Pink Ant was another highlight from day 1 of Joburg Fashion Week.  I did a post on them a couple of weeks back Pink Ant’s Cult of Cute.

A while back I had a bit of a moan at Converse in SA (a brand I love by the way)

I don’t mind the global ad campaign thats being plastered everywhere including the blog - but isn’t it kind of missing some localisation? I mean these things are pretty much township hipster unifrom and adored by millions of cool kids that any other brand would kill to have as fans and yet this somehow isn’t coming across. Maybe Converse HQ should stop mailing out images of white skatekids for a change and come and shoot in South Africa - the local Converse kids are infinitely cooler.

It’s nice to see the blog now has local images that are a bit more representative of SA converse fans and a whole bunch of SA celebs on it (including Dion Chang, Marc Lottering, HHP and Arno Carstens). I’m not kidding myself that they went off and shot the campaign just because I bitched about it here of course…Also interesting to see how successful the Converse blog is: on amatomu it’s usually ranked in the top 20 South African blogs (pretty phenomenal). Converse is a great example of how fashion brands can be built online in South Africa.

I’ve mentioned Stiaan Louw on the blog a couple of times now and i’m looking forward to his Summer collection - particularly after his shift into menswear. Stiaan has just launched his own blog stiaanlouw.blogspot.com which he’s using to tease us with snippets about his collection for Virgin Mobile Cape Town Fashion Week. His summer collection Facebook page also gives us this preview of the collection:

‘THE TRIBE’

Stiaan Louw Menswear presents a collective ‘tribal’ experience for its Summer 2009 Collection.

Inspired by ‘tribes’ – how people choose to define themselves through their association with specific social, sexual and cultural subcultures – the collection will turn its attention to ‘the individual’. This will be coupled with their relation to inherent cultural heritage placed within the context of an interconnected global village (connected by social networks like facebook, myspace, youtube and online blogs).

Summer 2009 will see collaborations with strong individuals who have defined themselves through these means. Whether discovered online, in clubs or on the street, these personalities are a vital source of inspiration. Their presence can be felt in all aspect of the collection, from print design and construction in individual garments, to a ‘mixtape’ soundtrack, epitomizing the somewhat haphazard cultural referencing underlying the design process.

In many ways, the collection will be a study of the individual and their collective experiences, merging traditional ‘tribal’ references with bondage and fetishist sexual subculture – trends emerging from ‘tribes’in street and club culture and more sophisticated ‘ideals’. Overgrown shapes will play on reflective surfaces and a dayglo aesthetic coupled with contrasting matte and high-gloss finishes will juxtapose the body ideal.

(The photo is from his winter 08 collection)

Frans Kies presents his second fashion week collection and proves he’s a young designer to watch. I think he has a pretty good sense for which international trends the local market will go for: can definitely see the Cape Town fashion chicks wearing this collection. I also note the micro-short trend is still with us - we’re not bored of this yet then girls? Fair enough but a word of caution about 1% of the female population have the legs to pull it off. You don’t want to look back at photos of yourself in your twenties and bury your face in the nearest pillow repeating why? why? why? why?

Fran’s profile on the Joburg Fashion Week winter website (no profiles for summer was it something we said?) tells us:

Frans Kies commenced his Fashion Design studies at GFD Design Emporium and graduated from LISOF in 2007. He is also an accomplished graphic designer and art director with several years experience in branding, locally and internationally.

In 2006 he won the unanimous approval of the judges at the Gauteng semi-finals of the Vodacom Durban July Fashion Challenge, securing a prized berth in the final of the Challenge. Furthermore, he was nominated as a design finalist in the Miss Earth Pageant 2006.

In addition to showing his first collection at Audi Joburg Fashion week, he has been appointed at Guess Inc. in a full time position.

Joburg is apparently the twenty-first most fashionable city in the world (ahead of Cape Town, Miami, Barcelona, Rio and Mumbai) according to the Global Language Moniter survey. I wouldn’t get too excited by this survey as it measures how many times fashion is mentioned in relation to a city online so its like measuring who has the biggest mouth rather than actual style (surprise that Jozi does well on that…). Saying that checking out the front rows over at Robyn’s Style Guide Cape Town the jozi crowd are looking sharp. On the runway there are already some distinct trends: plenty of black, white and metallics (wasn’t that supposed to be winter?) mixed with ruffles, feathers and frou-frou ago-go-go. Basically if you look like a wild west show girl from the future on her prom night you’ll be terribly fashion forward this summer…

Pics are from Heni Este-Jijzen.

