.

WEDNESDAY /// SNAPPED AT THE PUMA CREATIVE FACTORY PARTY

2012-02-29T23:42:00.000+02:00

UNATI SILINGA

2012-02-29T03:52:00.011+02:00

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

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

2012-02-28T23:28:00.006+02:00

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:

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

2012-02-26T22:13:00.003+02:00

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

2012-02-26T14:45:00.000+02:00

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

AKIRA SOMEKAWA Japan

HANNA PUTZ Austria

NAMSA LEUBA Switzerland

BREA SOUDERS United States

FLORIAN VAN ROEKEL The Netherlands

JESSICA EATON Canada

MANUEL VAZQUEZ Spain

YASUYUKI TAKAGI Japan/United States

WINDOWS

2012-02-23T17:28:00.002+02:00

JOURNEY

MEMEME

DAVID WEST

SITTING PRETTY

SKINZ

A little something you may or may not know skattie, I recently decided to leave my job as a fashion buyer to embark on a life of (f)unemployment and dream chasing. ja after 7 years of working in retail across a few retailers, Woolworths, Edgars and Truworths. I know, either stupid or brave, I'm not sure which one yet, time will tell. Anyway, one of the major advantages of funemployment is that one's time is one's own to do with as they wish. so today i finally decided to take my long suffering car to a panelbeater, something i've delayed for an entire year. But seeing as this was my last chance to take advantage of my cheap corporate insurance it had to be done. The situation was dire, even the top refused to drop and i could not enjoy the advantages of being a drop top driving fag in Cape Town. So after dropping off the ride I took a walk down Long street towards corner Strand and Long to catch a taxi home. On my way down a few windows caught my eye and my lens. Originally I wanted to post about the restrooms on Long street. At the beginning of my journey down the street I stopped at a few establishments for the obligatory mid-day chardonnays (actually I'm talking shit skat, I drank Black Label draughts). Due to my weak bladder I had to stop at several establishments for relief. Fortunately I came to my senses and I remembered that it's not called Skattie Where are you pissing?, and I'm pretty sure you don't come here to find the best shit pots in town. So i stuck to the window pics.

SATURDAY /// FROM THE DINNER TABLE TO THE STREETS...WELL, JUST LONG STREET ACTUALLY

2012-02-21T00:46:00.001+02:00

askies for the blurry pictures skattie, but you must understand that I took out my camera at the very end of the dinner. by then I had been intimate with shitloads of bubbly. I had just come off a 17 day juice fast where I was limited to freshly squeezed vegetable and fruit juices for sustenance, mostly vegetable, mostly green ones, cabbage, spinach, zuchinni, cucumber, green peppers, you catch my drift. it was horrible, but I felt amazing and so detoxed, even though medical professionals (your fucking homeopath is not included in that list) and other scientists have proven that detoxing is a marketing myth with no scientific basis behind it. it was supposed to last 30 days….but hey, any scientifically unproven toxins that were still hanging around after 17 days were probably very invested in joys of life in my colon. and forced evictions are so apart***d. anyway, I felt so cleansed, like my body was freshly gentrified real estate, with lots of new white blood cells, much like newly posh parts of Woodstock. it was all a bit much, so I retoxed. in fact, i am retoxing my way thru this post as i type.

A MASH-UP /// 3 FROM 3 EVENTS AND 6 FROM VINYL DIGZ ROOFTOP PARTY

2012-02-17T11:21:00.000+02:00

PARTY PICS /// THE GENDER BLENDER PARTY AT EVOL FEATURING THE DIVINE MS DEBI CHAN ON THE DECKS

2012-02-12T23:20:00.000+02:00

Okay these pics are long overdue, this party was on the 27th of Jan. Askies skat. Enjoy.

SKATTIE AT THE RED CARPET FASHION SHOW FUNDRAISER

2012-02-12T21:40:00.000+02:00

Something that always happens to me when i go to events billed as fashion show
events, my eye always gets a little more critical than usual, i can't just sit back
and enjoy the show. However, over time I've learnt to remind myself to know the
difference between certain types of fashion shows. There are the fashion week shows
where designers show new ranges and their interpretation of the season, in which case i
think it is perfectly okay to bring one's inner critic along. Then there are the fundraising/
society type of fashion do's. The show featured on this post is that kind of show.
Generally these shows will show garments that the designers currently have in store,
some may have even been worn at certain events by socialites, like the orange and grey
Stefania Morland number which Jo-Anne Strauss debuted at the J&B Met. Some of the
garments one might have seen at a previous fashion week. The crowd is also different,
this is primarily a fundraising event so the front row is likely to be filled with a suburban
looking set, with suburban hair. It is important when one attends this type of event
to...well...tame the inner critic, to accept the event for what it is, a fundraising
event for a great cause with a fun fashion element. I find that once one accepts that fact
of life then one can have a great night as I had on Friday evening at the Red Carpet
Fashion Show event held at the Rotunda in Camps Bay. The designers on show were
Malcom Kluk, CGDT, Craig Port, Stefania Morland and Jagadi Haute Couture. Proceeds
from the event will be donated to joinFITE (Financial Independence Through
Enterpreneurship) which is a global women's empowerment organisation founded by
skincare brand Dermalogica.

73 ON KLOOF /// THURSDAY

2012-02-10T00:01:00.000+02:00

Tonight i went to check out the opening of 73 Kloof street, which is the flagship store of
womenswear label Take Care, shared with menswear and luggage label Adriaan Kuiters.
They will also stock a few select items from other local talented designers. I do love to
see labels develop, and i love also knowing that people are making a contribution to the
local fashion industry, so fuck yeah! The choice of address also got me thinking. I got
to Cape Town in 1999 and back then Kloof street was a much more boho experience.
It wasn't total hippieville, bongwater didn't flow on the street gutters, no skattie that
would be Obz. But it was not as trendy as it has become. I like it, i like that it's a good
environment for businesses to thrive. Anyway skat, it's late and I am as exhausted as
fuck, and i can't think of anything interesting to write. I am on day 9 of a 30 day juice
fast, and whilst it's been great so far for some reason tonight the energy levels are a bit
low and i feel like a grumpy old bitch (not saying that old bitches are grumpy but). So on
that note enjoy the pics and goodnight.

LAUGHING MAN

2012-02-09T22:53:00.002+02:00

THE PANTS /// STYLEHUNTIN THE STYLESTUNTIN AT THE YOUANDMEANDEVERYONEWEKNOW NIGHT MARKET'

2012-02-05T14:06:00.000+02:00

TJO! THIS VIDEO.

2012-02-05T13:59:00.000+02:00

I don't often post videos but every now and then i come across a video that blows me away. The art direction, the styling, the choreography, fuck it everything in this new MIA video makes me go Wow!

PART 2 /// THE LAST OF THE J&B MET PICS

2012-02-04T21:39:00.001+02:00

Okay, this post is a bit delayed. I really should've posted a bit earlier in the week.

