There is nothing we love more than a locally produced campaign. MRP slays us yet again with their latest denim campaign “This is our denim”. Not only is the campaign video and imagery fun and cool – something you’d see on Hypbeast – but the styling is so great it got us looking at everything MRP has to offer.
Forbes Woman
Last month I had the honor of speaking about my business and journey with Forbes Women Africa at their Leading Women Summit in Johannesburg. The Summit featured business women from around Africa getting together to engage and learn from one another.
As a panelist along with Theodora Lee and Tspepang Mollison we discussed the trials and tribulations of being emerging digital entrepreneurs in a South African landscape.
I hope to host more events like this in the future!
Ray Ban Turns 80
Iconic eyewear brand Ray Ban celebrates its 80th anniversary this year. 80 years of changing the game and continuing to do so by collaborating with renowned photographer Steven Klein to produce an authentic and bold campaign. The inspiration behind Klein’s work were breaking societal norms and stereotypes to showcase the protagonists true authenticity.
“The campaign is about diversity and individualism” explains Klein. “The whole concept of the campaign is based on creating a world where people are leaving one world, entering another world based on the idea of never looking back. One of the great things about doing this campaign was that it felt authentic in the sense that whoever wears Ray-Ban takes on their own identity and the glasses do not wear them.”
MBFWCT 2017
I was quite bummed to have missed MBFWCT this season but luck (or mother nature) was in my favour as the event was postponed due to Cape Town’s violent winds. Fast forward a few weeks an a new awesome venue locked in the event kicked off without any weather interruptions.
The new location at Salt River Film studios boasted ample parking and cool industrial landscapes as the back drop to the pan-african fashion on display. Media and VIP’s were hosted in an intersecting lounge allowing easy mingling over drinks and snacks between shows. I am hoping AFI hosts future events here too.
Millie Collines Swahili inspired collection was a notable crowd favorite as she transcended the audience on a (much needed) trip to the coast of east Africa featuring easy wearing flowing silhouettes. The designers clearly took inspiration from East Africa’s large muslim population. Having travelled up Africa and seen how muslim people express their personal style with vibrant rich colors, massive scarves and flowing dresses, its not hard to understand why many become inspired to create.
I was pretty excited to be wearing my favorite up and comer – Droomer. The head designer Cleo Droomer, is a friend of mine and its exciting to see his collection take over the local fashion scene. I was sad to have missed his show on the first night as I was in New Zealand during his showcase, but lucky enough to have showcased his garments in my own way. Keep an eye out for this special talent in up and coming shows!
I managed to catch Maxhosa by Laduma as my final show.He manages to showcase his culture in a new and exciting way each time. The most memorable garment for me was the mens track pants where ribbing was exchanged for locally produced beaded badges. Of course Laduma’s socks got everyone gasping and ‘needing’ a pair asap. I do hope he can expend one the prints and colors he shows us each season into fresh concepts like he does with his menswear.
Although the shows went through a bit of drama to finally get displayed it was well worth the wait. What is fashion without a little drama?
For more on fashion week you can have a look at http://africanfashioninternational.com
Xo Aisha
Four Ingredients To A Healthier Me
Alpen Muesli challenged me to come up with four ‘ingredients’ to a healthier lifestyle for me over the next year – and hopefully well into the following. This got me thinking, what am I missing in my life? Check my four ingredients to a healthier life and tell me what yours would be, I would love to find out. Continue reading “Four Ingredients To A Healthier Me”
Land Of The Long White Cloud
When I am not living my best life as a fashion and beauty blogger I am also very much a cricket WAG (Wives & Girlfriends of professional athletes: read in WAGS MIAMI voice). The latest WAG adventure with my husband was visiting Wellington and Hamilton New Zealand (NZ) during the SA vs NZ test series. New Zealand is also known as “Aotearoa” in their native Maori language, directly translating to ‘land of the long white cloud’. Unfortunately that is all the Maori I managed to pick up in my short stay in NZ. Unfortunately I got a bit sick in Hamilton so I wasn’t able to enjoy and explore as much as I did in Welly, I think I don’t have a single photograph of our time in Hamilton.
