FASHION'S FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH: MBFWCT 2014 HIGHLIGHTS

Re-imagined Amish headgear at Loin, Cloth & Ashes

It's always exciting to see young people coming into the fashion scene and shaking things up a little bit. That's what I think happened at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Cape Town this past weekend. The younger designers, for me, did much better than a lot of the established names, who are quite frankly just wasting everyone's time with their same ol', same ol'. Get a stall at Neighbourgoods or something, just don't come to fashion week to show us what you showed us last year and the year before and the year before that and the season before that and... you get the idea. 

Loin Cloth & Ashes

Anisa Mpungwe of Loin Cloth & Ashes is not so emerging anymore but one can't help putting her on this list because if it is going to be called Fashion's Fountain of Youth, her work fits the description perfectly because youth is what her collections inject into the often very tired scenes that one often has to endure day-in and day-out as fashion week rolls out. Everyone knows: LCA always brings it and this year was no different! Her Afro-Amish collection brought together the simplicity of the Amish dress code with the diversity of urban African youth culture giving a fresh spin to flirty summer dressing and switching up the print game we've come to know as her signature.

Nicholas Coutts 

I was most impressed with Nicholas Coutts fashion week debut where the ELLE Rising Star winner came out guns blazing with bold colours, structure and beautiful textures. His collection stood out the most out of all the AFI Next Generation designers, in my opinion, even though- I have to say- the rest also stood their ground. I think the standard in this emerging talent segment keeps on rising and that's exactly what one wants to see. If I may add, I think it is great that Ernest Mahomane, who was part of the New Generation line-up, was retained after showcasing last year because I think the more we get familiar with the younger designers and not rush through them like we are on some sort of assembly line, the better. It's best for the industry if we get more familiar with the emerging designers while gradually introducing new designers instead of replacing the entire group every single year. What that has shown us in the past is that people generally fall away into obscurity in the sea of other little known designers. How's a bitch meant to breath when he be out here getting choked up?
Of course these designers are not perfect (show me anyone who is emerging whose collection is entirely perfect) but they definitely show great promise and that is worth applauding!

Lara Klawikowski

I also liked Lara Klawikowski as I usually do. I love her in-tucking technique and how she used fabric to reflect the concept of a flower growing in ice, the theme she told me she was exploring with this particular collection.  
Speaking of the fountain of youth and in spite of the fact that she is no longer a youth, I think Marianne Fassler's collection was one of the most fun to watch. It was easy, full of optimism and was one hundred percent the best way to open this fashion week. The clever clashing of prints and the Afro-urban aesthetic, as I told the designer after the show, reminded me of Durban. 

Marianne Fassler

It seems I wasn't too far off the mark because she said it was a lot about taking this Afro-urban aesthetic to the beach. I just had to mention that in this post even though it is about the younger people I think the spirit of Fassler's collection warrants a mention!

Images: Simon Deiner/SDR photo

KILO KISH x MAISON KITSUNE

I discovered Kilo Kish on Soundcloud a few weeks ago, as one does, and I've been listening to some of her music every now and again. Because I'm a sucker for indie music I've gone and Googled her only to find this shoot she's done with French fashion/record label Maison Kitsune.

So, as I often do, thought I'd share her music alongside this lookbook, which I like. Sorry Tom Burke, but this ain't about you right now. #bye

Here's her "Homeschool" EP.

More Maison Kitsune pictures below.

A VERY SKATTIE CELEBRATION

A bit of a delayed post on my part, but fuck it...

Last week Thursday, Malibongwe and I hosted the first of what will be a series of parties-cum-exhibition celebrating emerging South African creative talent. The first, as you probably heard, was Unathi Mkonto, an illustrator based in Cape Town. Unathi has been illustrating privately for years and while we were busy working on the second Skattie Magazine edition, we thought it would be great to take a new spin on how art and creativity are celebrated.

