Styled By The Kokonut Stylist - Article 10

The 2013 Durban July Fashion Police - Oh My Gosh!

I am almost certain that no one cares that a horse called Heavy Metal with jockey Smanga Khumalo won the main race at this year's Durban July held last week Saturday. I also  assume that not many people care that Smanga Khumalo was the first ever black person to win at this horseracing event or that about 50,000 people attended this year's Durban July. Yes? No?

Well, maybe that is because we all look forward to the fashion and that is perfectly normal. With a splendid theme as Posh, Oh My Gosh! one would think there would have been no fashion offenders at this years Durban July. I mean, how do you possibly go wrong with a Royal theme? Unfortunately in as much as there were a few and far apart fashion hits, there were, sadly, a lot of misses. Let's start with the good ones shall we?

When I first saw Top Billing presenter, Bonang Matheba's dress I thought 'how could Bonang of all people get this one wrong?' That was until I heard her rationale behind the bright-coloured floor length neon coloured dress. Bonang said "Everyone is focusing on the 'posh', so I decided to do the 'oh my gosh' part. Everyone who sees this dress goes 'wow' because of the neon colour." Smart  choice there Miss Matheba. She never seems to put a foot wrong when it comes to fashion.

TV presenter and Voice-Over Artist Roxy Burger was among my favourites. She interpreted the theme, kept it simple and dressed exactly as it stated. The pop of colour on the shoes was also a great touch.

Celebrity couple, Mbali Mlotshwa and husband Black Coffee looked every bit of classy in black and white. I love how Mbali went for pants as most people always think "dress" when dressing for the Durban July, defying boundaries is a fashion statement on its own.

Vuzu TV presenter, Dineo Moeketsi looked absolutely dazzling in a white dress with lovely neon highlights, it accentuates her figure perfectly.

I was left on the fence with Dineo Ranaka's dress. It has too many trends in one piece; puffy shoulders, peplum, leather and houndstooth. I do however love that her hair and make-up was almost natural and that gave the entire outfit a classy feel.

Minnie Dlamini's outfit was one big confusion for me. Its almost as if she wanted to make it fun and flirty but it just came off as messy. It more 'Oh my gosh why?'.

Muvhango actress Omuhle did a total misinterpretation of Kelly Rowland's Grammy Awards dress. I feel she could have made it a bit more figure-hugging. Word to the wise, if you copy something, make it better.

TV personality Samkelo Ndlovu is apparently wearing a E5,000.00 dress. For just satin and chiffon silk it sure is expensive. Expensive enough for her to want to wear it to big public events twice. It just looks too busy, over-accessorised and just wrong. Neither posh nor oh my gosh!

Let's hope next year's Durban July outfits will be more exciting than this year's ones. Maybe at the J & B Met in Cape Town in January we will be spoiled with good, creative and mostly original outfits.

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Written By: Koko Shabangu 

I Committed A Fashion Crime, I Missed Fashion Week

SA Fashion Week was between the 11th and 15 of April. This time the designers were showcasing the Spring/Summer 2013 Collections, it is always an entire two seasons ahead. During that time I was in Swaziland, I had taken a sabbatical month to help me heal from being extremely heartbroken (story for another day, another platform). Albeit, I committed a fashion crime, I missed fashion week *hangs head in shame*. 

I started attending fashion week in 2011 when I started taking this blog seriously. Its so cool to attend when you have the media pass and all that, you go from one fashion show to another. Sometimes you find that one show is in the North somewhere and the next show is downtown. It is the most exhilarating yet tiring week in any fashionista's schedule. Then comes the "what should I wear today" question with all of these days, throughout the week. There is something about seeing designer's collections on the runway that makes your own wardrobe look like trash bin.

While going through the SA Fashion Week Official Website, there were a few collections that stood out for me. My pride and joy comes from seeing young designers who were at Fastrack a few years ago now showing with the big, more well established designers. Halala to them!!! Fastrack is a fashion day for mostly graduate designers (mostly from Lisof) to break into the market. A few years ago AFI had partnered with Foschini group to enable these new designers to have a platform to showcase their designs.


Here are some items from the collections that really impressed me. I think at the moment South Africa is the place to be for fashion, we live in thee most exciting times!\

Black Coffee

Loxion Kulca

Stoned Cherrie (the use of colour here is amazeballz)

Gert-Johan Coetzee (Side note: Poppy has a hot bod!)

Jacquelin Munsami

Joel  Janse Van Vuuren

Suzaan Heyns (The creativity

 here is to die for!)

So ladies, it looks like the sheer look is here to stay. Black and white is very much in vogue and a pop of color here and there never hurt anyone!