THE J&B MET PART 1 /// MOMENTS AT THE SABC MARQUEE

I spent most of my time at the met at the SABC tent. No I wasn't invited, unfortunately

the general media pass does not include access to the tent, but you know me, i love a bit

of gatecrashing so i had to hustle my way into a tent. I had a bit of a hectic Friday night at

the Gender Blender party at Evol, i'll post those pics later. So once I got into the marquee

i simply did not have the energy to move around trying to hustle my way into every other

tent. I stayed put and i took advantage of the free drinks. Besides it was an interesting

marquee to oberve. It was on a slightly raised stage and completely open for the public to

see inside, with only a picket fence seperating the general public from the guests. It was

all rather bizzare because throughout the day there was an audience camped outside the

picket fence, trying to catch a glimpse of their favourite soapie stars or snapping away

on their cellphones. Of course the stars and their hanger ons were all loving it, sashaying

back and forth on the raised platform, smiling for the cameras. It was fun. This was of

course the J&B, so everyone was dressed for maximum impact. Whilst a lot of the outfits

were enjoyable, there were also a lot of SKATTIE! WHAT THE FUCK! moments. One

always wonders how so many get it so wrong, were they born that way? Do they not own

mirrors? Or do they watch too much Generations? Sadly included in this unfortunate lot at

the SABC tent was one of my favourite bloggers, Mika Stefano. Anyway, see

below for him and the rest of the contenders for the:

SKATTIE! WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK! AWARDS

HYÈRES INTERNATIONAL FASHION + PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL /// INTRODUCING THE TEN FASHION CONTESTANTS

 Daniel Hurlin / "Perfect Blue Tamara" / FRANCE / IFM Paris

 Jasmina Barshovi / "The Birds Are Silent" / SWISS / HEAD Geneva

 Kim Wilkins / UK / Royal College of Art London

 Elina Laitinen + Siiri Raasaka + Tiia Siren / FINLAND / Aalto University Helsinki

 Lucas Sponchiado / "out of vacuum" / BELGIUM / La Cambre Brussels

 Maxime Rappaz / SWISS / HEAD Geneva

 Narelle Dore / AUSTRALIA / Royal Academy Antwerp

 Paula Selby Avallaneda / ARGENTINA BRAZIL / IFM Paris

 Ragne Kikas / ESTONIA / HAW Hamburg

 Steven Tai / CANADA / Central St-Martin's London

 "Hyères! Hyères festival! Fuck you, it's like the fucking Cannes of fashion. You're doing
it and you better make sure that come April you're in France attending or I'm leaving!"
These are the words that came flying out of my foul-mouthed and sometimes significant
other upon seeing the email inviting this here blog to partner with the festival. Of course I
did not need much convincing but still, the histrionics! Understandable i guess. The
Hyères International Fashion and Photography Festival is held annually at the Villa
Noailles-a landmark cubist villa built in the 1920's by Mallet-Stevens- in the town of
Hyères (pronounced yeah), south of France. It is currently in it's 27th year. This is
the festival that revealed to the world talents such as Viktor & Rolf, Xuly Bët, Sølve
Sunsbø, Romain Kremer (Mugler men), Felipe Oliveira Baptista (Lacoste), Jean-Paul
Lespagnard, Cedric Buchet and many many more.Ten young fashion designers and ten
young photographers are selected as contestants out of hundreds of entrants by a jury of
international professionals. Designers that have taken part in the festival as members of
the jury include Azzedine Alaïa, John Galliano, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Jean-Paul
Gaultier, Karl Lagerfeld, Anna Sui, Phillip Treacy, Hussein Chalayan, Ann Demeulemeester,
Raf Simons, the list goes on and on. This year the festival will launch
during the French Spring on the 27th April. It'll be 3 days of fashion and photo
exhibitions, installations, fashion shows, concerts, parties, conferences, openings, award
ceremonies and intermingling for a crowd of international fashion devotee skatties. This
year the organizers have chosen to invite a few bloggers from all over the world to
partner with them, about a dozen or so. And from South Africa they have selected to
invite this here blogger to bring you all the news leading up to, during, and after the
festival. So I'm looking forward to bringing you lotsa goodies and i'll be doing some
interviews with designers, photographers and jury members. By the way, this year the
jury will be presided over by none other than Yohji Yamamoto himself. I will post pics
and and the names of the rest of the jury shortly, along with prize info. For now please
check the pics above to see the ten design contestants that were selected on Sunday.
This coming Sunday the jury meets to select the ten photography contestants.

So now my next mission is to make sure that come April 27th i'll be in the South of
France overdosing on fashion, photography and art. Whether I manage to hook up a
sponsor (anyone?) or get that credit card i've been avoiding for the last decade, by hook
or motherfucking crook I'll be there bringing you a blow by blow account of one the
most exciting gatherings of fashion devotees from all over the globe. To use a rather
ubiquitous, exhausted and truly fucking annoying blogger phase; I DIE! no really skat I fucking die!

SATURDAY AND THE CITY /// @ '5 FOR A CHANGE' FUNDRAISER AND LATER AT A BIRTHDAY PARTY

From time to time an invite to a nice people fancy event lands in my inbox. By nice

people and fancy i mean an event that requires a black tie dress code. The dress code bit

always causes me a bit of stress because because i do not own anything that qualifies as

appropriately black tie. Fortunately this is Cape Town, no one actually expects a 100%

hit rate on a black tie dress code for their event. So there's always room for underdressed

slobs like me. Now please skattie that does not mean you should go to people's events

dressed like shit. Anyway badly dressed or not, my insatiable social appetites won't let

me stay at home. You can blame that on reading too much Gwen Gill in my time as a

young fag. May her soul rest in peace. So on Saturday I went to check out the inaugural 5

for a Change fundraiser. The party will be an annual do, where busy mover shaker types

dress up black tie and get together to raise funds for five worthy social enterprises. Personally

i think it is a great cause, especially considering that we all get together and party like

there's no tomorrow anyway, why not help others while at it. If you want to find out

more about this initiative you can follow them on twitter @5forChange or www.facebook.com/

5forchange. For those of you who wanna put their money where their mouth is right

now, you can use the abovementioned channels to get in contact and find out more

about the organizations they support and find out how you can get involved. That also

goes for you party animals that don't wanna miss the next gig. Obviously we didn't just

stand around and look pretty. There's entertainment as well in the form of musicians and

deejays. Unfortunately I missed most of that because I couldn't stay long, my friends

David and Cam were having a joint birthday party which i'd comitted to previously

and absolutely could not miss. It's often better when I leave these kinds of events early

anyway, otherwise i risk being carried out, there's something about bubbly when it flows

freely. i lose a bit of control and i talk too much shit then people stop inviting me to parties

 leaving me no choice but to go back to my old gatecrashing ways.

LATER AT THE BIRTHDAY PARTY