Anyway, this is the last of it. I've still got loads more pics but really in with the good

ones are a lot of really awful ones. Whilst i do believe one must speak up whenever

one witnesses injustice, i don't quite enjoy mocking the unfortunately-dressed. I mean

ag shame, people make an effort, which is far more than what can be said for my lazy

dresser ass. Besides, it's a far more pleasant business to take pictures of and celebrate

the style that i do enjoy, like the pics above. However, some outfits are truly doing

their very best to try and win the SKATTIE! WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK! AWARDS

And who am i to stand in their style-challenged way. So without further ado,

THE SKATTIE! WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK! AWARDS

PLEASE JOIN ME IN A COLLECTIVE OMG! FOR THE WINNER!

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

2012-01-30T00:41:00.001+02:00

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

2012-01-26T21:49:00.001+02:00

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

2012-01-24T00:16:00.001+02:00

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

THURSDAY AT THE STEVENSON, THE GOODMAN AND BLANK

2012-01-21T01:18:00.000+02:00

SOME OF THE WORK:

NANDIPHA AT THE STEVENSON

AVANT CAR GUARD AT BLANK

STUART AT THE GOODMAN

As I mentioned in my previous post skat, Thursday night was my favourite kinda opening

night. 3 openings all within a block of away from each other. All featuring artists whose

work i enjoy. Nandipha Mntambo at the Stevenson, still working that cowhide she works

so well. Avant Car Guard had a closing night at Blank Projects, and still as fabulously

irreverent as ever. i know i sound very reductive but i doubt you came here for an in-depth

art review. My personal favourite though for the evening was Stuart Bird's work at the

Goodman gallery. I think he totally killed it. If i was more of an art buyer than an art

poser i would be all over his work. Loved it. That is my personal opinion though skat, so

please don't let your hemorrhoids act up if you disagree, grab some Preparation H and

relax. Another great thing about all three galleries hosting openings on the same night

is that all the beautiful young things come out to play. Now only if the galleries would

invest in some decent air conditioning.

ANY NIGHT THAT ENDS IN BAD KARAOKE IS A GUD NYT PART 1 /// SORRY SKAT, I'LL POST THE FASHION-Y PICS 2MORO

2012-01-20T03:29:00.000+02:00

Tonight was one of my favourite kind of exhibition opening/closing nights, 3 galleries
all less than a 60 second walk from each other, all opening with artists i enjoy. Nandipha
Mntambo at the Stevenson, Stuart Bird at the Goodman and Avant Car Guard closing
at the Blank Projects Gallery. Naturally I took a shitload of pics but unfortunately the
night went on way past polite midweek limits. I'll make sure to post the pics tomorrow, i
really can't post tonight, it's now ten past three in the morning and i need to sleep because
i have to be at work in a couple of hours. But i just had to post these end of the night pics,
as you might know i suffer from the most terrible insecurities that make me fear that if
i don't post often enough you might forget about this blog and never visit again. Ja...sad
but true, whatevs.

SNAPPED AT COLD TURKEY

2012-01-17T22:22:00.000+02:00

(i promise black label is not sponsoring me, although at the rate they feature on this blog.....)

I think by now most of the city's party crowd knows about the Cold Turkey parties which
are held at Amadoda in Woodstock every second Sunday. But in case you've spent the
last year living under a rock check out this link on Mahala to get urself up to speed. Even
if you are familiar with Cold Turkey i recommend you read the article anyway, it is a
celebration of one the Cape's best party success stories. You can also follow
them @ColdTurks on twitter. The next one is on this coming Sunday the 22nd by the
way. I snapped the pics above at the previous one on Sunday the 8th. Enjoy.

WE ARE BEAUTIFUL LOSERS #2 /// AND AN UNRELATED PIECE ON THE CAPE TOWN RACE DEBATE

2012-01-15T22:40:00.003+02:00

On Saturday night I went to check out the second installation of the We Are Beautiful Losers party and
exhibition at Word of Art in Woodstock. I missed the first one but i've been to a couple
of events at Word of Art and i know they rock. Last night was definitely the biggest event
i've witnessed there and to top it all off they had bands performing. Now to be honest i'm
not very big on rock music and i only really saw rock performances. I still had shitloads
of fun though. There is something about live music. Even when it's not really your
favourite genre, you can still get down and have a blast.

And now onto a more serious topic. I normally try to avoid serious issues
because i view this blog as entertainment, an escape from life's more serious realities if
you will. However, some things beg to be said. I've been watching the whole online
debate about racism in the Cape from the sidelines and not saying much but an incident
last night made me want to add my two cents. I've lived in CT since 1999. I fell head
over heels in love with this city. It is beautiful and its residents are mostly a friendly lot,
plus i find that shit just works. To be fair though, i've only ever lived in the city bowl and
its surrounding areas, so i cannot say how well it works for the residents of Philippi and
Lotus River. In 2007 I moved to Jozi but after a year there I knew it was not for me and I
missed Cape Town, I missed the quality of life, so I moved back. Since then I have been
so happy with my decision and Cape Town has shown me some truly great times. Of
course this does not mean that the city is great all of the time, and it would be silly for
those who love and believe in this city to ignore the cracks. Last night was a case in
point. After having a blast at the Beautiful losers gig two friends and I went to check out
Chukkachurri, a newish club in Green Point. I am not much of a club person but i was up
for a party last night so i went. The place was super packed, there was literally a queue
outside there door and everyone had to wait for people to come out before they could be
let in. We eventually made it in. Like it often happens at venues in CT, everyone was
white, besides me and my two friends i only spotted two other black people. I am used to
that and quite honestly it's not much of an issue, i go where i like and whether the crowd
is black or white really doesn't matter. Anyway we eventually made it to the bar after
running into a couple of familiar faces and a bit of a quick chat. This is where things got
a bit dodgy. After ignoring me for about five minutes the barman eventually puts his
hand in front of my face to tell me that he is not going to serve me. I am a bit disturbed, i
think i must have misheard, he carries on to serve the people next to me, who got there
after me. So i stand my ground and demand service, he looks at the bank card in my hand
and he makes up some story about the card machine not working. We look across to the
other end of the bar and point out to him that the other barman is busy processing a card
payment on the very same machine he claims isn't working. He carries on serving other
customers. I guess I should also mention that this is a black barman. We call on the
manager, we assume he is a manager because he is behind the bar but he is not dressed in
the barmen's uniform. He tells me he likes my blonde dreads, he tells my friend Siya who
is standing next to me that he also likes his style, and he rounds it off by saying we look
alright but we must just wait. Wow, thank you Mr Manager, so great to know that we're
alright. At this stage i really did not want to walk off and just accept this ridiculous
situation. i was gonna get my drink, so five minutes later after having to be very
demanding we got our drinks, and paid by card. Now contrary to popular opinion, most
of the time one doesn't want to attribute every little incident to racism. Racism is ugly
and demeaning, it strips one of human dignity. In fact one tries very hard to find other
reasons why some things happen, to excuse it, to say it didn't happen to me. However,
some incidents are more obvious than others, like a couple of months ago when i was
refused service at a bar in Paarl, then called a kaffirtjie by one of the customers who then
went on tell me about how "we" think we can just walk in anywhere and think it's okay.
Really? A kaffirtjie? And here i was thinking i'd be atleats a fully grown kaffir. Suffice it
to say that night did not end well, but that's another story for another day. There's also
more subtle forms of racism, like many years ago when i used to word at Cafe Dharma
before it was renamed Asoka. We had a booking for a Muslim table of about 15. The
manager asked me to give the worst possible service in order to discourage them from
coming back. Since Muslims do not drink, it would not be good for business for them to
keep coming back. Of course i couldn't do that, i gave them great service and my
manager wasn't impressed, but hey. There's also just plain ignorance which leads to racist
views. A recent and frightening example is from a story a friend of mine told me over
dinner last week. She recently found herself at a dinner with some of the top dogs from
the company she works for, and their friends. After a few drinks the CEO's right hand
man went on a tirade about how lazy black people are, how they have no work ethic and
expect white people to hand them everything on a silver platter and how he could not
understand why young blacks are not richer with all the opportunities given to them. This
of course comes from a man who leads one of the biggest and most successful South
African companies, a man i know of and who's work i admired from a distance. With that
kind of thinking coming from the top, it is no wonder why so many companies struggle
with transformation. Back to me and my friends at Chukkachurri, we got our drinks and
we went out to the balcony to enjoy them and to unpack what had just happened. I found
out that they'd both been flathunting for the last couple of months and they had horror
stories to tell. Where suddenly flats were often 'taken' as soon as they got there to view them,
even though they called to say they are on their way, places that were advertised as
one month deposit plus rent suddenly became three months deposit plus rent as soon as
the owners met them. Anyway, these are just a few stories and i have heard so many
more. This whole race debate has made me realise how important it is for these stories
to be told. So that we can avoid situations where leaders respond to allegations of
racism in Cape Town by tweeting "what utter nonsense!".

