Louis Vuitton Core Values Campaign featuring Michael Phelps & Larisa Latynina

Earlier this year, the first of the Louis Vuitton Core Values campaign images was released, which featured boxing legend Mohammad Ali. Now they have followed up that image with one of not one, but two sporting icons. They are Olympian swimming champion Michael Phelps (with hair) and legendary gymnast Larisa Latynina. It seems only appriate that in this, the year of the London Olympics, Luis Vuitton focuses on sporting figures who have inspired us over the last few decades, I eagerly await the next campaign images shot by that genius of photographers, Annie Leibovitz!

Louis Vuitton Core Values Campaign featuring Mohamed Ali

Dolce & Gabbana Closeup Runway Collection Fall Winter 2012-2013 at Milan Fashion Week

Just taking a moment today to absorb the pretty ornateness of this here latest offering by Dolce & Gabbana for Autumn Winter 2013… To lovely noh? Stand-out moments: the rich tapestry-like corsets & lace-love knee-highs. Gold embroidery. And the middle-parting hair with pearl garlands. Love. Gorgeous.

Dolce & Gabbana Closeup Runway Collection Fall Winter 2012-2013 at Milan Fashion Week

Dolce & Gabbana Closeup Runway Collection Fall Winter 2012-2013 at Milan Fashion Week

Dolce & Gabbana Closeup Runway Collection Fall Winter 2012-2013 at Milan Fashion Week

Dolce & Gabbana Closeup Runway Collection Fall Winter 2012-2013 at Milan Fashion Week

Dolce & Gabbana Closeup Runway Collection Fall Winter 2012-2013 at Milan Fashion Week

Dolce & Gabbana Closeup Runway Collection Fall Winter 2012-2013 at Milan Fashion Week

Dolce & Gabbana Closeup Runway Collection Fall Winter 2012-2013 at Milan Fashion Week

Dolce & Gabbana Closeup Runway Collection Fall Winter 2012-2013 at Milan Fashion Week

I am currently in Jozi town and have spent the last several days wandering around Sandton City taking in the shopping. It has to be said that whatever my lukewarm feelings to mega-malls, Sandton City definitely is the home of South African shopping. Over the last five years our offering of international retailers has swollen considerably (most recently with Zara, my sourcing experience there is a post in itself) and with the latest bit of news that we are now to receive the legendary London retail giant Top Shop, it just makes me feel like our retail fold is complete. Hoorah! I had heard a rumour that this was going to happen from a friend who is based in London and works for the group some months ago, but I was going to believe it till I got a press release to the effect, imagine my delight when this was confirmed last week.

It was especially exciting to be walking past the store front with large posters displaying its’ imminent arrival. I quite literally can’t wait to see the new store. And we have The House of Busby and Edcon to thank for this, as they have been granted the exclusive South African franchise rights for the British High-Street style champions. The TOPSHOP and TOPSHOP MAN store will be housed in a flagship 950 square metre, with a second store planned for opening in Gateway in Durban in December 2012. Sadly, us Cape Tonians will have to wait for the roll-out of instore offerings at key Edgars stores which have as yet not been confirmed. Bah humbug.

A few fast facts on the store: it was established in 1964 and there are currently over 750 stores worldwide (SA is the 37th country in which it is operating). Sir Philip Green, owner of Arcadia Group Ltd, has been quoted as saying he is “delighted to be launching TOPSHOP and TOPMAN in South Africa through the arrangement with Edcon and Busby. This represents another step in our continued international growth, and I am confident that the South African customers will enjoy the retail experience and fantastic product offer that both our brands will deliver for them.”

I’m sure Sir Phillip is delighted, as I would I be, for I’m sure we’ll be swelling his personal fortune (and the group’s) by a few billion within the next few years! This is one retail offering that South Africans will be certain to jump on!

Top Shop Current Lookbook

Top Shop Man Current Lookbook

Top Shop Current Lookbook

Top Shop Man Current Lookbook

Lady Gaga for September Issue of Vogue, Image via fashionista.com

She’s back!! No not me blogging, rather Gaga is back in Vogue, specifically the September issue and not to be confused with “en vogue”. Apparently she’s always been that, though (in my humble opinion) I sometimes deem her fashion marksmanship to be way off the mark!

I will even concede to be waiting with baited breathe to see this issue, not so much for the interview by Jonathan Van Meter but for the visuals by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott. The last time I loved her it was also for Vogue and she was shot by Mario Testino. The issue will be hitting newsstands on August 21.

