Represent ♥’s Everyday Tweeple – Meet @JoziStylista
Back since the last time we felt truly inspired, uh that would be a few months ago, we were regularly sharing the Represent love by featuring some of the splendid Tweeple that caught our eye on the web. The concept is simple, we believe in the greatness of everyday South Africans doing beautiful things and inspiring others. We’re also tired of celebrity culture and just talking about parties. Get with it peeps! Then we got bored and let our updating lapse. Well we’re inspired again and today we introduce you to @JoziStylista – when we met a few months ago she was known as @MsLegend but ch ch ch changes meant she updated her identity. Meet our fabulous Represent ♥’s Everyday Tweeple @JoziStylista . To be featured in our feature, make sure to follow Editorista on our tweet channel @sisiwami Name: Zamantungwa Khumalo Bio: Entrepreneur.Womanist.ZaVintage owner.Stylista Extraordinaire. Radio presenter.Coconutist. Controversial.Future literary snob. Debater.Speaker.Lover of red wine Ms Legend I see you have changed your name to JoziStylista, what’s up with that? I started a blog called JoziStylista, I’ve neglected it a tad bit since ZaVintage started… But it was also because I’m a stylista, literally! You’ve also added ‘Entrepreneur’ to your bio- do tell us! I sell vintage bags and accessories. The brand’s called ZaVintage…I should be adding clothing and other things late next year… It’s meant to be a vintage lifestyle brand, ranging from clothing, accessories, antique furniture. I update the blog every FashionFriday. There’s also a Facebook Fan Page… And you love red wine – which brands of red wine can you recommend I’m a sucker for cab sav, so I’d say Vergelegen or Thelema. (get this girl a sponsorship!) The ex MsLegend, what are the daily rituals for living a legendary life? Besides being my extraordinary and crazy self-which can become somewhat ‘ritualistic’ at times, I update my journal-turned-scrapbook… In hopes that one day someone will discover it, publish it and maybe even make a movie inspired by the book. It goes without saying that the book will also become a bestseller. Tell us about being a Coconutist I’ve been called a coconut for pretty much all my life. I Grew up in a township, attended a multi-racial school, spoke a lot of English and apparently I twanged. I suppose that’s a recipe for a coconut. I only see it fit to wear that title with pride nowadays. What about a Womanist? I was pro-women before I knew what patriarchy or feminism was. I use to call myself a feminist, but that’s a heavily loaded word and oftentimes evokes too many mixed emotions. I think Womanist says, “I am pro-women” without the image of the women of the 50’s...
Represent ♥’s Everyday Tweeple – Meet @matthewncube
Voici numero 2 in our new series Represent ♥’s Everyday Tweeple – inspired by tweets in our stream that made us want to know more about the hearts and minds behind the 140 characters… Meet Matthew Ncube, known on Twitter as @matthewncube – he’s an Afropolitan spreadsheet geek living it large in London – In’it! ;0 Don’t forget to follow Editorista on @sisiwami to find out who’s next in the series… It’s a lady ! Location: 0.000000,0.000000 Web: http://searchgeek.wordpress.com/ Bio: work in paid search. love pivot tables. game theory & chaos theory enthusiast. afropolitan. mostly from zim. What is a pivot table? – a pivot table makes lots of lots numbers in a spreadsheet easy to understand and can make nice graphs and pictures to draw conclusions Please enlighten us with an example of game theory? -Right. Say boy and girl go on a movie date. Boy wants to see action movie. Girl wants to see chick flick. They both want to spend to spend time together. The strategic bargaining is game theory in practice. Simples. What about chaos theory? – Expect the unexpected. There’s a black swan approaching around the corner. Like the reason the laundry in your washing machine is untangled. Your machine probably uses a nonlinear chaotic system, which means every cycle is random. Got it? (umm… no, still not, but I’ll ask my clever friends to explain 😉 ) What ingredients make up an afroplitan? – Young, proudly African, internationally mobile, polyglot, making a mark in the world, the coolest damn people on earth Where’s the rest of you from if not Zim? – Well… the rest has been picked up along the way for example my Pan African music sense, my dull British humour, my European dresscode and my brazen American ego Why London and for how long? – London by coincidence and will be for a very long time (please explain this coincidink further in the comments… pretty please ? ;0 ) So tell us about your night with Mos Def… – I still think I was dreaming Which ‘thing’ are you going to next week at Koko and why? – Some artist is having a gig there showcasing his new album and a friend got me on the guest list. apparently it’s Usher. not the greatest fan but i’m up for a party. Tell us about ‘Bring me my Bow of burning gold’… – My school’s favourite hymn, don’t ask why as it was an all boys boarding school on the Zim/Bots border – sung it at the end of each term – now symbolises the end of anything significant I do...
