FASHION E-ZINE | The Edit Man

FASHION

GROOMING

DRINKS

DESIGN

SPORT

PURSUITS

OPINION

N 07

the edit man

THE

[UN]COOL

ISSUE

FASHION

GROOMING

DRINKS

DESIGN

SPORT

PURSUITS

ED’S NOTE

OPINION

N 07

the edit man

THE

[UN]COOL

CO M PI L E D BY S h a r o n Ar m s trong

ISSUE

JACKET, R 1 8 900; T R OUSERS, R 1 6 750; BELT, R5 3 00, A LL PR A DA; OMEG A PLA NE T OCEA N 600M G MT, BLACK CER A MIC O N R UBBER WATCH, R 1 67 000, ELEG A N CE JEW ELLERS

EDITORIAL

* PRICES AND AVAILABILITY WERE CHECKED AT THE TIME OF GOING TO PRESS. SUNDAY TIMES THE EDIT CANNOT GUARANTEE THAT PRICES WILL NOT CHANGE, OR THAT ITEMS WILL BE IN STOCK AT THE TIME OF PUBLICATION.

EDITOR Sharon Armstrong sharona@tisoblackstar.co.za CREATIVE DIRECTOR Anna Lineveldt EDITOR IN SPACE Stephen Haw MANAGING EDITOR Matthew McClure SENIOR DESIGNER Thembekile Vokwana JUNIOR DESIGNERS Carike De Jager Manelisi Dabata SUBEDITOR Benazir Cassim BEAUTY EDITOR Nokubonga Thusi JUNIOR FASHION EDITOR Sahil Harilal FASHION INTERNS Nombuso Kumalo Keabecoe Moshe FINAL EYE Elizabeth Sleith Lynda Stephenson PUBLISHER Aspasia Karras GENERAL MANAGER GROUP SALES & MARKETING Eben Gewers MANAGING DIRECTOR Andrew Gill

ADVERTISING BUSINESS MANAGER Yvonne Shaff shaffy@tisoblackstar.co.za 082 903 5641 GAUTENG ACCOUNT MANAGER Letitia Louw louwl@tisoblackstar.co.za, 083 454 1137 WESTERN CAPE ACCOUNT MANAGER Samantha Pienaar pienaars@tisoblackstar.co.za 082 889 0366 KZN ACCOUNT MANAGER Gina van de Wall vdwallg@tisoblackstar.co.za, 083 500 5325 ADVERTISING CO-ORDINATOR Jamie Kinnear PRINTING Paarl Coldset PUBLISHERS Tiso Blackstar Group, Hill on Empire, 16 Empire Road (cnr Empire and Hillside roads), Parktown, Johannesburg, 2193 © Copyright Tiso Blackstar Group. No portion of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without written consent of the publishers.

The publishers are not responsible for unsolicited material. The Edit is published

by Tiso Blackstar Group.

The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Tiso Blackstar Group.

All advertisements, advertorials, and promotions have been paid for, and therefore do not carry any endorsement by the publishers.

SHIRT, R21 400; TROU SERS, R21 400; CAP, R8 100; SU NGLASSES, R8 210; ALL GU CC I; OM E G A S E AM ASTE R OLY M P IC G AM E S LIM ITE D E D ITION , STE E L ON LE ATHE R WATCH, R81 000, ELEGANCE JEWELLERS; SANDALS, R999, ALDO; I NDI A BASKETS, R 980 E ACH; AM ATU LI; K E LIM P E B B LE S , R 24 900, LA G R AN G E IN TE R IOR S

E D I TO R ’ S M U ST H AV E S

Keep all your essentials in an oversized Dolce and Gabbana shopper, perfect for all your daily needs

BAG, R39 000, DO LCE & GABBANA

Block out the harsh sun with a pair of Polo sunglasses.

Its sleek champagne handles and minimal design will complete any outfit

Make a wild statement with Crystal Birch’s petersham hat — an eye- catching mix of print and colour

SU NGLASSES, R1 920, POLO

H AT, R1 205, THE R E AL CRYSTAL B IR CH

Let your outerwear do the talking with Scotch and Soda’s safari jacket, finished off with practical pocket details

JACK E T, R 1 799, S COTCH & S ODA

Keep it cool on your holiday adventures in Mango’s stylish and versatile leather sandals

M AN G O S AN DALS , R 1 099, S U P E R B ALIST

A L D O A L D O S H O E S . CO. Z A A M AT U L I 0 1 1 4 4 0 5 0 6 5 D O LC E & G A B B A N A 0 1 1 3 2 6 7 8 0 8 E L E G A N C E J E W E L L E R S 0 1 1 7 8 4 0 0 4 7 G U CC I 0 1 1 3 2 6 7 9 2 8 L A G R A N G E I N T E R I O R S 0 1 1 4 4 4 5 3 7 9 P O LO 0 1 1 8 8 3 6 1 2 6 P R A DA 0 1 1 3 2 6 7 5 1 7 S COTC H & S O DA 0 1 1 7 8 4 3 2 3 3 S U P E R B A L I S T S U P E R B A L I S T. CO M T H E R E A L C R Y S TA L B I R C H T H E R E A LC R Y S TA L B I R C H . CO. Z A

SAN DTON CITY D iamon d Wa lk Bou tiq ue U 22 Tel: +27 11 326 7767

TREND CO M PI L E D BY Sahil Harilal

the modern urbanite A neutral, tranquil palette gives Phillip Lim’s tailoring a zen approach

PHOTOGRAPHY ULRICH KNOBLAUCH AND SUPPLIED

P H I LLI P LI M

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1 . COAT, R1 8 9 9 , Z A RA 2 . S C A RF, R8 9 9 , S COTC H & S O DA 3 . S C A RF, R1 2 0 , S U P E RB A L IST 4 . S NE A K E RS , R9 9 9 , P O LO 5 . S HO RT S , R6 9 9 , P O LO 6 . S E A STA R C HRO NO G RA P H, R9 6 0 0 , T IS S OT 7. B AC K PAC K , R3 2 9 9 , D IE S E L 8 . B O M B E R JAC K E T, R5 3 9 9 , D IE S E L 9 . T RAC K PA NT S , R1 6 1 6 0 , E RM E NE G IL D O Z E G NA 1 0 . T RAC K TO P , R2 0 4 4 0 , E RM E NE G IL D O Z E G NA 1 1 . B O OT S , R4 9 9 9 , D IE S E L

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D I E S E L D I E S E L .CO.ZA E R M E N E G I L D O Z E G N A 0 1 1 3 2 6 7 7 6 7 P O LO P O LO.CO.ZA S COTCH & S ODA 0 1 1 7 8 4 3 2 3 3 S UPE RBA LIST SU P E R BALI ST.CO M T I S S OT T I S S OT WATC H E S .CO M Z A R A Z AR A.CO.Z A

GUILLAME NÉRY FREEDIVING WORLD CHAMPION -126 METRES IN ONE BREATH

TREND COM PILED BY Sahil Harilal

bleached out

DI OR

Classic tailoring gets a zesty twist with pops of tangerine in designer Kim Jones’ latest collection for Dior

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PHOTOGRAPHY JESSICA SEGAL AND SUPPLIED

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1 . TRO USERS, R400, EDGA RS 2 . SNEA KERS, R3 199, DIESEL 3 . PUF F ER JACKET, R9 999, DIESEL 4 . H ERITAGE CHRO NO GRA PH WATCH, R63 800, TUDO R 5 . BELT BAG, R6 500, KAT VA N DUINEN 6 . JACKET, R5 899, DIESEL 7 . SH IRT, R799, CO UNTRY ROA D 8 . GO LF SHIRT, R699, PO LO 9 .BELT, R100, MA RKH A M 1 0 . TRO USERS, F RO M R2 199, SCOTCH & SO DA 1 1 .SNEA KERS, R15 000, DO LCE & GA BBA NA

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COUNT R Y R OAD W OOLWORT HS .CO. ZA D I ES EL DI E S E L. CO. ZA D O LC E & G ABBAN A 011 3 2 6 7 8 0 8 E D GA R S E D G A RS. CO. Z A KAT VA N D U IN E N KATVA N D U I N EN . CO M MAR KH AM M AR K HAM . CO.ZA P O LO P OLO. CO. ZA S COTC H & SODA 0 1 1 7 8 4 3 2 3 3 T U D OR 0 1 1 7 8 4 9 2 3 0

Available in store and online www.polo.co.za @polosouthafrica

WATCHES

T EX T Ga r y Cotterell

I LLU ST RAT IO N Richa rd B ecke r

T

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he ’70s moustache has made a comeback and will no doubt receive added momentum in this month of Movember. Once associated with Tom of Finland beefcakes, porn stars, cops, and macho men, it comes with a healthy dose of irony this time round as the style-conscious also challenge age-old stereotypes of gender and masculinity.

Although nurtured for a while already by stars such as Eddie Murphy, Milo Ventimiglia, James Franco, and Benedict Cumberbatch — and street-style mavens Ben Cobb and Luke Day — it is surely Rami Malek, rocking his Freddie Mercury ’stache, who helped fortify the trend.

