Nokia Cape Town Fashion Week Final Day Report

The fourth Nokia Cape Town Fashion Week closes today. As in previous years it has been mostly the evening shows, by well-established South African designers, that dominate. Hip Hop (don’t be fooled by the name, you won’t be wearing one of their frocks to any block parties) delivered a collection of cheeky acid party-wear. Gavin Rajah (fresh from showing at Paris Fashion Week) delivered a stunning monochrome and metallic collection for the kind of women guys are too scared to chat-up in bars. Kluk & CGdT, two of Cape Town’s top designers, took the novel approach of getting married on the catwalk - the ladies wore monochrome and metallics. Maya Prass was a refreshing change with a beautifully staged (and calming) collection - I also enjoyed the hipster-folk soundtrack, beats bad 90’s techno for the ramp any day. Personally the most interesting collections were away from the rammed fracas of the evening shows, with street fashion label Darkie and the just plain fun Karen Monk Klijnistra (the photo is from her collection) being the two shows I thought represented well the cultural energy of South Africa at the moment. Images from all collections are on thunda.com and video podcasts on a number of designers are on women24.com.