Backstage At Joburg Fashion Week 2007

The City of Johannesburg was headline sponsor of Joburg Fashion Week spring/summer, which was be held at Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton City from the 22nd to 25th August. Here are some of the scenes from the backstage of various shows:

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Designer Marianne Fassler (right) getting interviewed.

Backstage at the Marianne Fassler show.

Backstage at the Marianne Fassler show.

Backstage at the Marianne Fassler show.

Lekgotla.

Behind the scenes before the Kluk CGDT show.

Behind the scenes at the Wonder Bra show.

Venue and patrons during the week.

Venue and patrons during the week.

Backstage at the Gavin Rajah show doing make up.

Backstage at the Gavin Rajah show doing make up.

Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton, Johannesburg.

Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton, Johannesburg.

Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton, Johannesburg.

Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton, Johannesburg.

Precious Moloi-Motsepe (right) gets interviewed.

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(Photo Credits: Simon Deiner)

September 2007 MIMI Style Preview: Mignonette

With September just a week away, MIMI Magazine's September 2007 issue is about to be published. Among the stylish articles MIMI has slated for publication in our Style Section, is one about emerging independent label, Mignonette, started by Ghanaian fashionista Kpoene Kofi-Bruce.

Pictured about is the Nefe Wrap Dress with deep-v ruffle detail, back-wrap skirt with attached bow tie. The dress is available in blue floral, white or black eyelet. The Mignonette label is perfectly tailored for girls with curves and those without, with sizes ranging from 0-22. Read more about Mignotte in MIMI's upcoming September 2007 issue.

Designer Spotlight: Kipepeo

Kipepeo (the Swahili word for butterfly) was originally launched in September 2001 with a selection of filigree jewellery, which is now known as the line’s classic staples. Kenyan born designer Carol Muthiga named the company Kipepeo to symbolize freedom and self-expression. She continues to embody these notions through forward moving designs, which includes modern takes on vintage-inspired designs. Kipepeo has adorned celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Halle Berry, Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, and many more. Learn more about Kipepeo by visiting www.kipepeokipepeo.com

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Mombasa Earrings—18K Gold Filigree Earrings with Rose Quartz

Zanzi Earrings—Platinum Plated Filigree Earrings

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MIMI Style Link: Objects Of Desire: Orange Moon

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(Photo Credits: Provided Courtesy Of Lisa Harouni For Rubyrou)

Ghana's Men Represent At The Bourne Ultimatum London Premiere

The Bourne Ultimatum premiered in London today at the Odeon Leicester Square. Ghana's Ozwald Boateng and Joey Ansah were spotted at both the party and on the red carpet.
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Men's fashion designer Ozwald Boateng with a mystery guest.
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Actor Joey Ansah (who stars in the movie) with a mystery guest.

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(Photo Credits: Jamie Hughes for Universal Pictures)

Cape Town Fashion Week: In Style Charity Fashion Show

In honor of Women's Day, In Style Magazine, in association with Elizabeth Arden and Go Red For Women, featured some of South Africa's best fashion designers and their celebrity muses on the catwalk. The glamorous event was held to raise awareness of the risk of heart disease in women. Here are some highlights from the charity fashion show:

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1. Nkhensani Nkosi Dressed By Stoned Cherrie. 2. Chichi Letswalo Dressed By Thula Sindi. 3. Bonnie Henna Dressed By Julian. 4. Unathi Dressed By Sun Goddess. 5. Jo-Ann Strauss Dressed By Kluk CGDT. 6. Oluchi Dressed By Marc Bouwer.

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(Photo Credits: Simon Deiner)

Design A Uniform, Shape A School

The African Leadership Academy (ALA), is inviting students to participate in an exciting competition to design our school uniform. Opening in September 2008, the ALA will bring together the most promising 15-18 year old leaders from all 54 African nations for an innovative two-year program designed to prepare each student for a lifetime of leadership on the continent. You can shape the lives of these students by entering a competition to
design African Leadership Academy’s school uniform.

The competition is open to individual students or groups of students between the ages of 12 and 20 across Africa. The best design will be decided by an international panel which will include world-renowned African fashion designers, and the winner will be commemorated forever with a plaque at the Academy. The deadline for entries is 15th November 2007 but early submissions are encouraged. For more deadlines about the competition's criteria, visit the ALA's website.

Summer Reading: When She Was White

In 1965, Sandra Laing was expelled out of her all-white boarding school classroom in South Africa and sent home to her parents. Why? Because the principal considered her appearance "definitely that of a person with mixed blood between a white person and a Bantu." Born to middle-class Afrikaaners of European descent, Laing had the appearance of a mixed-race girl in a white only school. Laing, who was a darker complexion than her white parents, sparked international interest as it served as a poignant example of South Africa's apartheid at its nuttiest. When She Was White chronicles the legal and social battle Sandra went through to be reclassified from white to coloured and back to white again. The book will certainly leave you questioning just how arbitrary racial classification was in South Africa's apartheid era.

