My Design Indaba recap

Posted on March 10, 2013 by Karisa

This year’s Design Indaba which took place at the CTICC from 27 Feb to 3 Mar was a visual feast as always… On the day I was very much drawn mostly to the decor / interior design sections (oh and the food section - come on now, you know me ). For some weird reason I wasn’t really in a fashion and jewellery mood, so therefore you’ll see that my recap is mostly focused on all things to beautify your home. But don’t you worry, I have some really amazing things to show you.

I did at least catch a bit of one of the fashion shows and I totally loved the Design Indaba ramp setup this year. Check it out:

Cool hey? Very retro and weird and interesting… all the good things really.

The show was for Chimpel who specialises in luxury leather accessories and whoever came up with the idea of putting all the models in simple black deserves a high 5. It certainly ensured that the accessories and the accessories only took centre stage.

The Chimpel stand in the fashion area

Now for the rest of my findings…

Loved these colourful “Play Play” cabinets by De Steyl. They’re all the way from the Garden Route and for these babies you can select your cabinet size & style, what colours you want and what furniture feet you want. They’re made from Birch Plywood with laminate faces and finished in natural oil:

They say these are “Furniture for kids of all ages”. Now I certainly no longer classify as a kid, but I still try to be a kid at heart at least. I loved these, they made me smile and I could easily see one of them in my home, kid or not.

Still in the category of wooden cabinets, how insanely beautiful is this piece by Andrew Dominic who does private commissions and custom interiors:

I won’t lie, it took us a while to figure out how to open it, but you just gently push and ta da…

Lucas R Adams from Kraftisan offered up some fun, environmentally friendly lamps and laptop stands:

And I was totally obsessed with these moustache cups from Quirky Me (they’re situated in the Old Biscuit Mill btw):

“Do epic shit” – I agree!

Other ceramic pieces which caught my eye were these cute animals in bowls and on plates by Cath Price Ceramics:And other intersting things included the following (apologies, I realised afterwards that I didn’t get business cards / names for all, but I’ve tried my best to add that info in where I could):

Top: bamboo & brass lights by MOS (Makers of stuff) products, with names like “The Smile” and “The Cloud”, they were just absolutely magical; Bottom left: wooden monkey (I freakin’ love monkeys – designer unknown); Bottom right: light bulb heart light (designer unknown)

Clockwise from top left: raw wood table with glass top (designer unknown); Graeme Bettles Design sitting lamps; graphic & colourful side tables (designer unknown); cool skull fabric by Hands that Rock the Cradle

Clockwise from top left: Wintec Innovation (winners of the Innovation Award for their Stratflex furniture system which allows rigid boards to become flexible); Photo Blox by Jasmin on Jupiter; Meyer von Wielligh designs (loved this plant inspired book shelf); then loved that woven chair in the middle (designer unknown)

Bjorn was very drawn to this stand by Thingking with their version of a Rube Goldberg machine which is a deliberately over-engineered machine that has to perform a very simple task in a very complex way, using chain reaction events. For example here the ball has to travel from one end to the other, but it has to do so by passing over and through various weird & wonderful things that ensure that the ball keeps moving:

They actually won the 2013 Most Creative Stand award…

And I was captivated by this little sheep dressed by cowgirlblues who designs knitwear made from top quality, natural & local fibres sourced from Karoo sheep & goats farms:

Hello babba… you wanna come home with me?

I also loved these little recycled robots by Jasper Eales Original. Don’t they just look like the possible character lineup for the next Pixar film in the making?

Want one? Then contact him on 082 224 3749 or jabbaeales@yahoo.com

Because I’m allergic to pollen, these beautiful hand-painted paper flowers by Durban based Freshly Found were also right up my alley:

And they won’t die!

Now you might have heard that Gavin Rajah‘s pebble dress won the prize of Most Beautiful Object in South Africa:

Photo credit: Gavin Rajah Facebook page

And I agree, it is quite spectacular. I couldn’t even imagine what it must feel like to wear a piece like that. Stunning.

But my personal most beautiful object has to go to the cupcakes from Queen of Tarts :

Cupcakes are a form of art to you know…

All ‘n all the Design Indaba was a very inspiring day out. Well done to all the creatives who exhibited this year. It’s so exciting to see how South Africans are pushing the boundaries of design, thinking outside of the box and creating things that uniquely African.

I sadly left there wanting to change up pretty much my whole apartment (again). Hopefully one of those “you’ve won the <insert name here> lottery” emails will come through… ** crossing fingers **

xxx

PS. If anybody can confirm the designers I missed above, please leave a comment below and I’ll update the post.