In the 1970s, many also flaunted futuristic digital technology on their wrists, but there were those with more flair than flared trousers, who preferred another new breed of mechanical watches designed for the Tom Wolfe “Me Decade” and the laissez-faire ’80s that followed.

This was the era in which watch designer Gérald Genta really made his mark with his disruptive all-steel Royal Oak for Audemars Piguet, launched in 1972 with its grande tapisserie dial and octagonal bezel, followed by the equally iconic Patek Philippe Nautilus, and IWC Ingenieur Jumbo in 1976. Together with the Jörg Hysek-designed Vacheron Constantin 222 of 1977, these were the genre-defining, premium sports watches of the 1970s.

Sporty yet elegant, this new category of luxury timepieces became the ultimate expression of independence, sophistication, style, and success, and inspired many other pieces over the next decades.

If you look back at some of the quartz watches of the ’70s, whether analogue or TV-screened digital, you can also see how some of these “futuristic” ideas might have had an influence on the design of mechanical watches, not to mention the related quartz crisis (or revolution, depending on your point of view), which caught the Swiss a little off guard and looking for fresh ideas. Incidentally, it’s the 50th anniversary this year of the Seiko Aston 35SQ — the world’s first quartz watch — that marked the beginning of that crisis, as well as the legendary Genta’s independent studio and eponymous watch brand, now owned by Bulgari.

The Tudor Black Bay Chrono S&G is a gorgeous two-tone update on a model that combines the brand’s diving heritage with that of the racetrack, which we first saw in its original manually wound 39mm Oysterdate chronograph launched in 1970. The Tudor Heritage Chrono collection retains the spirit and design cues of the early “Montecarlo” models, with their very graphic dials and characteristic pentagonal hour markers reminiscent of a casino roulette wheel, while updating the performance and sizing up to a more modern 42mm steel case.

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Some classics never get old

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Gucci encourages “more self-expression, independence, and freedom” through its nostalgic ’70s advertising campaigns. With the focus on street style, there is little more expressive of this “freedom” than surfing and skater cultures. Boards, trucks, and wheels provide the inspiration for the Grip timepieces, which are an artful blend of vintage and contemporary cues, featuring small, hands-free analogue display windows on solid, slimline medallion dials. Printed seven-segment numerals recall period quartz displays.

Avocado ritz was a classic dish of the 1970s, and while green is one of the biggest new colour trends in watchmaking — seen in olive, khaki, and forest green — it is more likely to be inspired by the virtues of nature than the dinner-party scene. In the case of Panerai, matte-green references Panerai’s links with the Italian Navy and is synonymous with protection, camouflage, and versatility. In 1972, under the new management of engineer Dino Zei, the company then known as G Panerai & Figlio was changed to Officine Panerai SrL, the name that appeared on the very first Radiomir models and still does today on the new military-green editions of the historic Radiomir, including GMT 45mm, GMT Power Reserve 45mm, and 45mm or 48mm time-only models.

Omega has updated its Seamaster 300 diver’s watch in luxury style by including a stand-out 41mm Ceragold model with a dazzling malachite dial and complementary green ceramic unidirectional rotating bezel, on a matching green leather strap. Also available in platinum with lapis lazuli dial option, the Seamaster 300 is powered by the Metas-certified master chronometer Calibre 8913 and is water resistant to 300m.

The new round of load shedding not only highlights the inefficiencies of our leaders but also how useless our new devices are without power. And although many believe that mechanical watches are no longer a necessity, these wonderful miniature machines continue to tick on long after the lights have gone out.

Following the explosion of one of their oxygen tanks, the crew of the Apollo 13 were left stranded in space on 11 April 1970 with almost no power. Among the many challenges they faced was how to manually ignite an engine so that they could correctly align their craft for re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. Using an Omega Speedmaster, they were able to successfully time a 14-second burn, which saw them splash down on 17 April. Omega received the Silver Snoopy Award from NASA as a mark of gratitude.

It’s also the 50th anniversary this year of the moon landing and the Speedmaster model that accompanied the astronauts on the Apollo 11 mission. As you groom your moustache and celebrate those first steps made by man on the moon, we need to reflect on the mayhem on Earth’s surface. From environmental destruction to gender inequality and ongoing abuse, it appears that “man” has a lot to answer for before shooting off on a Virgin Galactic or SpaceX flight in search of new worlds to conquer.

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1 . RA D I O MI R G MT P O W E R RE S E RV E 45MM, R179 500, PA N E RA I B O U TI Q U E 2 . H E RI TAG E C H RO N O B LU E , R63 800, TU D O R S O U TH A FRI C A 3 . O ME G A S E A MA STE R 300 “ MA L AC H I TE ” I N Y E L LO W G O L D, R394 000, S H E ME R J E W E L L E RS 4 . O ME G A S P E E D MA STE R MO O N WATC H 321 I N P L ATI N U M, R886 000, S H E ME R J E W E L L E RS 5. G RI P WATC H E S I N Y E L LO W G O L D A N D STE E L W I TH I N TE RLO C K I N G G S , FRO M R21 800- R24 450, G U CC I 6 . G RI P WATC H E S W I TH I N TE RC H A N G E A B L E L E ATH E R STRA P S , FRO M R25 480R26 900, G U CC I

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PA NER A I B O U T I Q U E S A N DTO N C I T Y 0 1 1 7 8 4 0 0 1 2 G U CC I 0 1 1 3 2 6 7 9 2 8 S H E M E R J E W EL L ERS 011 622 4735 TUDO R S O UTH AFRICA 011 784 9230

TREND COMPI LED BY Sahil Harilal

the wanderer

LO EWE

Take a trip in Loewe’s hippie-inspired layered textures, stripes, and soft colours

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PHOTOGRAPHY JESSICA SEGAL AND SUPPLIED

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1 . S H I RT, R 2 580 T E D B A K E R 2 . S H O RT S , FR O M R 1 899, S COTC H & S O DA 3 . N E C K L AC E , R 800, P I C H UL I K 4 . K N I T, R 699, CO UN T R Y R OA D 5 . B E LT, FR O M R 1 199, S COTC H & S O DA 6 . C A R R E R A C A L I B R E 16 AUTO M AT I C C H R O N O G R A P H 41M , R 65 000, TAG H E UE R B O UT I Q UE 7 . G O L F S HI RT, R 429, CO UN T R Y R OA D 8 . S HI RT, R 2 799, D I E S E L 9 . T R O US E R S , R 1 299, CO UN T R Y R OA D 1 0 . S H O P P E R , R 1 799, CO UN T R Y R OA D 1 1 . E S PA D R I L L E S , R 3 895, PAUL S M I T H

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CO UN T R Y R OA D W OOLW ORTH S . CO. Z A D I E S E L D I E S E L . CO. Z A P I CH U L I K P I C H U L I K . COM PAUL SMIT H 011 883 3709 SCOTC H & SODA 011 784 3233 TAG H E U E R B O U T I Q U E 0 2 1 4 2 1 8 5 3 9 / 0 1 1 7 8 4 7 4 2 2 T ED B A KER 011 883 3803

#ThisIsYourTime

TISSOT seastar 1000 chronograph.

WATER RESISTANCE UP TO 30 BAR (300 M / 1000 FT).

R 7 900.00

TI S SOT WATC H E S .CO M TISSOT, INNOVATORS BY TRADITION

STREET STYLE

PHOTOGRAPHY CHRISTIAN VIERIG/CLAUDIO LAVENIA/MATTHEW SPERZEL/GETTY IMAGES AND SUPPLIED

COM P I L E D BY S ah i l H ar i lal

TRY THESE 1

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S H I R T, R150, MRP

J A C K E T, R5 899, DIESEL

SANDALS, R130, MRP

SHORTS, R160, EDGARS

T- S H I R T, FROM R1 199, SCOTCH & SODA

SNEAKERS, R10 500, ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA

RELAY JEANS BAG, R160, MARKHAM

JEANS, R4 799, DIESEL

J A C K E T, R7 299 DIESEL

TROUSERS, R3 799 (ONLINE EXCLUSIVE), DIESEL

C A P, R130, EDGARS

SNEAKERS, R999, POLO

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Colour by Numbers Paintbox hues in tangerine, cobalt, and crimson are the perfect accompaniment to clean-cut neutral staples

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T- S H I R T, R1 299, DIESEL