Lady Gaga for September Issue of Vogue, Image via digitalspy.com

It arrived in my inbox a week ago today… the Trendland newsletter… With a note on a blog post by Ani Tzenkova about someone called Marios Schwab. BOOOOOMMMM. I thought I couldn’t have finished off the week better with the whole Swenkas series and all that delish inspiration… I was wrong…

Now from time to time, one has to sort of your hang your head in abashment. Occasionally you miss some of the bright, new lights in fashion when they start emerging. I missed Marios Schwab at first. Well I did and I didn’t, because I really did love Zoe Saldana at the Vanity Fair Oscar’s Party 2012 in her exciting take on the traditional black dress. At the time though there wasn’t a lot of information on all the designers and dresses and frankly my knowledge of Collections is not yet encyclopaedic. I’m working on it.

However this Greco-Austrian (what an unusual little mix of ancestry there), London-based designer has been wooing critics since about 2005. Like most of today’s fashion notables he studied at Central St Matrin’s (for his MA) and scooped the British Fashion Award in 2006 for best New Designer Award. It seems I have once again gravitated to a London-fashioner…

So here’s this glorious sampling of looks from his Fall Winter 2012 Collection. Notice the splashes of “oil-slick green” and other shades of green colour throughout – I’ll say it again “oil slick green” is one of my favourite colour trends rippling through fashion right now… (See my Pinterest boards for looks by Anthony Vacarello RTW 2012). Note too the ultra-modern combinations of vintage fabrications such as chantilly lace and anglaise and tulle with futuristic sequine gauze and digital prints and embroiderings. And my god there are some beautiful felt cap-hatsand hats in this little mix with slanted brims… It definitely harks of 1930s glam but like the collections by Louis Vuitton in Paris for F/W 2013 where the silhouette was definitely old-world, it too has all the hallmarkings of a thoroughly modern interpretation of their musings. If you visit the site you will have an opportunity to view the showing and experience the soundtrack which neatly dovetails this visual blend – the strains of a classical piano fuse into some very sexy electronic beats and then into something quite continental and latino in vibe but fresh once again. Perfect. LOOOVVVVVE it!

Also be sure to take a look at his blog – it’s a good one and there are notes on upcoming exhibitions of his work and diary events and store openings and interviews… I heart it. Mooooorre please.

Ok so I’m closing out the week with a complete belter of a post, to all of you who read my blog you will have realised that I am having a little love affair with African men’s fashion at the moment… By that I mean the actual fashion as being worn by actual men in some of the poorest parts of our continent. Men who have more dash than cash who revel in being outrageous and original in their choices, who have a delicious sense of eccentricity to their ensembles. LOVE it. And of all the images I’ve loved so far I really do love these brightly-coloured portraits taken by Daniele Tamagni for his book entitled: “Gentlemen of Bacongo”.

Have you spotted the third usage of tartan yet – how’s that kilt??? Or the man in the candy pink suit with red bowler??? Or the man in orange complimenting beautifully his blue surrounds???

Reading up on a review of the book I discovered a little more about these men and indeed ladies on occasion… For one thing they like to splash out on the most expensive garb they can get their hands on – they favour handmade and designer suiting and will team with a D&G belt for example – even though they live within the garbage slums of Congo. Also the Sapeurs actually belong to ‘La SAPE’ (or the: Societe des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Elegantes) and there are many different conventions and codes of conduct that govern both the clothing and moral ettiquette of members. These include things like limiting the combinations of colours in an outfit to no more than three, always lighting the cigar even if it remains unsmoked, etc. From an anthropological standpoint they are fascinating as they represent a merging of colonial culture with traditional Congolese sentiments…

Very cleverly the publishers were able to secure designer Paul Smith to write the preface to the book – an applaudable choice given the designer’s own ingenious use of colour in menswear over the years.

Here endeth the lesson. And the Affair.

Ok, so on Wednesday I hinted at the fact that I would be entering into the great “Sapeurs vs Swenkas” debate and I alluded to the fact that I am firmly in the camp of my Home-Boys “The Swenkas” and to be fair I genuinely do think that it is pretty even stevens when you look at the pics…

Ithttp://dress-sense.co.za/blog/wp-admin/admin.php?page=statpress/statpress.php would seem though that whilst both camps clearly have a flare for grooming and performance, “The Sapeurs” of Congo boarder on theatrical in their use of colour and prop… How is that banana yellow suit and matching monster yellow cigar??? How is that tartan (second time tartans cropped up in this series of posts and wait there’s a third appearance to follow) short-pant-look with the yellow lacepadrilles and yet another matching cigar in red???? I mean the third cigar hardly bares mentioning given that it’s not in green… And what about the old codger marching around in top hat and tails??? I’m sorry I’m searching for something more proper than “amazeballs” but I think that’s the only word for it. “Amazeballs”.

