The entrance to the store. Image by: Pearl Boshomane

In case you didn’t know, Spanish fashion brand Zara just opened their first South African store, launching it last night. The store is housed in the new extension of (the already sizeable) Sandton City, which was so stunning we thought we’d been teleported to a mall in Dubai without knowing it!

Angels sang and danced as we walked towards the doors of the fashion brand we only know from international fashion mags. At the launch we spotted the fashion teams from ELLE and CLEO magazines, R&B singer LeeAnne and style blogger Mili Bongela. The crowd, was, as would be expected, fashionable and cool.

Inside the store. Image by: Pearl Boshomane

The Zara store is huge and is one of the biggest in the world. It’s 2700 square metres of clothes, bags, shoes, scarves and hats. 2700 square metres of bliss.

Hot trends we spotted were preppy tailored blazers and jackets (which we loved), loose-fitting tops (very Stella McCartney), tailored pants, colour blocking (even on the platform heels!), nauticals (Queen Mother Coco Chanel would be impressed), early 60s-style dresses (very Jackie O – let’s channel our inner First Ladies) and hot pants (won’t be donning those any day soon). The guys’ clothes were very Ben Sherman (you know, preppy, cool, hipster, very London), and the suits were lovely (if you can’t afford a Tom Ford suit, Zara has you covered).

The men's clothes. Image by: Pearl Boshomane

As for the prices, they’re middling, with the average price of a blazer being about R600. It’s not Chanel or Prada or even Black Coffee, but it’s not exactly Mr Price. Look, Sandton City never pretended to be about the masses in SA. It’s more for the up-and-coming and the ‘made-its’.

We get the feeling that they will get carried away shopping at Zara.

Here’s to fashion!