I'm on holiday

Back in the new year. Happy New Year and thank you for all the support you've shown me this year. I am truly blessed. May you have an unfashionably cool new year. Mucho Love amores. xoxoxox

Brutal Fruit Cranberry Launch Partaaaay

I've just emerged from a mountain of work that was put off by me going to that fantastic Brutal Fruit Cheeky Cranbery Launch at The Rand Club in town.  All day the radio stations and newspapers kept saying it was at Zar and I was secretly pleased that they didn't tell everybody where the party was. But judging by the number of people that came, and the huge venue, the joke was on me.  We walked into a pink lit house (The Rand Lords must have been rolling in their gold plated graves what will all these blacks and women there) that was opulently decorated with Brutal Fruit paraphernalia, including a mountain a real fruit and endless supply of the delicious Cranberry Flavour, although there were other drinks on sale, people were seemingly enjoying the drinks (I had about 8) while we were milling around, checking each other's outfits and waiting for isithongo (the guests of honour to arrive).  Here's how the night went in pictures:

Me wearing a Vintage sheer bodysuit and Black Coffee Joddies! (somebody asked me if it's part of the new Dash range and I was like ?????? Where the hell would I get Dash clothing?) 

 My friends - I don't know that girl on the left who is having the time of her life

 Earlier in the day while we were all getting out hair done at Isaac's in Randburg, my friends were sitting next to Uyanda Mbuli the whole time and they made friends with her so when we saw each other later, we were all "Hey Girling" each other! 

 The crowd watching the Kardashian's arrival. Note how I say "the crowd" as if I wasn't part of it. 

 It was sheeeeeeer chaos trying to get these pictures. The groupie bitch in me came out as I tried to take a picture of Khloe

There we go, much better view

 This girl looks so pleased with herself. Note the blurriness of the pics, not because I take bad pics but because there was so much pushing it was hard to keep still

 Unlike her sister, Khloe actually looked like she was in her element taking pics and playing along with everybody's demands of her attention. 

 Kim is as gorg IRL (in real life) as she is on every picture or screen you see her on. She waited patiently as Khloe went around taking pics

 But at some point she looked bored or maybe it was overwhelmed. She got on her phone and it didn't leave her hands after that.  Initially I was like WTF but gaad damn, it's not easy to come to an event where you just have to smile and take pics with strangers for 4 hours. It must get really boring because the crowd was like monkey's to banana's screaming and wanting every piece of them while they sat like caged little birds. 

 I don't know how celebrities do it. 

 I think this is their make up artist - she's clearly used to this crazy biniss. 

 Being a groupie is exhausting (yes I will admit I did all the groupie things) but essentially this was a party and there was A LOT of boogying after all the excitement. 

We might look sober but we were doozled in this picture, hence we didn't see this random guy gently inserting himself in our picture. 

What a fun night we had, who ever's idea it was to bring the K sisters to SA for this party, is good at what they did. There were so many people who would usually not give a toss about Brutal Fruit guzzling it as if our lives depended on it. Thank you to the organisers, it was an awesome party and Bonang was a great host, though she's just a tad on the loud side. But whatever, she's good at what she does. 

THE KARDASHIANS ARE KOMING!!!!!!!!

Kim, Khloe and Kourtney at one of their many Kardashian Konfidential book launches this month. The book is currently sitting at #3 on the New York Times Best Seller List. 

I don't know what it is about the Kardashians (mmm let's see: One pretty sister with styling ambitions + sex tape with famous black guy = A hit TV show for the whole family, endless endorsement deals, perfume line, clothing stores, best selling book, fashion design debut, bentley, hot mens throwing the man meat at her and everlasting fame) but I'm one of the many K-bots who is shamelessly obsessed with Kim, Kourtney and Khloe.  My friends don't get it and kuite frakly, I don't give a fuck. Ok, enough with the K's. 

