.: February 2012

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

WEDNESDAY /// SNAPPED AT THE PUMA CREATIVE FACTORY PARTY

UNATI SILINGA

AND IF IT'S NICE YOU PLAY IT TWICE : OLD PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED UNATI PICS

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

SKATTIE AND THE NICE GIRLS AT HANNELI RUPERT'S OKAPI LAUNCH

A couple of days ago I received an email invite to go and check out the launch of the new Okapi range, not from the organizers mind you, but from a naughty friend who couldn’t understand why I wasn’t going...*cough* *cough* Chu. Well I love nothing more than the role of uninvited guest. So I pulled out my 2^nd best polyester blazer, and after an hour and a full roll of masking tape I managed to get rid of the cat hair and stains from bygone parties. I then decided that it had atleast one more night out before I’d have to hand it over to Jocelyn (my helper and disciplinarian figure on Tuesdays and Fridays) to sort out, no chance of me taking polyester to the dry cleaners. Okapi is a range of ladies’s accessories, handbags mainly, which was conceptualized and is owned by Hanneli Rupert, yes , from the billionaire Rupert family. Probably not fair of me to mention that though. I imagine that Hanneli like some offspring of the wealthy would prefer to step out of that shadow into her own reality. She certainly does not seem to carry the baggage of wealth around with her. From the few times I have met her over the last couple of months I would have never imagined her background, she has always been friendly. Even tonight when I run into her after gatecrashing her event, she is gracious, she greets, kisses and takes me through her range. It’s my own prejudices I guess, I tend to expect the excessively privileged to be absolute bitches or wayward wanton types, and that she is not, and I’m not just trying to kiss billionaire Rupert ass here.

Anyway, onto the actual event, the invite was for a cocktail party in an Enchanted Forest, at no. 34 Long street. I was not sure what to expect. When I think forest I imagine it to be a place where taxi drivers are born and bred. What with their graceful ways, and on this particular evening I had just had a run in with a taxi driver who bumped into my car and proceeded to verbally abuse me. The toothless fuckface. Thankfully there were no taxi drivers suffering from nappy rash at this forest. No. Instead Hanneli had turned the downstairs bit of the venue/ bar into….well, an enchanted forest with loads of detail, check pics. These themed do’s are always a bit risky, one little misstep and you might find yourself in the forest of all things tacky. and I’m glad to say that the aesthete gods were on her side and the deco was more fun, frivolous and contextual rather than tacky, in my opinion anyway. Thank gawd for that skat, otherwise I’d have to be a bitch and I hate being a bitch, but what I hate even more are tasteless bitches who leave me no choice but to be a bitch. The was also a nice fun chilled crowd, made up of nice well put together society girls on a strict diet, nice well put together young media girls on a strict diet, and well put together older society girls on a strict diet who used to be nice well put together young media girls on a strict diet. We won’t speak about the men much, sorry but South African men often leave a lot to be desired when it comes to being well put together, starting with me of course.

The bags. Well, they’re expensive and they look it. No animal was spared, croc leather, ostrich leather, nappa, kid-suede, springbok horns etc, trimmed in 18 carat gold. The inspiration is African. I was particularly fascinated by one bag that went from a clutch to a full on shopper type bag in a couple of secs. fuck the purists, I love a twofer skat. I got home and dragged the long-suffering partner away from yet another Discovery/History/National Geographic channel documentary (tonight’s one is about the Kennedy’s, and apparently it’s amazing because there’s so much footage about them because they had their maids – oops, I said maid- shooting video footage all the time) and I showed him pics of the bags, he fell in love and wanted one. The prices range between R6k and R16k, so I had to remind said partner of our real life LSM grouping. Ag shame arme ding.

THE CLUTCH THAT TURNS INTO A SHOPPER BAG, AS MENTIONED ABOVE:

HANNELI RUPERT:

Sunday, February 26, 2012

SATURDAY /// HANGIN OUT, STITCHIN STUFF AT ELIZABETH GALLOWAY DESIGN ACADEMY

Fair Lady Fashion Director Chu Suwannapha (@ChuSuwannapha) trying his hand on a sewing machine. I'm still a bit pissed off that his satchel came out much better than mine, and it was his first time on an industrial sewing machine.

Elle Fashion Editor Asanda Sizani (@AsandaSizani) stitching away. And you thought she was strictly front row.

Kwena Baloyi - @roekiety - (with the head scarf) from Drum Magazine. She is erm....checkin out the progress on her skirt.

Bloggers and students on the cutting table.

A couple of weeks ago I received an invitation to join a blogger workshop at Elizabeth Galloway Design Academy in Stellenbosch. The girl bloggers were gonna get to make their own skirts and boy bloggers make satchel bags. Now not to sound like a dick but I’m ever so skeptical of blogger gatherings. They’re probably a good networking opportunity but something about them always feels kinda weird, maybe it’s because I’m kinda shy and I sometimes freak out about the idea of being in a room with strangers, and being expected to relate to each other because we all spend an excessive amount of time online. Anyway I decided to get over my damn self and go to check the event out. Thank gawd I did because I actually ended up having lots of fun. And there were a couple of very friendly and familiar faces from the magazines whose company I always enjoy whenever I get to see them, namely Chu, Asanda and Deryn. I also got to sit on an industrial sewing machine and stitch my own satchel. I haven’t been on a machine ever since I graduated from fashion school in 1999, and fuck am I rusty! However, my favourite reason why I’m glad I went; I did not attend the student show at Elizabeth Galloway last year and fortunately lecturer Derek Geddes (@Derel_Geddes) had dvd copies of the graduate show, so I grabbed one to enjoy at home. I really love fashion school graduate shows, it’s the final opportunity that the students have to explore their wildest fantasies and sow off their talent without having to worry about market forces. The SA fashion industry unfortunately has very little room for un-commercial fashion ideas. For some however, the shows are also an opportunity to impress potential new employers, retailers and manufacturers scouting for designers. Whatever the student’s goal, graduate shows are my favourite kind of fashion show. So after watching the video, I thought I’d try my hands at editing it into a shorter 3 minute 30 second video (the original is 52 minutes) with clips of some moments that I enjoyed the most so I could share with those of you who enjoy student shows as much as i do. When watching the video please excuse the big iSkysoft logo/watermark, unfortunately to get the video into iMovie so I could edit it I had to download a trial version of a DVD ripping software, and ja it comes with a moerse watermark. Note to self: buy DVD ripping software.

NEWS FROM HYÈRES /// THE FINAL TEN PHOTOGRAPHY CONTESTANTS

About a month ago I told you about the 27th Hyères Fashion and Photography Festival which will be held in Hyères, France over 3 days starting on April 27^th. If you missed that post please follow the link to check it out and find out what the festival about. On that previous post I showed the selected design contestants. Well, the photographic Jury under the guidance of the Photography Director Michel Mallard met a few Sundays ago, and after working their way through 782 entrant portfolios from fresh new young photographic talent, they selected the final ten contestants for the photographic part of the competition, and here they are (except one, Richard Kolker from the UK, I am missing his pics):

OLGA CAFIERO Switzerland/Italy