Mememe is coming to Joburg

Sunday, January 30, 2011


I have some really good news, not just for a Monday, for every single mundane day Joburg has not had a shop quite like this.  In about 8 weeks, Mememe, that cute little shop on Cape Town's Long Street where Scarlett Johanssen once lost herself during a visit to South Africa, will be opening in Johannesburg.  Doreen Southwood, the owner of Mememe Cape Town and I have decided to open Mememe Joburg after years of dreaming about it.  We found an amazing space on Parkhurst's 6th Street (i.e. the same as 7th Ave in Parktown North) and from next month, we will be working furiously to ensure that we open our doors for shopping, tea, champers, a swim and sorbet by the last few days of March.

I will be posting Mememe's Joburg's journey of growth on this blog and hope that you guys will pay us a visit when our doors open.  Mememe isn't only about UsUsUs, we will be sharing some of the house space with the girls from Two, who are going to have their first shop/showroom there, meaning more clothes for you.  Pulchritude fans will particularly enjoy this as the sales won't now be limited to monthly events, but can attend "book club" every day, with an even wider selection of pretty little dresses and trinkets from South African designers. Bassop this space!

Guess Who's Back?


Chris took these fake ID pics of his friends at Fabrica, Italy. How fun!

After spending a year in Italy taking photographs for, amongst others, Colours Magazine, Photographer Chris Saunders is back in Joburg.  I bumped into him briefly at Market on Main yesterday and didn't get a chance to chat at length but did have the pleasure of looking at his blog and seeing what he's been up to. Check out his work here

One love

Friday, January 28, 2011

Do you wanna die?

Thursday, January 27, 2011



MissMoss I'm sorry for committing virtual theft of these from your blog but since I'm dead because of these images, I can't be held responsible. This is Givenchy's Spring Summer 2011 Collection. See more of these ghastly images here

Collar Confidence



i just love these. for no reason more than being inspired by simple things. i don't know where i found these images, so sorry for the non-credit.

For all the Christopher STRONG fans.....



Elaine, the designer from Christopher Strong just sent me this pic of her in this, what I call the Tea Dress, the Swing Dress, the get your hands on it NOW dress.  I'll be selling it and others at Market on Main this Sunday! R650 ladies and it's first come first serve, or first come first fit! Make sure you get there before 12 cos these babies sold out in small last week. They come in a variety of prints and colours but this marvelous mint has to be my fave!!!!!

Hedi Slimane

Wednesday, January 26, 2011







Mr Slimane took these for Paris French Vogue in 2010

This little piggy went to the market

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

In case you didn't hear, the launch of Market on Main was beyond Epic last Sunday.  I'm so happy that Jozi finally has a stylish market where good food and design will live happily ever after! Pulchritude was there and sold out of all my top pieces by 1pm.  I had a great selection of Silverspoon, Doreen Southwood, Christopher Strong and new label Frankie and some GORGGGGG jewels from For the Love Of! I was so busy, I didn't have time to eat and I was so hungry that I was battling to see (seriously) and I didn't wanna get too close to my customers because my hunger breath would have killed a corpse! This also means that I didn't have time to take pictures of all the other wonderful stalls. This Sunday I'm having two little interns help me and I'm getting some new stock from Fabric, Christopher Strong, Doreen Southwood, FLO and Take Care.  It starts at 9.30am - 3.00pm every Sunday at Arts on Main.

Mary Jane from SAFW and Maria McCloy next to SA Fashion Week's stand! Maria's stuff was flying
The solitary moment before it got real busy

A beautiful necklace from For The Love Of. People went gaga for their stuff
Some of the food stalls just before opening time

Me and the beautiful Junia

This freaking kid and her shoes

Monday, January 24, 2011






I wanna say "die bitch, die" but seriously, my jealousy has gone beyond infinity and returned to become nothing more than pure appreciation for her sea of shoes and exquisite taste in shoes and clothing. From top to toe, please welcome a pair of unknown leather murderers, Miu Miu's, Yves Saint Laurent's and Comme des Garcon and more Yves. In case you haven't noticed, I love platties!

Weep worthy



I haven't had tears of joy in about a week and I think this is a great way to start this week. I die for Cat Power and her rendition of Song for Bobby! I hope this tugs at your heart strings as gently and beautifully as it does mine. Happy Monday!

Love Jozi Online Range

Friday, January 21, 2011


At the end of 2010, Love Jozi asked me to be part of a lucky few who were hoisted onto a washing line for their new Online range of t-shirts.  This is one of many cool pics taken by Brett Rubin for the range and campaign.  The range is going to be available soon from their site  in the next couple of weeks.

#WearSouthAfricanFriday - Today I'm wearing.....


