OUTFIT | Merry, Merry

MR. PRICE Crop top and skirt | ALDO heels | ZARA clutch | H&M rings | M.A.C Ruby Woo lipstick | SWATCH watch

The reason for the season finally arrived yesterday - Merry Christmas! I hope you all ate too much, laughed too loud and spent some quality time with the special people in your life. My day was spent in church (suddenly overflowing with newcomers as always on Christmas Day, lol), in the kitchen, and outside enjoying the warm weather. Yesterday was such a pretty day - it was crazy hot, but overcast with a slight breeze. Honestly such good weather for Christmas. Overcast skies also make for the best natural lighting, and so came these photos.

Please note my attempt at being not so boring me - I've mixed prints, AND accessorised somewhat with red. Although it's still mostly monochrome, I'd say it's a baby step in the right direction. Should I not post again before the new year, I wish you a good last few days of 2014 and an incredible 2015. Cheers!

(Kinda, sorta, very late) Christmas Wishlist

Silver Pouch: Mimco / Basic Eyeshadow Palette: Clarins / Boxy Crop: Style Republic / iPhone Cover: Moschino / Nail Varnish in Belugaria & Twin Sweater: Essie / Daisy Dream Perfume: Marc Jacobs / Sneakers: Nike / Sunnies: Ray Ban / Choker: Topshop / Camera lens: Samsung / Book: Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

Guess who's late to the Christmas party this year? This girl! For no particular reason, the festivities - carols, decor, gifting, the whole lot - have missed me entirely. Over some yummy vegetarian eggs benedict and a chai latte at Mugg & Bean yesterday morning, my dad asked me what I'd like for Christmas. I won't say it took me by surprise, but I was shocked that I honestly hadn't given it a single thought 8 days away from the big day. Lol @ me.

I'm a pretty speedy thinker seeing as I came up with this "visual hit list", as Raya Rossi of The Visual Journal called it, in a day - jokes, most of these items were saved to my bookmarks, and there were a few things I've wanted for a while off the top of my head (if you follow my Twitter, you might know that I've been wanting a pair of Nikes for aaaages now). Polyvore is so addictive. I could make these things forever.

PS. For those of you who are fans of Drake and in the same spiritless slump as I'm in, check out these Drake-themed Christmas cards. They're gold!

MBFWA: Aimee Song & The AFI Fastrack

image c/o Foyin

Last week was a ridiculously long and crazy busy week for me with school and other things, and by the time Friday came along, I was 110% done with life. My plan for the weekend was to sleep and watch countless series, but that all changed on Friday morning as a result of the greatest news I was in such desperate need of hearing - I would be meeting Aimee Song (creative genius behind Song of Style and 3rd most followed Fashion Instagrammer) and attending the AFI Fastrack show at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Africa the next day, courtesy of Raya Rossi and Sunglass Hut SA who hosted the competition, and most of all, my dear blogger friend,  Foyin of DearSolo (pictured with me above), who won and invited me as her plus one.

MEETING AIMEE

Now, I try to act like calm, cool and collected with most things, but when getting ready on Saturday morning, I was a ball of nerves, and to make matters worse, my hair wouldn't sit right (hence the cap I wore), my nail polish smudged twice, and my shaky hands produced the most uneven winged eyeliner EVER. Who knew Aimee Song would have such an effect on me? When we finally did meet her, after complimentary lime and lemonades at the Sunglass Hut VIP Lounge, she was so sweet and friendly and carried the conversation like we were old friends catching up. She poured out complements to myself and Foyin - sort of a big deal coming from her - and by then all my anxiety had vanished (thank God!) A while later, we joined her for a quirky photo at the Instastation inside the lounge, and briefly met her sister Dani before they took of.

It was honestly such a great experience, and really humbling in that despite their many successes in the blogging/fashion industry, both Aimee and Dani were still so normal and chilled in person. Not to mention that they both liked and commented, (Dani even re-posted a picture of mine) on my Instagram photos that I posted with/of them. Definitely a major moment in my little blogger life!

