Marianne Fassler




Craig Port




Shana




Stefania Morland


Lazuli




Lo




Gavin Rajah

Here's a look at some of the collections from Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Cape Town 2014. I absolutely loved the Marianne Fassler bodysuit with a sheer pink triangle-print overlay. Those white chain sunnies are the perfect accessory - that look is everything! Craig Port's ladieswear was light, sweet and a little bit 20s featuring Neapolitan ice cream skirts, flower crowns and piled-on pearls. I'm really loving the dusty pink colour ways this season.

Shana brought us some glitzy pieces fit for parties with a generous helping of sparkles and quirky multicoloured spiked hair bands which I would have saved up for at Space Station circa early 2000s. Stefania Morland took us to Tokyo while keeping her signature dressy aesthetic and Lazuli kept things fresh with a sportswear-luxe attitude; they're shaping up to be a brand I love to look out for. Lo was interesting with scalloped dresses and helpings of texture here and there. Now we get to a little bit of controversy...

Gavin Rajah gets a lot of hate but he puts on a beautiful show. I recognised some of the designs as being similar to international collections but that didn't stop me from enjoying the show, I don't think it stopped many people actually - at one point, the entire room was so fixated and hushed that you could hear the models walking. The girls behind me were certainly enraptured.

'Copying' is a more difficult topic than you'd think and there's a hell of a lot to talk about before picking up a pitchfork while wearing a knock-off you might be unaware you've purchased. In a nutshell, I find it humorous that people profess to be on one side of an argument when they are courting the blurred lines themselves. Of course there are differences between wearing something from Zara and designers sending identical dresses down the runway but there's still a bit to discuss. If anyone wants to read more about what I think of fashion copyrights, let me know and I'll share my thoughts. For now, what I can say with confidence is that the technical work that goes into Rajah's outfits is astounding so he's definitely doing something right.

Copying is a difficult subject to debate in the design world, I think almost everything has been done to an extent, it's fresh takes and restyling that differentiate one design from another. That's not to say it doesn't happen of course. Then there's fakes and knock offs and I gotta say I love a good knock off because it brings high fashion to the street even though it's a bit unfair that a mass retailer can pump out imitation and enjoy the profits that the original inspiration enabled. I stumbled past some Balmain sandal knock offs in Aldo yesterday but they just couldn't hold a candle to the real thing; my dream shoes.

I'm so glad I'm on holiday, it's amazing what some time alone can do, I'm already brainstorming for next years designs. I thought my mind had been wrung out like a facecloth!