The result was an amazing party held at Blank Projects in Woodstock in association with Art South Africa Magazine. Spier Wine Farm, BOS Tea and Bombay Sapphire were gracious enough to sponsor some drinks for our guests and the support shown by the creative community here in Cape Town was just nothing short of amazing! A friend of ours, Zandi Tisane, pointed out that what this event, and the accompanying downloadable zine which is all about Unathi and his work, did for her was to remind her that it's not "our culture that is boring but the way we engage with it". I could never have said it any better, because it's true and for Mali and I it was very exciting to learn that there is indeed space for us to contribute positively to the creative landscape which I think is bursting with talent that is often overlooked or not given any space entirely. We look forward to hosting the next party/exhibition and exposing talent that we are excited about.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to come jam and sip with us. We look forward to hosting all of you and, hopefully, many more people again. Please visit Skattie What Are You Wearing to see the pictures from the party and keep your ears to the ground for future events... Coming sooner than you probably expect! Please click on the banner above to download your free copy of the zine.

WHAT DOES COMING OUT "THE CLOSET" MEAN ANYWAY?

SINGER SAM SMITH
IMAGE: VIA ROLLINGSTONE.COM

How to alienate friends you thought were otherwise okay with the fact that you’re gay? Talk about gay sex, of course! Well, okay, maybe “alienate” is a bit of an exaggeration but, yes, people find it to be a cringe worthy subject. Even some of the biggest and self-proclaimed so-called fag hags are not quite comfortable with the subject of what it is their bent friends do between the sheets.

Let’s be honest: try as we might to make it seems as if we are accepting of homosexuality- yes, that word that makes me feel like I’m somewhat deformed- the truth is that most people really just don’t want to engage with the subject but act as if it’s all good! What better way is there of ignoring something than to act as if it doesn’t exist anyway?

I don’t know how I feel about this kind of approach but it feels like a little bit of a cop out to me. You know, it feels a little like ignoring a problem in the hope that it will go away. Earth to you; the gays are here, they've always been here and they are not about to go away!

Anyway. I’m thinking about this in the light of what is perhaps a new wave of gay celebrities who really just don’t give a toss what it is the airheads and Jesus lovers have to say about sexuality. These celebrities are gay and that’s that! They don’t rub it in nobody’s face but they don’t hide it either. They are simply living their lives in the same way that anyone would want to live their lives- freely! While the media will often mislead you into thinking these people “came out” of the closet, the truth is that if you follow the stories of how these celebrities “came out” it really isn’t a “coming out” at all. It is simply an individual talking about who or what they are attracted to. Think Sam Smith who allegedly “came out” by stating that his album In the Lonely Hour was the result of a dude’s unrequited love. Think Nakhane Toure who sings about his Christopher without batting an eyelid. Was it not the same thing with Frank Ocean? There are several other examples I read about and think: “Oh, so… How exactly did this person actually come out? Did they stand on some podium and say that big old swear word: “Hello world, I am gay”?”
What does coming out mean to begin with anyway? And why is a necessity?

For the media, using headlines like “Sam Smith Comes Out” serves the purpose of selling papers and generating pageviews, of course, even if it is far from the truth. 
Don't get me wrong. I am not entirely opposed to the idea of coming out. A lot of gay people swear by it and I have no reason to believe that their reasoning behind this is invalid, but I also find it to be one of those things that reinforce the notion that heterosexuality is the norm and gay is the otherness. I also truly believe that a lot of people live in the proverbial closet because of the scary prospects that are attached to coming out. Why can’t you just live and let people take the cue from you? We know the answer to that. Why not talk about your relationship with a member of the same sex as if it is no different from a hetero romance (because it really ain’t, it’s all love)? We know the answer to that, too.

Both scenarios are probably too much to ask because as much as one wishes it was so, gay really isn’t the new normal. It remains an old anomaly that, like race and other prejudices, now benefits largely from silence disguised as acceptance.