MOMENTS /// DECEMBER 11, A RANDOM MIX OF PIX

2012-01-10T18:37:00.001+02:00

PICS FROM ATHI-PATRA RUGA'S ILULWANE PERFORMANCE PIECE IN NEW YORK FOR PERFORMA 11

2012-01-09T19:47:00.001+02:00

A couple of months ago, Nov 13th to be exact, i posted about Athi-Patra Ruga's then upcoming performance piece ILULWANE in New York as part of the PERFORMA Biennial, presented by What If The World Gallery, The Museum for African Art and Performa. You can check the link here to refresh your memory, or if you didn't see the previous post then i highly recommend you follow the link for background info. Well, the performance happened and unfortunately i couldn't be there but I heard from trusted sources that it was a resounding success. In fact it will soon be traveling around the world. And i also have it on good authority that the South African debut will be in Cape Town this year, much sooner than you think. Don't worry skat, I will keep you posted. The pics above were taken during the NY performance. They are of course only just a sneak peek, the actual piece is a 45 minute performance. Enjoy.

AND SO 2012 BEGINS /// SKATTIE AT THE L'ORMARINS QUEENS PLATE

2012-01-08T18:33:00.009+02:00

Firstly before i start, here is the Wikipedia definition of a fascinator:

A fascinator is a headpiece, a style of millinery. The word originally referred to a fine, lacy head covering akin to a shawl and made from wool or lace, but mostly feathers. Today, A fascinator may be worn instead of a hat on occasions where hats were traditionally worn—such as weddings—or as an evening accessory, when it may be called a cocktail hat. It is generally worn with fairly formal attire.

I've pasted the definition on here because i honestly did not know that these hats were called Fascinators. What a fucking fabulous word for a hat. As u can see from the pics above the outfits were all about fascinators. I'm sure you can also see that it was quite a party, so today i'm hangin like a mutha. I can't even think straight enough to do a proper write up, besides i'm rushing off to Cold Turkey to get my Sunday drink on. I'll come back later when i'm more relaxed to do a brief write-up. For now i'm out, enjoy the pics. And if u doin Cold Turkey this evening, i'll see you there. Oh by the way the official dress code for the races was Blue and White.

UPDATE, LATER THAT EVENING:

I had an absolutely fucking amazing time at the Queen's Plate. I mean who wouldn't? You'd have to be to be quite the sour Miss to spend all day amongst drinking eating dressed up folk, watching performances by great artists such as Tumi & The Volume and Spoek Mathambo only to get home and bitch about the day. Obviously it's not quite the usual skattie type post, but then again i'm not very loyal to boxes. I was invited to the event by the organizers along with other photographers to be part of a competition, the idea behind the competition was to invite a few photographers to take pics of the event, we will then submit a few pics each which we feel best capture the essence of the event and the judges will make their decision. I won't bullshit you skat, i was flattered and yet intimidated by the rest of the photographers as they were all pros and i am an amateur who is only planning to study photography this year. So i spent most of the day running around with my rather basic DSLR with it's basic kit lens snapping away. Fortunately i met a wonderful creature named Natacha who not only let me use her R10 000 lens for the day but also said i could keep it and return it to her next week. No seriously skat, and we'd just met an hour earlier. She definitely restored my faith in the human ability to trust. She simply said that she was a good judge of character and she was pretty sure i'd call her to return it. Over and above that she also said i could come and shadow her so i can learn more about photography. That's super exciting for me because i've recently resigned from my job as a fashion buyer which is all i've done for the last seven years so that i can pursue my long time dream of studying photography, so i can become a pro one day. Wish me luck skat, total career changes in one's 30s are rather risky if not straight up stupid.

The other interesting part to the day was all about the politics of access. A subject close to my heart. I do enjoy pushing myself into places where i am not allowed. Unfortunately my invitation as a photographer did not come with access to all the private tents, which were mainly the Caprice tent, The Reserve club tent and The Stud Club tent. Whilst Cafe Caprice in Camps Bay is not a spot i normally frequent, i couldn't resist checking it out at the event. It wasn't really my vibe but the crowd seemed to be having a ball. The Reserve however was a different case, i actually really liked it, i guess it also helped that they were ridiculously welcoming with no drama. I've been to their club in town before and whilst i've always found the OTT spending habits of their clientele disturbing - I have it on good authority that they're the type who drop 70k a night on French Champagne without thinking twice-, I've always found them chilled and kinda kind, and i was not disappointed. And i must also say that whilst i'm terrible at recognizing famous faces i did notice that Gavin Rajah and his crew had a table at their tent. I also spotted Janez there, with his top on for a change. Sometimes i wonder if it's part of his Top Billing contract that he must take his top off as many times as possible during an episode. The last private tent i checked out was the Stud Club tent. A friend told me that it was the organizers tent, basically it is the tent a lot of people wanna get into. As we all know i'm not a journalist so please take it all with a pinch of salt. I'm far more likely to write a bit of hearsay than i am to write well researched facts. However, one thing i can state for sure is that it was the tent where Prince Harry's ex Chelsy Davy was hangin out with the Prince's cousin Lady Kitty Spencer. Anyway i had a great time and i indulged in my favorite pseudo-anthropological sport; watching beautiful young things play the socialite game. I really do love that skattie, social codes fascinate me to no end. To be fair though, i'm the one with a blog that survives on content from social events, so how hectic are my social ambitions? Anyway, towards the end of the evening after working my way around, getting multiple wristbands to ensure that i had all round access. I ran into a guy that had yet another wristband that i hadn't seen before. Apparently it would grant access to yet another exclusive tent, for the horse trainer's after party. And he is a sales manager for the horse owners and he would try to get me in. At that stage skat i thought fuckit, I'd had a great day, i thoroughly enjoyed the event and my legs were way too exhausted for any more social climbing. My day was done and i drove back into the city to join my friends and wash down the champagne with a couple of Black Label quarts.