PUMA X RUBIK’S SNEAKERS, R2 299, PUMA SELECT

BAG, R90, MRP

COLUMBIA SHORTS, R700, SPORTSMANS WAREHOUSE

T- S H I R T, R1 100, TED BAKER

SHORTS, R1 380 TED BAKER

NIKE SNEAKERS, R849, SUPERBALIST

ADIDAS ORIGINALS BAG, R399, SUPERBALIST

S H I R T, R999, POLO

BROGUES, R2 899, POLO

SUNGLASSES, R1 099, POLO

TROUSERS, R699, TRENERY

DIESEL DIESEL.CO.ZA EDGARS EDGARS.CO.ZA ER M ENEG ILD O ZEG NA 0 1 1 3 2 6 7 7 6 7 M AR K H AM MAR K H AM.CO.ZA M R P MR P.CO M /E N _Z A / P OLO P OLO. CO. Z A P U MA S E L E CT P U M A SE L E C T. CO. Z A S COTCH & S ODA 0 1 1 2 6 8 6 7 6 5 SPORTSM ANS WAR EH O US E S PO RTS MAN S WAR EH O US E.CO.ZA S UPER BALIST S UPER BALIST.CO M T E D B A KE R 0 1 1 8 8 3 3 8 0 3 T R E N E R Y W OOLW ORT HS. CO. Z A

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Relaxed tailoring and pops of colour set the tone for the summer holidays

FASHION

PR ODU C TION Sh a r o n A r m s tr o n g

PHOTOG R APHY Ro s s G a r r ett

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1 . K N I T, R 3 2 9 , H & M ; T R OU S E R S , R7 800, VIVIERS; OM E G A S E A M A ST E R 3 0 0 M , ST E E L A N D G OL D ON R U B B E R WATC H , R 9 7 0 0 0 , ELEGANCE JEWELLERS; E S PA D R I L L E S , R 3 8 9 5 , PAU L S M I T H ; PA S S E L ACC E N T C H A I R , R 9 8 0 0 ; L I M E ST R I PE KELIM, R12 995, B OT H L A G R A N G E I N T E R I OR S 2 . B L AC K LABEL BLAZER, R 1 2 0 0 0 , R OW- G ; G OL F S H I RT, R 5 8 0 0 ; T R OU S E R S , R 1 2 3 3 0 , B OT H E R M E N E G I L D O Z E G N A ; OM E G A PL A N E T OC E A N 6 0 0 M G M T, B LU E C E R A M I C ON RUBBER, R167 000, ELEGANCE JEWELLERS 3. BLAZER, R1 899, Z A R A ; S H I RT, R 2 7 0 ; T R OU S E R S , R 5 8 0 , B OT H M A R K H A M ; OM E G A PL A N E T OC E A N 6 0 0 M G M T, B LU E C E R A M I C ON R U B B E R WATC H , R 1 6 7 0 0 0 , ELEGANCE JEWELLERS; ZEBRA SKIN, R14 800,

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5. JAC K E T, R 4 800, B E WAR E T H E W OL F I N S H E E P’S C LOT H I N G ; G OL F S H I RT, R 1 650, PR I N G L E OF S COT L AN D 6. I C E B E R G S H I RT, R 6 490, H Y D R AUL I C S ; H AT, R 1 199, S COTC H & S ODA; OME G A PL AN E T OC E AN 600M G MT, B L AC K C E R AMI C ON R UB B E R WATC H , R 167 000, E L E G AN C E JE W E L L E R S 7. S H I RT, R 899, POLO; T R OUS E R S , R 2 000, FR AN C E L I S ; S C AR F, R 119, COT TON ON ; OME G A PL AN E T OC E AN 600M G MT, B L AC K C E R AMI C ON R UB B E R WATC H , R 167 000, E L E G AN C E JE W E L L E R S ; S AN DAL S , R 999, AL D O; V I C E N ZA S E R V E R , R 20 900, L A G R AN G E I N T E R I OR S ; B L AC K AN D W H I T E K E L I MS , R 15 900 E AC H , TON I C D E S I G N 8. B LOUS E , R 1 250, B E WAR E T H E W OL F I N S H E E P’S C LOT H I N G ; JAC K E T, R 17 895; T R OUS E R S , R 10 295, B OT H E MPOR I O AR MAN I ; OME G A S E AMAST E R 300M, ST E E L AN D G OL D ON R UB B E R WATC H , R 97 000, E L E G AN C E JE W E L L E R S ; S AN DAL S , R 5 295, G I OR G I O AR MAN I ; R AFFI A B AS K E T S , R 980 E AC H , AMAT UL I ; KELIM SERENGETI, R 10 995, L A G R AN G E I N T E R I OR S

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A L D O A L DOSH OE S. CO. Z A A M AT U LI 011 440 5065 B E WA R E T HE WO L F I N S HE E P ’ S C LOTH I NG 061 114 1965 COT TO N O N 011 784 0218 E L E G A N C E JE W E L L E R S 011 784 0 047 E M POR I O AR M A N I 011 783 4410 E R M E N E G I L D O ZE G NA 011 326 7767 F R A N C E L I S FR A NC E L IS. CO. Z A G I ORG I O ARM ANI 011 326 7853 G U CC I 011 326 7928 H &M HM.COM/Z A HY D R AU L I C S 087 149 1304 L A G R ANG E I NTE RI OR S 011 444 5379 M A R K HA M MA RKHAM.CO.Z A PAU L S M I T H 011 883 3709 P O LO P OLO.CO.Z A PR A DA 011 326 7517 P R I N G L E O F S COTL AND 011 444 2270 R O W- G R OW- G . COM S COTC H & S O DA 011 784 3 233 TO N I C D E S I G N 011 327 2028 V I V I E R S INFO@ V IV IE R S. ST U DIO Z ARA Z ARA.CO.Z A

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PHOTOGRAPHY ROSS GARRETT/LAMPOST PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT L’MRI ERASMUS DÉCOR STYLIST ANDREW CHANDLER GROOMING SAADIQUE RYKLIEF/LAMPOST USING BALMAIN HAIR COUTURE MODEL SETHU/20 MANAGEMENT JUNIOR FASHION EDITOR SAHIL HARILAL FASHION INTERNS NOMBUSO KUMALO AND KEABECOE MOSHE LOCATION EDOARDO VILLA HOUSE

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FRAGRANCE

T EX T & PRO D UC T ION Nokubonga Thus i

PH OTO GRAPH Y Judd va n Rensbu rg

We chat to creative director Carolina A Herrera and perfumers Louise Turner and Quentin Bisch about Bad Boy, the new male frag rance

O L FA C T O R Y B U Z Z

FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH

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he idea of being a bad boy has always had negative connotations, but with the launch of the newest fragrance pillar of the house, Carolina Herrera sets out to redefine the modern-day bad boy. “Honestly, the bad boy is more of a stereotype when you say, ‘Oh, he’s such a bad boy’. We all love a bit of a bad boy because the bad boy has a double connotation,” says Carolina A Herrera. “So for me, bad boy is more tongue-in-cheek; he’s interesting, naughty, and handsome; he makes me suffer a little bit but I love him. So it’s in that way — I’m not talking about the criminal bad boy. It’s the James Deans of the world, the Steve McQueens, it’s the rebels who wanted to push boundaries either as themselves or with their work or racing cars or with women. There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as it’s not criminal activity. That’s the bad boy for me, whatever connotations you want to give it.”

Finding the face to personify the Bad Boy fragrance wasn’t an easy task, but in the end, actor Ed Skrein was the perfect combination of bad and good. “He’s heroic but sensitive. He’s mischievous but he also gives back and he works with children. The idea that there’s no good without the bad — he understood the concept and philosophy of duality and I think in the end, what we were expecting on paper, we got in real life,” she says.

Bringing in the brand’s signature trait of duality, which is woven into both the fashion and fragrance collections, the opulent architecture and old-school charm of Madrid provided the perfect playground for the launch of the bad boy who’s more than one thing: charismatic and rebellious, but also artistic and philanthropic. “I think it’s just important in general, because we’re not just one thing, right?” says Herrera. “The sense of duality is just a way of allowing yourself to be who you want to be at that moment and not succumb to this person you have to be and this is what you have to smell like and act like.”

We’ve been seeing a shift in male perfumery where fragrances

ON THE GROOMING SHELF

FAST FACTS

Carolina Herrera Bad Boy EDT 100ml, R1 675

Perfume:

Perfumers:

The Face: Olfactory family: Top Notes:

Carolina Herrera Bad Boy Louise Turner & Quentin Bisch Ed Skrein Fougère Clary sage, vert de bergamot, white & pink pepper

Middle Notes:

Cedarwood, sage

Base Notes:

Roasted tonka bean, cocoa, dry amber woods

The Bottle:

Black glass, lightning-bolt-shaped flacon with gold accents

no longer take on a traditional, one-dimensional scent profile and have become more nuanced and gender-fluid. The perfumers who created Bad Boy, and its highly successful partner Good Girl, Louise Turner and Quentin Bisch, believe the clash of non-gender-conforming ingredients and their treatment in this scent is what makes it groundbreaking. “It’s not just in terms of olfactive profile that you’re seeing things that are touching something more gender fluid and less macho. It’s breaking a boundary in terms of what is more daring in fragrance, because it’s really marketing that defines masculine and feminine within fragrance. So, definitely, it’s a movement,” says Turner. “In fact, I think that we have a supermasculine fragrance here because we put a hint of femininity into it that highlights its masculinity,” adds Bisch.

