Top Billing explores Jozi street style with The Sartists & Boogy Maboi
The hottest trends in Jozi street style meet Edition, Woolworths’ new fashion label.
Jozi set the scene as we hit the streets to discover how the the people of Jozi are interpreting the latest trends in local and national fashion.
Maps took the lead as he patrolled the city – fashion police style – in search of the biggest players in the fashion and larger creative scene. His mission – to answer one question. What are South Africans aspiring to when it comes to fashion?
His first stop, an inspiring chat with Creative Collective, The Sartists. Both Kabelo Kungwane and Wanda Lephoto, multidisciplinary Johannesburg-based artists, expressed their views on what encapsulates urban street wear fashion right now. For these mavericks, it’s all about a return to sports and grime – subculture grime specifically, a movement which emerged in London in the early 2000s and one steeped in the grit and unabashed reality of life on the streets. In relation to current street style trends, this movement, for this team of designers, photographers, and cultural influencers, materializes in the form of athleisure wear, mainly track suits, parkas, and lots and lots of attitude. Trend report, phase 1, complete.
To gain even further insight into streetwear styles, Maps next hit up Celebrity Stylist and Creative Director Boogy Maboi. The scene – a rooftop photo shoot with unparalleled Jozi city views. In the midst of styling for one of the biggest fashion brands in South Africa, Boogy let loose on what’s trending in the big city. Standouts for streetwear 2017 – velvet and lace. With an eye to intermixing two seemingly juxtaposed aesthetics, the onus was once again on how sports and luxe interplay with quintessential street. Morale of this story according to one of biggest movers in South African fashion – pairing is in! Mix those perennial basics with stand-out pieces to nail your street style flair. Phase 2, done and dusted.
Maps’ search for the most pervasive in street style trends then led him to where else, but the most fashion-centric and inspiring neighbourhoods the City of Gold has to offer – Maboneng, Braamfontein and Newtown. It was an all out search for those street style trailblazers, sartorialists making things happen on the ground. Buzz words of note – personality, individuality, attitude, and expression. Shop assistant Mickey Damoyi, grabbed off the streets of Braamm summarized the street wear phenomenon best, “It’s people dressing how they want to dress…..according to how they feel when they wake up in the morning.” The streets spoke and spoke loudly. Confidence and a bold unabashed approach to fashion equals street style at its best.
