Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Africa Fashion Week Day 3

Suzaan Heyns:

Summary: unconventional materials

Thread: Extra-long brown leather belt

Opinion: Imagine going to church to repent… the remorse and guilt you must feel. This was the sense I got when I sat and watched the show – the music, lighting and accessories (which had a bondage feel). This collection and show were truly magnificent. Fleece blanket-like material was used to create DeGorge dresses with beautiful cuts and finishes. She also used leather straps in a criss-crossed pattern to create shoulder constructions, headpiece and crotch cups – and those were the real highlights of the entire collection. And it would not have been a complete Suzaan Heyns collection with out the use of leather: a leather shirt with matching tie served as Suzaan Heyns marker and as much as this may be tacky, it looks very decent. Turns out… this collection had nothing to do with church – it was a sports collection but in true Suzaan style, there was a somberness tied in. She is phenomenal! She will be growing her brand to actually start mass-marketing, in short, her pieces will be more readily available – how excited are you now? WOOHOO!

Sandra Muendane:

Summary: quirky and fun

Thread: multi-coloured polka-dot finishes

Opinion: I picked up a lot of Black Coffee’s award-winning “mother and child” collection in the styling of Sandra’s collection. There was plenty of padding to create strange silhouettes which suggest some kind of trauma – for instance, the padding on the side of the knee looks like someone with a disjointed knee-cap, or the side of the stomach which looks like some belly-inflating (gaseous perhaps, LOL) disease… Some of the accessories, on what looked like a very different collection, included soccer-accessories which was very “at the moment” with the world cup going on – but too predictable! (I placed a bet with someone that I am going to see some kind of soccer on the catwalk – time to cash in) – in retrospect, however, this makes sense (trauma and soccer) given how Ghana (Africa’s last hope on winning) was knocked out of running on this… topic for another day though!

Gloria Wavamunno:

Summary: new age Africa

Thread: African print finishes

Opinion: Gloria displayed basic fashion pieces with modern silhouettes with African prints finishes. There were plenty of Balmain-influences and I actually like it. I had a brief chat with several people about her collection and the general consensus is that her pieces allow for people to put their own personal stamp on each piece – so it’s really like a high-end Woolworths: basic quality.

Mataano:

Summary: modern day working girl

Thread: no prevalent thread

Opinion: The collection had Chloe influences – which is right up my alley! Chloe has been nailing it on the head of late! The first few pieces were defined by thigh-waist, peach-coloured pants that hit just above the ankles. I really liked their take on fashion, they have a playful working girl and wearable mentality which is fantastic for the fashionably unimaginative (and that's not really a bad thing... not r-e-a-l-l-y, but looking good is a whole new ball game - soccer reference, two snaps for me, LOL) – and buyers who are more concerned about sales over JUST fashion.

pics by Simon Deiner via www.afi.sdr.co.za

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