I spotted the Give-It-Bag at this year’s Design Indaba they look pretty cool and everytime you buy one you save the world a little bit. For more check out the post I did at PSFK: The Give-It-Bag on PSFK

What happens when fashionista clubs close down? They start a blog rather, check out New York club kids Misshapes and Richard Mortimer of Boombox in London’s new Ponystep.com blog.

Check out a profile on the Mail & Guardian of Alistair Allen a Durban born photographer now living in the UK and documenting the club scene on DirtyDirtyDancing.com. I could almost make the claim to fame that he’s taken my photo before but although he did take a pic of me at Boombox last time I was back in London he never used it… The pic above is from his site.

Gwen Gill writes a splendid, but dubiously titled blog, called The G Spot i’m voting her for a blog award next year!

If you haven’t visited Style Bubble yet shame on you as she is queen of the fashion bloggers. I also hang out at Paper Mag’s blog quite a bit these days as in alternative reality I run a sneaker boutique in downtown New York.

And my parents thought my generation (the rapidly greying MTV generation that is) had hopeless A.D.D. We supposedly have an attention span of about 3.5 minutes (that being the average length of time of a video on MTV). I’m rapidly becoming aware of the Twitter generation who have an attention span of 3.5 seconds (if that) before requiring further stimulation and are multitasking constantly (who do you think came up with the tabs on new internet browsers?) You can see the results particularly in the fashion world where the old spring/summer and autumn/winter seasons are dying off rapidly. Think the Twitter kids are going to wait around a whole six months for the next bunch of trends? With catwalk trends just a google away and fast fashion companies poised at the ready to take them onto the high street, the kids hardly need to wait for the next season to come round after fashion week. I would also point to the celeb collections rolled out by the likes of H&M, Topshop and New Look in the UK which are ridiculously popular and then over in nanoseconds.

Check out Speed in fashion equals information and A Seasonless Era Approaches for more on this.

Like that middle eastern scarf even Markham now sells… the neckerchief has been threatening to become a global street trend for a while now. It’s been spotted lurking at London Fashion Week for a year or two apparently and has been picked up by global fashionistas from Brazil to uh South Africa (pic above from Be Kind Collective). As further proof you just  know its a trend when someone writes a blog dedicated to it check out neckercheifvalhalla.blogspot.com. As the site rightly points out (see below borrowed from their blog) they kind of look better on girls than guys (unless your a cowboy perhaps). Be careful with this one people.

Facebook is so handy, when i’m a bit stuck for a story  I just wander off into it and something will pop up. What popped up this morning was the Be Kind Collective. They are a loose amalgamation of creatives herded together by Romy Van Tonder and Waldo Binneman. Still quite new as they only formed in early 2008 (according to their profile) they’ve managed to knock out a collection under the Dead Adorable label. Taking rockabilly as a starting point the collection mixes up the more obvious (but still splendid) polka dot 50s frocks with streetwear favourites (polka dot hoodies/graphic tees etc). Imagine this is what Dita Von Teese would wear on her day off. I’ve always admired the rockabilly look from a distance myself - i’m just incapable of pulling off that James Dean slickness off sadly being genetically scruffy.

These are their words (i apologise on their behalf for the use of the “rad” word):

Be-Kind Collective is still in the process of collecting… so if you have some rad ideas or concepts feel free to get in touch, collaborating is something we stand by.
Collaborating is the new black.

Be-Kind Collective started earlier in 2008 because of the lack of good fashion as clichéd as it sounds its true, we are the alternative, also to give likeminded creative individuals to opportunity to collaborate.
We have joined forces of over 10 years experience in Fashion Design and national and international Retail.

Be-Kind Collective is backed by a Concrete force of manufacturing experience stretching over more than 2 decades, and of course the natural instinct to make everyone look pretty and just to be awesome.

Be-Kind Collective is Art.Fashion.Culture.
a Collective consciousness of brands inspired by simplicity, style, and comfort influenced by the everlasting eminence of Rock n Roll and the electric vibe of New Skool.

So far we concist of two labels:

1. Dead Adorable

This is our baby, designed to sell through commercial channels… we decided not to, we only stock independent retailers. This collection is to unique and completely to true to itself to be sold commercially, so are we.
Pure to the 1950’s as Rockabilly itself, reincarnating the love of summer and Rockabilly-swing with the odd touch of 20th century and rock n roll vibes, bridging the old skool with the new, with a contemporary touch for everyday wear.

2.Vent en Vlinder

Is ons Afrikaanse label, dit is net ons wat waar bly aan ons self as Afrikaanse kids. V&V is n sofistiese Rock n Roll label met n respek vir klasieke shapes en suiwer oorspronklike ontwerpe.

For stockists, or if you want to stock our stuff or if you are intrested in buying it just for yourself please contact us via email.

romy@bekindcollective.co.za
waldo@bekindcollective.co.za