Attended the AfriChic.com launch last night, held at the new art gallery at Ellerman House.
Oh. Wow. The views… And the art… And the clothes… A pretty spectacular combination, especially when combined with lovely bubbly.
Sylvia Gruber, owner of the new e-boutique, has a pretty cool vision: to bring African fashion – made only in Africa by Africans – to the rest of the world.
As we’ve seen evidence of at New York Fashion Week with the African Fashion Collection put on by Arise Magazine, the world is ready to for it, and it’s pretty savvy of Sylvia, who’s Austrian, to tap into this newfound interest faster than any local entrepreneur.
Maybe its time we all start wearing local rather than lusting after international brands that are mostly, now, mass produced in China.
There is one thing that H&M does really well, and that is collaborate with high-end designers. Check out the unbelievable launch for their latest effort – lingerie with Sonia Rykiel.
The sweet and stylish distractions that got me through...
Boo hoo, I’m a bit sad… After all the hype and high expectations, the Jimmy Choo charity function last Thursday at the V&A Waterfront was, for a me, a bit of a let-down.
Not that there was anything wrong with the function itself – the store looked lovely, the vibe was festive and fun, and it was all in aid of a brilliant cause: Project PEP, which, in partnership with the Elton John AIDS Foundation, will allocate 25% of the net sales of a globally-released limited edition collection of Jimmy Choo handbags, shoes and small leather goods to the Simelela Rape Centre in Cape Town.
Nope, it was the flash-cash boob ‘n’ botox brigade that stormed the store, credit cards waving, in barely-there mini’s (that were breathtaking for all the wrong reasons) that gave me the heebie jeebies.
I know this is very judgemental of me, and I’m sorry, but it makes me mad when women – especially mothers – are so youth-and-image obsessed that they think it’s OK to parade themselves around like that. There’s nothing graceful or dignified about it, and no matter how wealthy you are, you just look cheap. Well, to my mind anyway.
To be fair, there were only a few of them, but I think I must have had an allergic reaction and so, eyes goggling, I clung to my champagne glass and babbled incoherently while my poor wingman, Sarah, tried to distract me with the temptations of the Project PEP range.
And very cool they are: the limited edition collection features a unique canvas print with fun details like the scribbled phone number for the Bond Street store in London, and even an image of Tamara Mellon from an Italian Vogue shoot. The rest of the Jimmy Choo collection was also on display, and I was desperate to try on a killer pair of black, stacked heels, but next time, next time…
I was so sad to miss the official launch of Kirsten Goss’s, of Kirsten Goss London, design and product headquarters in Durban as it was guaranteed to be a wunderbar occassion.
Kirst sent these snaps and said, ‘The night was mais fabulous with around 140 peeps swinging till all hours.
Mark Van Halderen, the charasmatic winemaker from La Vierge in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley near Hermanus was in charge of the bubbly and wine tasting while Tristan Horton worked his magic on the decks, making for a seriously festive night.’
I do love my job sometimes. OK most of the time. OK pretty much all of the time… But on days like last Friday, I really, really, really, really love what I do.
Imagine this: walking in to Roodebloem studios in Cape Town where the ghd Style Lounge event is being held, being handed a glass of champers and then waiting in a superstylie lounge area before being seated before a frizz-taming magician who turned my hot-and-bothered hair into a glossy mane – just in time for a big night out.
I have a ghd of my own so am well versed in the art of straightening my flyaways, but when someone who really knows what they’re doing and, more importantly, which products do and don’t work for your hair, gets on the job, it just looks so much better. I even got a sample of Obedience Cream to take home with me – appropraitely named to help tame hard-to-flatten frizz.
Next I was ushered off to the Benefit Cosmetics counter where a dash of eyeshadow, a dab of gloss and a powder puff of blush created a smoky-eyed glamazon I barely recognised in the mirror. Mmn, I should maybe try this make-up thing more often.
Was mildly mortifed when the ghd team then directed me to the accessories counter to pick out what I wanted to wear for the photo shoot. Um, what photo shoot? Oh. My. Gawwwd. Nooooooooo….
