In 1957, legendary design doyenne Elzbieta Rosenwerth purchased her first house in South Africa for the princely sum of £7 000 (the equivalent of R14 000). It’s in Campground Road – a stone’s throw from Rondebosch Boys High School.

Owned at one time by renowned architect Frederick McIntosh Glennie, Elzbieta says this home is one of the oldest cottages in the area. ‘It’s there on the very old maps. Some of those walls are this thick,’ she says, holding her hands about half a metre apart.

When the Rosenwerths moved in, the cottage had a sitting room, one long area that was used as a dining room, a kitchen, three bedrooms, one bathroom with separate loo, and a very small maid’s room and loo. ‘There was also a kind of hokkie – a little something, I’m trying to remember,’ she adds, her signature Polish accent lending much charm to the Afrikaans.

She and her husband, Henio lived in the home with their three daughters and two grannies. It may not have been large, but at the time it felt grand after the life they’d lived as typical emigrés in London. ‘Of course, before that, we had been used to bigger houses – the Rosenwerths owned large estates in Poland,’ Elzbieta points out. In fact, the Rosenwerth’s have a barony. However, she and Henio fled from Poland with their first-born daughter, Dorota, in 1946. They travelled in a goods transit convoy that took them to Meppen in East Germany, on the border of Holland. From there they made their way to Paris.

‘By the time my daughter was 20 months old, she already had seven illegal frontiers behind her. We were always without papers,’ laughs Elzbieta.

It was in Paris that Elzbieta studied dress design before moving to London, where her second daughter, Gabi, was born. Magda, the youngest, was born in Cape Town when the family were living in Rondebosch.

Today, Rondebosch is sought after for its convenient close proximity to several of Cape Town’s amenities, particularly exclusive schools, the University of Cape Town, the world-famous Groote Schuur Hospital, and sporting facilities, such as the Rondebosch Golf Course and Newlands’s rugby and cricket grounds, as well as the upmarket shopping mall, Cavendish Square.

‘When we first lived there, the suburb had a very rural atmosphere,’ says Elzbieta. She recalls that all the properties were bordered by hedges of delightfully scented Pittosporum, which began to die either from a virus or due to the increasing pollution from the traffic on Campground Road. Henio was told that if he poured a bucket of Jik onto the roots of the plants, they would survive. ‘He couldn’t believe that the bleach wouldn’t kill them, so he tried it out on only one. To this day, that plant still stands at the bottom of the garden. All the others died.’
Unlike the local flora, Elzbieta was not bothered too much about the traffic on Campground Road. ‘Don’t forget,’ she says, ‘I grew up in Warsaw, where the noise of tramways and buses was constantly in the background.

‘And, I was seldom at the Rondebosch house during the day – I was working.’

She opened the first Rosenwerth boutique at the Fountain Shopping Centre on Main Road, Rondebosch, in 1961. ‘I brought a taste of Europe to South Africa. I had no competition at the time and women didn’t travel as much then, nor were there many international magazines available, so I was a breath of fresh air.’

Her clients relied on her flair and fashion advice, particularly when it came to choosing the right outfit to befit the occasion. ‘This was hugely important at the time – fashion was not as free as it is today.’ Her clientele included wives of diplomats and cabinet ministers and, of course, socialites and celebrities. And the business grew.

So did the house. In 1968 they remodelled and enlarged it to the specifications of architect Maciek Miszewski. When she sold the property in 1995, it fetched R750 000.

But her fondest memories of that house are of the parties. These alternated between sophisticated dinners attended by judges, writers and editors, and raucous all-night bashes enjoyed by old and young alike.

‘The Rosenwerth parties were legendary,’ says Alison Bodenstein, who grew up next door to their house in Campground Road.
Elzbieta laughs, ‘Henio would welcome guests with a tray of vodka – it was a sure way to start a good party.

‘Our house was always full of young people, especially when the girls were at university. Their friends would stay overnight, for weekends, for two weeks, sometimes two months. My niece from England lived with us for four and a half years! I loved it. I miss those days. I’ve always enjoyed the company of people in my children’s generation,’ she says wistfully.

Just last month, her daughters threw a party to celebrate her 85th birthday. ‘Most of the guests were younger and it was wonderful – there were amusing speeches and photographs and my daughters and grandchildren mocked me in the most delightful way.’

And what of her retirement plans? ‘I don’t like a quiet life. I love excitement and all my life I was stimulated by pressure. I still don’t feel as if I’ve retired – I simply work much less. You could say I have a part-time job.’ She smiles, her eyes twinkling behind the Dior glasses with their Yves Saint Laurent-style frames.

‘Of course, Gabi is completely at the helm of Rosenwerth now, but I avail myself at all times to give opinions or advice if asked.’ Elzbieta is, however, in charge of dying all of Rosenwerth’s chiffons, which she does by hand with the help of her Malawian gardener, Isaac.
‘I think, though, it’s a case of the firm can do without me, but I can’t do without the firm,’ she quips.