WELL, IF THIS TIME OF THE YEAR IS ABOUT FAMILY

2011-12-25T22:59:00.001+02:00

Besides being able to eat excessively with minimal judgement headed your way, one of the supposedly awesome things about this time of the year is being able to be excessively sentimental about one's family and the time spent with them, and to express those sentiments on social media outlets like fb and twitter whilst not feeling judged. I love my family too but of course I've done nothing of the sort so far and i stick a finger down my throat everytime i read a tweet or fb status update along those lines, or those redundant descriptions of everything on the xmas lunch table. I've also been binge eating like crazy, so we might be dealing with a totally different issue. Anyway, after all the terrible judgement i've been doing behind people's backs, I finally succumbed. After Xmas lunch with the fam I found myself going thru our old family pics and i found these vintage type gems that i just had to share. I don't have a scanner skat, i just took pics of the pics so don't bitch about the quality. Enjoy.

MY GRANDFATHER

MY GRANDMOTHER

MY MOTHER

MY FATHER

ME AND MY PARENTS

ME AND MY MOM

MY MOM IN THE 80s SANS THE 70s HEADGEAR

MY AUNT IN THE 80s

I REALLY DON'T KNOW WHO THIS IS BUT THAT BERET KILLS ME

HAPPY HOLIDAYS /// BLACK MODEL FAMOUS by THE HOUSE OF LADOSHA

2011-12-18T12:53:00.000+02:00

So ja i think i've kind of put myself on holiday already. I keep thinking i'm going to post pics from the last couple of weeks but all i want to do is lay back in the sun with a drink in my hand and enjoy the holidays. So i am officially putting myself on holiday from all things blog related. Tomorrow i leave for the EC to visit family, where i plan to lay back and do even more fuckall. Cheers until next year. I'll leave you with this fantastic video from The House of Ladosha, it's called Black Model Famous. Hope y'all have a 'black model famous' holiday.

CHRISTOPHER STRONG STORE OPENING

2011-12-14T03:47:00.001+02:00

....AND LATER FOR DINNER AFTER THE LAUNCH

It's 3.30am in the morning, i'm as sleepy as fuck and i need to wake up in about 3 1/2 hours for work. and yet here i am posting away, drinking wine and listening to the the 'Dead Can Dance'. Not my choice really, i'm more of a top 40 kinda guy, but Athi has a thing for shit that's headed towards obscurity, so i listen. Anyway, i haven't posted much in the last few days. I've been out a lot and i've taken shitloads of pics from amazing get-togethers but i honestly have not had the energy. Blame it on Dezemba. I'll post some stuff from the weekend a little later in the week. But tonight i went to check out the Christopher Strong store opening at the top of long street and i just couldn't resist sharing the pics. If I was a slightly cleverer or more together person i would have gone straight to sleep and dealt with these pics tomorrow. At first I wanted to call this post Christopher Strong: Why I hate Michael and Elaine, Why I love Michael and Elaine. I'll tell explain why. Elaine and Michael are the masterminds behind the Christopher Strong brand. Reason no. 1 for hating them: They are fabulously talented and they create exquisite and tasteful garments that have gained a rather dedicated following in Jozi and in CT, and tonight they put together a lovely event that attracted some of my favourite beautiful people. Reason No 2; After the launch they introduced me to what is possibly the most amazing and coolest restaurant/gourmet burger joint in CT (check the pics above). Seriously skat, the place has only 3 tables and it opens only between 5pm and 10pm. the owner in the only guy behind the counter/stove and the place is called 'The Dog's Bollocks'. I mean really, is being talented and successful not enough? Must you also know the coolest spots in town? Reason 3. The last and most important reason I hate them is that these two are the nicest and most down to earth people i have met recently. Nice, talented, successful, modernist, cool as ice, and super grounded. What's not to hate skattie?...oh and rumour has it that they'll be launching a menswear line in Feb next year. I'll buy a piece of course (the cheapest one naturally), but i'll hate them for it, just like i hate them for giving me such a solid reason to stay up so late.

IN THE COMPANY OF HIS SERENE HIGHNESS PRINCE ALBERT II AND PRINCESS CHARLENE OF MONACO

2011-12-08T23:33:00.004+02:00

ja ja ja skattie i know it's not the usual skattie type post. There's no artists, there's no hipster kids and there are no black label quarts. It's probably a little Top Billing with Joanne Strauss thrown in for good measure. In fact now that i think about it there's a few friends from my past life when i used to live in Obz back in the early noughties who would disown me for posting about Euro-royalty. They were an anarchist cum socialist group that i used to share a house with. From time to time they'd organize meetings with other anarchists cum socialists where they would smoke copious amounts of skunk and plot the future pro-poor revolution in South Africa, they were gonna change our world, all 10 of them. I haven't heard from them in a while, the two leaders of the group hooked up with German women and then they moved to Berlin. I hope they're changing the first world for the better. But anyway fuck that, it was a long time ago and capitalism won in the end. As they say "the rich get richer and the poor get the message'. Back to tonight, the dress code on the invite was 'business', so i had no unrealistic expectations, i certainly did not expect any fashion revelations. However, even if the royals had arrived in PEP rags i would still have shot like a thousand pics of them. Seriously sweetskat, they're fucking royalty for fuck's sake, and royalty is a good colour whatever you're wearing. Maybe i was fooled by the title but that Princess Charlene is really stunning, so poised and graceful. These pics really do not do her justice. Anyway, the reason they were at the event was to support the launch of the Polaris Climate Change Observatory which was made possible by the International Polar Foundation. I really do wish i could tell you more about this but unfortunately being a right-brain type i struggle to grasp concepts that are based heavily on science, but i really trust that the scientists are on to something. And if they say we need to pay attention to climate change, then we probably should. So please visit the International Polar foundation site to educate yourself a little better about the issues this whole event was built around. Don't be ignorant now skat, go visit the site. No really, GO.

THE PLEATED SKIRT /// MIDI AND MAXI

2011-12-04T18:28:00.000+02:00

The pleated skirt (especially the midi length) is without a doubt my favourite skirt at the moment. And not because i'm some horrible misogynist who likes to see women only when they are covered up. I just love love love this skirt. So i thought i'd take some to bring its beauty to your attention. Check the pics below for some past skattie pics featuring my favourite.