While notes of clary sage, vert de bergamot and cedarwood add an energising bright accord to the scent, it’s the combination of roasted tonka bean and cocoa that pushes the boundaries of a classic fragrance category. “Bad Boy is a reinvention of a masculine fougère [from the French word for fern], the most well-known archetype in masculine perfumery. We wanted something very addictive, oriental, and sensual, and using the roasted tonka bean allowed us to go further than before — to play on super-addictive, roasted tonka bean plus cocoa bean in fougère to give that new, unexpected signature.” says Bisch.

“Tonka has always been important, particularly in male fragrances, because it’s something which has been used in the fougère structure, particularly the oriental fougère structure.

“I think, the way we’ve used it here, it is different — it’s certainly darker,” says Turner. “I think it is the idea of contrast between dark and light, good and bad, tension and energy.”

With clashing accords that strike the right olfactory balance and a striking bottle to house it all — it’s safe to say that it’s good to be bad.

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NEW

WHAT COUTURE FEELS LIKE FRAGRANCE COUTURE FOR HIM

GROOMING

CO MPIL E D BY Nokub o ng a Thusi

ILLUST RATION Richard Becker

NEWS Whether you’re a proud moustache owner or an aesthetics fan, here’s how to look and feel good this summer

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Man-tenance: what price?

Anyone taking a casual gander through the latest menu of men’s “aesthetic services” will be astounded by the breadth of interventions available: from hair transplants and body “reshaping” to innovative methods for “sexual wellness”.

But do these procedures deliver on their promises?

T yrone Arendse finds out

T

The Man and the Moustache

he number of pricey — and seemingly transformative — treatments is incredible, and the cost of them can run into tens of thousands of rands. Naturally, the question regarding value for money is raised. So, in an effort to assess the efficacy of these offerings, I researched some treatments that might be worth checking out — specifically those that are exceedingly expensive but claimed to achieve outstanding results. The procedure known as Thermage came up repeatedly, and yours truly bravely decided to try it out.

As with any undertaking of this sort, you need to find a reputable service provider. A few more hours of googling led me to the branch of Laserderm in Parkhurst, Johannesburg, where I’d had a pleasant laser hair removal experience a few years before. At the time, “aesthetics” was seen very much as the domain of women, and I recall being made to feel at ease and very welcome, and pleasantly surprised by both the skill of their technicians and the manner in which they dealt with their male clientele.

TEXT Matthew McClure

The Treatment: moustache and sartorial sensibility even have Vogue’s Liana Satenstein calling him “deliciously lecherous” as he unselfconsciously channels That ’70s Show sleaze.

If you’re looking to foray into ’stache territory, upkeep is crucial to avoid

the log-cabin hermit look.

Sorbet Man’s Beard Oil will leave your whiskers nourished and moisturised, and if you want precision trimming for a clean and modern aesthetic, Remington’s Trim Shape Style grooming kit should be on your shopping list.

Thermage is a treatment whereby heat from targeted radio waves is used to stimulate the creation of collagen. If the literature is to be believed, Thermage immediately tightens the skin and improves its appearance — essentially creating the results of a non-surgical “facelift”. Further more, the results are long lasting, with the cycles of collagen production continuing for months (and possibly even years) after the initial treatment.

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My appointment started with an extensive briefing session about the pros and cons of the procedure, as well as an evaluation of my needs and expectations. Thermage was ultimately deemed inappropriate for my facial skin condition, and while slightly disappointed, I was pleased by the honest and insightful feedback I was given. I also appreciated the fact that a less-expensive treatment was recommended for my skin type, and that my therapist Ingrid specifically avoided a hard sell of an intervention that would have delivered sub-optimal results. I did get to try some Thermage on my neck — years of shaving have apparently taken their toll — and I have to say the results were impressive (and almost immediate): smoother skin, with noticeable improvements in texture and colouring.

Is it worth it?:

3.

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I’m not entirely sure the results justified the price — Thermage treatments can come in at a steep R25 000 — but the experience was very positive and reinforced a few key principles. First, do your research, and make sure you understand both the benefits and risks before signing up for any aesthetic therapies. Second — and this may be the most important consideration — make sure your therapist is skilled, knows their product, and is an effective communicator. Finally, having a shared sensibility on what is appropriate for your age and lifestyle will help avoid outcomes that look garish and unnatural, and increase the chances of ultimate customer satisfaction. laserderm.co.za

PHOTOGRAPHY ULRICH KNOBLAUCH AND SUPPLIED

T

here’s no doubt in my mind that a stylishly executed moustache can be as much of a personal style statement for a dapper man as his choice of shoes, his scent, or the way he shakes hands to close a business deal. The moustache has a long and dignified history, being associated in certain cultures with virility, social status, and military rank.

Clean-shaven British forces in early 20th-century India grew bushy moustaches and beards to earn respect and loyalty from local soldiers, who associated manliness with the length and density of facial hair.

These hirsute style statements have defined eras of iconic masculine identity in powerful ways.

Think Tom Selleck, Hulk Hogan, Charlie Chaplin and Freddie Mercury.

These moustache pioneers all played their part in ensuring the handlebar, the walrus, and the horseshoe remain part of our popular culture. Who can forget the inimitable Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali and his eccentrically styled moustache, so much a part of his personality that the style of carefully oiled, twisted, and upturned whiskers has been named after him?

Someone getting the moustache vibe spot-on is Ben Cobb, the outgoing editor-in-chief of Another Man magazine. Cobb effortlessly channels the mid-’70s with his chevron moustache, paired with suave, shoulder-length, leisurely tousled hair, open-collared shirts and high-waisted trousers.

In an interview with the New York Times, he says the freedom of masculine expression in the 1970s has always appealed to him, and is the reason he draws his personal style from this era. “They were allowed to express themselves and be every version of masculinity,” says Cobb. His iconic

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C

rossFit is oft the butt of jokes because, for the faithful advocates, it’s something they love talking about — a lot.

A question arising from small talk on where one trains or how you keep fit is all the invitation needed for them to preach the gospel, as it were. Proponents of the sport have a vibrant, and seldom silent, obsession with it.

With this mania of support at its heart, it’s not surprising that CrossFit has been elevated to cult status. Whether it’s a co-worker, friend or relative, we all know someone who has taken it up. But given that the sport has spawned a multibillion dollar industry, it’s worth trying to understand why the person you once knew has morphed into someone who won’t shut up about it and, in the process, understand what CrossFit is beyond the snipes.

At a very basic level, CrossFit is simply turning exercise into a sport. That is the best way to distil what this global fitness craze is.

Those who have signed up at a CrossFit box (they’re called boxes, not gyms. Few know why) have likely paid a king’s ransom, making an incredibly expensive and time-consuming commitment to self-improvement. This is not your run-of-the-mill gym contract for a few hundred a month — memberships at these boxes will more than likely run into the thousands.

The new CrossFitter in your life will also speak in a different language which — littered with acronyms and abbreviations — will be difficult to follow. They’ll spout about WODs, double-

“A CROSSFITTER, A VEGAN, AND AN ATHEIST WALK INTO A BAR…”

If you have a CrossFit fan in your life, here’s what all the hype is about

unders and HSPUs. They’ll learn new things (and new terms) every day because CrossFit is an abundantly technical mix of gymnastics and Olympic weightlifting techniques that few would have encountered before.

When they master their first muscle-up (google it), they’ll be beaming, much like the first time you mastered riding a bike.

24

So then it’s little wonder that it’s all they can talk about.

They’ll also witter on about the sense of camaraderie borne out of their collective suffering.

Your CrossFit friend will not quietly walk into the box and exercise on their own. Oh no.

They become part of a class who are guided through the day’s workout. This develops

a sense of community, with everyone working in concert to help each other improve. Once the fit people finish working out, they’ll all gather around the slower and weaker ones, spurring them to finish.

The remarkable thing about this sense of community is that you’ll see it everywhere. If you’re out of town you can drop in to a

box close to you. During whichever workout you’re subject to, you become amalgamated into that community with fairly universal ease.

The person you once knew will spend a vast amount of money on gear and equipment, most of which you will have never seen or heard of.

Neoprene knee guards, belts, and R800 skipping ropes will form part of the cache of kit they’ll lug around with them everywhere they go. They’ll amass a collection of CrossFit shoes and several hundred t-shirts emblazoned with logos of their home box, or any one they may have visited.

If you want to feign interest, all you need to do is ask about “The Open”. The Open is a global competition that takes place twice a year which your friend/co-worker/loved-one is either competing in, judging, or actively watching their CrossFit friends participate in. This year, just over 350 000 people signed up. One adjudicated event a week for five weeks will give your mate a global ranking.

They’ll talk about it a lot if you choose to open that door.

To be brutally honest, CrossFit is like Bovril. It is either something you love or something you hate. If you want to slide into the gym for some quiet time on the treadmill, earphones in situ, then CrossFit is probably not for you. If you’re not one to be cheered on or watched while you exercise, it would probably be best to give it a miss. But if you’re game for a challenge — one that will make you fitter and healthier — you’ll gladly set your bank account ablaze.

