RIHANNA x KATE MOSS FOR V-MAGAZINE

Fashion and music's baddest girls hook up in this March 2013 V-Magazine shoot by Mario Testino. I cannot think of anything hotter right now. I love both these girls and I think V just made me love them a little bit more. It's just one of those sexy ass covers you just gotta have in your mag collection; something I have to restart since I had to give away all my mags when I left Jozi for Kaapstad. *sigh*

More pics and a video of Ri and Miss Moss over here

BEAUTIFUL BEYONCE

Bouncy is ticking all the right boxes with me lately. Her Grammys outfit was nothing short of stunning. She's showing, at every turn, that she's the reigning pop culture Queen (who signs a $50-million deal with Pepsi sans an album?) appearing in magazine covers the world over even before her new album drops. This cover, for Gentlewoman, I especially love. It just makes me smile. Simple and beautiful!

MY FAVOURITE COLOUR (RIGHT NOW) IS A BIG MENSWEAR TREND

LOUIS VUITTON

I've been asked several times what my favourite trends to emerge out of the world's fashion capitals- Milan, Paris, London and New York- this past fashion month were. I liked several. Roll-necks, statement knits and surprisingly shades-of-grey, which is a 'like' I did not see coming. My most favourite, however, is a colour that I wore a lot of in 2012 and would like to wear more come winter 2013- claret red. There's just something inherently elegant about the colour that I really, really enjoy!

BURBERRY

HERMES

LANVIN
PICS: GQ.COM
THESARTORIALIST.COM

SOLANGE x FADER MAGAZINE

FADER.COM

I was watching 'Girls' just now and Solange Knowles's "Losing You" was playing in the background in this particular episode. Couldn't help bopping my head. I always say this, but I am not tired so I'll say it again; I LOVE SOLANGE! The muuuuuccch cooler sister to Beyonce (I don't hate Beyonce, I love her, I just find her sister cooler) covers the latest issue of Fader Magazine. 

THE SEAPUNK AESTHETIC AND THE IDEA OF ORIGINALITY

PIC: DISCOUNTUNIVERSE.COM.AU

“THE LONGER WE'RE ONLINE THE MORE SUSCEPTIBLE ARTISTS ARE TO THE RICH POACHING OUR CULTURE AND IDEAS AS WELL IDEALS USED AS MARKETING PLOYS,” tweeted Zombelle, a blue-haired singer who describes herself as a seapunk. ‘What is a seapunk?’ I hear you say. Well, I doubt even those who practice seapunk have any clue what it is. It is supposedly a sub-culture, a movement, but one you are not invited to be a part of. Imagine Vivienne Westwood bitching about any designer who uses bondage as a theme for their collection.”I did it first, so I own it.”
 
At the end of last year Rihanna appeared on Saturday Night Live performing the lead single from her new album and in the background, as she belted out the lyrics to “Diamonds”, were visuals that looked like a Windows 95 screensaver- a 3D grid of yin yangs and diamond GIFs among other things. Katy Perry has been rocking a turquoise bob among other hair colours for the most part of 2012 and Azealia Banks rocks a horn-form, blue hairdo in her new video ‘Atlantis’. As I’ve come to expect from Azelia- who’s hype I’m still struggling to understand- she began accusing Rihanna of biting her seapunk net-aesthetic. Well, Zombelle would not spare either of them and the twittersphere went berserk with her and I presume her followers whining about ‘capitalists’- this being the likes of Rihanna and others who dare try sample Seapunk- biting their style.  

Um... Okay.
 
This net-aesthetic as well as “T-shirts plastered with pixilated sharks, raised neon glow-sticks, several mops of hair dyed blue and green”, as the New York Times once described it, pretty much sums up the seapunk style.
 