Cosmo lingerie 2012: the girls, the wings and the boiled egg

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Karisa

The Cosmopolitan Lingerie show has certainly become the annual event you don’t want to miss. For the guys it’s for obvious reasons – you get to see some of SA’s hottest models strut their stuff on stage half naked. For the girls – it’s the fantasy element I think. The over-the-top wings, feathered head pieces, S&M inspired accessories and more. It certainly focuses more on the “show” part of fashion show and it’s 100% hot…

This year’s event took place at the Southern Sun Cape Sun Hotel in Strand St, which at first I thought was a really odd choice because the hotel doesn’t look like much from the outside. Once inside though, I had that “a ha” moment. The interior is quite impressive. From waterfall chandeliers dripping from the celing to a neon lit bar with a water feature backdrop. It was very cool indeed.

I sadly have to admit that I was a total dumbass and forgot to check whether my camera was charged before heading out that evening. And as luck would have it, my battery was pretty much DEAD. Once the show started, I only managed to get 2 shots and then that was it for the rest of my evening…

Luckily though I found some great piccies on the Cosmopolitan website in their gallery section, so at least I can show you what the lovely ladies looked like up close:

Photo credits: Top – Peter Lambert; Bottom left – Jan Dorfling; Bottom right – Ray Cox

Photo credits: Top left – Peter Lambert; Right – Jan Dorfling; Bottom left – Peter Lambert

You can check out the full gallery over here. And boys – I suggest you certainly do that.

Now in attendance was your regular Cape Town who’s who, fashion folks and event circuit regulars. It was a tightly guarded guest list and I purely made the cut because my very own Bjorn happens to be last year’s Cosmo Sexiest Man calendar Mr December. Yup – I’m a lucky girl… But I think the most “special” person in attendance has to be a certain fur coat wearing individual who mid show decided to whip out a hard boiled egg which he brought along as a snack?! and proceeded to peel and enjoy much to the dismay of the people seated next to him. I first noticed this guy when I arrived cause I thought that the coat was a bit “flash” and still tweeted that I felt like I had just walked onto the set of the new XXX movie. But who could have predicted that the coat was actually storing an egg?? I know this story probably sounds hard to believe, but luckily Dylan Savage from Life Is Savage has photographic evidence over here. Check it out – it’s awesome. I have no clue who this guy is and what he does for a living, but one thing’s for sure, he’s one of a kind.

So ja, certainly an eventful night out. We didn’t make it to the after party which was at Club 31 in the ABSA builiding (the old Hemisphere) because 1. Capetonians are lazy and will rarely make the move to a 2nd venue. And 2. Instead, Bjorn and I decided to go back to mine to watch a So You Think You Can Dance marathon until like 3am in the morning… cause we’re rock stars like that… I left the show feeling extremely motivated to get my ass back into gym and start eating super healthy so I too could look that hot in my undies & wings (maybe I have some, maybe I don’t). Sadly by like 11am the next day, that motivation disappeared as I started digging ito snacks provided by a Masterchef style challenge at work. Gotta love the corporate world – they dig organised stuff like that. But this week’s the week, I can feel it. Or… maybe next week…

xxx

Front row @ the Shop the Runway launch

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Karisa

Last Fri eve my friend Clouds and I attended the launch fashion show of new online shopping destination, Shop The Runway.

Shop the Runway is a Cape Town based company which aims to bring exclusive designer brands to SA shoppers at affordable prices. Love the sound of that. And… as I’m Cape Town’s nr 1 shopping queen, of course it made sense to have me at the event.

The launch took place at the beautiful Bay Hotel in Camps Bay – a favourite of mine during summer for some cocktails and pool time. Especially before heading over to Caprice for a bit a “see & be seen” session. Aaaah… summer… seems soooo far away at the moment…

Anyhoo, upon arrival we were handed some tasty SKYY vodka cocktails and then we took our seats, front row nogal, very excited to get a look at big labels such as Marc by Marc Jacobs, Rachel Roy, BCBG Max Azria, Cole Haan, Elizabeth & James and Jessica Simpson shoes. Oh hold me back now!

Check out those massive grins…

The show featured ready-to-wear garmets, with lots of pieces which would be perfect for day to day and then some sexy dresses for those nights out on the town:

Liked all the pops of colour…

After the show we did a quick catch up with Shop the Runway owner, Janine Bailey. She told us that the site will be run as a bit of a pilot at first with only a few niche items available for purchase. She wants to get a feel for what does well and what doesn’t, that way she can adjust her stock purchases to be more in line with what us SA ladies want.