THE RISE OF THE 0% TEXT T ymon Smith

I

quit drinking on 16 September this year. I won’t bore you with the details of why, except to say that after various attempts to limit my alcohol intake and kidding myself into believing I could be a responsible drinker, I finally did something stupid that upset people I care about and realised that perhaps it was best to put my drinking days behind me. My decision was not a late dry January challenge, nor should it be seen as part of the horribly named Ocsober movement that’s had so many South Africans loudly expressing opinions on temporary sobriety. I just had to stop, and while experienced alcoholics will tell you it is not easy and is the beginning of a life-long, day-by-day, step-by-step process, I have discovered that the range of non-alcoholic alternatives available has vastly improved since the last time I tried to climb on the wagon. And this makes things a lot easier.

Recent, widely reported research shows that there’s a trend among millennials to drink less than their parents — but not necessarily forgo the mind-altering opportunities provided by other substances — and an increased embracing of historically “uncool” non-alcoholic options. That’s led to beer companies pushing these products in advertising campaigns from the London Underground to the New York subway, and the flourishing of hipster no-booze bars in the trendy metropoles of the world. Cape Town hosted the Mindful Drinking Festival at Kirstenbosch earlier this month, and you can bet that if the Mother City is getting in on the action there’ll be several non-alcoholic bars with views of Table Mountain popping up soon. You can order non-alcoholic beers in many restaurants and bars already: Savanna non-alcoholic, Heineken 0.0, Castle Free and

Beck’s Blue are the most common in my experience — but there are many options available in suburban bottle stores.

It’s worth noting that, strictly speaking, there are two types of classification — alcohol-free (which contains less than 0,05% alcohol per volume) and non-alcoholic (containing less than 0.3%).

Based on personal experience and consumption, it’s virtually impossible for you to get drunk on either of these or even feel the slightest of the perception-changing effects of alcohol as a result.

Thanks to vast improvements in the process by which alcohol is removed during the production of these beverages, nonalcoholic beer tastes a lot more like beer than it used to when it was first introduced to the US in 1919. Prohibition-era laws dictated that beer could not have more than 0.5% ABV (alcohol by volume). Cynical connoisseurs of the golden beverage — which some believe was one of the key factors in the development of civilisation (archaeological evidence indicates that we may have known how to make beer before we knew how to bake bread) — like to quip that the 0.5% rule is the reason so many American beers taste like the experience of having sex in a canoe. However,these days you have many more bitter, dry, proper-beer-tasting options than the sickly, malty sweetness of the Bavaria you can buy at Woolworths.

As with many things beer-related, most of the better options are produced in Germany, where beer drinking is viewed by the rest of the world as as common a part of everyday social interaction as handshaking and Facebook-checking. Erdinger, Bitburger, Becks, Holsten, and Clausthaler all offer non-alcoholic and alcoholfree versions of their beer. That’s because even the Germans are

experiencing a decrease in beer consumption per capita, from 140 litres per year in 1970 to just under 100 litres last year. So beer companies, like their savvy friends in the tobacco industry who have leapt on the vape bandwagon, have rushed to keep nonalcoholic consumers happy with a wide variety of tasty, beerybut-not-boozy offerings. The world’s largest brewing company AB InBev has forecast that by 2025, 20% of its market will be made up of alcohol-free beer. In South Africa, SAB’s Castle Free 0% beer is already widely available, and craft brewer Devil’s Peak offers the refreshingly fruity Zero to Hero non-alcoholic option.

Although non-alcoholic alternatives are not a cure for alcoholism, they certainly help sobriety go down a little more easily. And with increased demand by punters for bars and eateries to stock them, you can still participate in the social aspect of drinking, that’s one of the fundamental cornerstones of our cultural evolution, without the hangover, blackouts, or regret that come with it.

Make no mistake: drinking bottles of non-alcoholic beer like they are bottles of cola won’t make you drunk or give you liver pains, but you’ll still pee constantly, feel the bloat of excessive beer consumption, and sometimes get to the point where the next one feels like it may come out faster than it went in. On the plus side, you can operate heavy machinery and drive yourself home afterwards.

As for how you deal with people getting drunk while you’re not — that’s up to you. But at least you can raise a beer-looking glass with a beer-looking substance in it, instead of looking like the lonely chop in the corner glumly holding a lime and soda and dreaming of the taste of alcohol, while regretting everything else that comes with it.

6 OF THE BEST NON-ALCOHOLIC OPTIONS

ERDINGER Non-Alcoholic: The <0.5% version of Erdinger’s Weiss beer makes claims about improving energy and performance thanks to added vitamins, but it’s also just a good, strong, delicious beer-tasting alternative

HEINEKEN 0.0: The Dutch brewer’s no-booze version of its popular beer still reaches the parts others can’t thanks to its retention of the crisp freshness and easy drinking that makes the original so popular

DEVIL’S PEAK Zero to Hero: The Cape Town brewery offers an easy-to-drink, fruity alternative that retains the distinctive flavours of its alcoholic range

THE DUCHESS Non-Alcoholic Gin and Tonic: this features three refreshingly crisp flavours: Botanical (featuring orange and cardamom), Floral (with extracts of primrose and honeybush), and Greenery (with extracts of rosemary and cucumber)

SEEDLIP Non-Alcoholic Spirits: They don’t taste quite like gin on their own but these UK-made, slightly pricey offerings taste much like gin when mixed with tonic. it comes in three varieties: spice, garden, and grove

FACTS AND FIGURES: £57-million the amount spent by Britons on low or non-alcoholic beers between April 2018 and April 2019 £48-million the amount spent by Britons on low and no-alcohol wines over the same period $25-billion the projected value of the global non-alcoholic beer market by 2024, according to research

by Global Market Insights 47% the number of adult drinkers who want to reduce their alcohol consumption to lead a healthier lifestyle, according to a recent Nielsen survey.

PHOTOGRAPHY TRAVYS OWEN AND SUPPLIED

TEXT Je ff Wicks

MUSIC

T EXT G r eg Bowes ILLUSTRATIONS Rich ard Be cke r

MAPPING MZANSI’S MUSIC

“It began in Africa” is a common refrain about the birth of music. We take a trip through time and across the country to discover the many styles of SA music

J

LIMPOPO

ust as in the US, where jazz was nurtured in New Orleans and techno was birthed in Detroit, it was when marginalised music-makers in proximal pockets of South Africa began to flirt with, and flip, American styles that modern Mzansi scenes were born — and entirely new genres have emerged.

Khuli Chana

We’ve mapped some of these centres of excellence. This is not to say that areas like the Eastern Cape have not contributed to this history, but we can’t cover everything. So not a definitive background then, but rather a jaunt through musical time — a graphic demonstration of key times. Strap in, and please listen to the music.

NW

HIP-HOP Cassper Nyovest

Bongo Maffin

Kabza De Small

AMAPIANO

Boom Shaka

KWAITO

Mafikizolo Sello “Chico” Twala

Don Laka

Brenda Fassie

BUBBLEGUM

Dr. Malinga

Lebo Mathosa

GAUTENG

Gaba Cannal

Oskido Bruce Sebitlo

Yvonne Chaka Chaka

House Afrika

Kalawa Jazmee

Brothers of Peace

KZN

AFRO HOUSE DURBAN HOUSE

Big Nuz

DJ Cndo

Blue Notes

MANNENBERG Abdullah Ibrahim

Kippie Moeketsi

SOPHIATOWN

Miriam Makeba

Stiff Pap

TECHNO

Angel-Ho

FAKA

ELECTRONICA

Marcus Wormstorm

Babes Wodumo

Dladla Mshunqisi

Springbok Nude Girls

Distruction Boyz Tipcee

Aewon Wolf Godessa

Sketchy Bongo

Brasse Vannie Kaap

WC

Dominowe

GQOM

Citizen Boyz

Prophets of Da City

HIP-HOP

YoungstaCPT

Haezer Felix Laband

Jazz Epistles

DJ Lag

Black Noise

EXPERIMENTAL

Stab Virus

Afrotainment

Dope Saint Jude

Basil Coetzee

DJ Tira

Jonas Gwangwa

The Manhattans

JAZZ

Sathima Bea Benjamin

26

Hugh Masekela

Thandi Klaasen

Sho Madjozi

DJ Christos

Hip Hop Pantsula

Blondie Makhene

DJ Maphorisa

Paul Ndlovu

Penny Penny

Nozinja

SHANGAAN DISCO ELECTRO

Joe Shirimani

POP

The Wolfpack Kyle Deutsch

Shekhinah

Die Heuwels Fantasties

ROCK

aKing Fokofpolisiekar

Karen Zoid

G aut eng

W e s t e r n Ca p e

K w a Z ulu-N a t a l

JAZZ

DURBAN HOUSE

JAZZ

Johannesburg is the heart of the local music industry and midcentury Sophiatown was all about that jazz. In shebeens, Kippie Moeketsi, Jonas Gwangwa, and Thandi Klaasen were revered, and when the musical King Kong (also conceived in the hotspot) whisked Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela off to London, they largely stayed in exile. The music they and the likes of the Jazz Epistles made took American jive and bebop and imbued it with local harmony and the impending blues of Triomf.

