A Change Has Come

Hello friends,

I hope everyone is having a smooth transition towards the end of the year. How crazy is it that there are only two months left of 2018? This year has literally flown by at lightning pace. It feels like just yesterday that I was ringing in the new year at Afropunk Johannesburg and now here we are at the tail end of the year making fresh new Dezemba plans. Ok… lies, I am still settling into this new environment so I have no idea what I am doing tomorrow let alone what I am doing for NYE and lets just be honest, December during Winter is not quite the Dezemba vibe I am used to. 

So much has happened over the last ten months, its kind of overwhelming to take it all in but as some of you may have seen on my Instagram / social media, I have moved to Paris to study. It has only been a few weeks but this is already turning out to be the most incredible journey of my life so far. I will put together a separate post on the whole move, the reasons behind it and my reflection on my experience here so far at a later stage. I really want to honor the process that it has been and do it justice but right now I am still finding my feet, so creatively I am not there yet, but it will come. 

For now I will share a few crazy stories of my experience thus far. My first fews days here were comedy at its best, I felt like Eddie Murphy in Coming to America. It was a proper “Johnny comes to Joburg" story but to the nth degree! I was excited AF to be here but I couldn't understand a word anybody was saying and all the hours I spent trying to learn how to speak French on Duolingo all dissipated. I was saying “merci” when I was meant to say “bonjour”… it was a hot mess! Also, I have always known my sense of direction is bad but this was next level. I was racking up like 20 000 steps a day because I was always getting hopelessly lost, it was just ridiculous! 

Thankfully my French is on the come up through the godsend that is Alliance Française's beginners classes and now that I have a reliable sim card on a trusted network I can happily use good old Apple Maps to get on to the right Metro (long story, don't ask!). I am also learning to be more patient with myself and to not take things so seriously, besides I am an African, being on time is not in my DNA! Speaking of Africa, the way the food cravings are so real! I would get down on my knees and kiss the feet of the person who would bring me a plate of umnqusho (samp and beans). There have been mornings where I have woken up and I am craving Chicken Licken Hot Wings, then the next day its Nando’s hot peri-peri quarter chicken! Pray for me!

Just before I left home, so many of my friends and followers gassed me up hard to continue blogging, telling me to take advantage of being able to shoot incredible photos in one of the most beautiful cities in the world and become an international blogger. Naturally, being the liker of things that I am, how could I resist right? I hope you will enjoy sharing this journey with me on the blog. 

These shots were taken near the Palais Royal gardens and now onto the details of the look:

Dress - Zara

Shoes - Superbalist (Daily Friday)

Earrings - H&M

Hat - H&M 

Have an awesome weekend

xoxo

SA Fashion Forum

Hey ya'll

I have been listening to a lot of my favorite podcast, Black Girl In Om, and they literally start off each show by saying "hey ya'll" in the most beautiful southern drawl which always puts a smile on my face so I am channeling their energy for this post. Anywhoo I had the privilege of attending the inaugural South African Fashion Forum event last Saturday at Joziburg/One Eloff. SA Fashion Forum is the brain child of Ayanda Nhlapo and Luyanda Madonia, two super dynamic young women who are turning their passion into an empire.

The Founders of The South African Fashion Forum 
Ayanda Nhlapo @_ayandanhlapo; and 
Luyanda Madonia @silverwears

The event successfully brought together stylists, bloggers, designers and fashion students. I met some awesome people there who are doing big things in the industry. There were also some awesome pop up stores showcasing local talent with everything from gorgeous accessories, afro prints, vintage wear, right down to knitted bikinis. Check out some of the pictures of the pop up stores at the bottom of this post. Apologies I am getting old so I couldn't remember all the stallholders names, please feel free to message me your details if you spot your untagged merchandise. 

SA Fashion Forum also invited some incredible speakers to share some pearls of wisdom when it comes to blogging, styling and just navigating your way through the often tricky South African Fashion industry. The actual event had a late start so unfortunately I couldn't stay to hear the last two speakers as I had to attend another engagement but I wanted to share what I learned from the speakers I managed to see. 

Fashion and lifestyle blogger Ricci Kalish of Big Bad Wolf
Instagram @bigbadwolf_sa

The first speaker was Ricci-Lee Kalish, the popular fashion and lifestyle blogger of the Big Bad Wolf, a blog where she shares not only her style but also her very strong opinions about the industry, my kind of girl! A trained actress who turned to fashion, Ricci shared her experiences as an intern at publications such as Marie Claire Magazine as well as the Sunday Times Magazine Fashion Weekly. As a fellow blogger I loved that she shared practical tips around generating income, having an additional source of income outside of blogging, collaborating with brands and how to enhance your pictures. She kept it all the way real, even encouraging us to slide up in people's DM's to get a foot in the door. 

