The media in my mind has potential to do and share so much good. It could inspire, motivate and help grow a world a positivity…
But instead it tends to be devoted to stereotypes which play on our weaknesses and manipulate our society into one of commercialism and exclusion.
When I was younger I was shy and I hid my ambitions and abilities beneath my cloak of self-consciousness and I believed myself to be inadequate because I did not feel comfortable in my exterior.
This is because in the media, whether it be film, social media or advertisement women are presented in specific forms and the general movement is one which glorifies women’s abilities based on their beauty and body image and this is only really applicable in specific categories. The media has blown up this idea of beauty being defined in a specific way completely out of proportion to the extent where we judge each-other and ourselves based on how we fit into the entrenched socialised norm.
I was never this girl. I never could be her. Because of this, I went through very long periods of self-doubt and anger because I believe myself inadequate. I was so manipulate by society needing me to conform to that I didn’t think that I had any chance of being described as beautiful and that my body image was inadequate and therefore so was my entire being.
It has been a long journey to try rebuild my belief in myself and although I have had much success and now have some confidence in what I have to say it is a continuous battle for me. Every time I look into the mirror I have to rediscover my beauty because deep inside of me is an ingrained fear of not fitting in.
However, as I said, I have grown and I’ve learnt a lot and I have met many young women who believe in themselves and it’s their confidence which multiplies their natural beauty exponentially and I hope, as someone now on a media platform, that instead of focussing our techniques on empowering some based only on specific outward attributes we should rather aim to be inclusive and inspiring of all people.
My friend, Fifi (allzuri.blogspot.com), and I are entirely different. We both love fashion but even within that love we have different tastes and different aesthetic identities. We also have different body shapes…
It is rare that we wear anything which is the same but the new suede-type skirt which has re-entered street style is so cool that we both ended up buying the first one we saw… Oops.
But it didn’t matter. The nature of the skirt is so incredible that it flatters basically every body shape and it’s so legitimately awesome that it gives an instant confidence boost.
Photo taken by Carl Jacobs – carljacobsza.tumblr.com
As you can clearly see… we wore it differently.
Photo taken by Jemma Richmond (me)
Fifi went for a contrasting grunge look, combining the skirt with chunky black accessories and a monochromatic polar neck that was the perfect shade to compliment the skirt. The look was cool and edgy and she pulled it off effortlessly (and from experience fashion is rarely without effort). She worked with her slim figure by belting the skirt emphasising her waist and the leather jacket contrasted with the look and gave her that I-could-be-a-rocker-if-I-chose-to look.
On my side, I went for a completely different take, opting for a lighter, casual look. I paired it with a fun printed T, one of my Friends shirts which always gets thumbs up from everyone including strangers without fail, and an over-sized wool cardigan. I also went preppy with old soviets and clean white socks (my school socks never looked better). My waist is something I usually show off as it is the smallest part of my body but I am trying to grow confidence in the rest of my body and I actually prefer to wear the skirt lower, towards my hips.
Photo taken by Refiloe Mokgele – allzuri.blogspot.com
I think it is important to note that neither of us was trying to manipulate our looks and our bodies to fit a certain ideal. We could wear chunky jackets and experiment with our looks because being an individual and partaking in the art of fashion is more important than trying to conform.
To me it was almost as if we had not tried to ‘twin’ it but rather were wearing entirely unique skirts because our styles are so diverse and the way the skirt worked with our bodies was also different.
I must admit, however, that it was difficult for me going through the photos and I was tempted to fall back onto my old habits of believing skinnier-is-better and comparing my form to Fifi’s.
Every time my mind wondered to the path of doubt and misconception I would consciously have to remind myself of my own beauty and disregard the negative thoughts and comparisons.
As a blogger selfconfidence is not always as easy as it may appear. I have to filter through photos of myself all the time and asses the image quality and it is extremely difficult not to get demoralized and I often end up being overwhelmed by my flaws rather than focusing on my attributes. I often have to leave the photos for a bit and try to re-evaluate them later with fresh positive eyes.
I think it is important to remember that as women and in fact as people we are very different. We look, think and act in beautiful and individual ways but that doesn’t mean we have to feel the need to conform and think that we in any way have limitations. Neither Fifi nor I had to stop ourselves from buying that skirt. We liked it so we got it. It wasn’t about how others may judge our body shape in the item it was about us and our taste.