Traveling with my husband is always special and so different to traveling on my own. We often spend weeks apart so reuniting is always special whether we are back home or in a foreign place. Being with the other WAGS is great too, since live such similar lifestyles while individually being very different. We often have long chats about life, and specifically our crazy nomadic lifestyle. We don’t get to spend as much time with our men as it seems, since they’re training and playing most days, most of the girls try to plan little activities together to fill up our days.
Wellington was not first on my list of places to visit but it was cute and city like much like Cape Town. We stayed pretty close to the harbor and walked everywhere – my step counter was LIT in Wellington to say the least. One of my favorite things to do when visiting a new place is finding all the cool hipster places to eat vegan and drink coffee. I eat vegan usually because its the closest thing I can find to halal, its a little trick I picked up from all my trips. Most vegan food spaces don’t serve alcohol or meat so it makes eating while abroad much easier for me.
I like to think of myself as a global coffee hunter – in search of the coolest spots in town. Welly was quite pricey to eat at since the dollar is very strong against our dwindling rand, so I did keep my eating out at a limit. Despite my budget, I managed to find some “gun” coffee shops as my husband would say. I was pretty inspired by a chain of coffee joints called Mojo. Each branch looked really cool and minamilst with great coffee and pastry options. I probably would have added a few cool global magazines to their tables but thats just me. If you’re ever in Wellington be sure to look them up, you can find them everywhere.
I was really impressed by New Zealand local designers on display at their boutiques. If you’re into thrifting theres definitely a lot of thrift stores stocking big designer brands but I am always keen too see what the locals are doing. The Kiwi’s certainly have some talent., if you’re around Wellington check out Good as Gold and Superette for international and local designer brands.
Besides good coffee and inspiring spaces we walked the harbor a lot and often, it reminded me of the V&A waterfront and the sea point promenade but on a wintery day! The squad had finished the test early (yay!) so we had an off day to explore the Wellington Saturday market. It was so cute, I wish we could have one just like it along the V&A’s waterfront in summer *hint to any market owners*.
Hamilton was more of a shopping trip for us, I was sick most of the time so I wasn’t keen to explore much. It’s a very quiet town with not much going on, but on the upside there were a variety of halal food places here! We kinda got addicted to a halal friendly burger place called Burger Fuel. Parny did quite bit of shopping at a local designer store called Crate and I managed to consume my fair share of green tea lattes at Starbucks.
I loved feeling safe wherever we walked in the streets. New Zealenders are really big on following the rules which I find kinda weird since Saffers live to break all the rules. The Kiwi’s don’t speed, they cross at the pedestrian crossing and walk/drive very slowly.
Xo Aisha
Check out some of our snaps from Wellington Below:
Tresemmé Brunch with Marianna Hewitt
I have always been a fan of the Tresemmé hair brand, I actually use so many of their products since they’re affordable and come in huge bottles – you know long hair problems. I was super excited that the brand invited me to their influencer brunch, along with my girl Niquita of course.
The brunch was delicious, held at Mr Purple in the Indigo Hotel Soho – my favorite place on earth! I have always wanted to stay there, and I am sure I will sometime soon!
One of the highlights of the event, besides the jam donuts and amazing rooftop views, was meeting Blogger & Youtube Marianna Hewitt. She is one of my faves because I find her so unassuming and really genuine to her followers, which I admire. She’s also super hardworking with new content pieces going live on her platforms almost daily. We caught up about her trip to Cape Town and what its like being tiny as f*** she was really sweet and cool to talk to. She has great hair too, Wow!
The creme de la creme of beauty bloggers from around the world were there, from Portugal, Morocco, Kuwait and Bangladesh – it was cool to see the entire globe represented in one room! Of course Niquita and I were super happy to be there for South Africa and snapped a few pics for y’all.
Enjoy!
Xo Aisha
Michael Kors Fash Show Look
Hey guys, this was my look for the Michael Kors runway show in New York last month. To get a full rundown of my New York adventure check out my entry on this link (here).
The show was magnificent – obvs its Michael Kors. I Humbly sat third row as I watched his ready to wear looks come down the runway while an orchestra played reworked pop music, very Kanye-West-surprises-Kim style (if you know what I mean). I was pretty nervous the entire time since I was sitting across Anna Wintour and Blake Lively and adjacent to Joanna Coles in a room crowded with all the who’s who in the fashion world. I felt like I belonged there but also thought ‘omg I’m here and so is Margaret Zang and Chiara Ferragni’. After calming my nerves and taking a whole bunch of blurry images I managed to snap some beautiful shots of Taylor Hill and Kendall Jenner as they closed the show.