Kim showing off her a watch that's part of her....wait for it....NEW WATCH LINE with the Brissmor Company

But seriously, I've been invited (by the people who are very skilled at being dream mediums) to the launch of the new Brutal Fruit party hosted by Kim and Khloe Kardashian. When I got the email to say they want to add me to the guest list, I was like WTF, this is unreal, of course I'll come.  Yesterday a short little man came to hand deliver the invitation, which had the new (surprisingly) delicious Brutal Fruit Cranberry.  I'm not a cider drinker like that, I like my wine and voddies and lime, but this I could get used to.  As I was signing for my name, I had a quick squizz at the rest of the guest list and all of Joburg's funnest party people will be there - it's going to be EPIC. 

Khloe Kardashian

The invitation had my name on it and a bottle of brutal fruit with a code that I had to enter into a webpage in order to RSVP.  The best part is that it's a secret location which adds to the mystery and suspense. I've already got an outfit - can't wait for the big reveal.

Kim with every it girl's favourite designer, Zac Posen

 Lol okay, enough with my embarrassing obsessions.  I can't wait for this party, will be tweeting like a demon. I hope we can take pics. As Khloe would say, bye dolls! Lol!

pic credits www.kimkardashian.com and www.khloekardashian.celebuzz.com

A day in the life of...

It's Sunday evening and I now officially feel like a shop owner. I've left my assistant at the shop all day while I've been doing other stuff including sleeping with Miss South Africa playing in the background.  I'm exhausted and have a lot of respect for people who run such businesses on their own. One thing I learned from Tracy Bell who owns Trabella is that sometimes you'll have no customers or one sale a day, but it's all about persistence.  It was only after 8 months that the now popular Trabella eatery became what it is today, 7 years later.  It's been good but it hasn't been easy, especially The past four days have been instrumental in giving me a sneak peak into what it would really be like and as much as I'd like to say I'm ready, I'm not as prepared as one needs to be.  Instead of being home counting my money and getting the clothes ready to go back to the designers, I'm sprawled all over procrastination central looking blankly at my screen as I have two stories due tomorrow and I have not started on either.  Both require serious thought and research but because my week last week belonged entirely to Pulchritude, I haven't had time to think properly and now I will have a sleepless night as a result. I'm not complaining, but this is a wake up call for me to make a decision about what I really want to focus on and be good at, cos doing both with half the energy is not going to work for me in the long run.  Here goes, nite y'all, catch up with I emerge from the words. Word!

Pulchritude hearts Trabella: Day One

The only thing missing from last night's Pulchritude <3 Trabella sale was a camera crew - beautiful Joburgers (and one clothes addict English lady) toasted and shopped the night away (and then ate some) at Trabella in Illovo as we celebrated the launch Pulchritude's end of year sale. After last night's success, we decided that this may be the new home for the monthly sales - the space is adorbs. If you haven't been, we are here until Sunday evening from 12 - 10pm everyday! Here are pics from last night:

Palesa "Style Idol"Mjali couldn't believe her eyes when she saw and subsequently bought this perfect Christopher Strong 50s Swing Dress. There's one left in size 36

 I tried to make this woman buy this ring because of her beautiful hands! Tried being the operative word. Hopefully she'll be back!

Black Coffee's Jacques and Loren from Flux Trends

"Skattie what are you wearing" Coverboy Fumi May deliberating which shirt he has to leave out. 

MIA

OMG, I've totally be like, MIA and like, TIW (This is why...lol totally made that up)

Come through at 6pm tonight or after 12pm tomorrow to Sunday if you wannnnnnabeachampagnebitches!!!!!

Never

This shoot is from Karen Magazine but I found it on fashiongonerogue.com - Oi

What are the schools teaching fashion students?

It's a new week so I shouldn't really be talking about things that happened last week but I've been thinking about this over the weekend.