KZN is the birthplace of some of SA’s foundational musical styles — isicathamiya, maskandi — but in recent times it’s been party central. DJ Tira’s Afrotainment label and acts like Big Nuz and DJ Cndo have been cranking out heavy house cuts for over a decade — tracks bedecked in deep bass and trance-like repetition. Increasingly, this sound is making way for…

Joburg had Sophiatown and Cape Town had Mannenberg — in fact, the Cape Flats, but Mannenberg ended up as the title of Abdullah Ibrahim’s memorable anti-apartheid anthem. Along with his wife Sathima Bea Benjamin and the likes of Basil Coetzee and Chris McGregor’s The Blue Notes, Capetonians crafted a distinctly township version of bebop and contributed to the rise of the repetitive vamping patterns of local variant marabi.

BUBBLEGUM In the ’80s, the City of Gold was full of producers and singers ready to cut records (a situation ironically spurred by apartheid boycotts from international stars and radio stations promoting the government policy of “separate development”). Step up the bright and boisterous synths of Sello “Chicco” Twala, Blondie Makhene, and Don Laka — who took international pop trends like disco, muted the momentum and doubled the optimism — and vocalists like Yvonne Chaka Chaka and Brenda Fassie, who became superstars.

KWAITO Slowing things down even further, kwaito was the sound of South Africa’s free democracy in the early ’90s, as Jozi producers accessed the technologies that made life-affirming dance music such as house possible. Unsurprisingly, Don Laka was involved again, forming the Kalawa Jazmee label with Oskido and DJ Christos and helping engineer massive hits for Boom Shaka, Bongo Maffin, Mafikizolo, and more.

GQOM Durban dance music’s latest iteration, and far from impeding the house moment, the two are merging and thriving — both bright light Dladla Mshunqisi and Babes Wodumo are affiliated with Afrotainment. But DJ Lag (who just produced a track for Beyoncé’s Lion King: The Gift album) was there first, alongside acts like Dominowe. In fact, the biggest gqom track thus far, Distruction Boyz’ Omunye, has a beat lifted from Lag. Now, newer artists like Tipcee and Abashana Bonjandini are taking the style’s asymmetrical beats, dark bass, and tribal chants into entirely new areas.

POP If house and gqom are the sound of the chisa nyamas, dreamy pop music is the sound of the 031’s ’burbs. It’s down to The Wolf Pack, a collective that includes super-producer Sketchy Bongo, and vocalists Shekhinah, Kyle Deutsch, and Aewon Wolf and their sun-tinged, beach-swept sparkle-pop.

Li m p op o

AFRO HOUSE

SHANGAAN DISCO

That same label then “sped up”; when Lebo Mathosa left Boom Shaka to pursue a solo career, the resulting material resembled the hedonistic pulses of Chicago and New York. Oskido’s Brothers of Peace project (alongside Bruce Sebitlo) threw vuvuzelas all over 120BPM kicks and landed them on the NY label run by Louie Vega of Masters At Work.

Sometimes called Tsonga disco, this urgent and lively dance style with perky acoustic instruments and Tsonga vocals was championed by Paul Ndlovu and Joe Shirimani, who made his own music and also produces tunes for the best-known proponent of the style, the colourful Penny Penny.

AMAPIANO A wholly new, distinctly Mzansi style, amapiano popped up a couple of years back. Taking cues from kwaito with a slow pace, it decorates its rhythms with bold keys and vibraphones, whipcrack percussion, and looped vocal tics. The “AmaPiano” series

by House Afrika is five volumes deep and showcases talent like Gaba Cannal and Kabza De Small, while artists as diverse as Dr Malinga and DJ Maphorisa are also dabbling.

HIP-HOP Hip-hop is now prevalent across the nation, but this wasn’t always the case. Before Skwatta Kamp set off the second wave of SA hip-hop in the ’90s, it really only thrived in Cape Town in the hands of Prophets of Da City and Black Noise, who made boom-bap rap with African rhythm. Later, acts like Brasse Vannie Kaap (rapping in Afrikaans) and Godessa (an all-female crew) paved the way for a forward-thinking current crop that includes Dope Saint Jude and YoungstaCPT.

ROCK The first revolution in local rock was undoubtedly the Voëlvry movement, with artists such as James Phillips and Johannes Kerkorrel, and labels such as Shifty Records in the 1980s. But it was in the Mother City that Mzansi’s current rock movement was shaped — specifically Bellville in the 2000s. A startling number of acts emerged from this “city within a city”, including Springbok Nude Girls, Fokofpolisiekar, Die Heuwels Fantasties and aKing. The legendary Karen Zoid has worked with most of them and is emblematic of the city’s embrace of serious riffs.

ELECTRONICA, EXPERIMENTAL & TECHNO Cape Town is also home to an artistic community embracing stranger strains of music. Felix Laband and Markus Wormstorm purvey a perverse electronica that’s as cool and tranquil as a Cape Town pool, experimentalists Angel-Ho and Faka bend genres and employ visuals to explore queerness and identity, and techno artists Haezer and Stab Virus have gained global appeal. That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Cape Town’s currently frenzied musical output.

SHANGAAN ELECTRO Primarily the invention of Nozinja aka Richard Mthethwa in the 2010s, Shangaan electro strips out the traditional instruments, creating basslines with synthesised marimbas and elevating it to ridiculous speeds. It created a splash internationally, landing Nozinja on the UK’s esteemed electronic label, Warp. While her music contains traces of other styles like gqom, Sho Madjozi’s music is primarily based in this alt-Tsonga culture — her delicious debut album was titled Limpopo Champions League.

North West

HIP - HOP It’s not so grim up north-west: Motswako, or Motswako rap, is here to cheer you up. In towns like Mafikeng, and across an array of varied beats, emcees like Hip Hop Pantsula, Khuli Chana, and Cassper Nyovest have given Mzansi hip-hop a crucial injection to the heart with catchy hooks and wild flows.

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TEX T T h o ma s Fal ki ner

ILLU STR ATIONS Rich a rd Becker

MOTORING

T

oyota gets a bad rap. Especially in the fickle Land of Petrolhead. Mention at the next Cars and Coffee that you’re a fan of Japan’s biggest automotive conglomerate and you’ll be met with smirks, scowls, and predictable one-liners about you moonlighting as an Uber driver. If being a car person can be likened to belonging to one of those questionable quasi-religious groups then one of the Eleven Rules reads, “Under no circumstances may you admit to liking anything with a Toyota badge on it.” And I should know — I used to drink that Kool-Aid hard. When I first started this job, it was cool to hate and ridicule the products coming out of Aichi. The Corolla. The Camry. The Aygo. The Yaris. Everything was fair game. And then, suddenly, in 2012 something odd happened.

I needed a new secondhand car urgently and the second-generation Mazda MX-5 on which I had my hopes fixed didn’t fit my lanky 1.88m frame. Too poor to afford the slightly bigger third-generation model — or a Honda S2000 — I was now officially in the poo. Determined to drive away in a Japanese roadster, the only option left to me was — gasp — a 2001 Toyota MR2 Spyder. I found a tidy one with low(ish) mileage, organised a viewing and promptly made payment

dynamically efficient, is about as visually alluring as Donald Trump in a zebra-striped negligee.

Thing is, though, as a car, a vehicle for delivering you from A to B, the Prius is bloody brilliant.

Whether you choose an old Mk2 or a new Mk4, this once-pioneering hybrid hatchback is an ideal everyday whip thanks to its comfortable ride, well-equipped cabin (even the Mk2 packs a Bose audio system, cruise control and a reversing camera), and general ease of use.

Best of all (for those of us who haven’t seen an above-inflation salary increase in about seven years), it’s very light on fuel. Detractors will say that this just isn’t so; that an average car can achieve similar figures. Perhaps, but if you adapt your driving style and use that hybrid powertrain to your advantage, you can cover a lot of ground for little financial outlay. Seriously, every time I’ve had a Prius on test I’ve been able to register less than 4l/100km, which is impressive, to say the least. Achieving this figure is fun too, with every commute turning into a personal challenge to see how low you can get the fuel consumption meter to read. Driving a Prius is like playing a video game: one that rewards your inner miser with less frequent visits to those moneyrobbing petrol pumps. I know that this sounds lame, and to some extent it probably is. But so,

IT’S TIME TO GIVE PRIUS A CHANCE

once I could confirm that my bodily dimensions agreed with the cabin. To cut a long story short, this unintentional foray into Toyota ownership was something of an eye-opener in terms of how well built and reliable cars of this marque can be. Track days. Long trips. Short trips. Gymkhanas. Whatever I threw at the MR2 it shrugged off and asked for more. And from this stemmed an unlikely love affair with the brand so many so-called “car people” seemed too blind to ever acknowledge.