My usual head and toe garb with this beautiful nautical stripe jersey dress by Doreen Southwood. Available at Mememe in Cape Town for a mere R460 or something.

The terminal illness of fashion as we know it

Wednesday, January 19, 2011


Things are changing, faster than most of us care to admit, but they are.  A few months ago I had a drunken DMC with a highly respected South African fashion designer at Kitcheners.  Of course all we spoke about was the fashion industry here and abroad.  We were both at New York fashion week last year and as much as I thoroughly enjoyed my time there, there was something I felt that I could never admit when I came back because  it's supposed to have been the greatest trip of my life right? Well it was in terms of exposure and just expanding my visual, cultural and career horizons.  But this fashion designer said it best "The Fashion Industry as we know it, is fucked. In New York, In London, in Paris, everywhere". South Africa is actually in a better position because ours is new and we can go in any direction because we are a cultural mecca and we haven't spent hundreds of years setting up a system that is now about to collapse.

So much in this country is leashed, undiscovered, not done and novelty is something that we can still bank on. The rest of the world has pretty much exhausted originality but we constantly look to them thinking the grass is greener. New York fashion week was amazing because it was what I know, on a much bigger scale and I got to see people I only read about in Vogue or whatever, but more than that, there were no surprises.  I felt this even more when I watched The September Issue - I was surprised to see how insecure Stefano Pilati was in front of Anna Wintour.  These people are not what we make them out to be.  The reason bloggers and other alternative cultural and fashion commentators are sharing page space and front row space with the powers that have been, (your Anna's and Corinne's of this world) is because that power is slipping out of their hands as fast as Zuckerberg's rise to eternal power! I recently chose a Readers Digest magazine over US, British and French Vogue when I was at the airport last month. Why, because as amazing as the shoots and clothes are - too much fashion puts me to sleep.   I need something I don't expect and I get that when I wake up and log onto the net and read blogs and websites like Fashion Gone Rogue that put together all the best shoots from all these mags. Why am I going to spend R160 on a magazine that is going to become irrelevant soon if it doesn't think of ways to keep readers stimulated.  Too much of anything is boring, too much fashion kills me.  That's why Marie Claire works as a magazine, because it's a bit of fashion, a bit of celeb news, a bit of trends, a bit of hard news, a bit of travel, a bit of something different in biteable sizes.  Fashion does not exist in a vacuum - it informs and is a reflection of the Zeitgeist. And that as we know, is currently controlled by the internet.  Newspapers, books and magazines are the victims of the web's reach.

More reach means less power for the people that have maintained a strict model of how things should run.  Soon, it won't be necessary for a young designer to get the nod from the elite of the fashion industry by being invited to show at a Fashion Week, a blogger can just recommend them and they will get instant, credible fame.  Look at how H&M is using that Swedish blogger to design a range for them - that was unheard of 10 years ago and she's not even a designer.  Watch another retailer do the exact same thing.  

This is why I think that locally, we need to move away from this Fashion Week model.  We've tried it, it worked in the beginning and now it's just redundant.  I'm sad about it but we need to face reality.  The model where there are seasons, designers, runway shows, press, celebrities, buyers at the cost of hundreds of thousands has not worked for us.  Not enough people make money from it. Why? Because we don't have a single body controlling everything, we have nine hundred and ninety nine thousand fashion weeks, uninformed press, not enough buyers etc. Our fashion weeks become "Feshin sows" much to the disappointment of people who have worked hard to change that.  But, having said that, it's very important to have the platform that Fashion Weeks in this country have provided for new talent and old talent. It's imperative to have spaces that invite designers, press, buyers, clients, celebrities, government officials etc where we all come together, but I don't think another Fashion Week the way we know it, is going to make a difference to the status quo. We've seen that fortunately, designs that resemble Sally Spektra's have a market in South Africa and so do the ones take inspiration from Celine or Calvin Klein - there's a place for everyone and we need to use that to our advantage. 

What we need are service providers. We need spaces where designers can go to have consultations with financial advisors, business analysts, stylists, press offices and photographers.  We need spaces where young designers who have never been in the spot light, can find stockists, pattern makers, manufacturers, CMT's, office space, places to send email from and meet their clients from.  We need people to help designers market themselves, get funding, improve their skills, to connect them with retailers, to connect them with other industries through trade fairs, to teach them to do business plans.  We need designers to focus on setting themselves up in spaces they can afford, turning out units they can handle and actually selling clothes instead of selling themselves or being blinded by being in some magazine or TV show.  We need to have more apprenticeships.  I heard that Cleo Droomer is interning at Gavin Rajah - good for him.  I'm glad he didn't take the ELLE New Talent prize and start art on his own yet.  He went to learn from someone who has been doing it for a long time, we need more of these collabs between old and new talent because running a business when you're 22 is no joke. 