Photo taken by Jemma Richmond (me)
Photo taken by Refiloe Mokgele – allzuri.blogspot.com
Photo taken by Jemma Richmond (me)
Photo taken by Refiloe Mokgele – allzuri.blogspot.com
Photo taken by Jemma Richmond (me)
Photo taken by Refiloe Mokgele – allzuri.blogspot.com
If I can give advice to anybody battling with their self-image it’s that you need to stop worrying about other people and comparing yourself. Trust me I know this is difficult and it is something which has been so normalised that going against it actually requires courage but if you can build confidence in yourself nothing else matters.
Be brave, be confident and tell yourself that you are beautiful every single day.
x J
PS. I still haven’t quite got this right but I am trying…
…Also please note that this super cool location is the old abandoned zoo next to UCT.
I have never wished to be a boy and I like who I am and what I am but I do find that I get treated differently and I don’t get treated at the standard that I would like to be which is increasingly frustrating.
Women’s Day (9 August) in South Africa exists to commemorate an event in our history where women stood together despite differences like race or religion and displayed strength and bravery. We are supposed to look back and learn, appreciate and try and utilise the characteristics that those women stood for. Sadly I don’t believe that this is really achieved at all. Women’s day for me was about a failing ANC Women’s league and a distasteful and rude stationary advert which symbolised the lack of forward progress towards equality.
#HappyWomensDay compliments of Bic PensTo start with the latter… This was an advertisement by the company Bic, a blue pen staple, who, on Women’s Day, decided to put out a special message just for us. It read: “Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man and work like a boss”
Um hello? I would like to know who was the idiot in charge who authorised it? There is no way to view this where it is not insensitive, infuriating and rude. I am not surprised that somebody came up with this what I am surprised at is that they thought it would be okay to publish this and that the appropriate moment was Women’s day.
I am angry. I am furious in fact and I am battling to come up with an eloquent way to call them sexist pigs.
This proved to me that we haven’t made much progress. Every day I fight to have words like “cunt” and “pussy” taken out of people’s vocabularies as an adequate way to degrade someone. Calling someone a vagina to make them feel insignificant is not appropriate. And because adolescent teenage boys are so self-absorbed that they couldn’t care less about how there selfish use of language could be adding to a socially accepted way to entrench the dismissal of women, I am constantly hitting a brick wall. Despite this I had faith that the more grown up version of society at least kept their ill-use of words to themselves but Bic showed to the entire world that this is not true and left much of equality-aware society reeling with shock.
The other issues is that of the ANC Women’s League. Now much like the Youth League they rarely come into much focus despite the desperate need for them and the very many problems surrounding their specific group of people.
This organisation is a subcategory to the current leadership of our land and is intended to represent the issues specific to women and try and draw attention to gender equality within the decisions made by our government. Now on a whole this group doesn’t really do much. Occasionally they get involved but it is rare that the general public sees any kind of representation or results.
It is very difficult to make a comment on this because of the complex political association and for the most part this isn’t really comment about the ANC. Women are one of the groups of society which are not yet at a level of equality to their counterparts and so in decisions made by whatever group in any part of society their needs to be a consideration of the effect this will have on gender rights now the ANC women’s league is supposed to be representing us in government.
On Women’s Day for the first time in months the general public were exposed to the organisation and this was in celebration of women and the only thing that really come out of it was the idea that maybe South Africa could have a female president for the next round. I felt like I couldn’t really celebrate anything because in the last year, in fact the last couple of years we still haven’t made much progress in gender equality in this country (hence Bic’s ability to publish such an incredible failure of an advertisement) and so I felt the celebrations were sort of self-congratulatory and unreasonable and put a damper on the day for me because it simply emphasised the lack of achievements we’ve made recently in the struggle to uplift our gender. Although without looking at the general politics of it, it is about time that South Africa got a female president from whatever party.
On a more personal level women’s day did allow me to appreciate the strength that some women manage to show despite adversaries and a lack of encouragement but it also made me sad that even in my own degree there still is such a low inspiration for young women in this arena that we still only manage to make up a quarter of our classes.
I want to not acknowledge myself as a woman but as a person and I don’t want the fact that I am female to define the choices people make in viewing me or dealing with me. However this is an idealistic view and I cannot live in this society and expect it to come true on its own without dealing with it.
And so I will claim my gender (or sex depending on how you define the words) and I will claim my right to being treated equally to my counterparts.
But why would I place such an issue alongside a fashion post? The connection may not be an obvious one but to me it is crucial. Fashion has for many years been a fundamental part of the so called female-culture and it is linked to much of the dismissal and issues associated with our struggle. Religious control is maintained by female dress code, media created body image is entrenched by clothing, even rape is excused based on women’s outfits. And yes I will not deny that male stereotypes are effected by outer dress as well but I do not believe it is executed to the same degree.
