FRIDAY /// DAY ONE AT TOFFIE POP CULTURE CONFERENCE & FESTIVAL

TOFFIE POP CULTURE FESTIVAL /// PICS FROM THE SPEAKERS GET-TOGETHER AT THE TOFFIE OFFICES /// PLUS TOFFIE ALL ACCESS PASS GIVEAWAY

This is a great weekend to be in Cape Town, with two major events taking place, the jazz festival and the Toffie Pop Culture Festival. I will be spending my time at the latter; I have been looking forward to it for months.  In case you’ve been living under a rock, Toffie is an annual 3-day pop culture conference and festival that focuses on contemporary popular culture, design, music, magazine publishing, art and everything else that relates to everyday pop culture. This is the 3^rd year it’s been running and it will take place at City Hall from Friday the 30^th (as in today) till Sunday the 1^st. The line-up includes over 60 local and international speakers:

• Penny Martin (UK): Editor-in-Chief of The Gentlewoman Magazine
• Roel Wouters (The Netherlands): Director/Designer
• Omar Sosa (Spain): Art Director, Publisher and Graphic Designer of Apartamento Magazine
• Malibongwe Tyilo: That would be me
• Athi-Patra Ruga: Performance and Contemporary Artist
• Chris Bisset (SA): Film Director
• Sibot (SA): Sound Designer

The festival is not just about speakers though, there are screenings, exhibitions, workshops, installations and a whole lot of other fascinating creative offerings, including the crew from the You&Me&Everyone We Know market, which will run till late on Friday and Saturday.  You might have noticed from the list above that I will also be giving a talk. Mine is at 9h30am – 10h30am on Saturday morning, and ja it would be really cool if you came to check it out. For now I am trying to work through my public speaking issues. Another talk I wanna plug in exchange for domestic bliss is my partner Athi-Patra Ruga’s talk which will be  at 17h00 – 18h00 on Saturday.

Ticket details:

General access ticket, the exhibitions, the market, etc: R25

Conference Professional with access to all the talks: R750

The Student version of the above ticket: R500

or if you just want to do a single talk: R200

Now for the good news, I’ve got four Toffie all access passes to give away. I think the easiest way to do the giveaway is to ask whoever is interested to pop me an email at malityilo@gmail.com , I will then give the passes to the first four people that email me. Obviously the festival starts today, and the first talk is at ten, so I will arrange for the lucky ones to be able to pick up their passes at the door today.

INTERVIEW WITH MARC ASCOLI, CREATIVE DIRECTOR FOR YOHJI YAMAMOTO

As a partner blog for the upcoming 27th Hyères Fashion and Photography Festival, I will be bringing you interviews with the members jury panel. The questions are submitted by me and the other partner bloggers. The first one is with Marc Ascoli, the current Creative Director for Yohji Yamamoto. His career as an Art Director over the last 28 years includes many years at Jil Sander and Martine Sitbon, as well as collaborations with Calvin Klein, Hugo Boss, Gianni Versace, Ungaro and Sergio Rossi. He is also well known for introducing to the world young photographers who eventually became well known names in fashion photography, such as Nick Night and Mario Sorrenti. Below he gives us some of his views and insights into the fashion industry and it’s designers. I think the interview in particularly great for those of you who wish to or are pursuing careers in design. Enjoy skattie.

                                                                                                        photo by René Habermacher

What makes a young designer interesting in your eyes ?

His/her sensibility before anything else, that he/she has something to say.

But also the degree of creativity, the ability to show he/she doesn't fit the mold or follow established models.

A young designer, to be interesting, needs to reflect his era and talk about the times.

Once you've started working with a brand, what is your degree of involvement and counseling? 

It really depends on the intensity of the relationship I share with the person. Today the difficulty is to know which direction a brand wants to go, how to express its singularity.

Today, it seems essential for a designer to have a public persona. How does that affect you ?

The current situation is ambiguous. Designers are personae, they embody and diffuse the image of the brand. 