OF LIFE, ART AND COSTUME PARTIES /// THE WEEKEND: THURS, FRI AND SAT

2011-12-04T17:22:00.001+02:00

THURSDAY

It all started well enough with an opening of a group show at the Stevenson Gallery featuring a range of artists including well-known names such as Pieter Hugo, Anton Kannemeyer, Zanele Muholi, Penny Siopis, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Wim Botha, Igshaan Adams and Nicholas Hlobo, you can follow this link to educate yourself about the artists and the show. After a few drinks at the at the bar and walking around the gallery a couple of times to look at the works, I and a bunch of thirsty art loving reprobates moved on to the promise of free booze at the What If the World Gallery for Cameron Platter's exhibition opening, which is titled 'Fucking Hell'. Well, things went downhill from there, no not because of the art skattie, i loved the work. It was because along with the usual free wine they were also serving Black Label quarts, as in those 750ml bottles. Now skattie it's no secret, that shit is like mother's milk to me and at the same time it's the kryptonite to my Superman. And it was being served by cute bespectacled twins behind the bar. I swear it's a conspiracy. Obviously after that the night couldn't stop there. So I joined friends for some more quarts at Ganesh, yes in obz. Yes i am also worried about my aesthetic well-being, i seem to be popping into Obz more and more often. This is not a good situation. All that said tho i still had an awesome time and at some point during the evening a group of professional dancers broke into a performance right there in the restaurant, true story skat. That was really awesome actually. All i could think of was 'now throw in a singer and we've got ourselves a real-life episode of Glee, at Ganesh nogal'. I swear everytime i disregard Cafe Ganesh as an irrelevant shebeen in Obz it always proves me wrong. Firstly with those kick-ass Crayfish samoosas and then this.

....and later at Ganesh

FRIDAY

Okay, Friday was a bit of a fuck up as is any other Friday night that ends up at EVOL. Thing is EVOL only starts heating up at about 1.30am and it peaks way after 2am, So you can imagine what state one is in by that time. And really skat my Friday evening also started out quite nice and civilised. My partner and I went to visit friends for dinner, my friends are a married couple. We ate, we drank wine, we played Scrabble, we talked about owning property and shared our views on child-rearing. Eventually we left, dropped the car off at home, called a cab and well...I kind of came to in the early hours of the morning with the pics below in my camera.

SATURDAY

By now i was obviously just completely finished but i can't resist a costume party so i went to check out Andries' birthday party which was super fun but by midnight i had to head on home and start the journey towards recovery. There's phrase in Xhosa; "Uthand'izinto!", I swear that one is totally about me. KeDezemba i guess. I think i'm gonna stay put for a bit.

CURATOR vs CURATOR /// FEDERICA FROM MICHAEL STEVENSON vs ASHLEIGH FROM WHATIFTHEWORLD. THE BLACK SHIFT, WHO WORE IT BETTER?

2011-12-02T00:04:00.002+02:00

Okay skat, I promise i'll post the rest of the pics from the two exhibition openings tonight sometime this weekend, but for now i had to post these two lovely women up. Goodnight, check you on the weekend.

ELLA JARA

2011-12-01T17:56:00.002+02:00

SO I WENT OUT ON A TUESDAY NIGHT

2011-11-29T22:22:00.000+02:00

FRIDAY NIGHT IN TWO PARTS

2011-11-27T08:57:00.001+02:00

...AT THE YOU&ME&EVERYONEWEKNOW NIGHT MARKET (LAST FRIDAY OF EVERY MONTH AT THE LABIA)

...AND LATER AT THE "WE LIKE BASS" PARTY ON A ROOFTOP IN THE CITY.

NICCI St BRUCE AND ISABELLE AT DAF SHOW

2011-11-27T06:01:00.000+02:00

PART 2 /// MORE EYE-CATCHING MOMENTS FROM DAF SHOW

2011-11-27T05:50:00.000+02:00

DAF FASHION SHOW 2011 /// PT 1: A QUICK PEEK AT THE AWARD WINNER'S RANGES

2011-11-24T00:31:00.001+02:00

I mentioned last week that I was looking forward to checking out the Design Academy of Fashion (DAF)'s 2011 ranges tonight. So I went and I enjoyed a whole range of work from 1st, 2nd and 3rd year students. I took a whole lotta pics which I will share with you on Saturday but for now I thought i'd just quickly share selected pics from the 3rd year Student Award Winners' ranges. There were 3 Awards; The Truworths Commercial Viability Award which was won by Grethe Bredenkamp, An Academic Excellence Award which was won by Erica Sauzier who got the highest marks right thru her three years and finished off with distinctions on all her subjects, tjo! And last but certainly not least is Design Excellence Award which was judged by David West and Stiaan Louw, that award went to Hannah Lavery for her exquisitely resolved range. Goodnight and enjoy!

Grethe Bredenkamp

Erica Sauzier

Hannah Lavery

MAN ON LONG STREET

2011-11-21T00:49:00.002+02:00

SKATTIE, WHAT ARE YOU EATING?

2011-11-21T00:48:00.001+02:00

It's almost the end of the month and i'm broke as fuck. My fridge is getting dangerously empty, i've been cooking and eating spaghetti bolognaise night after night. In fact when i woke up this afternoon the bleak state of my fridge led me to kfc for a streetwise two. With an extra piece. So the timing for the Eat Out Dstv Food Network Restaurant awards could not have been better. No doubt the best fucking meal ticket in CT tonight. So i defied my hangover which was accompanied by horrible shakes to go and celebrate with the finest in the local culinary scene. And i got to chow down on four amazing courses of fine food, my streetwise two from earlier became a distant memory, a trashy cousin you hope never calls. And of course the wine and food pairing was immaculate. Yes skattie my posh side loves a bit of food and wine pairing, and ja i do have a posh side. I'm only 94.82% trash, the rest is all posh. So ja I had a fucking fantastic evening and i discovered a whole new world i knew very little about, and thanks to the chefs and industry insiders i shared a table with i also got some hot restaurant industry gossip that i wish i could share. As for the style, well...it was quite safe, not much risk, a lot of black, but to be fair this was the Restaurant awards, not the fashion awards.

So if you're not sure where have that next meal, here is a list of the restaurants that made the Top Ten list at the Awards: 1. The Greenhouse / 2. The Test Kitchen / 3. The Tasting Room / 4. The Roundhouse / 5. Overture / 6.Terroir / 7. DW-Eleven-13 / 8. Jordan / 9. Nobu / 10. La Colombe. Of course you can find out more about these restaurants and winners in other categories on the awards page of the Eat Out website

FRIDAY EVENING @ DAVID WEST SUMMER 11 LAUNCH

2011-11-18T22:29:00.000+02:00

Sometimes all an artfag needs is an evening away from all the exhibition openings, an evening where everyone is gathered together for no reason other than to celebrate beautiful stylish garments. David West's Summer 11 launch was just what i needed. I felt so energized (or maybe i was a bit drunk) i had to rush home immediately afterwards so i could share pics from the launch with you. Okay, enjoy. I'm gonna run back out into streets and have me a debaucherous Friday night, hope you have a wild one too. If i should run into you tonight, I apologize in advance for my behaviour.