They will be getting new stock within the next month and thereafter new items will be added on a regular basis. A good tip if you want to stay in the loop is to register on the site. This way you’ll get an instant email notification when new goods have arrived.

Me with Janine

The site actually only went live this past Mon, and I decided to go do a bit of browsing to check it out for myself. The options are quite limited at the moment, same with sizing. But as I noted above, this is just a pilot. I did however fall madly in love with these bright beauties by Jessica Simpson, all going for R850:

Now which one of you will be coming home with me? Hmmmm…

I took the middle shoe above (which is called the Evangela btw) and did a bit of research online to see what I could find in regard to pricing:

This shoe is currently on sale on the Jessica Simpson website, was $98, now $69.99 – at the current exchange rate of around 8.2, that would be R573.91. But they don’t ship to SA. So you’re kinda stuck there.
Then I found them on Shoes.com – there they are R872.40 and that’s before any shipping costs. So a bity pricey.
Also checked Yahoo Shopping and on there the price range was $81.14 – $82.99 (R665 – R680), but again that’s without shipping costs. Plus you have to factor in customs duties. Which for shoes & clothing sits at 45% of the value of the item. Ouch. With that in mind, even the sale price on the Jessica Simpson site doesn’t match up to the price you’re paying here.

So seems to me you’re getting a pretty good deal, especially when you factor in that delivery is free if you buy for over R500. Plus another benefit is that you don’t have to wait weeks for your delivery (which is usually the case with international deliveries) as your items will reach you within 5 working days.

They do not have a credit card payment facility yet – but you can pay via EFT. Either a direct EFT payment from your side or through a facility called Payfast which processes EFT payments in a fast & secure way. Sounds simple enough.

So it looks like this is one to watch. I’m very interested to see how their offering will grow. Janine also mentioned that they have started planning for their summer range, so will be keeping an eye for that for sure.

xxx

Looking forward to an evening of fashion with Scalini

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Karisa

On Wed eve I will be attending a “rooftop soirée” at Scalini in Cape Quarter. Doesn’t that sound fancy?

Scalini is a gorgeous boutique that stocks luxury European fashion, footwear & swimwear labels and we will be lucky enough to see their new Resort & Swimwear 2012 collection. My heart totally skips a beat just at the thought of all the pretty things I will be lusting after…

The invite also promises bubbly & canapes. As if I needed more reasons to attend. Hehe. It will also be the first night of their summer sale, so some retail therapy could be on the cards for me, yay! (and just like that my credit card starts to shiver…)

xxx

Rock the runway

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Karisa

Canal Walk shopping centre hosted a 4 day “Rock the Runway” celebration from 7 – 11 Sep.

The idea was to get young talent from five of Cape Town’s schools to each produce a fashion show at Canal Walk to raise school funds. Then the main event would be a showcase of couture collections by top Cape Town Designers presented by Elegance Fabrics, Cape Town Designer Paul van Zyl and Canal Walk.

I went to go check out this Couture Summer 2011 Collection show on Saturday eve. You could buy tickets to the seated area, but the really cool thing was that it was also open to the public, you just had to be willing to stand – but there was plenty of space with a good view of the action. That’s what we opted for.

The show took place in Canal Walk’s main exhibition area, close to the food court:

A view from above… Pretty impressive, isn’t it?

I’m actually one of those people who usually rushes through Canal Walk – totally focused on my “to do” list. I never take a slow stroll to take it all in. Hell I barely ever lift my head… if I did, I think I would have noticed all the cool detail high above the store fronts:

Seriously, has that stuff been there all along?

The show opened with a special segment where all the featured designers got to present some designs to show off the latest summer fabrics available from Elegance Fabrics. I didn’t catch all of it, was fiddling with my camera (sorry, it’s new OK… and I haven’t read the manual yet! haha) – but some of the Hip Hop ideas were pretty interesting:

Apologies for some of the shaky images to come. It was pretty hard taking decent shots because those models move to bloody fast…

The real couture show kicked off with a collection by Hendrik Vermeulen:

Must say, not sure where the hell that white poofy thing would be appropriate. You wouldn’t even be able to have a drink all night!

Next up was Stefania Morland:

Loved the fun & flirty details to her range – it was very pretty. Then we had Robyn Roberts:

I thought most of her stuff would be too “old” for me. But I did love that short, shimmery number. It had a super low back which made it very sexy. And then I also thought that last wedding dress was also quite pretty.