Taking into account the investments made by fashion houses in terms of publicity, designers have become true flag bearers.

But that's where the error often lies, to hire people gifted in public relations but much less in terms of style.

Today there is a "bottom line" in fashion, people tend to look at things commercially.

Does the buzz which personality give off equal the quality of the offering ? 

The question today is primordial. [In the case of] Sarah Burton for McQueen, we don't see a flamboyant personality, but everyone is floored by her work.

Even though it's a time of crisis, everything is about competitivity. Considering the number of collections (men's, women's, pre-collections), it's about standing out through quality not only personality.

What is the role of the stylist in the creation of a fashion image ? How did the evolution of this role impact the role of the artistic/creative director ?

There's now a lot of confusion between stylists and artistic directors, but I believe the two have very different roles. The artistic director works on the long term image of the brand, its DNA and visual impact, whereas the stylist reflects the brand’s fluctuating image by styling the clothes, whether it’s for ad campaigns or a fashion shows. 

Does fashion have a political role beyond aesthetic and function ?

Fashion takes place in a different universe. It's a universe where you're bringing something else to reality, where there is little concern for politics, because it’s all about creation and individuals.

You can see today that there is a huge gap between fashion and the political reality of our times. Fashion goes out of fashion; fashion is irrational so it can’t be political. 

When and how does a creator, singer, artist need to work with an art or creative director ?

An artist always needs an alter ego with whom to exchange ideas, to help write his/her story. It's not just a matter of positioning. The artistic director has to be sensitive enough to understand the artist’s universe and then catalyze it ; establish an image visually and eventually commercially.

What is the last thing which stimulated you ?

Being a very curious person, I am constantly stimulating my creativity through various cultural activities. The exhibit of Madame Grès curated by Olivier Saillard at Musée Bourdelle really seduced me. Everything was in its place, the location, the clothes, the spirit. 

I was also very stimulated by the latest Comme des Garçons fashion show. 

I thought it was majestic.

Marc Ascoli over the years: 

For Calvin Klein (fall 2001)

Photographed by David Sims

For Martine Sitbon

Photographer: Nick Night

Jil Sander

Photographer: Craig MacDean

Yohji Yamamoto (s/s '96)

Photographer: David Sims

THE LAST OF THE MBFWJ PICS

....and uhmmm....

skattieTV @ DAX MARTIN & BACKSTAGE ::: A LITTLE MOTIVATION TO RENEW THAT GYM CONTRACT

It's been one of those weeks skattie, where I could not find the energy to attend events in the evening and take photos so I ended up vegitating in front of the idiot box watching one bad movie after another. Ag, it happens, i'll live you'll live and the sun will come up tomz. Anyway, for my sins I decided to torture myself today by editing this footage of hot half naked models. I seriously cannot deal with how hot some people are, even worse is knowing that for the remainder of my time on this planet I probably will never be nearly as hot. It's the purest experience of jealousy, i find myself disliking them intensely and then I assure myself that they are terribly unhappy human beings with poor self image. Whateva, fuck the hot and eat the rich. Me I've had a gym membership which i've dutifully paid for the last 8 years. I convince myself month after month, year after year that I must not cancel it, that I will wake up tomorrow with incredible resolve and build a six pack in 12 weeks just like the guys in the informercials. I still have time on my side i guess, a friend of mine tells me if you don't have a hot bod before 40 you'll never have it. I am 33 going at high speed towards 34, so i guess i have a few more years to miraculously develop the desire to gym like crazy, to develop a taste for fat free flavour free cottage cheese. Actually my partner somehow managed that 4 years ago when we moved to Cape Town, he fucking left me in the fatlands and decided to start gyming almost 3hrs a day, and he hasn't stopped since, the fucking muscle mary. Now all those Greenpoint queens look at me and call him a chubbychaser, whatevs. Anyway, this video will be my motivation, to help me to learn to hate my fat self, so that I too can look like I have a body sculpted in chocolate cement.

@ONEFUMI