THURSDAY @ GREATMORE STUDIOS

2011-11-18T01:15:00.002+02:00

Tonight I went to check out STRATA - a visiting artist's exhibition at Greatmore Studios in Woodstock. I haven't been to Greatmore studios in like seven years and to be honest if it were not for my friend Pam Dlungwana who recently took over the marketing for Greatmore, me and the most of the other superficial gallerina types might not have gone for another seven years. You can blame that on a bit a bit of hypocrisy and a taste for the shiny super galleries further up road (even though some of them make us pay for our drinks as if they have a liquor license). Pity that because i've ended up missing out on a lot of great art that is not necessarily part of Cape Town's rather infamous mainstream art scene. Cape Town makes it so easy to turn into a provincial type, indulging in familiar conversations with familiar faces, especially if you live your life in the city bowl. To be fair though Greatmore studios is no easy space to navigate, like literally. You're never quite sure which bit is a part of the main exhibition and which bit is an artist's studio, and it's got a large dose of the bohemian. However, judging from tonight, i am excited by it's current state and even more excited for it's future, as much for its artistic future as i am for its social future. Let's be honest here skat, people don't go to openings just for the art, in fact most people spend far more time engaging with each other and the liquid in their glasses than they do with the stuff on the walls. And when that free wine runs out so do they. The artist who were showing tonight are Satadru Sovan (India), Emalie Bingham (SA), Misheck Masamvu (Zim) and Cinga Samson (SA).

ATHI-PATRA RUGA IN NEW YORK FOR PERFORMA 11

2011-11-13T16:05:00.001+02:00

I so wish i could be in NY next weekend to see Athi represent in his new performance, 'Ilulwane'. I've listened to him conceptualize and speak about it for months, and i've also seen lots of work go into it and i've heard the soundtrack that he and Spoek Mathambo put together for the performance. So I know it's gonna be an amazing and groundbreaking piece. Alas, I will not be in NY to see Athi and the 27 synchronized swimmers perform this live, so excuse me if i'm a little sad. But if you are in New York on the 19th and 20th, best you make your way there. The performance is part of the PERFORMA visual art performance biennial where some of the best and most exciting artists from all over the world gather in NY for one of the art world's most exciting 3 weeks. What makes Perfoma even more special is that it was founded and is run by Durban born RoseLee Goldberg. RoseLee Goldberg was also listed as No. 9 last year in Art Review magazine's Power 100 list, the list is made up of the international art world's most influential figures. So i'm raising flag to RoseLee and of course Athi-Patra Ruga. So proud of you boo, intliziyo yam ibhaka amascones.

MOMENTS

2011-11-13T15:58:00.001+02:00

...and a beautiful CHRISTOPHER STRONG moment.

I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO....

2011-11-10T22:06:00.001+02:00

I've had a few amazing experiences in my life and going to fashion school was definitely one of them. The creative freedom that one has at fashion school in unmatched by the reality of the fashion industry, so i'm totally looking forward to checking out the DAF fashion show for what i'm sure is going to be some serious freshness. I hope to see you there skat.

EXPECTATIONS /// A POST WITH NO PICTURES

2011-11-08T01:07:00.001+02:00

About a year ago i wrote a post for another blog about certain elements within Cape Town's hipster scene. It wasn't a very kind article and i received a lot of probably well deserved negative comments. I was being a bit mean so of course people were mean right back to me. I responded and it went on and on to well over a 100 comments, so from that experience i learnt not to respond to some comments. I don't delete them either, just because you don't agree with an opinion doesn't mean you should suppress it. And then a couple of months ago i went to an exhibition which i didn't enjoy much, i got home and wrote about it and i said it wasn't my kind of thing among other things. The first comment on that post was from a reader who let me know that i didn't know what i was talking about and that i had no respect. Whilst i do believe that i should be able to say what i want to on my blog, mean comments are sometimes exhausting and i have a bit of an aversion to conflict so i kinda decided to just focus on what i like and leave well alone what doesn't tickle me. And then a couple of months ago I awarded the Marie Claire Fashion Blogger of the year Award, which was a real honour. Robyn Cooke who is a leading SA fashion blogger and a fashion journalist that I have a lot of respect for wrote a beautiful post about that event. One sentence that has really stayed with me from her post is "In today's world it is so important that the bloggers who get read by thousands every day use their power for good. And an award like this encourages that kind of responsible behaviour". That really kind of made me think about what i put out there, and further convinced me to focus on what i like and leave the rest. The fashion industry in our country is young and small, designers struggle to succeed, the last thing we need to do is put them down. However we must also find a way to be honest without destroying people. I'm rambling a bit but i'll get to my point soon. Thing is, this blog, however popular it may get one day, it is not a job. It has always been a place i come to have fun. That is part of the reason i do not take advertising. It keeps me free of the expectation the exchange of money creates. It frees me to do what the fuck i want when the fuck i want. I feel very strongly that i do not owe events that i attend a specific type of coverage, and i am grateful that so far the invites have come with no strings attached. So the reason i'm telling you this is that i attended a fashion event recently and it was a lot of fun and i took a few pics of the people in attendance. I didn't say much about the fashion because well...it wasn't what i normally like. I'm not saying it was bad at all but most of it wasn't my vibe. And my vibe is no bench mark, I like a lot of stuff that other people think is quite shitty. and there's quite a lot of stuff in this blog that trusted friends have told me is shit. But that's okay, I like it and i have fun posting it. So I was sad and a bit freaked out when a reader who saw my post on the event commented that "It is very sad to see that the "Marie-Claire Blog Award" winner has no wish to describe what was on the ramp at ***********...... lazy? or just... lazy?". Nevermind the 'lazy' comment, to be honest he is quite right about that, outside of my day job i'm very fucking lazy. But i was sad because I had decided to censor myself out of a sense of 'responsible behaviour' only to receive this comment. A bit freaked out because i realized that an expectation has been created. But i am learning. To be fair, as the blog has grown over the past few months i have also placed expectations on myself. However, along with those expectations I also felt blogging become less fun. I am posting less, i'm editing more, i stress about my awful punctuation and humour is hard to come by. At times i have thought about a pro future for the blog, but then i am reminded that I started this blog because it was fun and i continued to work at it after hours because it is fun, and because i placed no heavy expectations on myself. I apply myself fully to my dayjob as a fashion buyer, i love the pressure and the rush, but it is not necessarily the same thing i want for my little home in blogosphere. And i certainly do not want to find myself in a place where i am being told what to write about. I really am truly honoured by the MC Award and I have a lot of respect for the people who gave it to me, i also understand that it creates expectations in the minds of some readers so i just want to clear the air. This is not a job, this is a place i come to have fun and indulge myself in things that give me joy and i am grateful that people come and share in that joy with me. And please don't get me wrong, I believe very strongly that the expectations of others can be a good thing, a motivating force, especially when you expect too little of yourself. But there are moments when you do not need to make the expectations of others your reality, and i am slowly learning to differentiate between the moments. Anyway enough rambling, I am an hour into my birthday. I must go sleep and dream of a fun-filled 33rd yr of my life.

ONE SMALL SEED SELECTED CREATIVES COMPETITION

2011-11-07T21:06:00.000+02:00

Of all the scenes that interest me, the one closest to my heart is probably the creative scene. I love the arts, i love design, and i really love initiatives that give South Africans a platform to creatively express themselves. So i am a little sad that i only recently found out about One Small Seed's Selected Creatives competition. I really would have loved to share it with you earlier, in the hope that some of you would enter. Anybody can enter, from any location. However, that stage of the competition is now closed but you can still be part of it by voting for one of the ten finalists. And I recommend you keep up with it for future competitions if you wish to be involved. The winner and two runners-up will have their work featured in the magazine. Since September 2010, One Small Seed has been available throughout Southern Africa, Namibia, Swaziland, Lesotho, London, Birmingham, Auckland, New York, Milan, Luxembourg, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Montreal, Taipei, Hong Kong, Cyprus, Germany and Brazil amongst other places. Follow this link to check out the finalists and place your vote.