THE SHOW

left to right: Tuelo Nguyuza, Nazneen Kagee, Rich Mnisi, Jessica Ross - images c/o SDR

Now let's talk about the actual show I watched, the AFI Fastrack (made up of the 4 finalists - Tuelo Nguyuza, Nazneen Kagee, Rich Mnisi and Jessica Ross). My personal favourites were Rich Mnisi, who won the young designer of the year award at the AFI awards on Sunday night, and Tuelo Nguyuza.

Mnisi presented a stunning sport luxe collection inspired by nature. Prints included what looked like grey with bleached branch-like streaks and brown and gold wooden textures. The models were super fierce as they walked down carrying tennis racquets and skateboards, or wearing boxing gloves and sneakers. For the finale, they ran down the ramp in a sort of 'suicide' fashion. Very cool.

Nguyuza's collection fully took on the "orange is the new black" theory , consisting of bright oranges and salmons. His use of straight lines and elongated baseball jackets also hinted at the whole sport chic vibe - an overall feminine and trend conscious collection with a sporty and boyish touch.

RATCHET CHIC (POST SHOW)

After the show, Foyin and I met up with our friend and my twin (namesake) Khensani of Glitter Daiquiri, as well as some of her friends. We messed about and took a bunch of photos, as teenage girls do, which went from pictures of our outfits and street style to group photos pulling gang signs - we call it "ratchet chic". It's honestly the best to have friends who have blogs too, and know your needs when it comes to outfit pictures, and so you don't get embarrassed when having mini photoshoots in the middle of a walkway while people watch you strutting your stuff to get that perfect action shot.

BOGART cap | MR. PRICE boxy top | ZARA skort | TOPSHOP shoes, bag | SWATCH watch | H&M rings

I had such a great time and can't wait to attend another Mercedes Benz Fashion Week next year. It's so exciting to see international brands and influencers taking notice of African fashion and actually getting involved. African fashion and talent is on the rise people, don't sleep on us!
PS. Apologies for the unplanned hiatus - I fell into a dark pit of creative block, then my laptop crashed :(

New In | Europe Round Up

Black crop top & paisley print top: Bershka / White top: Brandy Melville

Babydoll playsuit: Brandy Melville / Rings: H&M

Sneakers: Topshop / Jeans: Brandy Melville / Crop top: Stradivarius

Dress: Stradivarius / Clutch: Zara

Stradivarius

White top: Stradivarius / Blue top: Mr. Price (Didn't buy this in Europe, but I added it in because it's new too, and I really like it)

Both pairs: Aldo

As promised in my last post, here is a peak at some of the clothes I bought while in Europe and the UAE. Two new discoveries for me were Stradivarius and Bershka - really lovely clothes at really reasonable prices. Both stores were bang on trend for the younger generations (crop tops, high waisted everything, distressed denim, etc.) and they had something for practically everyone. It came as less of a shock to me for the both of them to have such great clothes when I found out that they're under the same group as Zara, H&M and Mango - makes sense.

Overall, I'm very happy with my purchases and there have been no signs of buyer's remore thus far (despite the fact that the majority of these were bought on impulse and the travel bug). I'm especially obsessed with the sneakers and black heels, as basic as they are, because God knows I have beeeen wanting them... Are there any items you like in particular? :)

Euro Tour: Part 2

The joys of travelling! The second part of our tour consisted of a 6-hour drive from Chamonix to Paris, a short flight to Barcelona, and a pretty lengthy flight to Dubai before returning home. This part of the tour was a little more entertaining - I guess anything would more entertaining than the 2 nights we spent in a ski town (Chamonix) and taking part in absolutely no skiing. Read more for pictures and details of our escapades in the various countries.