Next up was Hip Hop – but this time with their couture stuff:

I didn’t really love anything in that range… not my style at all. Then it was time for Cindy Bam:

Some very dramatic gowns in that collection. But where do people still wear dresses like those these days? Even if the event invite says “black tie” – Cape Town girls simply rock out a short coctail dress. Hmmmm.

Next up was Rosenwerth:

Beautiful gowns. But loved the cute feather head pieces even more! Then we had Jacques Lagrange Couture:

His stuff was a bit OTT for me personally, but at least it was creative. That red glitter dress however was a total mess – doesn’t it remind you of a bad Christmas party outfit?

Next we had Umbra:

Loved the bright colours and also how every dress seemed like it had been perfectly molded to the model’s body. I love a perfect fit.

Then we had Kobus Dippenaar:

Loved the crazy hats! Also his attention to detail was impeccable. From a creativity perspective, I enjoyed his range the best.

Next up was Paul van Zyl:

I’ve always been a HUGE fan of Paul van Zyl. But I must admit, this collection did not blow me away. I wouldn’t really want to wear any of those pieces.

Then we saw the all-in-black collection of Francois Rall:

Now I love black just as much as the next girl. And there were some really nice pieces in that collection. But I couldn’t help feeling that there was nothing new or exciting about it. A bit blah unfortunately.

Lastly we had Jenni Button:

The only thing I really loved in that collection was that short, partly sheer, sequenced dress. Unfortunately it didn’t photograph too well. Trust me, it looked much better in person. Would only be able to rock that if I had a killer tan though…

So there you go boys & girls – now you’ve seen what some of the best Cape Town designers had up their sleeves. I actually really enjoyed the show. Was far more extravagant than I had expected. To be totally honest – my expectations were super low… like as low as you could imagine… I wasn’t feeling too great (had a cold) and therefore I didn’t really feel like doing anything too hectic, so this just sounded like the perfect alternative to simply vegetating on my couch.

I’m glad I did manage to drag myself off of my couch in the end. The show has now inspired me to jazz up my summer party wardrobe quite a bit.

xxx

Lingerie fashion party @ Trinity

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Karisa

On Friday eve I headed over to the Trinity nightclub… It was my first visit to this spot, even though it’s been open since December last year. Why? Well I haven’t heard great things to be honest… But my friend Darryn won 8 double tickets to the “Calvin Klein Lace Lingerie fashion party”. I love lingerie, but more importantly I’ve been checking out the new Calvin Klein lingerie range in stores at the moment, and there’s some seriously beautiful things. So I was really excited to check this out.

I looked up the event description online and this is what I found:

On Friday, 19 August, Trinity will be having a Calvin Klein Fashion Lingerie Show. So bring out your inner fashionista for a night of glamour and beauty. There will also be numerous DJ’s for your entertainment and loads of giveaways. The show starts at 10pm and cover charge is R60 and R100 for VIP.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? So off we went, braving the cold, with high hopes of seeing a super hot Calvin Klein lingerie show…

Problem number one was that to claim these free tickets, we needed to get in before 10pm. But when we got there at 9:30pm, there was already a queue stretching around the block! There was no way we would get in before 10pm, and even less chance that we’d be one of the first 300 people to enter to claim a free goodie bag. Total bummer! We needed a backup plan. So my friend Ben managed to get us through the VIP door by using one of his “connections”. Problem number two was that by entering through the VIP side, they wouldn’t let us use our free entry tickets. We had to buy VIP tickets! It was only R100, but still – it’s the principal. Because of that long bloody queue and the freezing weather outside, we reluctantly handed over the cash.

We decided to just shake that off, we still had an awesome Calvin Klein fashion show to look forward to right…

I actually did not realise that Trinity also had a restaurant. In fact, there are multiple levels all serving a different purpose. On the ground floor you have the main nightclub area (bars, dance floor, etc), on level 1 you have the Trinity Cafe, on level 2 you have the Trinity Grill, on level 3 you have Trinity East – an Asian restaurant, then there’s the VIP bar area and a rooftop garden area. Sjoe, that’s quite impressive. But it had me wondering, do they do well? I hadn’t even heard of all these different areas… Hmmm.

There was a jazz band doing their thing on the Trinity Grill level. I see on the website they regularly have live music acts playing...

This is the view of the dance floor from the VIP area:

Apologies for the misty picture... they must have had a smoke machine on or something, haha

And this is the swanky bar area in the VIP section:

The bar is lowered, so you literally look down at the bar staff. I found that quite awkward...

