It was on Friday night in downtown Jozi that it became evident how SA Fashion Week has continued to reinvent itself. Allowing off-site shows for the first time, the event was claimed by the city while in turn claiming the spirit of the city. This was not Paris or New York. This was Johannesburg.
The fashionistas and glamour mechanics were transported from the Sandton Convention Centre in open-air buses to take in showings by Strangelove and Stoned Cherrie in the grandly renovated industrial space of the Turbine Hall in Newtown.
As it turns out, Strangelove went on to win Menswear Designers of the Year at the inaugural SA Fashion Awards on Sunday night. They shared the prize with Icuba. For their part, Stoned Cherrie shared the womenswear award with Marion and Linde.
Videos of these two shows should be dispatched to the fashion capitals of the world to show where South Africa design is at.
On a stage littered with leaves, Strangelove’s wasted, dippy models referenced a range of periods. Surgically precise tan leather corsetry with parachute cloth frocks moved across the space. They were followed by an animation, which opened with Saartjie Baartman being splintered and swept away in the breeze. The models then returned, walking towards wind machines and their garments filled with air, pockets and spikes expanding into architectural forms from the parachute cloth.
Stoned Cherrie later adopted the themes of initiation, courtship and marriage and pushed a powerfully female urban ekasi aesthetic that could stand its own in any capital. Both shows pushed elements of femininity that ooze Jo’burg, from shebeen queen to heroin chic.
This diversity was on display throughout the week. Standards rose and fell. Some big names from the not-too-distant past (Clive Rundle, Marion and Linde, Hip Hop, Amanda Laird-Cherry) were rewarded for huge efforts and proved they were still more than relevant. Others missed the boat.
A blossoming of new black design talent (there were 14 black designers on show) proved exciting, but some dodgy construction gave away the lack of experience.
Of the new brat pack, Abigail Betz and Row G were sorely missed, but David West represented an African tip (Sharp Sharp was his theme) and Black Coffee unofficially opened the week, also off-site. They chose to show only eight outfits, but it was more than enough to be taken seriously.
A path has been set and it is all about street couture and African pride. We’re not there yet, but until we get there, we’re some of the prettiest travellers anyone could hope to see.