About This Look
I really wanted to play with some of the trending winter silhouettes for my MK look and I was inspired by this tri coloured Mercer MK hand bag. My first thought was “I need something orange”. Initially I wanted a fitted cashmere turtle neck but the only one I could find was a million dollars (not literally) so I opted for a sports luxe ensemble instead. This one was by chance after spotting it walking by the Nike Lab store in Soho I found this Nike jumper and called it a day.
I had already purchased these corduroy pants from H&M studio a while back and I was determined to wear them on the cold streets of New York. I was pretty stoked with myself to find out that Kendall & Kylie had a similar pair in their new collection – they’re obviously inspired by me (jokes).
I completed the look with winter’s must have white boots and gloves – because it was cold, I wasn’t really trying to be trendy here. The best outfits come together when you’re hardly trying!
Bonus points – Niquita and I looked like a fruit basket in red and orange, strutting (actually running) to the show as we got mobbed by paps. I am not used to the fashion-paps (or any other paps for that matter) so the experience was pretty cool! Later we found ourselves all over the inter webs, looking like two South African plums.
Hope you liked my look
Xo Aisha
New York, New York
I’ve been trying to write about my New York trip for ages but you can say I have suffered a little writers block recently and putting my thoughts into words has become somewhat of a feat.
I’m still kinda pinching myself after an incredible week at NYFW. It was a personal goal for me to attend the shows and the experience has certainly exceeded any expectations I could have had. The streetstyle was insane, probably one of my many favorite moments. The beauty and fashion coming down the runway was both inspiring and definitely motivation to work harder and create more beautiful content as a South African fashion & beauty blogger. A part of me wants to make a global impact and represent our country on a global scale, as a global player. New York reignited that drive in me and I hope some day I can do that.
I had flown there to see the Michael Kors show after meeting the global PR in Cape Town at their store launch and chatting to the brand they had graciously invited me to attend and gifted me with a gorgeous rose bouquet and tri-colour Mercer handbag. Before heading into the show Niquita and I were mobbed by the fashion paparazzi capturing streetstyle for their various websites. It was a pretty rad feeling, although I was kinda nervous!
The MK show itself was exactly what I expected in terms of the biggest players in fashion and entertainment in attendance and the clothing was beautiful. What I didn’t expect was being so emotional about sitting at a runway show with Anna Wintour across from me and Kendall & Bella walking the runway as I watched the production in awe. The ambience in the room was incredible, from the music to the fashion and guests everything was perfect. It was something I dreamt of! I also attended the Jason Wu and Prabal Gurung shows, and wish to attend more next time.
Another top experience was meeting and chatting to Maybelline’s spokes models at an exclusive rooftop party for the brand. (Incl Jourdan Dunn Herieth Paul and Adriana Lima).The event was so intimate that I could chat to each of the models, no body guards or fans just us having drinks on a roof top in New York – I mean pinch me!
We connected with bloggers and influencers from around the world at Tressme’s rooftop brunch in Soho, hosted by beauty blogger Marianna Hewitt, I am a huge fan of hers so it was great being able to chat to her in persona and get to know her in an intimate setting. She chatted to us about her favorite products from the brand too. Of course these rooftop moments meant lots photo opportunites for Niquita and I.
My highlight of the entire trip was just being able to express my style with no self doubt or worry that my style is too OTT or crazy. New York is so special, everyone appreciates bloggers and fashionistas by everyone I mean the hotdog vendors, cab drivers and awesome coffee shop owners. Walking around New York in – 4 degree weather with people saying “aye you look really cool today” gives you some kind of powerful feeling! It kinda inspired me to start expressing myself in the same way at home, just be the care free human that I am in New York!
I definitely felt like South Africa was represented for the first time here as I was welcomed at events with excitement and intrigue. It’s so important for Africans to be showcased on a global and local scale and I’m happy and excited that I can do that to some degree, but we still have a long way to go. I hope I can continue to represent the fashion bloggers in our country globally, wish me luck!
Xo Aisha