Stylist Linda Sifumba of The Letter L
Instagram @the_letterl 

The next speaker was Linda Sifumba, the winner of the reality tv competition, She's the One. As young as she is, Linda is an incredible stylist with an already illustrious career behind her including interning at print publications, being a retail merchandiser at Spanish fashion house Mango and styling music videos. I loved that she shared some stylist hacks that included sticking masking tape at the bottom of shoes at shoots so that you can return them to the store intact. Incredibly humble, she opened up about the tragic loss of her parents, struggles with finances and the crazy hustle that is interning for fashion publications and how she overcame it all. One of the things that fascinated me about her is her openness to wear different career hats, she is the quintessential multi-career millennial. 

Stylist Khomotso Moloto
Instagram @missmoloto

The last speaker I got to see at the event was Khomotso Moloto, stylist extraordinaire with the hair, lashes and style to match. She is a prime example of a woman who is stomping all over the contrived myth about how motherhood and having a full-time career can't work. Unapologetically herself, she also shared a very personal account of her journey into the styling industry. The focus of her discussion was on what she wished she knew about the industry when she was starting out her career. I loved her honest account of her struggles and how she embraced her failures along the way reminding us all of the importance and the power of cherishing the lessons learned.      

The one unpleasant thing that caught me by surprise was how some of the attendees took on such mean girl personas, trashing peoples outfits, throwing shade and being hopelessly obnoxious... don't get me started on the two grown men who went to fetch themselves chairs, allowing a woman to sit on the floor as the room got too full . Ya'll know who you are #menaretrash! First of all there is more than enough room for all of us in the South African fashion industry so the pettiness is totally unnecessary! Secondly, as creatives the world is constantly trying to tear us down and make us feel like we aren't good enough, we don't need to do that to each other, especially at an event where we ought to be celebrating one another.   

Anyway, I was really inspired by the speakers and the people I met at the event, watch this space I feel like some cool collaborations are on the cards. In terms of what I wore to the event, due to the grey clouds that morning I was almost the girl who wore boots in the summer time *covers face in shame*! Common sense prevailed in terms of my footwear but failed me in terms of the sweater I wore, it got really warm during the afternoon and your girl was hot and bothered! 

Here are deets below:

Sweater  -  H&M

Skirt  -  Salvation

Necklace  -  Zara

Shoes  -  Europa Art Shoes 

Satchel  -  Accessorize 

Earrings  -  Lovisa 

Xoxo

Instagram @Herritual

Instagram @flygirls_sa

Everything’s not lost

Happy 2018 my beloved

I won’t make any excuses or give you laundry list of why it’s taken this long to put up a new post, you deserve better than that. I am just happy to be back and trust me its not because I didn't have a lot to say, I always have a lot to say! 

When looking back at last year there were so many highs and lows and so many important lessons learned. The overarching theme for me last year was a sense of coming of age, a sense of coming into my own as a woman. I gave myself permission to just be who and what I needed to be without fear of what others would say or how I would be perceived. For the first time like ever I stopped playing the comparison game and allowed myself to run my own race.

It was an incredible journey of shaking off a lot of fears, anxiety, unnecessary pressure and constraints that were placed on me by life, society and especially myself, anyone else feel like they are their own worst enemy? I had to give myself time to delve deep into all my dark feelings and deal with my issues (Yes the D word!). I threw myself into self care practices, a lot of yoga, spending time with my family and quality time by myself.

Along the way I had to learn to respect that this journey was mine and mine alone. I am one of those people who love to share the things I learn with those close to me and I always want to take them on the ride with me but as you can imagine that doesn't always work out. This taught me to respect the journey that other people are on and to not impose my opinions on them. Its called growth (when you read this you have to say it like Kelli from Insecure lol).

Through that experience I was finally able to appreciate that life is meant to be lived and that you can't waste it being afraid of what people will say or whether you will make mistakes. If you take an "L" you can always bounce back! I have always been too hard on myself and hyper-critical but I have learned the importance of cutting yourself some slack, we are only human after all. Everything's not lost!

Right enough musings about 2017, I am grateful to see another year and excited to see what this year holds, treasuring all that I have learned but keeping my focus on what's to come instead of what has been.

    

Onto this look, I just love this jumpsuit its just so much fun. I currently have an obsession with tassle earrings and I just keep accumulating pair after pair but can you blame me?

Here are the outfit deets below:

Jumpsuit  -  Superbalist (Daily Friday)
Shoes  -  Superbalist
Earrings  -  Lovisa

Here's to an awesome year ahead for all of us.

xoxo