South African Fashion Week A/W 2015 - Day 3

A very, very deep poem about fashion week:

 Last night I put flowers in my hair and pretended I was so punk rock,

My eyebrows were purple and my lips black,

Got dirty soap water all up in each and every loc,

A week of bad luck and it's hurting my back.

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South African Fashion Week A/W 2015 - Day 2

For some reason, SA Fashion Week won't let me flourish like the faux-bleu eyebrow sporting, based god of turnt down I, oh, so want to be.

Last year, I couldn't find an outfit, was running thirty minutes late and rolled up to the Crowne Plaza Rosebank, trying to pretend that my sweatpants-crop-top-and-platforms combination was a conscious sartorial decision and not a time pressed choice heavily influenced by my dad shouting at me to move it (my African Time oriented ass) or lose it (my ride). And then halfway to Rosebank, I realised I hadn't collected my ticket and not a single Checkers/Shoprite in the entire country seemed to be open. 

To top it off, that was the moment my deoderant decided to find itself away from my armpits as it usually does whenever I'm incredibly stressed.

I blamed the bad mojo on my over-enthusiasm and lack of foresight so this year I had deep thinks all this week about what I would wear, what I would do, who I wanted to meet and which shows I wanted to see. Not that this mattered, of course, because (what might soon be) the curse of SAFW struck again and I got home from school at five o'clock and bullshitted my way through an outfit choice and tried to compensate with blue eyebrows and frilly socks. 

This time, however, I did remember to get my tickets printed only to arrive to the Crowne Plaza to find that all the shows had been delayed due to the Armageddon dust storm forming from Hell (well, Bloomfontein - same thing though). I dabbled in optimism, however, and thought of the extra time as a chance to socialise, take pretty photos and have a fabulous night. My 2% iPhone battery and almost full SD card, however, were not on the same page. To top it all of, all the shows had been cancelled and moved to Sunday night. 

That just goes to show - foresight, planning and organisation mean nothing in the real world, kids. Also, if you skip your 11:11 wishes for a whole week, it will come back to bite you.

 My lace crop top - which ended up appearing a lot more see-through than I had thought - is from H&M, my 'Baddie K' necklace from Accessorize, my skirt from Mr Price, socks from C&A and Mr Price and studded creepers from a little shoe store in Osmonbey, Istanbul that I think is closing down soon (it's also the spot I got my blue suede creepers last year).

 The  real MVP, Foyin, doing her thing as media and grabbing some cool street style. She's been on a really great wave of progress and success which has been so lovely to observe. Khensani, my woman-crush everyday and namesake, from Oh Kenzo, was also there but my SD card and had-it-up-to-here-ness was already full by the time she arrive.

I also met these lovely babes right before my camera bailed on me and they reminded me so much of myself and my girls last year at Fashion Week. Especially the wary enthusiasm they approached everything and everyone with. My heart grew bigger than the Grinch's when I asked them about what they did, as in school and stuff, and they both side-eyed, considering whether to pretend they were in university or admit they were in high school. They were a lot smarter than I was last year in that they told the truth.

And now to drift into school tomorrow morning with some tinted reading glasses and a cup of green tea, pretending to have had a wild, wild night of hemlines and sparkling flutes. Hopefully the spirits grant me some mercy tomorrow night when I tackle Rosebank again for Day 3 of SAFW.

xx

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Twenty Journey with Sipho Mpongo & Second Birthdays

Not too long ago, The Girl, Zipho, did a beautiful photo set with Cape Town photographer Sipho Mpongo and I've been itching to not only work with someone as talented as that but also make cool artist friends like that. Somehow Zipho sensed my feverant scratching and reached out to me on Facebook and not only was I going to meet and make cool artist friends like Sipho but I was going meet Sipho!

As is the great tradition of cool artist people, Sipho is currently in the middle of completing a really inspired project: Twenty Journey. Working with two other photographers, Wikus De Wet and Sean Metelerkamp, they're travelling all over the country, documenting 2014 South Africa - arguably its most exciting time what with this year marking 20 years of (perhaps clumsy) democracy, the death of Nelson Mandela and the presidential elections. (read more about it here).

Also, it came to my attention that my blog turned two on the second so I made some gifs of all the outfits I've paraded in 2012 through 2013. Going through my old posts made me want to shrink into fetal position and question why, whyyyy was I ever like that but at the same time I'm quite happy with how much and grown and changed since I first began this here internet space.