These award-winning portraits were taken by Italian photographer Francesco Giusti for the series: “A Portrait of the Sape from Pointe-Naire Congo”. Alas many of the images I found I could not upload to the blog but do yourself a favour and have a little google of this chap, his work is incredible… Love it!!!

p.s. I am hearting my imaginable word “lacepadrilles” wish I could find a way to slip that one into conversation somehow… You know casually remark to a friend: “This season I’ll be rocking some lacepadrilles…” that sort of vibe…

Just a little something to wet your whistle for tomorrow’s posts; this fine looking little dude with a definitive swagger to his step (How is that eyepatch? Have you ever??) is a “sapeur” in the making… By that I mean the Congolese answer to a “swenka” and so to be fair our country can’t actually claim ownership of this African and male fashion movement… We just do it better The photograph is once again by Australian photographer Andrew Bell.

Ok, so this week I’m being inspired by The Swenkas – those amazing fellas with more dash than cash… And in my trawlings I came across more than a few international photographers who have travelled to Africa to capture their spirit… One such individual is Australian photographer Andrew Bell, who came to South Africa and specifically Soweto (around 2004) to take the above series of photographs…

One face keeps cropping up all the time in the imagery of the Swenkas (photograph 4) and it would appear that he’s sort of a main protagonist in this crew based on the trailer of the film by Jeppe Ronde – not entirely sure who he is but he strikes me as a leader-type-figure and he’s certainly very debonair. Mind you the dude rocking the mafiosa-stripe combo in image 3 is also pretty fab – I mean if you were to describe that pairing to yourself you’d be thinking: “no f*@$%ing way!” but then you see the photograph and you’re like: “oh, ok I get it, maybe not to my taste… But ok, I get it.”

Now the other funny thing is that when you start looking for something obscure and below the radar of popular culture, all of a sudden you realise it’s not so obscure at all… In fact I found a clip on YouTube of an clip ad that from 2009… So cool but the kind of reference that would have no doubt been lost on a number of people at that time. Maybe we can encourage a revival of it – I mean how is that tartan and teal lined combo and those socks???? LOOOVE the socks!!!

One late night at the Power & The Glory in Kloof, whilst nursing a glass of lovely savignon blanc, I got into a fascinating conversation with an old mate. Dali, began telling me the story of a South African subculture that up until that point had been completely under my radar (I had never even heard of them) – “The Swenkas”… The more Dali talked about them, the more my interest was piqued and I knew I had to see what these men looked like and know more about them. I’ve spent a week researching these ” African Dandies”, and they and their counterparts in Congo, will be the focus of my posts this week.

The first bit of information that I came across was a film by director Jeppe Ronde called “The Swenkas” (the images above are taken from the film) and you can see the 10 minute trailer of the film here. I also stumbled across a post by Barima who writes a blog called Mode Parade and who I don’t think would mind being referred to as an English dandy; I agree with his thoughts about the Swenkas being a “more charismatic movement” than the Congolese Sapeurs.

The history of this group of men, is the history of many migrant labourers who during Apartheid flocked to the urban areas in search of work… Most arrived in Johannesburg to become workers in the mines, returning maybe only once or twice a year to their homes and families. For these trips home they would often buy special new suits to impress their relations and neighbours and from this was borne the practice of “swenking”. “Swenking” is a competition between working class men to see who can put together the most stylish outfit and move the best in it. To compete you must pay a door fee and the winner of the competition gets a cut of this fee as a cash prize.

Often one suit amounts to a substantial portion of a worker’s yearly wage and are put on lay-by; being paid off in small amounts over months and dreamed about all the while. When I think about the situation of these migrant workers from yesterday and the men of today who carry on the tradition in the townships, I am reminded of an extremely fitting quote by Bill Cunningham: “Fashion is the armour to survive everyday life”…

When your life is largely back-breaking work in hot, stifling holes deep beneath the earth, where personal grooming is something forsook and every night you return to cramped, shared and meagre sleeping quarters, when you have nothing but a few earthly possessions and you are far away from your loved ones, then life would surely be unbearable if there wasn’t a reprieve to this harsh reality. If these competitions and the act of dressing up and getting together every weekend with friends and enjoying yourself in a moment of escapism didn’t offer a brief respite from all of this, then how would you face that reality? How would you keep returning to this reality week in and week out if not for fashion and the light it offers at the end of that tunnel?

I myself struggle at times with the bane and trivial nature of the fashion industry, but actually when I discover stories like these I remember that sometimes it’s the very essence of fashion that makes life worth living and it’s such an innately human and necessary means of self-expressionism and actualization that can be harnessed by anyone. It’s why I am a true believer in the Psychology of Cloth…