I was recently asked to be a judge at the London International School of Fashion (Lisof) 3rd Year final fashion show. Lisof has a Johannesburg and Pretoria campus that over the years, has churned out some successful designers and fashion industry stalwarts such as Tiaan Nagel, Danica Lepen and Anisa Mpungwe amongst many. So I was honored to be a judge for the show because ti's a sneak peek into the future of SA Design. The other judges were the amazing Anna Mari Mentjies (Visi Magazine), Lindie Grenfel who started the successful Marion and Lindie label in the 1900s (just kidding it was like 2001) and Tiaan Nagel who graduated from Lisof after winning the Elle New Talent Award, started his own label and is now the head designer at Marion and Lindie.

We arrived at 11 to get a first look at the clothes during the rehearsal, which we judged for about 4 hours straight. It wasn't easy having to look at the stuff from a "these are students" perspective since I'm used to critiquing established designer collections. The overall winner, Jessica Sutherland and 3 or four other students including Emmanueal Dihangwane, Samantha Constable and Amy Venter are some of the very few 3rd year students who, in my opinion, are ready to go out, look for apprenticeships and carve careers out of being designers in. The others' work was just not good enough and some people were saying I'm being too hard on them - they are young and that show is a big deal for them, they can't afford to make the ranges because the fabric is expensive etc etc etc etc etc etc.

These are valid reasons, however, - I think that that's one of the reasons South African standards (especially in fashion) tend to be lower when compared to the rest of the world - we like to sugar coat things not knowing that we are actually adding salt to wounded creatives by not telling them that their quality or ideas bite the dust. If you visit the Lisof Campus, you'll see good-looking students looking hip and happening, yet they don't translate their trendiness into the clothes they make. I found the styles really frumpy and fuddy-duddy and not contemporary clothing that they themselves would wear. What's up with that kids?

I've met a few students who roll their eyes at what they are taught at Lisof (not that UJ and other fashion institutions are all that much better), but I've also met some who say it's about how much each individual puts in. For the amount of money each student pays per year (approximately R40k) and because of the reputation Lisof has in this country, I expected the standard of the work to be much higher than it was. Yes Lisof has made a huge contribution to the fashion industry in this country, but for every 2 or 3 people that become famous after graduating there, there are 100 others that whither off into oblivion - this can't be the fate of people that attend what's been called the best fashion school in the country.

Luckily, not everybody wants to be a designer and I hear the Lisof Commercial and Theory courses (which involve history, marketing, merchandising, buying, trends and media) are pretty good - it's a pity that these subjects are not as popular for the kids because the industry needs more of these professionals than designers (I think so anyway). This is not an attack on Lisof by the way, the school just happens to be in the firing line because I was there last week and actually, this is a conversation that needs to be had by people who care about the future of fashion and education in South Africa.

The best of Zara

Rumour has it that Pretoria is getting a Zara soon. These rumours have been going on for years - like the Vogue SA or Harpers Bazaar SA Rumours....I'll only believe it when I see it. www.zara.com - I mean Tunisia has Zara, what about us?

This is my contribution to supporting South African Designers

Yours would be to come and support small initiatives like this while risking looking really good! If you can't wait till the ninth, make sure you pop into Hyde Park this weekend for the Food, Wine and Design thing happening there - Two, Black Coffee, David Tlale, House of Ole and Love Jozi amongst others will be at Marie Claire's Pop Up Shop this whole weekend. Here's the programme:

If you're not in the mall rat mood, check out two new stores I like very much at 70 on Juta

When you're there, make sure you go to Twenty Two and Guillotine

One man's trash....

This is London based Lu Flux's latest collection for mens and womens. Lu Flux believes in reusing old fabrics and vintage pieces to make new things out of them, which is great though, I don't think a black person could pull of these looks - only a white person can make poverty look kinda cool. These guys are selling the trailer park, Deliverance vibe and it kinda works. I can see Eve Rakow in these dresses. This is how she was dressed last night when I saw her at The Street:

Pics courteousy of Coute que Coute