Anthony Bila: The man behind the lens
By Lindelwa R 1. Let’s pretend you’re not the creative genius we’re interviewing, what would be the one thing you can’t live without? Well you’re very generous for saying that, I would have to disagree though, I’m no creative genius. One thing I can’t live without? I think we should all be able to live without material tethers or anchors, they in themselves can trap us into certain ways of thinking, so besides food, water & shelter, I can’t think of a single thing I can’t live without, really. 2. What’s the book you’ve read which changed your life? The book is one that took approximately 1,600 years to write. The book had 66 different writers over that time period who wrote from different vantage points, they were from different walks of life and different social classes and countries even. Yet, this book is flawless, infallible even in the way that it carries the secret to true enlightenment, happiness and understanding our purpose. That book, of course is one inspired by a higher power, it’s the most published book in history despite many attempts to thwart its proliferation, and this book is the Bible. 3. This next question is a becoming a cliché but, how do you think art can encourage a revolutionary way of thinking, in the youth specifically? I think art, the truest form of it questions all our beliefs, and it interrogates them. One should always ask “why?” And asking “why” isn’t a sign of anything except curiosity and wanting to be more enlightened and gaining understanding to me. So yes, if art is there to express an emotion, to question a system or even to subvert it, art is often a catalyst for change. And art can take so many various forms, music, writing, painting, even the way one lives their lives can be art, it’s everything and anything that is done with a certain finesse, a certain je ne sais quoi. 4. What do you think us youths need more of from ourselves? We need to be honest enough to say what we really feel, unafraid and brave enough to voice our thoughts about everything and driven enough to act. All to often we as young people we just don’t take enough initiative to change the status quo. South Africa has a 52% population under the age of 23, and that means we are the future but if we do not demand better representation and opportunities of the system and of ourselves, nothing will change. We have to be revolutionaries, and assert change to benefit us since we are the ones that the future...
Represent Review: Food Wine Design Fair Nov 2010
We sent our fabulara Representah Zamantungwa Khumalo (otherwise known as JoziStylista) to sample the delights at this year’s Food Wine Design Fair at Hyde Park. For more photos of the event visit our Flickr set of the event here. Over to the fab diva Zama… Sharpile sisi wami! It’s 32 degrees C on a Monday afternoon. I’m inside a computer lab on campus and the guy sitting next to me is giving me the side eye because I’ve been starring at this screen for the past hour. I find it hard to believe that, just yesterday, I was on the roof-top of the Hyde Park shopping centre for the annual Food Wine Design Fair. Why is it so hard for me to believe this? Well, for a start, it was raining cats and dogs in most of Joziland (okay maybe not cats and dogs, but definitely kittens and puppies!), I was in the company of amazing people (and not the weirdo sitting next to me) and – and this is favourite part, I was eating freshly baked bread, heaven sent chocolate brownies and drinking exotic coffee. This year’s Fair pulled out all the stops! There were exhibiters from as close as Soweto, to as far as Cape Town and Limpopo. I started off by scouting the place, walking around and going to the stall that grabbed my attention. The first one was Mielie. This small community business creates beautiful handcrafted pieces made from recycled fabric. I spent a good 30 minutes at their stall drooling over the different designs of their bags. Another stall with great bags was Barok, a Limpopo based company. They have very interesting designs and I loved their use of different textures and fabrics. Just in case you were wondering, yes, I have a bag addiction… Now that we’ve got that out of the way… I found myself in the vicinity of the food stalls and being the food lover that I am, I couldn’t resist the temptation to try out the different foods. I tried out banana chutney and it was orgasmic, to say the least! The only chutney I’d ever had before that was Mrs Ball’s Chutney. I don’t think I even knew there were other chutney’s out there. Something else I found strange yet very tasteful was beetroot jam! The shocking thing is, it wasn’t even RED! Food and design aside, the highlight of the Fair for me was the Marie Claire Pop up store. The Marie Claire stall was very interactive; it had cool gadgets, great wine, a vintage sale and a chance to meet the editors of the magazine. I didn’t...
