/ 15 June 2000

Remote-control fashion

Michelle Matthews

‘Fabulous, fabrics, frisson … futile” – the cover of the Fashion TV press kit makes a PR boo-boo with its overly exuberant alliteration. What f-word is more fitting for a channel that shows skinny chicks and muscled hunks in outrageously expensive, yet barely wearable clothes 24 hours a day?

Perhaps the key is another of the press- kit cover terms: fantasy. At the Fashion TV launch at the ritzy Oudekraal hotel in Bantry Bay, CEO of Multichoice South Africa, Nolo Letele, explained why Fashion TV was added to the “DStv bouquet”: “From South Africa to Malawi, Namibia to Mozambique – our viewers now have front row seats on the catwalks of Paris, Milan, New York and London.” One of the invited French ambassadors (Fashion TV is, of course, French) put it even more romantically: “We’re bringing to Africa a channel that celebrates beauty, creativity and non-violence.” So the channel is fluff and the fashion is flashy and financially unattainable – but this is entertainment.

Fashion TV’s arrival in South Africa does have its tangible benefits: fame and fortune for local designers. The fashion showcase that accompanied the June 1 launch was aired internationally on June 8. The work of designers from Marianne Fassler to Nandipha Madikiza was seen by a potential 25-million regular Fashion TV viewers. And the footage will be rerun randomly – in keeping with the channel’s “snippets” style. Fashion TV is also working towards establishing a routine “African window” on the channel.

The first South African telegenic contribution to Fashion TV’s ramp was mostly pleasing. Disregarding the unfortunate Sun City Extravaganza-esque tribal dance opening, the show offered a happy mix – from straightforward ready-to- wear to avant-garde “disposable” outfits. Asymmetrical and triangular hemlines, ethnic beading, bright colours and animal- skin prints were predominant in many of the collections.

Gideon’s designs seemed inspired by the term “African Renaissance”. Gideon mixed velvet and brocade with snakeskin, beads and leather, layering his diverse fabrics in rich gowns with the occasional provocative fleshy revelation. Juanito Pacheco offered Cape-influenced “Venus rising from the waves” creations. A washed blue skirt with beaded beachwear tassles was a casual outfit. A shimmering, lightly beaded evening gown recalled shell-strewn white sands. Nandipha Madikiza was obviously African, embroidering spears, huts and shields onto heavy white ballgowns.

Marion and Lindi did frothy pink and peach with lots of frills, as did Catherine Moore. Nokwanda Ngobo was full of fun – lime-green fur jackets and leopard-skin bootleg pants with fuschia lace trim – apparently she’s a passionate Barbie fan! Mark and Michael revelled in cerise and black and compromised on the hemline problem with miniskirts with long trains.

Gerhard van Rooyen showed a shocking pink snakeskin bomber jacket I’d kill for. Black Coffee’s Jaques was the most daring clasher on the bill – plaid, floral, denim, sequins. Jaques’s outfits trawled retro from the Forties to the Seventies – dressing his women as stars’n’stripes porn stars and Dietrich wannabes and his men as flouncey-red- shirted gigolos and … Dietrich- wannabes.

Marique Yssel, recent Smirnoff winner, wowed with her runway-only throw-away Tumyung range. Most of the collection was in stark white, with pleats, arcs, stiff layers and torn edges mimicking expensive stationery and paper frills on lamb racks. Not to my taste were Jenny Button’s Dallas-redolent gold collection, Norman Callan’s tulip-red tulle skirts and contour-beaded bodices, and Errol Arendz’s attention-grabbing-socialite creations.

The highlight of the evening was Julian’s designs. “So clear,” I’ve written in big letters on my programme. It was an intense collection using substantial materials all in oxblood. His necklines were either choking or plunging and his hemlines were firmly on the knee. Julian made tops from large wooden beads – like car-seat back massagers, skirts from iridescent quilted silk, box pants from the smoothest suede. Earthy is too wafty a word for Julian’s collection – it was a consummate work sculpted from deep red clay. Paul Simon of the Young Designers Emporium leaned over to me during the show and whispered: “He’s our best designer. You can quote me on that.”