South African fashion shoot in Oslo

South African fashion shoot in Norway.

We had loads of fun and stress, shooting our first Spring/Summer range last month. The clothes, as you all know now, are from South African designers and are just fantastic.
Mads was the photographer, and he shot for over 12 hours in studio. The lovely ladies involved were students who volunteered their time and beautiful faces for the sake of promoting S.A. fashion and spirit in Norway.

Below are a few pics, soon they will be up on the mzansi-life.com website where you can shop for the items.

Filed under: Fashion Designers, Fashion shopping online, International S.African shopping, Young Fashion Designers , Fashion, onlineshopping

Holmes Brothers

Local and lekker, the Durban design duo has released a new photoshoot capturing the essence of Durban life and style.

Check out their facebook page for more pics and info.

Filed under: Fashion Designers, Young Fashion Designers , Fashion

OPPORTUNITIES FOR NEW TALENT

MODELS WANTED FOR TFP SHOOTS

Are you an amateur or semi-pro model, or new talent and want to take that first step?
Are you interested to create or expand your photographic portfolio?
But prefer not to pay for a photo shoot?

Yes? Then this is the solution for you! Contact JA Photography for an opportunity to be involved in their latest projects.

Filed under: Photography , Competition, modelling, Photography

Graphic art of Francois Gelderblom

Got 5 minutes to spare? Be entertained by Cape Town talent, view the work of graphic artist & photographer, Francois Gelderblom.

Filed under: Graphic Designers, Photography , graphicdesign, Photography

Cape Africa design platform

The CAPE AFRICA PLATFORM (CAPE) is a groundbreaking cultural project located in Cape Town, South Africa.

CAPE aims to culturally connect Cape Town, South Africa, Africa and the Diaspora by creating a ground-breaking contemporary African art event – rooted in the local but global in impact.

CAPE offers a view of contemporary African art as integral to daily life, accessible, even playful and vital to development and transformation.
It is a call to action for cultural practitioners to respond to the unique realities of present-day Africa and redefine African cultural practice for an international and local audience.

Filed under: Art & Craft projects, SA design expo , designexpo

Keeping it Native

Craig Native – the indie South African designer from Durbs who has turned a street brand into and international success. Check out his latest range and backstage pics from the Design Indaba 2008. www.craignative.com

Filed under: Fashion Designers , durban, Fashion

The Most Beautiful Object in SA finalists

Check out the Design Indaba Blog to view the entries received in Design Indaba’s Most Beautiful Object in South Africa (MBOISA) contest.

Filed under: Art & Craft projects , Competition

Loving the mZansi-Life

It was -10 that evening but a warm +25 in our hearts as we celebrated the ‘mZansi-Life’ in Oslo last weekend. All South Africans know the mZansi-Life. It’s the life that many here in Norway yearn for. The life of sunshine and colour. Orange and green instead of grey, black and white. Choice instead of chain stores. Sunshine instead of grey skies.

I left my good Art Director job in Durban and moved to Oslo 10 months ago. It was not the crime or general frustration most South Africans site for leaving. Rather it was love. I had fallen in love with a viking and now was to leave my life behind and move to the coveted Scandinavia. Taking on ‘love immigrant’ status was harder than I thought. I found myself bewildered at this new life. Everything I had come to know and love of South Africa was suddenly gone, the fashion, the colour, the options, the people! I was wishing for that life again, the mZansi-Life so much I began to blog about it.

Why write all this? To empty my heart out and speak of my experience. To show that a wish can lead to a blog, which leads to a business doing something I absolutely love and needed to do.

mZansi-Life is that business which seeks to bring the Southern Life to Norway by promoting talented independent fashion designers in South Africa. Designers such as Miss Moneypenny, Muti and Beadworkz are the first to be welcomed under the mZansi-Life umbrella brand. Their style and story struck a chord at the pre-launch party last weekend.

Wonderful woman from all over the world living in Oslo responded to the invite; sushi, wine and clothes! Ladies from Germany, Burundi, South Africa, Britain and Norway all said the same thing:

We want colour.

We want choice.

And we want to know the story behind our clothes.

And South African designers answered. The party was a great success. The fashion was embraced and sparked an interest in S.A. design which is set to grow this summer in Norway. Miss Moneypenny was loved for her uniqueness and recycled vintage sari fabric. Beadworkz for the time and love put into every necklace and for supporting their community. Muti, for the original illustrative design of Clint Campbell.

I had to sit back and breathe a sigh of relief afterwards. It was like watching a baby being born. mZansi-Life took its first steps and is set to grow this summer. Next we plan a Spring Launch party and a fashion show. Who knows where from there?

There might be a chance to enjoy the mZansi-Life in the far North after all.

love

mzansi madame

P.S. I will be in South Africa this coming month looking for new designers. If you are one or know of one with good quality work, let’s chat!

Filed under: International S.African shopping, Young Fashion Designers , Fashion, onlineshopping

Showcase your work, it’s easy peasy with Tank.

Tank is THE application that S.A. designers are using to create their porties online. I caught up with Alan Alston from Tank and he gave a good explanation of just why Tank is doing so well.

1. Easy to edit design

Designers ‘pick up and run’ with the tank application – familiarising themselves with the app, how everything fits together, how easily the different skins can be customised, and how quickly they can roll-out a simple, content-managed website for their clients. Once you’ve setup a site you can also tweak aspects like design and layout, you even have options of inputting your own css code into your site for complete visual control. Then of course the other side of the coin is true as well: we have lots of creatives (illustrators, photographers, stylists, artists, writers, designers, galleries, architects, even agencies and consultancies) build sites for themselves; and in some cases we team them up with designers to get the most out of their new sites.

2.  Common web terminology

Tank utilises common web design terminology in the app too: we use information architecture terminology like global and utility navigation during site build, we emphasize aspects like form (the way your site looks), function (the features that defines the way your site works), control (control who can manage the site alongside yourself) and constraints (limitations imposed upon your site).

3. Searchable & Google friendly

And course all content you add is indexable and searchable by Google too – best practices are ensured all the way through. Besides all of this it’s a no-brainer to quickly add Google Analytics to your site to track your visitors, or Google Apps to your domain for email. Tank ‘plays nicely’ with other web apps and this type of integration is quite seamless.

PS – follow Alan on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AlanAlston – if you want!

Filed under: Animation & Illustration Designers, Graphic Designers, Social Networking

Here, Bokkie bokkie

Original, available online, shipped worldwide and prrrroudly Souf African. Find Bokkie here, buy Bokkie there and read more about the artist behind it.

Filed under: Fashion shopping online, Handcraft Designers, International S.African shopping , handmade, onlineshopping