PARIS, FRANCE

Pictured above is myself and my dear friend Chryssi a few hours after our arrival in Paris (6 hours drive from Chamonix, grrr!) We were pretty exhausted, but took the Metro into the city and walked for quite a while to get a taste of the city and pretty view of the Eiffel Tower.

Our second day was spent at Disneyland, the happiest place in the world. That was a lot of fun, but all junk I ate combined with the rides we went on (we had a mission of going on all the thrill rides) had me feeling pretty sick by the end of the day. We got really into the whole thing with our Minnie Mouse ears and everything – aren’t we cute?

On the last day we went up the Eiffel Tower, but unfortunately the weather was pretty awful - most of our group ended up buying the cheap umbrellas from the street vendors found abundantly in Europe. The view of the city was mostly covered by fog, and I guess the cold made us all a little grumpy - not a great setting for an experience many of us looked forward to. Anyway... The rest of the morning was spent on and off a tour bus experiencing some different sights (and sites), and taking in all that we could of the city of lights (I thought it was of love, but since being there I've been corrected.) In the afternoon we spent a couple of hours on the Champs-Élysées! Please note: never go shopping in Paris on a Sunday, forget it. All the shops are closed, except those on the Champs-Élysées. Somehow our tour guides were unaware of that??

Disney!

A gloomy view of the city from the Eiffel Tower

Notre Dame

The absolute centre of Paris

Sacré-Cœur

BARCELONA, SPAIN

We landed in Barcelona after a very early flight, and unfortunately we weren’t allowed the luxury of changing into something a little less ‘I’m on a flight, I’m tired and I don’t care what I look like’ and a bit more ‘I’m touring Barcelona, and need to look good because I’m gonna be taking a thousand photos’, so please forgive me for my track pants and ill-fitting tank.

Barcelona was one of the best places because the things we did piqued a lot of my interests:

1) FC Barcelona: our first stop was Camp Nou, the FC Barcelona stadium. This was a pretty big deal because FCB is my favourite club, and we got to see the pressrooms, changing rooms and all the memorabilia in the museum.

2) Art and architecture: Antoni Gaudí, a Spanish architect, designed some beautiful buildings and furniture in his time. We visited the Sagrada Familia, a church in Barcelona designed by Gaudi famously known for the fact that it is still under construction. It is one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture I've ever seen. We also visited Gaudi’s park, Park Güell, which was also really beautiful.

3) Really good food: my friends and I had made a point of eating foods that the various countries are known for, so our first and second meals in Barcelona were paella and tapas. The whole style of eating with lots of bread, olive oil and vinegar is really enjoyable. We also found an ice cream parlour in an alleyway I don’t remember, which played great music and had amaaazing ice cream.

4) Shopping: We spent a day on a popular street called Passeig de Gracia with toooons of shops; Bershka, Mango, Zara, Brandy Melville, Stradivarius and more all on one street. Most of the clothes I bought were from Spain – look out for a New In post next week featuring some of the things I bought in Europe.

La Sagrada Familia

Park Güell - These benches were so damn comfortable!

ICD CREEEEAM - I had two cones (judge me)

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

When we landed in Dubai it was 1AM and 33 degrees Celsius outside. The heat and how people could survive living in it is beyond me. After barely sleeping at all, we visited two of the many buildings Dubai is known for:

The main shop we were really keen on going to was Victoria’s Secret, because we hadn’t been able to find it at the places we went to in Europe. The only setback was Ramadan, because my roommate and I had slept in by mistake and missed breakfast, and all the restaurants were closed, and either way, we couldn’t eat in public.

After all the shopping, we went back to the hotel to get ready for dune hopping and a Bedwaan dinner in the desert. The drivers we had drove like maniacs on the dunes, with us laughing and screaming hysterically while being thrown around the car. The dinner was YUMMY and the henna and dancing and everything was great. That whole experience was honestly soooo much fun, and a great end to a great trip.

At the Bedwaan dinner :)