The Spyder is gone now, unfortunately, but I plan to one day replace it with another Toyota product. What is perhaps seen as the vehicular Antichrist to anybody with even the smallest dose of petroleum rushing through their veins, the Prius is a machine that has become a recent favourite of mine. It is not fast. It doesn’t really handle. It sounds like a low-powered motorboat circumnavigating an empty lagoon in the middle of the night. It has a body that, although aero-

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too, is trying to enjoy a sports car when you live in an automotive purgatory such as Johannesburg: a place in which every pothole and wayward taxi is — along with the ever-increasing traffic volume — guaranteed to ruin your fun and test your sanity. I’ve long given up trying to have fun in highly strung sportsters around this city, which is why I’m now resorting to seeking my kicks at the very other end of the spectrum.

And in this zone the function-over-form Prius is steadfastly my weapon of choice. Cleaner than a diesel and more realistic than an electric vehicle, it gets the daily drudgery done exceedingly well and will do so for many years and many (hundreds of) thousands of kilometres to come. It’ll also continue to annoy and confuse its critics. In the end, the inflammatory Prius is the car for car people who don’t like car people: something that only a brand such as Toyota could get right.

WHISKY

M

oney’s a funny ol’ thing.

All confident and cocky, it struts alongside Value, over-convinced of their close bond. But Value’s a bit erratic and uncontainable, and Money’s an obdurate bore, so they don’t see eye-to-eye. When dealing with the two, address each individually because, despite first appearances, they’re horribly unaligned. What I’m really trying to say is: a whisky’s value is not necessarily equal to its cost. But you knew that. Do you, however, know why?

BORN EQUAL

Hector McBeth, owner of importers McBeth On Whisky, has done the maths. His calculations from a few years back estimate that it costs around R32 to make one litre of single malt, R28 for a blend and R18 for a single grain. No, you’re not being screwed by your bottle store; that’s how much it takes to turn three ingredients (grains, water, yeast) into spirit. It’s not officially whisky yet, but it’s a universal starting point, and the expenses thus far — including transport, labour and manufacturing — don’t vary much across the board. But from here on, it gets more complicated.

BECOMING MORE EQUAL

New-make spirit pours off the still with limitless potential, prepped for the numerous factors — anticipated, accidental and incidental — that will shape its flavour profile and impact on cost.

“It’s not just one simple formula for every brand or product,” explains Marc Pendlebury, founder and co-owner of WhiskyBrother. “And the costs involved vary depending on the producer.” Cask selection plays a major role. “The minute you introduce a cask programme, the price changes,” says Yossi Schwartz, founder of independent bottlers Single & Single. He’s referring to when distilleries source barrels other than industry-standard American Oak, selecting unusual casks that create something more complex — and costly. “Barrels are very expensive,” confirms McBeth. “Sherry casks set you back about R16 000, and a French cask can be in excess of R20 000.”

Then there’s age. Unlike other industries, whisky likes to let sleeping stock lie. In barrels.

For years. Bottles brag with bold numeric badges, and while ageing understandably impacts price, another number, often in small print, is both a cost indicator and an icon for those wanting more.

It’s the percentile next to ABV (alcohol by volume), and it’s the oomph factor: the amount of unadulterated whisky within. In SA it legally can’t be less than 43%, but there’s no cap, and the big hitters aim for cask strength, pushing into the 60s — and pushing up the price to eye-watering levels.

As with all manufacturing, the bigger the operation, the cheaper it is to produce. “That

doesn’t necessarily mean lowered prices,” says Pendlebury. “Although it is likely.” But being big enough to call the pricing shots isn’t the only way to sell whisky. Cult Campbeltown distillery Springbank produces only 180 000 litres of liquid a year, releasing small allocations that, whilst costing slightly more, fly off the shelves.

“You’re looking at a handmade product versus an industrial one,” comments Emil den Dulk, owner of speciality wine and spirits company, Liquidity.

He also notes Springbank’s deep investment in its community, and how this independent culture has earned undying respect from diehards around the world.

Once matured, whisky doesn’t flow straight from the barrel into your mouth. If only. There are storage, bottling and distribution costs, bottles and corks to buy, and labels to be printed. These all swing prices, but there’s a bigger influence guiding these drams into your hand. It’s a beast that goes by many names, but is hell-bent on one thing: sales.

THE MARKETING MARK-UP

Heard that story about a warehouse’s snow-laden roof caving in? Sounds disastrous. But no, the barrels below were magically transformed by this icy encounter, rising like that mythical bird to occupy top shelves — at dizzying prices. And what about those tales of grand men and women, much admired for doing that simple thing you mastered as a toddler: walk. You’ve seen them stride, stroll, amble, ramble, perambulate and, most recently, trudge, zombie-like, advocating for a winter that’s been a long time coming. Forgive the obscurity, I’m trying to shame sans name, but these are the stories big brands like to tell, spotlighting extrane-

ous characters, often at the expense of intrinsic character. Expense being the operative word.

Truth is, the big budget brands are better positioned to own the narrative. That’s a given.

But whisky, particularly Scotch, has these rather unbelievable backstories that sound great on a yacht on a loch, but completely cheesy and opportunistic on a billboard. “If it feels like they’re trying to spin you a story, it probably is just a story,” says den Dulk. You’ll encounter many scripts, from Hollywood spectacles to obscure navel-gazing biopics. Take them all in, just do so with your eyes wide open. Make sure the tale is as easy to swallow as the liquid.

Marketers know an opportunity when they see one, and the rise of non-age statement whiskies presented a grey area waiting to be exploited. While some brands proudly proclaim their liquid’s youthful status, others hoodwink you into believing that, because a nearby stream meanders through a rocky outcrop where Nordic gods once engaged in all-night orgies, they can call their whisky Crnérsegiåch, throw in what they like and charge you what you’d normally pay for a 21 Year Old. Others tend to be somewhat liberal in their interpretation of the word “limited”, choosing the broadest possible context to justify its use. “Only 15 000” is literally a drop in the ocean when we’re talking global, right? Schwartz operates his business in proud opposition to this, releasing only single cask whiskies that yield a very small, finite number of bottles. “My whisky is not for everyone,” he smiles.

HERE COME THE CURVEBALLS

Whisky might be a gift from the gods, but we who consume it are wholly human, partially primitive

AT WHAT COST? TEX T Dra m T h e Ma n

When you pay good money for whisky, it’s got to be great, right? Yes. And no.

And everything in between

and perpetually paralysed by fomo. Someone else brags about that useless whatnot we never wanted and we’re off, hunting down another shitty trophy for our overcrowded cabinet. Rarity in whisky is indeed a thing. Juice from closed distilleries or a highly limited release naturally increases price, but ever so often the zeitgeist shifts, supplies look shaky and everyone starts to panic. “The demand goes up and basically there’s a frenzy,” says Saverio Cardillo, owner of whisky institution Bottega Café. “Then, whoever has stock can dictate the price.”

Stampedes and stockpiles can be instigated in many ways: warehouses burning down, TV dramas about distilling pioneers, Conor McGregor entering the fray, and Bill Murray turning to camera and muttering, deadpan: “For relaxing times, make it Suntory time.” This moment from Sofia Coppola’s classic Lost In Translation may well have entrenched the Japanese drinks giant in global pop culture, but many more factors have turned this island into the poster boy for supply and demand, a status that has purveyors perving and flippers flipping out.

Nikka and Suntory, the two biggest players in this market, have made a habit of broadcasting bad news, culling their adored line-ups far too frequently, unable to produce enough whisky to keep up with their growing popularity. Earlier this year, when both announced more cuts, prices on some acquisitive sites literally doubled overnight.

When that Hibiki 17 Year Old entered the barrel sometime last century, it would never have guessed that one day its demand would be so high that it would kill itself off. Hopefully Japan will start planning for a more optimistic tomorrow because, as McBeth reminds me, “Whisky is a futures game.”

TRUST IN TRUST

Akin to the tale of Money and Value is the parable of Quality and Taste. In it, the former grows increasingly agitated by Taste’s penchant for cat memes, flavoured milk, and rock ballads. Taste, it seems, enjoys being bad. What I’m really trying to say is: like it, drink it. But it’s not that simple.

If we lived in a utopian socialist state where meal portions were served with a range of fine drams, for free, then we could quaff away until we hit our personal sweet spots. But, in case you haven’t been paying attention, whisky is expensive stuff.

So try it in a bar first, or join a club or blag a sip.

And research, research, research.

The one faculty you should be honing the most is trust. Get to the heart of what your dram really says — on the box, on its website, on forums and in your glass — and be very sure you’re comfortable with those conversations. We all like our fetishes to look and sound the part — they are mirrors to our imagined selves — but underneath it all, insist on honesty. Honestly, that’s all your taste buds are after.

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PROFILE

TEXT Z a n e l e Ku m a l o

I L LU ST R AT I O N Ri cha r d B e c ke r

S

ince 100% Design South Africa debuted in SA in 2014, it has served as a platform to support and promote new talent and advance established designers working with surface, product, lighting, and textile. (Incidentally, 100% Design SA began in the UK in 1994 as part of the London Design Festival, and this year was its silver anniversary.)