I agree with most that have sought to analyse this seapunk thing when they say it is a passing fad. It remains very much a thing for tumblr bloggers and, of course, for Zombelle, other so-called originators and their followers I suppose. With the pace of how trends come and go in this tumblr age, I wouldn’t be surprised if even those kids who are into seapunk are already looking for something else to remix and claim to have originated. It’s just the nature of the modern-day human being’s pea-sized attention span. In the same breathe, I must mention that these kids must fall back and stop claiming things that don’t belong to them! This bitching about people biting them is certainly annoying because if anyone’s style has been bitten with regards to seapunk it is Gwen Stefani’s.

 
The No Doubt singer rocked the horn-form, blue coloured hairstyle that Azealia Banks now rocks in her ‘Atlantis’ music video back in 1998 at the MTV VMAs and she appeared on several other red carpets rocking this kind of style. Perhaps Azealia Banks is too young to recall that the hairstyle she rocks in her video is the exact do Gwen wore that day. As for the badly rendered 3D visuals; I bet many 90’s video directors would want to stake their claim on that. Oh, and... the capital letters in the opening quote? Writing in caps is also, apparently, a seapunk thing.
 
I totally understand the yearning for novelty that could lead anyone to thinking they are the originators of a particular idea, but unfortunately living in an age where information overload is a reality I think we all have to admit that our ideas are borrowed from all that surrounds us. Gwen Stefani’s late 90s style is a clear indication of where these kids might have, perhaps without even realising it, taken inspiration for what they now want to claim as the seapunk aesthetic. If we look into history, I’m quite sure we could find a variety of sources that may have inspired the various elements that inspired Stefani to dress the way that she did. She, too, borrowed from somewhere. It’s just how trends evolve.
 
If you know anything about music this will perhaps not be new to you, but for the benefit of the rest let me just say that the kwaito music sound, for instance, as original as it felt when it first came out, was nothing more than a slowed down version of the house music tempo. The seapunk sound itself is a mish-mash of 90s R&B, southern rap, drum n’ base and elements of house. Again, we take inspiration from various sources. That’s how we build on things and take art, fashion, music and even technology forward.
 
This TED Talks video I recently watched demonstrates this idea of appropriation in a very insightful way. If you take a look at it you will actually be blown away by how the legendary Bob Dylan’s early compositions borrowed from previous artists, maybe without even realising that he was doing so. You will also be blown away, and probably find it as funny as I do, when you realise that the late great Steve Jobs of Apple Inc, who wanted to crush Android for ‘stealing’ from him was once a small fish who did not mind admitting to borrowing ideas from others.

BLACK MEN AND PUSHING STYLE BOUNDARIES

THE SMARTEEZ (PIC: ELLE DECO)

The Smarteez pushed the boundaries of black men's style. So did people like Siyabonga ‘Scoop’ Ngwekazi. These two examples stand out in terms of recent history, no? You don’t have to agree with me but I definitely see thousands of Scoop and Smarteez-wannabes all over the streets of Mzansi’s cities but the question I’ve always had in my mind is what it means to ‘push boundaries’. Does it mean inspiring a generation of black men to go above and beyond the styles of yesteryear- pantsula, m’rapper and the like- to come up with something distinct that cannot be necessarily boxed within the confined of the pantsula and m’rapper? Scoop did that, I think, so did the Smarteez but lately I am finding it hard to pin-point someone that I think is taking black style to new heights. I’m writing this post because I want to identify them, so why don’t we do this together? Who are the men, on whatever scale, that are pushing the boundaries of black style in South Africa? Tweet me @Sandiso_N or mail me at sandiso.ngubane@yahoo.com Let’s start having a conversation and, of course, let’s shine the spotlight on these men for the rest of us to find inspiration!

BEING RATCHET AT THE MET

So I went to my first ever J&B Met this past weekend and **ish got very ratchet. Well... Maybe i should say 'I got very ratchet'. What's the point of going out and not having fun? I had plenty. Besides the fact that I lost my iPhone, the third phone I have lost in a space of one month, my weekend was just boss! The pictures surely illustrate this. I had a great time at the Met! Just me, Zama and her s'cholo (which I loved) getting dyyyyooooowwwn, baby!

Pics: Malibongwe Tyilo