Be Original....

The other day I was sitting on campus, casually staring at people and making spontaneous assessments of them. That's a pastime I unabashedly enjoy. Anyway, I noticed a guy sitting two seats away from me who, upon first glance, I liked the look of. But upon closer scrutiny, I realised something horrific. Gut-wrenchingly awful. Every single item that he was wearing, I had seen that very day on 5 different guys.

Now, no one likes to feel unoriginal. I almost mentioned it to the look-thief, but thought better of it. "Those are mannequin clothes!" is not a good conversation opener. It did get me to thinking about originality though. There's an inherent problem. It's actually quite easy to wear clothes that nobody else is wearing, but often there is a very good reason that nobody else is wearing them. They're bloody horrible.

So to my mind there are three distinct approaches. The first is simple: spend a small fortune on high-fashion garments. The reasons that you shouldn't do this are two-fold. Spending a small fortune on clothes is unreasonable and, honestly, offensive.

 In fact I'm increasingly trying to avoid "trends". If I think my 40-year-old self would be embarrassed to be seen walking with a man wearing it, I don't think it should be bought buy. By the way this also applies to most of the stuff in the window of Markham.

The second approach is one that I can perhaps help with. Simply identify smaller labels and buy from them. Then when a friend asks where you got your new shirt from, you can just smile enigmatically and say something irritating like: "Wouldn't you like to know?"

The third approach is trawling around second-hand and charity shops. But the feeling of finding a gem hidden on the racks is hard to beat. Warning: when you see something advertised as a "vintage 1990s jumper", you will feel very old indeed.

Sooo... genleman do us all a favour a try create your own dresscode, because NO ONE wants to be unoriginal

Power of The TRIBE

BOLD, SHARP ECCENTRIC.... Tribal prints have arrived with a big bang.

Over the past few years I have noticed that everything around us seems more colourful, bolder, brighter and more distinctive. Tribal prints have become a prominent trend.

Designers like Donna Karen, Nkhensani Nkosi, Mara Hoffman and Paula Mendoza have been influenced by this trend when you look at their creations.

I myself have caught the tribal bug and have collected a few items over the years, and it seems I am not the only one. As I walked through the streests of Jo'burg my eyes were bombarded with everytghing tribal. It seems that tribal print have become a part of contemporary style.

Prints come with a  "LOOK AT ME" statement and boy o0h boy did I see interesting people who cary themselves with a lot of confidence and poise.... SWAGGED out people to put it in more latent terms.

One observation I could say that I made is that this is all really not new to my world... South Africans have been wearing tribal prints way before they got the APPROVAL stamp in the fashion world.

So to all South Africans who have been wearing tribal prints way to go in going a road untravelled and starting a fashion CRAZE... And welcome to those who have boarded the ship!!!

Neon Sciene....Fad or fashion

Luminous bright colours that shout for attention, have become the order of the day. One walks into stores and is blinded by the brightness that is this season's summer collections. From the hoes, clothes, bags even the accesories.

If the end of August is anything to go by these LOUD, BRIGHT colours will do nothing but compliment the warmthof the hottt summere days that are yet to come...

Whether this is one of those trends that will come be around for just a season is irrelevant. Although I haven't seen many rocking the trend, it is one of those you can see is going to be popular among FASHIONISTAS

Do yourself a favour and whipp out the STUNNERS to apprehend the blinding brightness of the looming phenomena... Oh did i mention the STUNNERS.. are luminous too!