David Tlale at Joburg Fashion Week

You know those people who always get free stuff? Those people who have vainglorious facebook statuses about their lives being so amazeballs and you comment back saying “You lucky fish”? I was one of those people on Saturday night.  I work for this awfully brilliant event coordinator Miguel who knows people, who know people, who know David Tlale, so AnMari, Lezanne and I got tickets to the biggest runway show South Africa has seen. The show, being set to start at 22:00 was way past our bedtime, but we donned our best for the best. The crowd was remarkably unlike the one we saw at Suzanne Heyns. As Marko of Man of the Cloth blogged, Joburgers like to dress in black; but the outfits! My oh my, oh my. Men in dresses and sequinned turbans, heads wearing hats made from plastic bags, boys eyes a glitter with fake eyelashes. There is some underground cult of the best dressed men in Joburg and I need to know where this meets, so I can watch them and learn how it’s done. The idea of standing waiting to go into the gates that lead to the gates that become the Nelson Mandela Bridge, I assume, is to get a fashion week street vibe going. I am all for this, but I’m not sure it works when the fashionista are shoving one another like 7 year olds in a tuck shop queue. Amongst the crowd of Tlale fans, was the astonishingly beautiful Lira, who I had the tiniest chit chat to about the likeness we were feeling toward a herd of sheep. Once inside/on the bridge, we hustled to our seats; had I known I was going to be standing for another two hours until I saw what I’d come for, I’d have taken my time. David Tlale has the makings of a prima donna, which I think we all know; it works for his brand and it works for me, but I don’t think it works for hundreds of important people who expected to be in bed by 23:30. People started to walk out; [because unlike us, this wasn’t the most important thing to happen in their lives] Lira gave a free impromptu serenade in an attempt to transform the agitation into enthusiasm. Finally, after we’d heard many false start announcements and made a few new friends, David Tlale graced us with his presence on the back of a Harley Davidson. After what felt like an insincere apology for keeping us waiting, the show of the year began. My photos are seriously rubbish, so I’d suggest you take a look at the AFI website for clear images of the show. The models included local faces such as Matthew Booth, Michelle Botes, Jen Su, Roland Schoeman and Gerri Rantseli to name a small few. The difference between South African Fashion and International fashion is we don’t put on gynormous shows of collections made up 100 pieces; but David Tlale did. His collection was immaculate. Extreme headpieces made out of fake hair or beads paired with dark eerie lips and the most superbly draped dresses, tailored jackets, voluminous skirts and blouses. Ending off with a magnificent all white suit styled with a whopper of a tulle shawl. Bursts of fireworks at each end of the bridge were the final hoorah as David Tlale raised his arms in the air from the podium on which he stood throughout the show. The clothing was incredible, but the production side of things really was ghastly and tickets were not even scanned. I just wonder; will Mr Tlales gift for the garb be memorable enough to overshadow the two and a half hour wait which most of the guests did in heels?

To me, yes, but then, I am just a young blogger of little importance.