Beautiful Somalia

Anyone watching the news the past couple of days would be excused for thinking we were living in the age of the apocalypse.

Round the clock coverage of looting on the streets of London, Wall Street taking huge blows, US debt spiralling out of control, there just doesn't seem to be an end in sight.


The story that's not making the front pages of newspapers and prime time news however is the famine in Somalia that has already claimed the lives of over 29 000 people .

However this beautiful country and its people are more than the years of political unrest ,famine and drought. Just like you and I these are people who have dreams for the future, hopes for their children and want to be able to build their lives in the homeland of their forefathers.


Their immediate situation however makes all of this impossible, which is why we must act now!


BUT, it doesn't have to be this way ,because no matter who you are or were you are you CAN help. 

Below are a few drop off spots for canned goods and non-perishables as well as websites that you can go to ,to make a donation.

IF YOU ARE IN JOHANNESBURG S.A :

Saturday 6th August : Drop off canned foods and non-perishables at Mc'Donalds Campus Square in Melville from 9 am to 6pm.


Saturday 6th August : Drop off canned foods and non-perishables at Cantina Tequila in Fourways (Behind Cedar Square) on Uranium road from 10 am to 4 pm.

Tuesday 16th August : Drop off canned foods and non-perishables at Shikisha in Newtown from 11 am to 6 pm.


All the goods collected will be forwarded to the Gift of the Givers.

IF YOU ARE IN THE U.S :

Text  "SURVIVE" to 20222 to donate 10$ 

EVERYONE ELSE :

Your donation of 1$ a day for 100 days could KEEP A CHILD ALIVE!
Please log onto www.savethechildren.org/food-crisis-6  for more info, alternatively log onto  www.giftofthegivers.org to make a donation.

Because giving is always fashionable - DVF

The Modern Makoti

Loving Bride Thembi Yabo (cntr) with Groom, Rocking Seshweshwe for the Modern Makoti. Photo Courtesy T. Yabo.

Can we pls talk about the hair? LUV!

Everybody knows wedding plans aren't really seriously underway until the dress design is picked and the bride is fitted. So let's discuss. Modern makotis still want to look chic during the traditional African ceremony. Dresses are becoming ultra-mod as makoti's take creative license and liberty, going more for a wow than granny's interpretation of a true seshweshwe--traditional Sotho--dress.

I see an opportunity for a new kind of Vera Wang. Someone well versed in an African woman's figure (ehmm, did someone say junk in my trunk?), who knows the difference between southern and northern sotho and can cut lace through their teeth (while sleeping nog maal!) Any takers?

In the meantime...lemme shine a light on our hot makotis that take matters into their own hands--and a capable tailor.

Madiba Magic

Beyond that Sailboat lies Robben Island. 

Have been haunted by the sight of Robben Island from the shores of die Kaap since getting here. Imagine. For more than 27 years that island was a blackened blight behind seafog. Today, it stands as a reminder for everything we can be as a nation of individuals. Celebrating Mandela's birthday today, I am inspired by the words of another powerful South African, Ferrail Haffajee. As the on-point City Press Editor challenges, "So you've achieved success, but how are you going to achieve significance?" Mandela teaches us the meaning of an individual's significance. Question is, how are you applying that lesson to your own life?

CTFW: The Democratic Republic of Fashion

Danielle Margaux

It's not just that blogs have taught us something about the power of democratic fashion, it's also about how they've opened our eyes to how fashion comes alive at the hands of everyday style mavens who create a look of their own from the runway. Everyone from the exotic birds of purchased paradise that line the streets before a headline show Scott shoots (The Sartorialist) to Kimora Fabulosity Simmons (yup, she and hubby Djimon Hounsou showed CTFW madluv) and local Capetonians milling about at Cape Town Fashion Week seems to be saying something about the importance of fashion's relevance. Especially in this everyone a vote/voice that's heard fashion democracy (ie. you are reading this blog!)

How refreshing then to see a theme in CTFW that acknowledges how fashion lives and breathes in this city.  Nothing says Cape laid back chic louder than a soft flowing maxi dress trailing the sea breeze and catching just enough sun (and skin)...Nothing says fashionable more than tipping your designer hat to the women who give your creations new life. Democratic Fashion hitting CTFW. I can respect that. And yup, images courtesy Africa Fashion International.

Leigh Schubert

Thula Sindi

Lalesso.

Manly Sexy: Cape Town Leather Gem

They Do Shoes, Don't They? Photo Courtesy The Summit.

Distributing her Leather Butter Charm--if you're in 

Cape Town, Visit The Summit at The Old Biscuit Mill.

Photo, M. Makhene

How is it possible a girl leaves the fine leather capital of the world (Florence) only to discover the best leather goods boutique on the planet (cape town?)...
...as in: The Summit
and rage upon rage! to find that not only is this the sexiest leather line you've ever seen, but it is sweet designs for the other sex?

No matter, androgyny just got something buttery and beautiful added to its list.

Honestly, Cindy Poole's designs for her brand, The Summit, represent the best of a man's man accessory-- high sex appeal without the dolce+gabbana oiled sheen shine. think confident sauve inspired by the 50s hollywood ratpack scene.

And as if that's not enough, Cindy is a gem. Probably the exact type of red-plum lipstick bombshell her ideal client dreams of. I am smitten. I'll take the line of bags and the chick with the red lips (as a BFF of course;)

Cape Blue

Woodstock (formerly Papendorp) in Front of the Biscuit Mill, at the foot of Table Mountain. Photo: M. Makhene

And this is the Cape too. Inside the Biscuit Mill, Saucisse

Boutique is a food emporium that will make any true 

foodie weep. Plum cardimom jam/Springbok carpaccio...

...What?

Cape Town has to be so many thing to many. Legendary South African author/poet Antjie Krog comes to mind (Country of My Skull is a must read), with her outsize portraits in word of the mountain's possibilities and melancholic shifts. You walk through hot embers of modernity and feel yourself soaring at how spectacular an African city can be, only to be greeted by a begging 5 year old who is practiced in his craft and chills your smitten self-congratulation. 


Cape Town is gorgeous. 
It is cool. 
It is enticing and it is in every way the mothership where everything begins for this country.  


It is also jagged and ugly even in its beauty. Be sure to fall in love with this city. Make sure you sing Cape Town sweet songs of worship as long as you are also willing to pull off the hood and see her for everything she is.  

A Tale of Two Weddings

Groom: Jamie Hince, Bride: Kate Moss 

I've never been interested in weddings, for the simple fact that they have always been carbon copies of each other.

There's the virgin white dress, hair tightly pulled back ,weight loss pre wedding day, pounds upon pounds of cake face ,borrowed jewels, uncomfortable looking grooms and unspeakable bridesmaid's tragedies dresses.

A little sinister perhaps, but sadly true.

Cut forward to 2011 and there's suddenly no shortage of chic and cool weddings.

From the boho goddess Kate Moss' wedding to equally fashion savvy musician Jamie Hince to that other royal wedding from this year, that saw South African stunner Charlene Wittstock tie the knot with Monaco's prince Albert.

There seemed to be something for everyone.

From the girl that wants to dress up and have the 50 foot train dress in a huge chapel to the wedding that's thrown in a friends backyard with a dress designed by a friend (which works out when the friend is John Galliano) and having the couples daughters and their friends nearly steal the spotlight .

Brides take note: the wedding rulebook has been thrown out, staying true to yourself is the new black!

Bride: Charlene Wittstcock, Groom: Prince Albert of Monaco