Fashion has formed a part of ever leap of empowerment that women have made. With freedom came pants, short skirts and bikini bottoms and today they may seem trivial in some cultures although in others with more entrenched gender inequality we still note women whose freedoms are even dictated in there dress sense.
For me clothing has never acted as a way to fit in with the commercialized norm but has rather been a tool for me to fight stereotype and express myself physically.
Fashion, like most art forms, can be utilized on the path to revolution. At the moment fashion is being abused as a way for women to be shoved into stereotypical roles and their supposed freedoms abused. Whereas I’d like to inspire a generation (of men and women) who use their clothing to express rather than conform and to break gender defined roles.
When I cut my hair I got questioned, dismissed, and left out. My decision was not accepted or liked and most girls and guys did not appreciate what I was doing. To my peers it was strange and required bravery and stupidity but why is this so? My male friends are going through stages of growing their hair which they now have the freedom to take control of (something I believe they should have had in school too). But, if they one day decide they are bored and cut it off to what is considered the standard, no body bats an eye or cares. It’s there decision and their haircut doesn’t seem to have the magically Rapunzel like properties that ours does (this might be because princess stories -also deeply sexist- weren’t a major focus of their childhoods).
Girls should be allowed to make decisions about their looks without being judged. Currently we tend to make fashion choices based on the dictation of society, a male run society, but I yearn for the day when we can choose to wear whatever we want and it not be questioned. Where you can wear a short skirt because you feel good in it and not have your motives interrogated or your body judged.
In this particular look I am wearing an old trench coat, new MRP Shoes (which have been declared to me as guys styled shoes but I don’t think any style should belong to a specific gender), my favourite pair of TopShop Mom jeans and my usual sweater-and-collar look.
I probably drink to much coffee on a regular basis
Now many aspects of this look could be described as boy-ish or masculine which I have two issues with. This first is that I genuinely believe that a choice in clothing should not have to be defined by gender. What do your sexual organs have to do with your clothing? And secondly the description of something as being that of a gender which is not your own is often intended to be off-putting and derogatory. Boys tend to not like be called feminine and girls tend to not like being called masculine. I wish for a society in which we do not fear being associate with another gender. Gender should not define our thoughts about ourselves or others.
There are plenty of colours in the world other than Pink and Blue.
“All through life there were distinctions – toilets for meb, toilets for women; clothes for men, clothes for women – then, at the end, the graves are identical.” – Leila Aboulela in Minaret
All photos on Middle Campus of The University of Cape Town by Refiloe Mokgele from allzuri.blogspot.com
I have been enthralled by the artistic expression that fashion has to offer for quite a few years now and I have spent a lot of time trying to develop an individualist style and learning to understand the role that fashion can play in one’s life but to be completely honest I have been relatively selfish in my fashion adventure. I haven’t really tried to branch out and actually interact with the world of design and blogging and I certainly haven’t grasped the role that the industry has in South Africa and Africa. I am quite frankly very ignorant about this world especially in its grander parts.
On Thursday the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Cape Town officially started and being young fashion-enthusiast myself and two friends declined the call to work on integration and derivation and rather, clad in student-budget class, we joined in with the bloggers and designers, celebrities and politicians to marvel at the art of fashion.
Trying to find an outfit was difficult. I am still relatively new to this and don’t quite own enough statement pieces to safely have an outfit on standby for such an event so I had to do some creative thinking. I wanted to stand out but still form a part of the style contingency that would be there. I decided to go with classic shapes but do something drastic with clashing patterns. It seemed perfect considering that complementing and contradicting within style is probably one of the most notable elements of my aesthetic. I wanted a neutral base to work on hence classic black pencil skirt and stockings (as Cape Town is currently very cold), chunky black heals and my oversized black coat. To this I added –now brace yourself – a purple plaid collared shirt, a red plaid sleeveless cardigan and a blue almost tropical scarf. Now this was crazy and the colours were everywhere but by some miracle it actually looked cool.
When the whole belted scarf trend first came around I didn’t really like it and I swore I would never take part but like most of my hypocritical declarations, I saw the light and decided to try it out for the first time last night and… I actually don’t think it’s too bad. For regular day to day fashion I wouldn’t wear as many layers but for this event it was adequate and the belt acted to mould all the chaos back together.
Also I have been trying out new hairstyles and so have dipped into the middle parting arena and I actually like it despite the fact my hair was not cut for this but I think the slightly lob-sided look is quite edgy and different and suits me.