Zap Mama's Supermoon Is Out Today

There's an alluring place where the mystique of the African continent meets the complexity of the Western world. It's a place where rhythm and beauty, myth and melody, history and harmony converge. It's a place where anything is possible. For more than 15 years, the musical entity known as Zap Mama has stood at that crossroads. Born in the Congo to an African mother and Belgian father, harbored by pygmies in the forest in the midst of revolution, and raised in the predominantly French culture of Belgium, vocalist and founder Marie Daulne is not only a living map of the world, but a purveyor of its rich stories and an ambassador to all of its diverse cultures. A brilliant songwriter and performer, she distills and reflects creative energy from an infinite array of sources and beams it back to the world with a brilliance that is unsurpassed. Stand in the light of Zap Mama's latest release (their sixth album together) Supermoon and catch the positive groove. Hear sample tracks from the album at amazon.com

MIMI Features Link: Portrait Of An African Queen: Marie Daulne www.mimimagazine.com/february2005/01-02-featuresmarie-daulne01.html

(Photo Credits: Thomas Rusch)

Thandie Newton Reveals Past Battle With Eating Disorder

Zambian-born actress Thandie Newton graces the September cover of UK's Easy Living Magazine, and reveals in an interview with the magazine that she suffered from bulimia. "I had terrible bulimia for about a year ... I ate nothing but cottage cheese. It didn't seem so strange. My mum was a health visitor, so we never had butter in our house, we had Flora. I had a very healthy, nutrition-conscious upbringing," she said.

Newton's disorder turned into an obsession when she started going out with an older man, explained the actress. "We used to go out to dinner all the time, and he'd get so excited about eating ... and it must have been my way of separating myself from him—by becoming bulimic. I would go back to the flat that we were sharing at the time, and I'd throw up," she said. Explaining that she suffered from "horrible bulimia for about a year", she said: "I've still got the scars on my knuckles from where I put my fingers down my throat."

Eventually Newton sought help while in Los Angeles to shoot a film. "I saw a therapist for the first time," she says. "After that first session, I never threw up again. I had made the connection between shame and self abuse."

There are a number of resources available online regarding the eating disorder, including an outline from the US Department of Health & Human Services has more information about the eating disorder: www.4women.gov/faq/Easyread/bulnervosa-etr.htm

(Photo Credits: Warner Bros / Channel 4 Television)

The Globe For Darfur

Zambian actress Thandie Newton and Sudanese musician Emmanuel Jal are among a group of artists who are part of a campaign to raise awareness for The Globe For Darfur. The campaign The photos picture the actress and musician smashing hourglasses filled with fake blood to demonstrate that time is running out for the people of Darfur. To learn more about the campaign, visit www.globefordarfur.org

(Photo Credits: Jane Hodson)

Supermodel With A Voice: Alek Wek

Alek Wek has written an autobiography: Alek, From Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel. Here's what her publishers have to say about the book:

Since the day she was scouted by a modeling agent while shopping at a London street fair when she was just nineteen, Alek Wek's life has been nothing short of a fantasy. When she's not the featured model in print campaigns for hip companies, or gracing the cover of Elle, she is working the runways of Paris, New York, and Milan to model for the world's leading designers, including Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel. But nothing in her early years prepared her for the life of a model.

Born in Wau, in the southern Sudan, Alek knew only a few years of peace with her family before they were caught up in a ruthless civil war that pitted outlaw militias, the Muslim-dominated government, and southern rebels against each other in a brutal conflict that killed nearly two million people. Here is her daring story of fleeing the war on foot and her escape to London, where her rise from young model to supermodel was all the more notable because of Alek's non-European looks.

A probe into the Sudanese conflict and an inside look into the life of a most unique supermodel, Alek is a book that will inspire as well as inform.

Sounds like this will be a good read; the book will be out on August 28th. Somalian model turned FMG activist Waris Dirie has also released a new book, Letter To My Mother. The book has only been released in a limited number of languages and a limited number of countries throughout Europe ... MIMI's hoping that an English translation will soon hit the bookshelvs.

MIMI Features Link: The Truth About FGM www.mimimagazine.com/october2005/01-07-fgm01.html

Cape Town Fashion Week

Cape Town Fashion Week is just days away :) Some of the models did a casting call at Pepenero Restaurant in Cape Town. Hopefully those glasses and that top hat will not make it onto the runway! Look out for highlights from CTFW on MIMI's blogspot.

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(Photo Credits: Simon Deiner)