FRIDAY NIGHT

2011-11-06T16:46:00.000+02:00

From earlier at the YMAEWK market till the morning hours at EVOL

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2011-11-04T01:21:00.000+02:00

So, i've been in a bit of a funk for the last couple of weeks. And i've also been on my sobriety thing for the last month. Thankfully i am sober no more and i'm back to talking endless amounts of shit, glass in hand. Tonight i went to check out a couple of gatherings. The night started off at Blank gallery for Zanele Muholi's exhibition opening titled "Isilumo siyaluma". Zanele is a self-confessed activist and issues around women are at the center of her work. Tonight the most obvious issue in her work was the rape and murder of lesbians in our country. The work was very confrontational, one particularly striking piece was sketched in fresh menstrual blood from the previous day. I loved her work tonight and i am huge fan of confrontational art that doesn't bother with the niceties, plus the issues she deals with are close to my heart so this was right up my alley. I'll take her work over the self-indulgent musings of over-privileged middle class arty types any day. If only the lesbian fashion was as striking as the lesbian art, i would have pics from her opening. It seems that in her infinite wisdom God gave fashion to the fags (well, some fags) and cargo shorts to the dykes. Yes, i'm generalizing, get over it. The place was packed and not one skattieliscious outfit in sight. So a few minutes after my first encounter with menstrual blood, and not the blue kind, I went off to check out the Positive Heroes fashion show in search of something other than cargo shorts. Positive Heroes is an educational, awareness and self-help action campaign that draws on the power that positive role models living with HIV have to change people's responses. They work to change the stigma around HIV. They host an annual fashion show as a fundraising event. I've become a fan of the important work that they do and i had a lot of fun at the show, and i managed to snap the pics above. The fashion on the ramp, well....I won't go into that. Besides, i think to focus on analyzing ranges at an event that does such important work would be missing the point.

TIME OUT /// NOT A FASHION POST

2011-10-30T21:28:00.000+02:00

Askies for the Facebook Album type post skat, but i think this getaway is too good to keep to my Facebook account. So don't worry, i'm not about to become a travel blogger. The place is called Old Mac Daddy Luxury Trailer Park, and it is located on a farm in the Elgin Valley an hour and a half outside of Cape Town. Me and four stressed out friends booked ourselves a couple of trailers for the weekend so we could get a bit of a breather from the city space. It is after all that time of the year when work can start to feel like a drag as one starts thinking about the holidays, so a relaxed mini break at a tranquil space like Old Mac Daddy can help re-energise the batteries and get one ready for the last lap, and possibly keep you from lashing out at your boss. Besides the beautiful location, another thing that adds to its beauty is the design. The interior of each trailer is designed according to a specific theme. I absolutely love clever design and no detail is left to chance in the interior design of these trailers, it is actually quite inspiring. Which explains why these guys won a Gold Loerie this year in the Three Dimensional and Environmental Design Category for Interior Design Temporary Structures.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER /// FUMI GUESTBLOGS FROM THE GQ BEST DRESSED MEN AWARDS

2011-10-27T22:18:00.001+02:00

The downside to having a job and not owning a private jet is that i can't be everywhere all the time. One party i'm really sad i missed is the GQ Best Dressed Men do in Jozi. It was on a Monday of all nights. So i asked my friend Fumi to pop in for us and snap a couple of crowd pics. He did just that, which i'm super grateful for, but then he got on a flight the following day and spent the week chilling on a beach resort in Zanzibar. Along with his camera and the pics. He kinda decided not to bother with email either, what with all the distractions Zanzibar had to offer. But we love him anyway. He is back in SA and using email again, so he sent us the pics and the write-up below. Enjoy. Oh and he is quite the avid tweet-er and funny as fuck, follow him @onefumi.

Dearest Skat, forgive my tardiness but I'm actually writing this from Zanzibar where in front of me is the endless Indian Ocean and a very attractive, very buff, young Zanzibari raking leaves from the sand in front of my room. I really should be paying more attention to him actually, but the guilty feelings regarding my lax attitude to this write-up prohibit me from enjoying both views. About the GQ Best Dressed Men of 2011 Awards; I must first apologise for the kak-ish quality of the images, but trust me, you’ll live. Besides, I am a wordsmith, photography is an entirely new world for me. I would also like to thank the lovely people who let me immortalise their shit.

Now skat, fashion isn't really my world – i'm a banker by day and a shameless hanger-on by night – so it was skant surprise that I got more than one quizzical look from those in attendance. Or perhaps it was the leather shorts and silk blouse that Jamakazi Thelejane had slapped on my skinny frame. Who knows these things?
The nominees list was strange to me – I couldn't figure out what criteria is applied for one to make it on to the list, but if you know Skat please share. It was nice to see Jamey Lipschitz guy repping for us lowly banker folk (even though he rocked up in denim jeans, a white untucked shirt and a black blazer – YAWN!). I think it's safe to say that we all collectively fell in love with Masego 'Maps' Maponyane that night, who brought his mom as his date – as if he wasn't adorable enough as it is. Eventually the big prize was won by Oscar Pistorius – who looked hot as hell!

The people that make Jameson sure do know how to get a fag drunk – free-flowing 15-year old whiskey and champagne all night. Well, until 10pm anyway. By which time the rest of the fags and I were already hlokolozing on the dancefloor.

Anyway skat, there's a troupe of Masai warrior types on the beach trying to get my attention so let me attend to them and leave you to go about your day. Toodles.

MID-WEEK ///

2011-10-25T22:06:00.000+02:00

So i've been a little :-( for a coupla reasons. One is my self imposed sobriety thing, I could really do with a drink but i'm on my third week of abstinence, my ever self-flagellating and masochistic nature just won't let up. I won't lie, i'm as bored as fuck and as boring as fuck. It really is just the way i thought, people that don't don't drink are boring, and where's my fucking clarity?

Second reason, I couldn't make it to AFI Fashion Week in Jozi this past weekend. That made me sad. But i had responsibilities i had to take care of here in Cape Town. I must confess i've been avoiding websites that have posts relating to the Fashion Week because to be reminded that i wasn't there just breaks shallow heart, and that makes me write sad little blog posts.

