Black Coffee debut at Cape Town FW
Aug12

Black Coffee debut at Cape Town FW

At last, Cape Townians will get to soak up and savour the superb lines of the Jozi-based Black Coffee fashion favourite’s Spring/Summer collection at this years Cape Town Fashion Week, hurry up and buy your tickets to the show as last we heard, it’s brimming! Cape Town Fashion Week 13-16 August 2008. African Fashion International and Virgin Mobile are very proud to announce that celebrated designers Jacques van der Walt and partner Dannica Lepen’s Black Coffee label will make its Cape Town fashion debut on Saturday 16th August at Virgin Mobile Cape Town Fashion Week. The cutting edge label will now present its Spring/Summer collection in a stand alone show at 7pm on the last day of Virgin Mobile Cape Town Fashion Week. “Unprecedented demand this year has placed a major strain on the supply of tickets at all shows during the week, and the surprise announcement of the Black Coffee debut will relieve some of this pressure. Fashion pundits have come to expect Black Coffee collections that are fashion forward and completely original,” said Deon Redman, Creative Director for African Fashion International. Black Coffee’s collection will precede the appearance of British supermodel Jourdan Dunn on the runway for the closing show, the Virgin Mobile Finale, which features Thembisile Mazibuko, Suzaan Heyns and Stars of Mzansi award winner, David Tlale. “This is also exciting news for Virgin Mobile and adds to a long list of other impressive design talent showing”. “Virgin Mobile has a creamy history with Black Coffee as they designed the clothing range of our sassy advertising photography and we are always amazed by their level of creativity and attention to detail. Superlative stuff!”, said Nicholas Maweni of Virgin Mobile. The Saturday schedule for Virgin Mobile Cape Town Fashion Week is now as follows: * 18h00 Love Water Love * 19h00 Virgin Mobile presents Black Coffee * 20h00 Maya Prass * 21h30 Virgin Mobile...

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Jazz Lovers get your JOJ tickets… fast!
Aug12

Jazz Lovers get your JOJ tickets… fast!

This years Standard Bank Joy of Jazz looks to be sexying up jazz in SA as a slick array of global jazz favourites are jetted in to perform in the heart of Johannesburg city. Think other great Jazz festivals like Montreaux, North Sea Rotterdam, Montreal and of course New Orleans ongoing jazz extravaganza, they all started somewhere; but their defining features have to be the quality and range of Jazz muso’s in the lineup as well as the tight organisation that goes into running world class music festivals. It looks like JOJ is on it’s way up there, lets hope it becomes an international attraction. But for now, all you local Jozi people that love Jazz, hurry up and buy your tickets, if you don’t know where to start, we’ll tell you what we’re excited about and MUST NOT be missed: Roy Ayers, Joy Denalane, Asa from Nigeria, Simphiwe Dana, Max Wild and Sam Mtukudzi, RJ Benjamin, Ringo Madlingozi, Abigail Khubeka and then we’d probably really dig hanging out with the ‘developmental and emerging bands’ to spot hot new talent, like the Central Johannesburg College, George Tabor School of Music, Music Academy of Gauteng and The Tshwane University of Technology’s School of Music and bands from the Puisano Roving Jazz programme. Anyways, whatever you do, GO GO GO. The international language of jazz will see the stages of downtown Jozi go global when the annual Standard Bank Joy of Jazz runs in Newtown from August 28 to 30. Some of the world’s top jazz artists will be providing a musical mélange of sound at this not-to-be-missed jazz-travaganza. With its truly international line-up, the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz will incorporate all jazz styles – from Afro jazz and fusion to Latin rhythms, bebop and straight-ahead. Artists from America, Japan, Norway, Spain, Israel, Germany and Holland will be joined by top performers from South Africa and Nigeria. Giants of the jazz world include Japan’s Keiko Matsui who recorded her last album Moyo in South Africa; the Original Superstars of Jazz Fusion featuring Roy Ayers, Tom Browne, Wayne Henderson and Lonnie Liston Smith; American saxophonist Joshua Redman; guitarist Doc Powell from the US; Israel’s Avi Lebovich and the Israeli Jazz Orchestra; Spain’s Sedajazz; Holland’s Denise Jannah; Germany’s Joy Denelane and Norway’s Tord Gustavsen. Performers from the African continent include South Africa’s Abigail Kubheka, Pat Matshikiza, Mark Fransman, the 2008 Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for jazz, Simphiwe Dana and Yvonne Chaka Chaka as well as Asa from Nigeria. The Mbira Stage will showcase the opening night bill on Thursday, August 28, with the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra (JPO) paying tribute to...

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Six Young Designers Battle it out
Aug12

Six Young Designers Battle it out

Fashion Weeks are supposed to be the breeding ground for the new wave of designers coming through the ranks, as well as the platform where we, the adoring public, get to see young designers mature and move on up through snotty after parties to fame and glory. That’s why it’s great to see initiatives like the ELLE New Talent Awards that actively seek out the hottest young creatives in fashion and give them the support they need to get seen. Six finalists were chosen from a pool of 50, as ELLE magazine in partnership with top fashion value retailer, Mr Price, narrowed the search for this year’s hottest new fashion talent during the ELLE New Talent Awards 2008 first phase of judging. Marize Malan, Robyn de Klerk, Tanya Demby, Anisa Ami Mpungwe, Stephan Marin and Khumo Mashimane made the cut and will showcase their designs at the 2008 Sanlam South African Fashion Week (SAFW) ELLE New Talent show on 27 August 2008. The final judging takes place on the 26th August. The six finalists will also get an opportunity to exhibit their work during the SAFW which ends on 30 August. The competition, open to recently qualified designers, exposed some very good talent according to one of the judges, trend analyst, Dion Chang. The designers had to create a women’s wear collection of eight garments for Summer 2008/9 under the theme New Romance. “It was pleasing to see fresh ideas and the different interpretations of romance,” Chang said The ELLE New Talent Awards 2008 will for the first time this year give the winner an opportunity to be exposed to the full retail cycle through a mentorship programme with Mr Price. “There was a lot of exciting, innovative and creative work coming through and we have no doubt that there is great new design potential in this country,” said Joanne Coelho, Trend Manager for Mr Price, who also judged the awards. The competition has in past years brought to the fore talented local up-and-coming young design talent in the South Africa fashion industry. Previous winners of ELLE New Talent include: David Tlale, Frances Andrews (Library label) and last year’s winner Tiaan...

