Fashion’s got a low self esteem

It’s been pushed to the back seat for over a year now, but every now and then it pops its head through to the front to remind me it is still there, and it needs attention. I joined the art club at one of the high school’s I teach at, in hopes of giving it a confidence booster! It seems none of these paintings or drawings would exist if I hadn’t joined. I’ve realised how important deadlines were to my production of something resembling a fashion portfolio. I’m not studying anymore, so really the only motivator I have is myself, or a kick up the cahoonay (I just pictured myself at fashion bootcamp and it wasn’t pretty). 

Japan diaries: When it was all brand new

A recent springclean led me to this little list of gems: some notes I scribbled down just over a year ago during my first weekend in Tokyo:
Taxi doors open themselves
Doormen always bow
Marty buys a R42 icetea by mistake
A three story McDonalds.
Lights make it feel like day
Charades in a department store
Walking until my feet are blistered
Feeling safe and free
Packed streets past midnight
Salarymen playing last touch
Japanese people screaming on the streets
Shibuya women – my smartest clothes don’t compare
Breakfasts worth R500
Octopus balls vendor
Laugh until I cry about the boys going on about a beautiful manhole cover
Finding coke in a vending machine and it tastes the same as home
City buildings as far as you can see
Flickering red lights from the hotel window

What do Victoria Beckham, Lady Gaga and Blake Lively have in common?

No, this is not a bad joke, just a really great project that gives fashion a brownie point against its usual fickle self. Each of these celebrities, among others, have designed a T-shirt print for UNIQLO and its SaveJapan! T-shirt range:
“The SaveJapan website was established immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake to support the affected parts of the country by providing information on area-specific relief efforts. UNIQLO is working with Condѐ Nast Japan – a supporter of the SaveJapan! website and the publisher of Vogue Japan and GQ Japan – to create T-shirts featuring messages of encouragement from artists around the world. UNIQLO plans to donate approximately 100 million yen through the sale of SaveJapan! T-shirts to the Japanese Red Cross Society, to back recovery efforts in northeastern Japan.”  
It was Lady Gaga’s design that called out to me from across the UNIQLO store – but with my limited Japanese Kanji all I can make out on the T-shirt is “love,” “Gaga” and “small monster.” For the record I also liked Victoria Beckham’s clean design (cringe) but they never had it in stores here.