There was an “incident’ here at Trinity a few months back that has spread like wildfire… Apparently a chick (wearing a white skirt according to my sources) was seriously trashed and decided to have a big poo right there on one of their expensive leather couches. Don’t believe me? Well check out this post on Mr Cape Town’s blog - it has photographic evidence, with a wiskey glass positioned so you can judge size. Classy… real classy… Another rumour is that this wasn’t the first time this chick had done this. Her identity is however unknown. Anyways, we were pretty sure that we had tracked down the poor couch that was assaulted in such a way, because nobody sat on it the entire evening:

Dodgy stain... empty all night... could this be the one!?!

10pm came & went and no fashion show… Then we heard that it was probably only going to kick off at midnight. So we had some time to kill. We decided to hit the dance floor and pull out some slick moves. haha.

Freakin' lasers bru!

The music was pretty descent and the dance floor is massive. While bustin’ out my best moves, I looked around and realised that there was absolutely zero Calvin Klein branding to be seen anywhere, I thought that was really weird. Not even a Calvin Klein promo person or poster… Hmmm…

But my friend Darryn distracted me from that thought process by flashing his new seriously cool wooden watch from WeWood (based in Woodstock)!

How awesome is that!? I totally want one too...

He won it in a competition (lucky bastard!), but they sell for between R950 and R1000. And the really cool thing is that for every watch sold, they plant a tree on your behalf! I absolutely loooove earth friendly shopping. The face also lights up in a beautiful blue hue, so so need one too!

Finally at about 12:10 – the show kicked off. First some dude who apparently has a hit single on GoodHope FM warmed up the crowd – I don’t listen to GoodHope FM, so I had no clue who he was. But he seemed to think quite a lot of himself. People weren’t really that interested in him though, I think he was facing quite an uphill battle… I mean, people were there to see half naked models after all!

Next, two scantily clad dancers appeared on the scene:

Sexy biatches!

They did their thing for a while and then finally, the fashion show kicked off. I heard the announcer say that we would now see lingerie from some lingerie shop I have never heard off – it certainly wasn’t the Calvin Klein lingerie we had all thought! I was like, wait a minute, wtf? Then the girls started coming out:

The poor things had to mission up and down this steep stair case from the upper level to the lower level, right into the crowd. The least they could have done was erect a proper ramp – just adds a level of class.

Then they also attempted to rip off that Victoria Secret Angels look with little angel wings for the models. But they didn’t fit properly, the models kept having to adjust them and it just looked like a really poor/cheap attempt to be honest. Luckily for them the models were seriously hot, so I’m sure most people didn’t really care! haha.

I kinda liked this gold bustier with black lace hot pants – but they should have had black wings to match this outfit, it’s all in the details for me…

Then this one I really didn’t understand. She’s wearing angel wings… but she’s also wearing devil horns… um OK then.

When the show ended I was just left feeling really disappointed. There was absolutely nothing Calvin Klein about this evening and the whole thing just seemed poorly put together. As far as I could see online, the event was organised by Soundscape. I don’t know if they just put together the party side of things or whether they also arranged the fashion show… but their page for the event doesn’t make any mention to Calvin Klein. So not sure where all of that fell flat exactly…

Anyhoo, I don’t think I’m going to be rushing over to Trinity for another event anytime soon. At least I got some hot shots of hot models in lingerie – I’m sure this post will still score really high with my male readers. They probably didn’t even read a word of the text!

xxx

So excited!!!

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Karisa

Ooooh, I got an invitation to the Diligo Summer Launch Fashion show on 1 September! Can’t wait, just check out the cool stuff the invite promises:

Did you see that, gift bags for guests!!! The email also promised free snacks & drinks. Woohoo! And it’s “invite only” bitches. I feel so special now.

Diligo is an online fashion boutique. They have lovely ladies dresses, skirts, tops, jumpsuits, shorts and accessories like belts & bags. And I see they recently added mens shirts to their collection. Nice. I have been oogling their stuff online for a while now, but haven’t yet made a purchase. Not because I haven’t found lots of things that I’d love to own, but I just personally am a bit nervous about ordering clothing online. So this will be a great opportunitiy to check out their clothing in person. They do seem to have a great returns policy available on their website though if you’re not happy with your purchase.

Yay! OK, I have to start planning what I’m going to wear… Hmmm…

xxx

My Love Affair with Cape Town…

Just random fun in my mother city

Tag Archives: Fashion show