoon het in ons gedagtes lewendig hou nie, wie sal dan? – kan 'n mens hom amper hoor vra.

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