Represent Interview: MOOI in Durban
Our Durban-based Representah @_thanda_ chats to Fiona and Lauren, the aspirational entrepreneurs behind the gorgeous Glenwood-based boutique Mooi in Durban. Sharpile Thanda! What inspired you to open Mooi? We wanted to showcase Durban talents and support local community based projects with the emphasis being on Restore Revive Recycle What can we find in the shop? Fashion, home décor, retro furniture and gifts and our target market is broad from little ones to ladies. What were the challenges in opening your own small business? Keeping overheads manageable, setting up costs ie stock purchasing and shop design as we did all shop fitting ourselves. How has the shop been received in Durban? Durban is a different city when it comes to support of the arts and fashion as there is the plenty of talent but not enough support. We are a destination shop which helps but we do not have enough foot traffic, this is one of our biggest draw backs. Who are your top 4 design inspirations? a) Mooi as we do all our own retro finds and décor ourselves b) Dino Galetti Creative Director of Tequila and Mooi c) N/A d) Miss Moneypenny, Josephine & Mooi What other interests do you have? Photography and videography A favourite saying? “Life without fashion would be a tragedy.” How did you meet? Lauren and Fiona met back in the good old school days somewhere between std 7 and std 8. We have been friends ever since. Fiona lived in the uk for 11 years from 1997 to 2008 whilst Lauren ran her children’s label Tigerlily and on Fiona’s return we made contact again and rekindled their friendship and the rest is history. The partnership has been an easy one to maintain as each has their own style, creativity and ideas. Anyone interested in finding out more, get in touch with the owners Fiona Galetti 0724026689 or Lauren Berry 0842085517. To visit Mooi pop in to: 100 Bulwer road Glenwood DBN or call 031 201...
Through urban’s Eyes: The View From her Camera
Sharpile to @_thanda_ aka Thanda Kunene for asking great questions of such an inspirational young South African creative, urbanmosadi. We ♥ the way urban describes why she loves living in Cape Town as well as her nickname for Johannesburg… and our favourite line from the interview has to be… “I seem to thrive outside of my comfort-zone, and in this case being away from home, is the only way I grow.” Representahs, make sure to shift your comfort zone every now and then – while you can, and always DO what you love. We’ll leave it up to Thanda and Urban to convince you: Tiisetso Molobi AKA Urban Mosadi is an ever-changing soul with plenty of thoughts and silent serenity. She speaks deeply about her love of photography and the need for vintage in one’s life… The name is Urban Mosadi. How did it come into existence? urbanmosadi (with the lower case) urbanwoman. I needed to open up a new email account and I needed a name that described who I was, and what I wanted to become. Mosadi means woman. The t.molobi@blahblah was really not an option for me. For the longest time I have been a tom-boy, so wanting to blossom into a woman/lady one day, made it easy for me to stick with the word and name. I have had this alias for about 5 years now. Although I still have tom-boy tendencies, I feel like I’m evolving into this urbanmosadi I envisioned years back successfully. You now reside in the windy city of Cape Town. What made you change scenery from Joburg which is also your home town? I’m a rolling stone. The moment I am in myJoHo for too long I start getting ants in my dashiki pants…lol. After coming back from living in Los Angeles for most of last year (2009) I wanted to find a place that I could connect with back home, Capetown is alot like LA, or LA is alot like Capetown. Lots of landscape similarities, I reckon the C in Capetown definitely stands for Creativity. I love that about this city. Call it what you will Slaapstad, Apetown Little Europe, but there is an organic creative buzz about this town. I also love that folks out here are mad stylish. I love love that. But over and above that, I needed a place that would be kind to my heart. I seem to thrive outside of my comfort-zone, and in this case being away from home, is the only way I grow. I never understood the “cut throat” term used to describe myJoHo…I still don’t. I’m actually starting to...
Issey Miyake Creative Director @Design Indaba
We believe Design Indaba is up there on the list of ‘top must attend‘ design events UNIVERSALLY… much desired by designers and creatives the world over, although we’re sure the lovely city of Cape Town helps the whip appeal. Bravo to the team behind it for flying the South African flag so high and shaping an event of such high global standards (not that it’s not expected!), we hope it continues. This years exciting news is the announcement that Issey Miyake’s creative director will be presenting… now not only is this Editorista’s favourite perfume *hint hint*, but she was also lucky enough to lap up their flagship shop in Tokyo last year and was totally blown away. So start nagging your bosses and get booking so you can take advantage of early bird discounts for this years Design Indaba – more info below: Just last year, Dai Fujiwara unleashed his debut collection as creative director for Issey Miyake on the Paris runway. Of course, Issey Miyake addicts would have been following the rise of this young textile engineer since at least 1998, upon the launch of the award-winning A-Poc series. A-Poc is an acronym for “a piece of cloth” and describes Fujiwara’s proprietary software-driven design process, which weaves entire pieces of clothing with no sewing necessary. The technique represents a whole new creative, technological and ecological rapid prototyping proposition to the fashion industry. And don’t even get us started on Fujiwara’s design wedding project that saw some of the world’s most renowned design companies get involved in the big day of an ordinary Finnish couple… Rather come hear Dai Fujiwara tell you about that himself at Design Indaba 2009. Book before 12 December 2008 to make use of the Early Bird and Alumni discounts. Click here to...
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