Alone together: Dress up, stay home and attend SA Fashion Week and more this weekend

Over the past couple of weekends, we’ve compiled a list of online events to keep your #stayhome weekends exciting and culturally enriched, from weekly deejay sets and art exhibitions to the incredible amount of theatre performances that are being streamed online for limited periods, and some performances previously inaccessible from home.

This weekend, fashion is where it’s at as South African Fashion Week kicks off with a difference. While fashion might seem like the last thing on our minds as we navigate the current normal, the reality is that fashion entrepreneurs still have businesses many will have to revive once it is safe to go back out on the streets.

South African fashion week has decided to stick to their fashion week schedule by going back in time, recent time, to show their Autumn/Winter 2020 shows. These are the clothes designers will be selling in stores when they open up again.

The first shows were streamed on day one, Thursday 23 April, as fashion enthusiasts dressed up at home and posted pictures of themselves in head-to-toe South African designer gear while watching the shows on screen. You can join them here tonight and through the weekend to enjoy some of the best South African designers have to offer. Worry not about the shows you missed on Thursday evening, you can catch those on SAFW’s IGTV.

Just in case you can’t get enough, Shanghai Fashion Week was one of the first fashion weeks to go digital, on 26 March. Models strolled the runway with their masks on, sans live audience, in the latest threads from the designers. You can catch moments from the show here on their Instagram page.

Plan ahead

This week, on Tuesday 21 April, the British Fashion Council announced that in June London Fashion Week will go completely digital, with some changes to the usual plan.

“Designers will be able to share their stories and, for those that have them, their collections, with a wider global community; we hope that as well as personal perspectives on this difficult time there will be inspiration in bucketloads,” said Caroline Rush, the British Fashion Council’s chief executive. Both the menswear and womenswear shows will be merged into one gender-neutral showcase, with the main focus being on storytelling.

The art of storytelling

Speaking of storytelling, make sure to catch the Goodman Gallery’s new group exhibition Authenticité, which opened this week on the website. Featuring nine artists, including William Kentridge, Kudzanai Chiurai and Standard Bank Young Artist award winner Mikhael Subotzky, the show, which also features playlists and audio explanations from some of the artists, is a great demonstration of using digital tools to bring viewers closer to artworks during the quarantine period.

The Louis Vuitton Foundation (Fondation Louis Vuitton) is currently running the #FLVfromhome programme. Each week, they will upload three shows or performances from their programme and their curators will offer live commentary on Facebook. Visit them here to see the line-up and the times. This week, on Wednesday 22 April, they focused on their widely publicised “Art/Afrique, le nouvel atelier” exhibition, initially run in 2017 and featuring art strictly from the African continent, including a selection of top South African artists. The video is up on the website now.

Lastly, and while on the subject of designers and artists, Faculty Press, an annual print magazine founded by Thebe Magugu, the South African designer who made history by being the first winner of the coveted LVMH Prize from the African continent, has published a selection of playlists from South Africa’s fashion and entertainment industry players. The playlists were curated by “2 Million Icons”, a party series founded by South African designer Rich Mnisi. There are 24 of them, from various fashion contributors, including designers, photographers, stylists, musicians and influencers. See them here and listen on Spotify. DM/ML

If you would like to share an upcoming virtual event with us, please leave a comment below or email us at [email protected] and [email protected].

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