Gail Smith
With everyone clamouring for the attention and income of the youth market (the black is silent), The Kwaito Storm is an event-in-waiting. Set to take place on Saturday night, October 31, at Johannesburg’s Electric Workshop, it promises to bring together some of the hippest, most happening of the blackoisie, kwaito’s latest and greatest, and street fashion at its local best.
The Kwaito Storm is a combination of a bash and a fashion show. Yfm DJs will spin the discs and strut their stuff on the catwalk. Boom Shaka, Arthur, M’du, E’Smile, Spex and Amu are amongst the acts billed to play and sashay.
Kwaito has proved that self-styling is central to self-expression. The new kids of kwaito are not only borrowing but reinterpreting a specific experience that is black, urban, streetwise and unselfconsciously stylish. And very Jo’burg.
South African designer Ineeleng will be the only local designer showing her wares along with the big name brands. At 25, she’s ideally placed to meet the needs of those who want to look street and yet not run the risk of crossing paths with someone in an identical mass-produced outfit. “The youth are my contemporaries, I know what they want, I do the same things they do.”