EDITOR’S NOTE
As a graduate of the Miranda Priestly school of fashion, I have The Devil Wears Prada to thank for knowing the difference between the colours blue and cerulean. By the way, “cerulean is a shade ranging between azure and a darker sky blue”. If you didn’t know, now you know...
I use the “cerulean sweater scene” in The Devil Wears Prada because it is the most accurate depiction of how people see fashion — vapid, superficial and indulgent.
It’s an open secret that fashion is often treated as journalism’s stepchild. Not only is fashion contested in journalism but it is also the most divisive form of art because it is “wearable” art.
I remember attending my first South African Fashion Week (which kicks off the Autumn/winter programme on 20 October) in 2001 and, as I watched models walk the runway, saw a door open to a type of journalism I didn’t know existed.
In November, fashion and art will converge at the 2022 Zeitz MOCAA Gala and Dinner, supported by Gucci. Over the past 20 years, I’ve worked and become friendly with many incredible South African designers but, to be honest, none of them captured the world as much as Thebe Magugu.
Coming from the mining town of Kimberley, Magugu has done things in fashion nobody in South Africa could have imagined possible. He has used the best form of storytelling to articulate his talent — his own life.
From his grandmother to his aunts and his mother, he has used his clothing label to tell the story of where he comes from, the women who brought him up him and how their fashion influenced his aesthetics.
That story, through time, has evolved to address historical issues: issues of class and issues of gender.
He has been kind enough to offer Mail & Guardian Friday two exclusive interviews this year — after Vogue, of course.
In his conversation with Mary Corrigall, he talks about his approach to this wearable art, his craft and the people who inspire it.
He is a phenomenal designer (and one of the warmest people I’ve ever met) who took a Valentino design by Pierpaolo Piccioli and reimagined it for the September issue of Vogue, as seen on our cover. The women who brought him up must be truly formidable — real-life superheroes.
Speaking of incredible women, this week a box-office smasher and allblack-female-led action movie premieres in South Africa — the Viola Davis-produced The Woman King.
About three months ago, I had the honour of interviewing one of the stars of the film, Thuso Mbedu (who plays Nawi), before the film’s international premiere and before her 30th birthday. As I put the final touches to this column, she is at the Saxon Hotel in Joburg with fellow cast members John Boyega, Siv Ngesi and Masali Baduza for the press junket for the movie’s South African premiere.
I was lucky enough to have a conversation with director Gina Princebythewood for this issue.
Let me detour here for an anecdote about my first chance “meeting” with Prince-bythewood. In February, on a hot summer afternoon in Cape Town, I was having lunch with friends at Kloof Street House. I had just watched Daniel Craig’s last appearance as 007 in No Time to Die and, as I walked into the restaurant, I saw Lashana Lynch (who plays Izogie in The Woman King) sitting with a gorgeous woman I did not recognise. Fortunately, I had enough chardonnay in me to be brave enough to approach them so I could tell Lashana how great I thought she was as the first black female 007.
Fast-forward to September 2022, a week before the movie comes out here, and I’m on a Zoom call with Prince-bythewood, who was the woman sitting next to Lashana that day in Cape Town.
When I remind her of it, she exclaims: “Oh yeah, I remember that! That was you?”
The Woman King is a crucial film for many reasons: one, it’s produced by black people (Viola Davis and her husband Julius Tennon), two, it has a black female director, and three, it’s an action film that stars only black women — and dark-skinned black women at that.
There is no white saviour, there are no damsels in distress and these women are kicking ass and taking names in this groundbreaking film. The Woman King is based on the real-life story of the incredible women who were warriors in the 18th century in Dahomey (now Benin) and how they fought to protect their kingdom.
Sometimes I wrestle hard with the challenges that come with being black, being a woman and being African. But most times, baby, I revel in it. Trust and believe, there has never been a better time to revel in the badassery of being an African, black woman.
Not only is fashion contested in journalism, but it is also the most divisive form of art because it is ‘wearable art’