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When the New York Times reports on the status of the Sub Saharan African fashion magazine industry it may be time to sit up and pay attention. The conclusion is delightfully up beat for those of us concerned with the future of the glossy medium:
“While Asia and Eastern Europe remain the most popular destination for the expansion of fashion magazine brands, several industry executives agreed that the current global downturn and the changing media landscape worldwide might make a wide open market like sub-Saharan Africa attractive after all.”
Yay for our mags I say. ( Oh and the pic is by the lovely Misha taken during the fittings of the David Tlale show at the ARISE – Promise of Africa Collective Spring/Summer 2010 show – New York Fashion Week)
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Sharon Becker ( Elle Fashion Ed) shot Kepi for our match the style feature. What a sartorial delight this fellow is.
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( The Great Depression )
Well everyone knows that the old school fashionista is hackneyed – but who has replaced this outmoded freespending creature with a yen for instant fashion gratification ? Elle is punting the Sytlista but there is a term that might be much more relevant in our current economic climate – the recessionista. This is a person whose tastes and retail interests might aspire to designer goods but whose diminshed means make such aquisitions a little more tricky. Savvy shoppers have taken to finding the cheap and chic version of the goods their little hearts desire and they are blogging up a storm about it.
This article from the New York Times chronicles the phenomenon ….
Stephanie Diani for The New York Times
COST CONSCIOUS Mary Hall started a blog to chronicle her cheap and chic choices.
Consider the $1,235 patent-leather satchel with golden hardware designed by Anya Hindmarch.
Mary Hall, a marketing manager at I.B.M. in Redondo Beach, Calif., heard its siren call. Then she went to Target to purchase a similarly shiny purse, made out of polyvinyl chloride, by the same designer. Price: $49.99.
“In the current economy, I thought I would reform,” Ms. Hall said.
Welcome to “recession chic” and its personification, the “recessionista,” the new name for the style maven on a budget. That the word represents the times could explain why Sarah Palin’s new wardrobe ($75,000 at Neiman Marcus and nearly $50,000 at Saks) struck some as distasteful.
Read More…
I just read this very witty review on Slate of the Elle – Stylista reality show ( starting tonight in the US) which recreates the circumstances of the Devil Wears Prada and transposes them to Elle in New York City. How horrible can one editor in this instance Anne Slowy be with her poor interns? This seems to be the central premise of the show – see how dastardly behaviour equates with style. Predictably after much trial, tribulation and latte fetching the winner gets employed as a junior editor. ( Note to self – demand more Vida coffee runs from the interns – enough with the nice ed routine its very last season)
Here is a little preview and here is the review if you cannot bear to click away…
Competing for a job at Elle on the new Stylista.
By Troy Patterson
Posted Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2008, at 3:22 PM ET
The coinage stylista plays on the model of fashionista, a term so terribly abused that it has come to describe any person with an above-average concern that her bag not clash with her shoes. The newer word is clearly also suspect: It glints with militant frivolity and, moreover, typographically suggests some dermatological disorder or designer mouthwash. Still, it has a kernel of worthiness, style being the man himself and all that. The “11 aspiring trendsetters” on the reality show Stylista (The CW, Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET) are, as their miscues and tender tantrums demonstrate, several trials short of becoming men and women, and a further maxim applies. When your correspondent was a turnip less ripe yet than these contestants, he sat at the knee of a stately old local-newspaper columnist who declaimed, “Style is you finding out who you are, what you’re about.”
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Just had to post this delightful pic of the lovely Amy Elenbongen (erstwhile fashion assistant at Elle) in her summer kit.
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Everywhere I look, Vogue, Elle, and The Times I find snippets about Colin Firth’s eco venture. With his Italian wife Livia he has opened a shop in London called Eco – an “ecological destination store”, offering artisan-made, ethical, Fairtrade and eco goods, and the services of environmental experts to help homeowners make their spaces more energy efficient.
Here’s a little article if you want more – I just want to know where I can get a wooden computer? I think they are bloody gorgeous – Livia has one and she also has Mr Darcy – I am feeling the jealous….
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I attended my dear friend Zodwa Kumalo’s ( in pink) wedding shower/hen party – her delightful sister Zanele ( in blue) organised the perfect shower with some help from Ingrid ( Marie Claire) and Sarah ( House and Leisure) she is getting married to her Hein next Saturday and if this little party was anything to go by I am sure that the inimitably stylish Kumalo sisters willl throw something extraordinary. Read More…
Spotted at the launch of the new look Visa Long long long table for Starfish – they are moving to Melrose Arch – was Ms Zanele Kumalo ( Elle) sporting the most delightful pair of jeans. She say’s she got them in Paris.
I also loved Melissa Jane Maxtead’s ( Glamour) flirty little jean skirt.
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Pics by Eddie Mtsweni.
And now, making her umpteenth appearance on the Frock Report, this year’s belle of the ball, Elle fashion editor Sharon Becker. She wears a signature piece from 2007 Elle New Talent Winner Tiaan Nagel’s Spring/Summer collection. It’s a collection, said a breathless Elle editor Jackie Burger before announcing the new winner, that makes all the Elle team’s work worthwhile.
Sharon ran her own blog from fashion week which you can check out here. RM
My fellow blogger Minor Matters sent me this very amusing story from the Guardian UK - about how a girl turned her life around – she went from a sugar addicted dysfuntional somebody to a super duper glamourpuss simply by religiously following all the advice in the glossy magazine.
I know this to be true – for example read my article in the September edition about how it is a bad idea to go blonde if you are a preternatural brunette and you will never stray
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