Represent Interview: Babazeka.com
Thanks to Twitter (do you follow Editorista’s tweets? http://twitter.com/sisiwami )Represent was introduced to a ‘socially aware online store’ recently called Babazeka that sells a range of colourful South African handmade goods, supporting numerous craftspeople throughout the country. The shopping bug immediately kicked in and we of course needed to know more. We chatted to Sarah, the lady that makes it all happen. (Crafters, find out how to get in touch with her below) We love your website Babazeka, please tell us what your inspiration for creating Babazeka is? What does Babazeka mean and where did the name come from? Babazeka was created for a few reasons. One, I moved to a small town (Knysna) and realised pretty quickly if I wanted to be truly happy in my career, I would need to start my own business doing what I enjoy (as opposed to the jobs the town had to offer). Two, I’ve always loved making things by hand – my favourite hobby is sewing. Three, I’m one of those people who has just always had the urge to help others. So, after chatting with lots of people, I put it all together, and agreed with my cousin, Scott, to set up an online store which would sell handmade things made by job creation projects. Scott developed the site and helps me with the online marketing, pretty much everything else is up to me. The word Babazeka is zulu, and means “be beautiful” or “be admirable”. I found it in an online dictionary, got all excited about how suitable the meaning was to what we were doing, and then got even more excited when the .com was available. (It’s VERY difficult to find available .com’s) What is your background? What is your backstory? Where did you grow up? I grew up in Joburg, and studied Business Science Marketing at UCT. I always thought that I’d go into advertising, but after travelling around the world for 3 years, I figured out quite a bit more about myself and realised that the advertising industry is definitely not where I belong. I’m just not a corporate or big city girl. Moving back to South Africa and to Knysna, is where everything was put into perspective for me. I knew immediately that I wanted to be a South African who helps the country in my own little way, that it’s not all about money and that it is all about quality of life. How are you finding online sales in SA, are people trusting of the system? Do you have much interest from overseas clients? Our sales are growing steadily which is the most...
First Ever AFRICAN fashion week
Wow, amidst all the mishmash of the myriad of fashion weeks and not knowing which city or country we’re in or which season, who would have thought that the creme de la creme of an entire continent’s fashionistas could come together on one stage. Only in South Africa, land of big dreams and even bigger doers. Nice one. Represent Africa! Great timing, HINT: If you didn’t know already, big chunky and colourful Afro-inspired necklaces are the MUST HAVE accesory this Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. We look forward to more info. Inaugural Africa Fashion Week to draw world attention African designers will be scoring the winning goal during the upcoming FIFA Confederations Cup in June, when the inaugural Africa Fashion Week takes place in Johannesburg. African Fashion International (AFI) has announced that the first Africa Fashion Week will be an eight-day showcase of the continent’s leading designers from 12 to 19 June 2009 at the Sandton Convention Centre, replacing Joburg Fashion Week on this years spring/summer calendar. Africa Fashion Week – which will feature designers from up to 15 countries including top South African designers – is set to become an annual event that will also be held during the FIFA World Cup in 2010. Visit www.africanfashioninternational.com for more details. Image: David Tlale’s...