Bonang’s journey to being a true New Yorker

THEY say being a New Yorker is a state of mind. You need to have chutzpah, panache, and a never-saydie attitude to truly become one. Alicia Keys sang how if you can make it in New York, then you can make it anywhere. I’ll raise her this

– if you can make it in Joburg, then the world can truly be your oyster. Since her move to the Big Apple three months ago, Bonang Matheba has been sharing bits about her life there. And if there’s one thing we can now confirm, it is that she has truly become a naturalised New Yorker. And this is why:

A home on Park Avenue

The impact of Gossip Girl in our psyche, as millennials and older Gen Z, is always evident in how we think about the Big Apple. No one ever saw Matheba having an apartment in Brooklyn, as trendy as it is. She has always been about luxury, and that means being a Park Avenue princess.

Summer in the Hamptons

Is it even a New York summer if you didn’t go to the Hamptons? Well, as we have come to learn from all the shows set in the Big Apple, it isn’t. Matheba headed over to the Hamptons in a party bus, where she and Somali-Australian model Duckie Thot rocked mermaidinspired outfits to attend a party.

New York Fashion Week

One of the rituals of being a true New Yorker, especially one in high society and celebrity, is if you have been invited to Fashion Week. However, it’s not just about being invited to the show – it’s also about front-row seats. Well, she can tick both of those things off her list, as she was on the front rows of the PatBo and Prabal Gurung shows, at the first in-person New York Fashion Week since early 2020.

US Open

The media personality was at the US Open 2021 semifinal match between Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev. She happily snapped and shared stories on her Instagram account, showing just how close she was to the action. She was just metres away from the pool of photographers. And she travelled in style, choosing to rather use a helicopter from Manhattan to the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows.

The MTV VMAs

Attending the MTV VMAs is a rite of passage for people in the entertainment industry and Matheba has finally ticked that box She walked the red carpet in a bedazzled Dolce & Gabbana two-piece outfit, and walked the red carpet with her friend Emory Stewart, a Manhattan-based real estate agent. He previously featured in her A Very Bonang Year documentary, where he showed her The Beekman Residences penthouse suite. He found her the apartment that she lives in.

Now she only has one hurdle left: surviving the New York winters.