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.
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…
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.
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.
x J
Plain Old Glasses 