My compatriots and I formed a killer trio with Fifi transforming her patterned dress into a super cool long top (a trend which has recently grabbed my attention and which challenges the traditional pant-shirt silhouette) with black cigarette trousers, an edgy leather jacket and chunky boots and Tshiamo wearing a statement patterned dress with an oversized coat and the most incredible heels. They are pointed and chunky. This is the combination of two of my favourite classic shoe trends. I never thought the world would be so great as to combine them into one amazing pair.
But I do have to admit that even though we pulled out the stops as best we could we still fell a little short and ended up chilling on the edges. The standard was incredible and the mixture of patterns and shapes was unbelievable but it certainly acted as a great inspiration for next time.
We went to two shows which were both vastly different and the experience was inspiring.
The first show was by Marianne Fassler. Now despite my lack of fashion education even I have heard this name. She is a rather wacky looking old women with bright red dreadlocks and the ability to make beautiful clothes. As far as fashion in the South African version of the industry goes Fassler holds quite a sturdy position in it and its history. She has been working in and around fashion for over 30 years and has managed to develop a distinct style while being clearly inspired by the bright and diverse cultures that she is surrounded with. Her clothes are aimed at real woman who are interesting and quirky and one can certainly empathise with this when seeing her items. They involve a large complexity of shapes, colours and textures all of which could relate to a woman of this kind.
The show itself was disappointing. The energy of the music and the models didn’t match up to the brightness and variety of the clothes themselves and I felt like this let the designs down. When shuffling through photographs afterwards I made new assessments and noted beauty in them that I had overlooked previously because at the time the atmosphere of life and this chaotic vibrancy that seems to accompany anything Fassler does was dulled down completely in the actual show and I personally felt like I couldn’t really make a connection with the pieces.
This does not mean that I deny their beauty. They were beautiful items and although some could have possibly been removed to refine the show the individual artistry that developed in each outfit was incredible. Fassler managed to elegantly bring together modern trends like mesh and leather with her traditional style of brightly coloured South African inspired patterns.
This look (like me) classes patterns. I like that it puts traditional patterns on a more modern shape.
I like this looks playful child like shape yet it’s neon colours and mesh materials changes the dimension of the look
The layered materials here are very interesting while the t-shirt style sticks to the common trend
The next show was one called Habits. This comes from a Cape Town based company run by Jenny Le Roux. She started up Habits, the store, in 1989 as a place where she could create garments that she enjoyed and it has grown ever since. Prior to this, her mark on the industry was as long time editor of the Fairlady and this seems to have given her an acute awareness of the development of fashion. The companies slogan states “mostly made in Cape Town” which is testimony for how hard Le Roux and her team strive to support the local industry. I can really appreciate this as although there may not be as much experience here the inclusion of more South African can be very influential for the future of the industry and will only help it grow.
We had not planned on going to this show and so we had no expectations and even now I am stilling stunned by the experience. The clothes were spectacular but there was also a focus on the show itself and a dramatization of the progression of the fashion and this had an incredible effect on how it ran as an entity. The show started with a montage of photos and clips on the inspiration Le Roux had had and this helped set a foundation for the clothes themselves.
Then it started…
It sort of reminds me of Red-Riding HoodThe first model was showed in a cocoon-type blanket and appeared through mist and almost equivocal music and this gave a very illusory effect and increased suspense. She then glamorously unwrapped herself in a sort of personification of the start of the show and the covering turned into a beautiful Japanese inspired cloak which then lead into a snippet of beautifully crafted and elegant items all of a similar theme. There were large, full skirts, beautiful coats and these grandiose
OH MY GOSH I LOVE THIS SOOOOOO MUCH. SOB SOBpyjama-suits which are now etched into my collage of fashion dreams. I can just picture myself walking into an event and turning-heads in the extravagant design. Ahhh I WANT IT NOW!
But just as we, the audience, adjusted to the pieces everything changed. With a switch of music and a fluctuation in the light complexity a new set of works with a completely different atmosphere came out. For the next larger part of the show we saw a range of light-wearable items with a ‘beachy’ feel to them. These were cool, mono-toned clothes which moved effortlessly and were accessorised with large chunky beads, contrasting colours and oversized bags. This may seem like a common theme for a show and although this section of clothes was the most ordinary part an up-beat atmosphere was maintained and the show utilised a clever pattern of colours to keep us entertained. These clothes were beautifully made and very practical, accessible and on trend and it was nice to see the versatility that a fashion designer can have.