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Jazzy Treat at House on Fire
Aug12

Jazzy Treat at House on Fire

Whoever told these jazz cats to head to the Swazi Kingdom after their gig at the Joy of Jazz was doing them a huge favour, not only will they get blown away by the serenity, beauty and people in the kingdom, but the people of the kingdom get to feast on an unusual jazzy musical treat. Nice one. Sam Mtukudzi, (the gifted son of the legendary Oliver) and his superbly talented friends from New York and Denmark, Max Wild and Soren Moller, are gonna blow the House on Fire down. GO GO GO!!! MAX WILD & SAM MTUKUDZI with special guest Soren Moller at House on Fire, Swaziland 30th August Swazi audiences are set for a thrilling concert on Saturday August 30 featuring powerhouse jazz saxophonist Max Wild from New York in a stunning Afro-beat collaboration with Sam Mtukudzi, son of legendary Zimbabwean performer ‘Tuku’, fast emerging as a major singer-songwriter sensation in his own right. Joining the 8-piece band as special guest is the prodigious Danish jazz pianist Soren Moller, regarded as Denmark’s hottest new jazz talent. The act is being featured at this year’s Standard Bank Joy of Jazz festival in Johannesburg, and immediately after performs exclusively at House on Fire. In April and May this year Max Wild and Sam Mtukudzi launched their new brand of jazz Afro-beat, with overtones of chimurenga music, wowing audiences at the famous Joe’s Pub in New York and then on to HIFA Festival in Zimbabwe. Max and Sam have created a sound that spans continents, a collision of jazz and Afro-beat. In April Max and Sam followed up their single ‘Teerera’ with a full-length album, an ambitious cross-Atlantic collaboration, which teams Max’s New York jazz quintet with Sam Mtukudzi, features Oliver Mtukudzi and showcases compositions by Max, Sam, Oliver, and Nigerian bassist Michael Olatuja, with lyrics in Shona, Ndebele, Yoruba, and English. Max Wild has been turning heads on the Big Apple jazz scene with his distinct sound and Afro-infused jazz compositions. Born in Zimbabwe where he grew up, his musical career took off under the tutelage of British jazz greats Tim Garland and Julian Arguelles. He toured UK and Germany in 2001 performing at Berlin’s prestigious A Trane Jazz Club. In London Max appeared with Guildhall Jazz Orchestra, performing Gil Evans’ Porgy and Bess with Randy Brecker at Barbican Hall and Gil Evans’ Sketches of Spain with Dave Liebman. Since moving to New York in 2002, Max has been part of the Manhattan Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, directed by acclaimed Latin percussionist Bobby Sanabria, with many performances at New York’s renowned Birdland jazz club. Max has performed twice at Carnegie...

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Call for Entries: South – a travelling Expo.
Aug11

Call for Entries: South – a travelling Expo.

Get your creativity seen in the innovative SOUTH travelling exhibition showing off the best of South African Creativity, kicking off at Design Indaba in Feb in Cape Town and then moving on to take over the world. The top three designs will win money, imali, moolah and by the way they’re looking for a range of creativity and design. Hurry up/Sheshani, entries close in November. SOUTH seeks to uncover the finest examples of South African creativity across a broad spectrum of disciplines and forms. And, for the first time on one platform, showcase a dazzling array of our finest creative produce. ART. ARCHITECTURE. ADVERTISING. CRAFT. DESIGN. FASHION. FILM&VIDEO. JEWELLERY. MUSIC. NEW MEDIA. PERFORMANCE ART. PHOTOGRAPHY. The kind of creative excellence that will best infl uence the judges is neither black nor white, nor ethnic, nor neutral, nor euro, nor west, nor east. It’s a harmony out of contradiction. A balance of extremes. That fine line between order and chaos. SOUTH seeks executions that capture the soul of this mystique. Design Indaba has collaborated with the Creative Circle and The Loerie Awards to launch the Creative Alliance. Dedicated to promoting South African creativity on an international front, the alliance will be initiating a travelling exhibition sponsored by the SABC. The exhibition will debut at Design Indaba 2009. Entitled South, the exhibition is a celebration of the gloriously positive, ridiculously naïve and relentlessly spontaneous creative industries inherent in our country. Seeking to encapsulate the bold, lawless, cheeky, crossover, politically incorrect flavour of the South African imagination, the exhibition is a celebration of the home of high-class ashtrays made out of elephant dung and pap served with sushi. The exhibition will comprise of existing local and international designs which best encapsulate “South”, as well as the award, open to participation from creatives across all industries including advertising, design, film and video, music, performing arts, fashion design, new media, publishing, radio and television, industrial design, visual art, architecture and crafts. Three prizes will be awarded. * The overall winner receives R100 000. * Second place receives R50 000. * Third place receives R25 000. Onwards… upwards… southwards… viva! For entry forms and more information visit: www.designindaba.com/south Enquiries: Michael Purdham at Interactive Africa Tel: (021) 465 9966 Fax: (021) 465 9978 south@interactiveafrica.com Onwards… upwards… southwards…...

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