Actually it was pretty fun. My new friend Simone saved the day and joined me on set long enough for me to get one or two decent pix. Whew.
Hey, I'm brunette now... And yes, they do have as much fun
I love birthdays. They rock, especially when you’re surrounded by great friends, bottles of bubbles and fine music. OK, the music could have been bad country, for all I know… It’s all a little hazy. What I do remember is having a fantabulous time, and waking up with a thumping head the next morning.
I also couldn’t help but ogle these incredible over-the-knee boots and flappy leather bag – they’ve already been added to my lust list for next year’s birthday, he he!
I was beyond bleak when I received the invitation for the opening of David West’s new Cape Town showroom and realised it fell over the one time we decide to go away for the weekend… Damn You Bad Timing!
Anyhoo, I got over it long enough to ask Nats Dixon to cover the event for iforone, and a beaming Natalie had this to say about it…
‘The only thing I love more than Brenda Fassie right now is David’s West’s new range of women’s shirts. Beautifully tailored, structured and crisp white, they feature David’s signature obsession with detail and Japanese-influended angles and asymmetry. Guys shirts as well as Kurt Pio’s quirky (and lovely) hat range were also on show, but the gold pleated calf-length skirt in the window stole the show.
The store is called Weekend Special after Brenda’s most famous song, and the event paid further homage to Mabrr with posters of her hanging in the change room, zamalek beer being served up for drinks and her music playing in the background.
The crowd was over-the-top cool but that was hardly suprising… David is original fashion royalty. He insisted I take no pictures of him (so shy!) so sadly I couldn’t give you any glimpses of the man himself…’ Next time, Nats, and hopefully I’m with you then too!
It was really cool to see so many people turn up to the Bell-Roberts Gallery for a charity ‘do, especially on a stonking hot night like last night.
Amidst a slightly sauna-ish gallery, the vino and whiskey flowed and when I left (sushi at Willoughby’s… yum!) it looked like it was turning out to be a really fun night.
What a fantastic initiative: A fashion photography exhibition of original, unpublished works exhibited last night at Bell-Roberts Gallery in Woodstock, Cape Town, thanks to hosts Boss Models.
Each work is be auctioned off on Monday and all proceeds go to Missing Children SA, which is an amazing NPO that helps to find the thousands of kids that go missing every year in this country. Check out their Facebook page – scary, but amazing, to realise how serious this problem is, and how much they’re doing to help.
Favourite pieces from the night include images by Antonia Steyn (who’s graveyard shoot was just incredible), Romi Stern, the ever-fabulous Damon Fourie and Marguerite Oelofse.
Sorry for the rather crappy lighting of the pics above but my snap-and-shoot wasn’t handling the ‘mood’ lighting. I’ll be featuring some of the complete works on Monday.
An unsuspecting Dewald wandered into the hyper-girly underworld that was the GHD Revelations event in Cape Town last Thursday evening.
Guests wandered from scene to scene, experiencing the eight stories that were incorporated to represent the many facets of the fairer sex (that’s us girls, in case you were wondering).
The highlights? The super sexy burlesque-in-the-sky show, and the mischievous twins that giggled and flirted, handing over bits of paper that guests then wrote their deepest darkest secrets on and tied to a tree.
It was quite a night… Dewald’s still got a starry-eyed look about him!
Ooph… Bubbles and no dinner made for a very merry me last night at the opening launch of Arise Cape Town Fashion Week. Head pounding. Eyes watering. Need to lie down. Blegh.
Hosting a clothing launch at an art gallery is an interesting concept, but in this case the chic Salon 91 in Kloof Street provided the perfect space for the launch of new international designer labels available from Label Online Boutique, in particular their range of cotton basics called Splendid which I had the opportunity to trial a few days ago (see my blog post below).
The clothes were amazing (I am in lust with the black Acne dress that owner Sarah Dickson was wearing – asymmetrical, minimalist, beautiful); the champagne flowed freely and shoppers included industry stalwarts and fashion editors from many of the major fashion brands and publications in the country. Ah, lovely!