It has a collar = I like it
Think Blue
Orange
After this we entered a section categorised by its colour, white, which came with a light harmonious and very eerie tone. Again (to keep things interesting) it had its own mini-induction. This had four “milk maids”. The girls came out together in similar soft outfits to the previous models but they were all white and had the typical milk maid hair cap on. They were very juxtaposition to the previous works and certainly evoked a curiosity in the crowd. They were followed by an entourage of white garments which increased in lavishness as they went on. Starting with simple looks and ending on a look that resembled a traditional wedding dress. Now for me this was the one look I didn’t really like as it was very a classic shape but I do think that it was used in part to again add to the essence of the show. Now we moved through from a maid to a bride and these represent some very well-known domestic roles woman should ‘supposedly’ take. This was then broken by a cheeky song by notorious fashion-rule-breaker Lady Gaga called The Lady is a Tramp and the looks accompanying it were dark colours which very obviously contrasted with the white but the styles themselves added a similar contradiction. Where the previous items had been elegant and pretty and symbolic of the purity which is associated with white, the new set of looks were edgy and dramatic and almost controversial.
The looks were all still beautiful with amazing shapes and materials and I have been returning to look at them the whole day simply to admire the genuine allure and charm of the pieces. The material was distinctly apt for the looks and fell so naturally into these incredible shapes and I think this set of looks showed off the true art of fashion.
But the looks were more than this. They encapsulated a rebellion against tradition and the sexist regimes which try and control women and their fashion. The looks were incredible but there was no hiding in them. They honoured the elegance of a woman’s body and utilised sheer and lace materials, making looks that were almost completely transparent but this didn’t look crass and instead of leaving me uncomfortable, I was left in awe.
It bought to mind the recent campaign, Free the Nipple, to allow full female breasts onto specific social medias because currently there are no restrictions on men but women still have to cover up. Now sure we have been taught the societal convention that our nudity is different from that of a man and we need to be hidden even more and have ‘discretion’ and so forth. WHY??? I don’t know or understand the logic behind this and although there might be some abuse if it does become a reality, I do still believe that we should not have to be ashamed of or have to hide our bodies, namely our breasts, and the looks that Le Roux put on the runway certainly were not obeying these so called normalities and it was a beautiful thing to see not a horrific one. They inspired personal bravery and belief for woman rather than dismissing us and our bodies.\
This combined with Lady Gaga song which in itself has a deeper meaning about defying stereotypes on women, had an amazing effect and I sat wishing that the show would never end. I felt inspired and revitalised and pretty damn impressed that this all came from fashion.
When Le Roux came out I applauded as loud as I could because she had from those inspirations in fashion history that she had shown us in the beginning grown this enticing and fascinating show that condensed ideas of art and growth and feminism and courage and so forth all into one continuous, clean well-structured show and I am so thankful that I got to see it.
I am definitely going to try and improve my knowledge on fashion like this because it has the most amazing potential in influencing society to some form of greater change.
Check out allzuri.blogspot.com to see what Fifi has to add about our day at the runway.
Lately I have been increasingly frustrated with the injustices of the world around me and the forceful yet common sexism which hits me everyday and yet every time I try and put my ideas and experiences into words… they fail me.
And isn’t that expected.
How can one describe such a complex and massive issue, that controls every moment of our lives as woman, into a few paragraphs. I don’t think there is anything that exists verbal or physical that can adequately depict the problem that we face everyday.
However, while saying this, I do continue on my journey to try clarify and verbalize the problems I see in a approachable manner but this continues to be a slow process and I am angry now. I am angry and I don’t know what to do.
But I have always believed that flinging your emotional passions into various forms of art has to be productive in some manner so I ventured into the world of stream of consciousness and wrote a poem about how I am feeling.
The whole point is that it remains unedited so please keep in mind that the emotion is more important than the poetic devices. I am no Ingrid Jonker but I have tried my best. Here is a taste of angry-Jemma thrown at poetry (Please let me know what you think).
YOU
Everything
Everything that I want to be
Is dictated, told, created, informed, wanted
By you
Everything I am was decided by you and I cannot be anything and I cannot be nothing without it being your decision
And yet you wave it away
You tell me that I am free and I believe you
But it’s a lie
Because that freedom is still made by you
Not by me
And you don’t get itI scream and I shout and I cry and I pour my words out but they feel so useless
You say you understand
You say ‘you’re different
But you still don’t get it
You still don’t see
And I feel so alone in my quest-
You have each other, this big unquestionable force
‘Awe bru’
And my sisters?
My support?
You got them first and I’m pulling at the knots of their blindfolds but I don’t think I’m strong enough to get them off…
Not yet
I feel so angry, so frustrated, so lost
Don’t you see,
I can’t discover, I cannot create, the smallest parts of my identity still belong to you and so it becomes impossible for me as me to make an impact on the world
Plain Old Glasses 