Blogs Ahoy

My friend Gavin to the Rajah has started his own Fashionista blog. Let me start by saying he did not engender the love in his first post by referring to this blog, and those of some of my mates, as "PC blogs [that] deteriorate to a dreary expose of Long St in Cape Town, exalting badly designed (or made) product or even worse a saccharine coated showcase of the mundane and mediocre." Yikes. And I am pretty sure he likes me!

And while this is deeply offensive, it is not necessarily totally without merit hidden underneath it — as is usually the case with Gavin. He has a point and that is that when we are lucky enough to have a voice, we should be using it to raise the issues that really affect the ongoing development of our fashion industry. We should be more critical and more demanding of all the elements that comprise it. And we should be setting our standards of quality and excellence as high as possible.

Quite right too. However, let me say that just because I have taken a NICE and celebratory approach in initiating this blog, does not mean that it has remained this way. Just because I am nice, does not mean that I am not being critical — critical evaluation is not always negative, nor indeed bitchy.

I will say that this blog has definitely nailed its colours to the mast of what I believe is good, inspirational, innovative and quality in our fashion industry. I simply do not say anything at all about those who do not bring this to the catwalks — in my view. The designers who feature on my blog, like Gavin, Maya, Thula, Stiaan, Kluk/CGDT, Craig and young designers Heni and Frans Kies, are all local designers who I strongly believe in and want to support as much as possible.

And I have been trying to get more critical (not negative) in my posts of late — believing for example that stores without excellent service need to shape up. But I will always support development of the local industry, and it is extremely hard to do this without breaking a few eggs en route. For every five or ten young designer shows of poor quality, you have one that totally blows you away. And when it comes down to it, that's all you need, it is all you have to take home with you, all that keeps you excited about our industry and its future.

I love that there is a contentious voice now openly communicating about the industry. But it is just one view. I think Gavin and I share a passion for success and excellence in our industry — we just come at it with different coloured paint brushes.

You should all read his blog. You will learn an enormous amount. And then when you are done, come to me for a bit of light hearted celebration of all that is good about our industry — with a few more critical evaluations thrown in along the way moving forward.