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

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

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

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?

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