INTRODUCING THEBE MAGUGU

2011-10-16T17:40:00.002+02:00

The pictures below are all taken from Thebe Magugu's facebook page. Thebe also has a blog where he shares his opinions on style through words and images, but the real treasure trove is his facebook page. He has uploaded literally thousands of pics that are made up of fashion shoots that he and two friends put together for fun. He is based in Kimberley, has recently turned 18, and most of the images were taken over the last couple of years. I first noticed his pics last year when i read a post on the Marie Claire blog about his blog, and i've been a follower ever since. I really really love the shoots they put together and i think they show such a love for fashion and image-making, plus a keen understanding of references, especially the pop-cultural. I think it's a real pity that most of these images stay on facebook and do not make it onto his blog. There are shitloads of personal style blogs out there that aren't half as experimental and sharp as the pics he posts. I am a rather hectic ageist, and i understand all too well how easy it is to be condescending and cynical about work done by people that are much younger, especially if they do that work in their teenage years, and i am well aware that fashion eats its young as a midnight snack. But all of this makes me even more excited about the work Thebe and his friends put together. The obvious love for what they do makes me that much less cynical. So i did a brief interview with Thebe so we can get a sneak peek into his headspace and a bit of behind the scenes info. Check it below after the pics.

Where are you from?
I am from Kimberley, a small backwater town in the Northern Cape. Its hell, not only because of the sun but the oppressive nature of it all.

Where do you guys take your pictures? Who takes them? Who edits them?
Well, I have a creative powerhouse, Trevor Stuurman and Ree SillyFresh Marekwa. We take photos at very unconventional places e.g. Trainstations, burnt-down velds and last week we took to the back of a Museum, which looked like a grave yard. It was stunning. Trevor is the photographer, he is a first year student at AFDA in Cape Town. Brilliant eye with so much attention to detail. He would climb trees or dig holes to get that perfect shot. Trevor and I do the editing, I use Coral Pro-X while he uses the grand daddy of photo editing software [Adobe]. I prefer mine though, we are both high fashion but I'm more haunted in my photography to his 'exciting' photographs.

And the styling?
I do the styling. I'm in love with unnecessary 'drama' e.g I threw Fifi into a vintage, burnt-biscuit fur coat with a massive patent belt and slapped lipstick on her with her weave in a pony like Cleopatra. This was all done when the weather was 39 degrees on a busy highway. Citizens of Kimberley almost passed away. I lay in the middle of the mall in a navy blue suit designed by Fort Joko with shoulders as high as my head. Just for the drama and absurdity.

Inspiration?
I don't believe inspiration should be from a certain era in time e.g The Victorians or The Babylonians. I get my inspiration from abstract ideas, like heartbreak [which contributes to the emotional weight of my photography], philosophy and religion [allusions to these ideas in my photography]. Funerals, homosexuality, mythology[Norse and Greek], taboo and a woman's figure. People who inspire me are Florence Welch from Florence and The Machine and how she's always carrying on about curses that fall on young lovers and how she lives in the wrong world. Kanye West, Coldplay and the ideas of Friedrich Nietzche and Camus. Kant as well. As well as loneliness.

A lot of your pics feature you and your friends Ree Sillyfresh and Trevor. What roles do you each define for yourselves in putting together the shoots?
We do it all. Personally, I am stylist, photographer, model and editor - so is Trevor. Ree does it all except photography. she acts like she cant use one so she can get more facetime - a malevolent diva that one!

INTRODUCING >>>>EXORSISTAHS

2011-10-16T15:32:00.000+02:00

Exorsistahs is Cape Town based duo, Kyla Phil and Lauren Rose. This is their first video "You lie, you die"

@ MUSEUM GALLERY FOR NICO KRIJNO'S EXHIBITION OPENING

2011-10-14T00:13:00.003+02:00

I know i know skat, i'm getting back to my bad old habit of neglecting my blog. I swear it wasn't intentional. Please let me explain. After years of dissing and ignoring the idiot box i finally caved in and decided to join the masses and get dstv. ja ja it's bloody repetitive and at times boring but it beats that government tv. so i spent a couple of nights last week and the entire weekend totally horizontal watching b-grade movies and the History channel, trying my very best to avoid reality shows. I fucking hate reality shows, and i really don't get why they are so popular. Anyway I got back to my senses this week and i got up off the couch and started attending events again. Alas, i don't know what the fuck happened in the time i was gone but shit has not been looking good. I've attended a total of six events so far this week and i am only able to publish pics from one event, which is photographer Nico Krijno's solo show at the Museum Gallery at Upper East Side hotel in Woodstock. Nico was also launching his book "On How To Fill Those Gaps". Follow this link to his site to check out some more of his beautiful work. So like i said above, except the pics tonight, the rest of the week has not been so kind. It's tough times in Cape Town, outfits are being repeated like they are going out of fashion (wait, they are). There's a dearth of skattielisciousness. Fuck maybe it's me, maybe i'm gatecrashing the wrong events, blame it on my somewhat mediocre social skills. Let's hope there's a better weekend ahead or i might get desperate and go back to roasting the unfortunately dressed. Speaking of unfortunate, i also gatecrashed the Ray-Ban something or other launch. Ja i'm not really sure what the event was about, i wasn't really invited, fortunately i really do love gatecrashing, always brings me a fucked up sense of achievement. Can't seem to shake off the dodge. I found out about the ray-ban do quite by accident tonight when i overheard at another party that a certain fashion editor who was supposed to go was not gonna make it, so i decided right there and then to borrow the editor's name and head to the party, didn't bother telling the editor though. And don't judge me skat, i was desperate and i did it all for you, not really, the fomo had me in its grip. Anyway, i didn't really get what i was looking for. But the skattie below in the yellow shirt kinda made it worthwhile. There were bands and lots of free booze, but unfortunately i'm not too clued in with the band scene and i'm back on my sobriety thing so no booze for me, possibly for the rest of my life. Ja ja i know i've said it before. I'm allowed to dream skat, this could be it, this could be that final quit. I filled in an online questionnaire on alcohol dependency and according to the results i need to quit immediately or seek professional help. Bless the internet. So here i am. Sober. The website which led me to this decision also promises me that i will not necessarily become a bore. I want so badly to believe them.

BITS AND PIECES FROM THE WEEK

2011-10-06T22:54:00.000+02:00

CREATIVE COFFEE MORNINGS

2011-10-02T16:18:00.003+02:00

Firstly to let you know what Creative Coffee Morning is all about, here is a description from their website:

"ABOUT CAPE TOWN CREATIVE COFFEE MORNING / This happens on the FIRST FRIDAY of the month and it is a space for creative types to gather. Each event includes a +-30 minute creative story tale, told by a guest speaker/s, followed by Q&A. The gathering begins at 9.30am with the topic story tale starting at 10:00am and finishing up between 10:30am - 11:00am. Creative Coffee Morning is free of charge, you just pay for your coffee and treats!"

So the next one is this coming Friday (Oct 7th) at No. 6 Spin Street in Town, and I have been invited as the guest speaker. I was also interviewed by Catherine Henderson in preparation for the event, you can read that interview here. So if u in CT please come and check it out. The only thing i fear more than speaking in public is a badly attended event. Registration is now open on this website. It is a fairly intimate affair with no more than 25 people, and there are 18 tickets available on the website and as mentioned above it is free. So ja register and let's hang out, chat and drink coffee together next Friday. And don't judge me if i spike my coffee.

QUICK SNAPS FROM THE YMAEWK NIGHT MARKET

2011-10-02T15:47:00.000+02:00

Yay my favourite summer night market, the YOU & ME & EVERYONE WE KNOW market is back again.

UNATI SILINGA

2011-10-02T01:27:00.000+02:00