Designing woman
Hold onto your pins and patterns, fashion fundis – Dintle has designs on a new career!
Scandal! Weekdays e.tv (*194) 19:30
In August 2013, Dintle (Mapaseka Koetle) took Tino (Clint Brink) and Erin’s (Lorcia Cooper) cash in exchange for adopting her baby and went to study fashion in Cape Town. But lazy Dintle was back in Joburg for more money three months later. Now she is getting a second shot at being Dintle the designer, thanks to Layla’s (Natasha Sutherland) offer to groom her for success on Thursday 27 July. And on Thursday 3 August, Dintle’s babydaddy Quinton (Brighton Ngoma) even offers to pay her student fees again. “This is a chance for her to prove to everyone that she can run a business on her own,” says Mapaseka. “She loves fashion. She’s always wanted to be a fashion mogul.” The queen of tacky could soon be putting clothes on the rack and on your back…
A PERFECT FIT
Dintle’s drive and ambition could make her a model designer despite her vulgar taste. Betsey Johnson, for example, can be as gaudy as a peacock that fluttered into a Claire’s Accessories rack. “Even though her fashion sense is all over the place, she knows what she is talking about. She knows a bit about clothes and fashion and she reads a lot about it in magazines. When you have that personality, it goes well with whatever fashion you come up with,” says Mapaseka. The fact that Dintle doesn’t sew is no problem once she and Phindi (Pretty Ncayiyana) shake on a deal on Tuesday 8 August. And Didi Couture (why be modest?) is born!
PROBLEM PATTERN
But if there’s one pattern that Dintle loves more than any other, it’s the shortcut. Dintle has already cut corners by not going to college and that decision to go full steam ahead without a formal foundation leads to a big blunder on Wednesday 9 August that could sink her business before its even launched. “The main problem is that she is not patient. She tries to design things but it doesn’t work out. And when she surfs the ’net, she sees something that looks nice, that’s when she starts getting this idea,” explains Mapaseka. For now though, let us have our dream of wearing a Didi dress and look at how the soapie brought Dintle’s designs to the screen.
AFTER A FASHION
The brains behind Dintle’s Didi Couture is Scandal!’s head of wardrobe Corlene Furstenberg. “They asked me if I could draw and I said no. I didn’t even try,” laughs Mapaseka. Corlene reveals that “the starting point for all of this was to follow the story to find out where Dintle is finding inspiration, then actually do as the character did. So I started on the internet looking for what’s happening globally in fashion weeks, seeing the biggest trends. I had to think like Dintle – what would be nice for her. What colours she would find inspirational and what would draw her attention; it might not be the most practical garment. One of the top trends we picked up from 2017’s runaways is fringing and that’s something that would appeal to Dintle. Fabric-wise, it’s winter now and velvet is still big. Skimpiness is true to Dintle’s character, so that might not be a fashion trend but we tried, keeping in mind that it’s a family show, to show a bit of flesh here and there. We had great fun with this!”