Mmm, the sweet smell of celebs
● Want to get a whiff of one of the land’s top celeb fashion designers?
Now you can, with the release of GertJohan Coetzee’s first fragrance.
Dubbed Double Platinum, the scent created by a top French nose was a year in the making and was launched on Thursday night in a swish perfumery in Joburg’s Sandton City shopping centre.
I find myself taking the escalator into the mall with a grand social dame who came dressed the part: Peta Eggierth-Symes, shimmering in a clinging platinum cocktail dress. Past the mall’s luxury row, where Peta’s now shuttered boutique Pallu ran up lavish dresses for the rich set, we find ourselves on a red carpet rolled out in front of Skins Cosmetics. The store is the first South African outpost of the Dutch cosmetics emporium, and will stock Gert’s concoction along with its other exclusive fragrances.
I meet Max Priebatsch of cosmetics distributors African Sales, who brought the Skins concept to our shores and who tells me the company will have three local shop fronts come July, having opened Sandton in 2017.
Then it’s off to greet someone I haven’t seen in over a decade — Vusi Twala, the former Simunye presenter who these days calls himself Vusi Zion. The son of legendary radio personality Shado and bro of broadcaster Monde, tells me his life is mostly spent behind the cameras nowadays as a partner in TV production company Kaimal Pictures, which will be responsible for a few shows landing on our screens later this year.
All around us ushers and organisers are wearing tees proclaiming “Gert”.
Up comes the namesake designer — who has put his red carpet looks on celebs ranging from Bonang to Oprah — to say hello.
Next I greet Somizi Mhlongo, who, with his boytoy hubby Mohale, is on cloud nine after the debut of the series documenting their wedding broke viewership records on streaming site Showmax.
I wonder if the finale, which airs on March 16, will lift the lid on the eight guests, including a high-profile businessman, who — unlike artist Cassper Nyovest — were turned away for not following the dress code.
On to chatting to Somgaga’s Metro FM colleague Quinton Masina, better known as the Naked DJ.
Quinton tells me he’s set to release his first single, an Afro beat-meets-dance-hall track featuring Chicagobased vocalist Harrison Crump, come March.
Look forward to a lot more international collabs once the DJ’s album is launched.
I also meet a duo who have racked up a slew of fans on that social media platform making waves, TikTok. That’s Chané Grobler, who you will remember was featured in last week’s Sunday Times, and Roberto de Gouveia, who is known as “K1ngbert0” on the platform.
So, what do you do when you’re not posting short vids synced to music?, I ask Roberto.
“I own a liquor store in Germiston,” admits the social media star with over 900,000 followers.
Chané and Roberto, who found each other on TikTok a few months ago, assure me they’re “just friends”, but someone else looks like she’s been struck by Cupid’s arrow.
Red-python-print-clad Lerato Kganyago’s Instagram video on February 14 slayed Valentine’s Day, capturing a romantic surprise in which the DJ, presenter and eyelash entrepreneur was serenaded by a saxophonist and pianist in a lavish home carpeted in rose petals.
Elsewhere I spot A-Listers Lucia Mthiyane, on a short visit home between filming an upcoming Netflix series in Cape Town, and Norma Gigaba, who has swapped fashion schools — she’s now at couturier Spero Villioti’s academy.
Now for the launch, and gal about town Taryn Louch gets the ball rolling, telling us all about the sniff, which combines berry and rose notes with a smoky incense undertone and which will set you back a cool R3,500 a bottle.
Foodwise, we were served freshly shucked oysters, feta cheese phyllo parcels and rose and cherry cupcakes. In keeping with the decadent mood of the night, the space was decorated with blood-red roses specially flown in from Ecuador.