We don't need hundreds of thousands spent on Sandton Convention Centre anymore.  It's expensive and there's not enough return on the investment for the small little businesses that think that's the epitome of success.  Yes the hype and the pictures are great, but at the end of the day it's about selling the clothes you make.  Some designers are really lucky in this regard, but most are not so lucky.  We need more people coming forward with ideas, doing shit that counts like getting together and hosting sales with your friends so that people know where to find you.  A lot of these happen in Cape Town, the rest of the country needs to catch up.  We need to inspire and be inspired. And another fashion week isn't going to do it for me. 

We are so lucky to be living in a country where so many things haven't been done.  It's a free for all economy.   Somebody needs to start an agency that connects designers to the things they need, another needs to set up an agency connect this industry to corporate sponsors.  We already have government looking at us waiting for us to pull our socks up. I hear that the money is there and I fully believe it.  So what are we waiting for? 2011 is the year of action and good change.

pic: www.fashiongonerougue.com


She makes it look so easy





I was looking of pictures that would illustrate the death of the way things have always been, especially in the Fashion Industry - except I found these amazing illustrations by Berlin based illustrator, Ana Albero - these are from her Paris series. I'll continue the search but in the mean time, enjoy these!

Glamour February Issue

Tuesday, January 18, 2011


I found this floating around the interweb but I'm gonna have to go get me my own issue of this month's Glamour Magazine cos they did a teeny weeny feature on me and Cary Townsend of Spence talking about our favourite things.

Mememe

Monday, January 17, 2011


Coming soon....

This amazing picture was taken on a disposable film camera by the king of cool MJ Turpin last week when we bumped into each other at Wolves. 

Christopher Strong Winter 2011 Lookbook









I think the pictures speak for themselves. Selected pieces available at the Pulchritude stand at Market on Main - Every Sunday from 23 January 2010

Fashion goes to The Louvre



Jeurgen Teller, ze German photographer who is most famous for being the magic gold dust factor to Marc Jacobs' ad campaigns (Dakota Fanning, Daisy Lowe, Victoria Beckham have been models), has a new exhibition called Paradis at the Johann Konig Gallery in Berlin.  I don't know how his people managed this, but these gritty images of a naked Raquel Zimmerman and Charlotte Rampling (actress, I din't really know about before this) were taken in the one and only Louvre Gallery in Paris.  How many people can say they have frolicked around the greatest gallery in the world naked, and taken a pic in front of the Mona Lisa? I like this because it's a clear indication that snooty art people can actually loosen up and acknowledge that fashion is a form of art. The exhibition is from 15 - 29 January and I so wish I could go. 


Kourtney Kardashian wore a Gert Johan Coetzee Dress to the People's Choice Awards

Friday, January 14, 2011


This is kind of a BIG deal for local designers.  Although many many people don't care about the K sisters, they are walking ATM's because their celebrity gives value to everything they touch - from the clothes they wear, the coffee they drink or the cars they drive! I hope Gert gets millions of calls and sells lots of these dresses. Kudos!

#WearSouthAfricanFriday

Since practicality doesn't allow me to take self portrait, this is the best I can do. Keeping it simple with a Christopher Strong t shirt and Black Coffee jodhpurs. I have gained 999 9999 kg's so they severely restrict any movement so :-l 

I've decided that it's time to make this a real campaign.  Every Friday, wear something designed and made in South Africa, whether it's 'n pentie or 'n rok of 'n skeepa or whatever.  Hoekom? Because one day we'll wake up and some other country will be selling South African clothes back to us for not cheap cheap. And because we have really cool designers here and it's good to support our fellow country people.  Every Friday, I will post a pic of myself drinking my own medicine and I encourage you to do the same.  No need to take pics, but if you do, there's a home for them on this blog.  Tell everybody, tweet about it. Facebook it, share it or just shut up and look good in something local. Starting today.

January obsessions

Monday, January 10, 2011

A. alexander mcqueen cape 
anna dello russo in balenciaga 
ayn rand 

B. the ballerina's in kanye west's runaway video
C. crayola carvings by diem chau 
f. funny pictures like this one
G. gustav klimt paintings and drawings 
H. horsie bike
K. kermit tesoro shoes
M. www.missmoss.co.za

P. pastel kitties by tim walker
P. patricia neal as dominique francon in the fountainhead

S. saba italian bookcase

selita ebanks in kanye west's runaway video
sut kutusu suitcase chair
T. the tranny versions of grace coddington and anna wintour

W. www.wherethelovelythingsare.com

watercolours by louise lynn
X-tra cool boys Murray Turpin

and Yeezy