Five years on in our country, while the demand for African contemporary art picks up the pace, the continent is also being watched in terms of design. In a 2014 article, 100% Design SA’s creative director Cathy O’Clery said: “African designers are totally conscious of the bigger design world and are beginning to be confident in offering their take. There is a creative restlessness here — people are tapping into the rich design resources and references South Africa has in droves and adapting them to urban contemporary living.”

The future of But we have to be careful about thinking up a South African specific South African design aesthetic. As Chimadesign is bright, manda Ngozi Adichie best put it, “The single story unique, creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereoand exciting types is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”

And Marcus van der Hoven of Takk Studio, which received a special mention for Best Furniture Design this year, agrees. He says, “My view is that there is no precise definition of a South African design aesthetic, but rather that the strongest designers in this field are defining an aesthetic through designing ‘conversation’; whether it derives from telling a ‘story’ or seeks to create an ‘identity’ through exploring the idea of form and function.”

This certainly was the case this year, with creatives who were awarded with a trophy designed by “alumnus” Dokter and Misses. Other “alumni” and industry heavyweights included Gregor Jenkin, Tonic, David Krynauw, and James Mudge. The winners included Laduma Ngxokolo’s MaXhosa wallpaper which won Best Surface Design and Houtlander’s Preservation Bench which won Best Furniture Design. Mpho Vackier of The Urbanative and Thabisa Mjo of Mash T Design Studio were joint winners of South African Designer of the Year, while Raw Studios’ Inhouse won Best Product Design and Sifiso Shange of Afrimodern, in collaboration with John Vogel, won Best of 100% New Talent. There was plenty to celebrate and spark new paradigms.

MaXhosa launched its homeware range at the show, which included scatter cushions, rugs, and a statement wallpaper, which was undeniably African with strong geometric design and iconography.

Some would be tempted to frame it with Mash T’s Sacrosanct Hut, which was featured at Milan Design 1.

Week and houses the Queen Nenzima server by The Urbanative. Colour, pattern, texture, and shape would tell one story of South African design. It’s one which I ask Mjo about, considering the industry’s problem with diversity.

She says, “After winning the Nando’s Hot Young Designer competition, I remember being one of very few black people, but now there are so many more black designers at exhibitions and ‘industry’ events.

Most importantly, there are more black designers whose products or furniture are specified in great projects. We have quite a way to go, but there seems to be more intention now around engaging or including black designers’ products.” An example of this is a collaboration across design houses Houtlander 3. and Mash T Design Studio with their Hlabisa Bench, informed by a three-legged pot. Mjo says: “The backrest of the Hlabisa Bench is inspired by the rolling hills of KwaZulu-Natal, which is where my maternal gran lived. The motif on the face of the potjie server is the area where my gran lived. We beaded the motif as a nod to Xhosa beading. On a personal note, it was an acknowledgment of my paternal gran, who was Xhosa.”

Another designer who gives a nod to his culture and personal stories — Zulu in this instance — is Sifiso Shange, who uses beadwork, symbolism, and tribal references in his pieces. While this rootedness in culture is causing design waves, other considerations are also changing the landscape.

It’s been incredible to watch the career trajectories of these designers (some of them emerging), especially since I’ve been one of the judges since 2016.

Stephen Wilson (whose partner is Phillip Hollander) from Houtlander feels that winning the Best Furniture Design award in 2017 catapulted their brand and acknowledges how other wins from 100% Design have lent great credibility to the brand. If South Africa doesn’t have a particular aesthetic, he feels that all design has a message of some kind; whether the story is overt or not, it is impossible to create anything without some narrative to it. He adds that, “I think our South African stories stand out because they are

different to the stories the Western design world tells, for instance. They also may have more of a sense of urgency in the telling because we are often telling them for the first time for ourselves.”

To create their standout Preservation Bench, in partnership with the American Hardwood Export Council, they used thermally modified American red oak and built three sculptural benches in one, with backs that twist up into the air like branches

THE BEAUTY OF SA DESIGN IS NOT ONE SINGLE STORY

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T

he coolest story I know about the “King of Cool” may not even be true. I know I read it somewhere, which doesn’t mean much these days, if it ever did, but I cannot — and I’ve tried — seem to get Google to play ball.

As I remember it happened in a bar, a hip ’60s or early ’70s celebrity hangout somewhere in London, maybe the “Colony Room” or “Annabel’s”.

The place was always thick with movie stars like Frank Sinatra, Ann-Margret, Liz Taylor, and Jack Nicholson. But the only time the room went absolutely quiet was when Steve McQueen walked in.

It’s the kind of story I’ve always wanted to think true.

Not because of his motorcycle jump in The Great Escape, or the Bullitt car chase through the streets of San Francisco, but because I wanted to believe that someone could stop the world by presence alone.

Kathleen Turner supposedly once said: “If I walk into a room and a man doesn’t look at me, he’s either dead or gay”. I like to think that that story is true, too.

FINAL WORD

steve mcqueen walks into a bar...

TEXT S t e p h e n H aw

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or wings. It is extraordinarily beautiful, highly sustainable, and resilient for our climate.

Another project that pushed boundaries, using plywood this time, was Raw Studios’ Inhouse prototype of a weather-proof dwelling space that only takes 10 weeks to build. Easy to disassemble, transport, and in tune with treading on the earth lightly, it’s making furniture you can live in. This could be the project to start addressing the housing crisis in South Africa.

And where does colour fit in to all this innovation? Van der Hoven says, “Colour has a considerable design impact. There has definitely been a strong drive to push the boundaries in what has generally been, at least in furniture |design, a conservative consumer climate; but there is a growing appetite for colour, particularly in the commercial realm of office and hospitality spaces.

I believe the SA designers are innovating on an international level through their interpretation and abstraction of colour. Local designers of late are successfully using colour in an accessible manner, to instil idea or emotion, in the end creating rich and exciting moments in design.”

Many judges got excited about other winners like Wolkberg and Jacobs Collection for Best Stand (from tiling to textiles), Ronel Jordaan for Best Textile Design (with her bold use of neon in felt), and Memphis Lighting Collection by Wiid Design and Ceramic Matters for Best Lighting Design. It’s an important reminder that we have lots of stories to tell using our unique imaginations and resources, and we don’t have to focus on just one thing.

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1. Preservation Bench by Houtlander 2. Hlabisa Bench by Houtlander and Mash T Design Studio 3. Nenzima server by The Urbanative 4. Sacrosanct Hut by Mash T Design Studio

Both actors had an animal magnetism, a mesmerising aura that audiences found hard to resist. Greta Scacchi famously called it “fuckability”.

And McQueen, apparently, had it in spades. It inhered in his bad-boy machismo, and the devil-may-care attitude tossed off in lines like: “I live for myself and answer to nobody.”

But his nonchalant cool was also something studied, something derived from what Chekhov meant when he said: “When a person expends the least amount of motion on one action, that is grace.”

McQueen worked hard at perfecting an on-screen minimalism throughout his career.

Driving a hearse up Boot Hill in his breakthrough film, The Magnificent Seven, he steals the scene from the film’s star Yul Brynner, with a laconic tilt of his hat, the shaking of a few shotgun shells and a perfectly timed smile.

He was famous for removing lines from his scripts and letting his face do the talking.

In Papillon, as a prisoner in solitary confinement, he hardly says a word, but it’s impossible not to look at him.

But nowhere, perhaps, is McQueen’s “cool” better expressed than when he found himself behind the wheel of a car or at the handlebars of a motorbike. What strikes one most about the car-chase scenes in Bullitt is McQueen’s face. It is magnificently inscrutable. Or as he put it: “Racing drivers are the only people I’ve ever really respected… they are fascinating to watch.

Their concentration makes an actor’s concentration look like a bowl of skimmed milk.”

“Racing is life,” he also said. “Anything before or after is just waiting.” In London, he would regularly sneak off set to Brands Hatch, where he would take lessons on the “racing line” from legendary British racing driver Stirling Moss.

Incidentally, there is a wonderful picture of Moss going round a corner. All four wheels are drifting. Moss has one hand on the wheel and is scratching his nose with the other. No doubt this was the kind of cool McQueen aspired to.

And, perhaps, this is also what Hemingway meant by the phrase “grace under pressure”.

There is some debate as to

whether he was referring to “courage” or, more colloquially, “guts”, though some argue he didn’t mean either. I like to think that Steve McQueen most embodied this quality, if only on screen.

Recent biographies have painted a less endearing portrait of the actor in real life.

Some have claimed that he subsisted on a diet of cocaine and beer, was an incorrigible womaniser and once held a gun to his wife’s head while questioning her about her infidelities.

Not too much “grace under pressure” in real life then, and not entirely the kind of cool that stands up well in the #MeToo age.

But perhaps cool, thought of as “grace under pressure”, doesn’t always have to be confined to the machismo world of physical exploits.

James Joyce, on trial for blasphemy, was once asked what the prosecutor thought a killer question: “So, Mr Joyce, what did you do during the Great War?” To which Joyce replied: “I wrote Ulysses. What did you do?” Now that’s cool.

And what’s more, it’s also true.

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