Marie Claire Invasion

From next week Monday, I invade Marie Claire South Africa's 'Today I'm Wearing Series'. Ready?

Labels: abataba, marie claire, zee fashionista

posted by Zinhle Zee Mncube @ 3:32 PM 3 Comments

Cover(ed) - will the real K-Mid stand up...

"Fashion's new royal icon wears SA's best local design" - these are words splashed boldly on the August cover of Marie Claire South Africa next to the image of the Duchess of Cambridge clad in Clive Rundle ensemble. But that is not really Kate Middleton. It's actually a fan art tribute to Kate, because the Duchess just does not pose for magazines. Marie Claire does acknowledge the fantasy on the cover, however, with a "Of course, she doesn't [wear local designs]. But she should." PS. The reaction from newspapers and websites around the world is telling:

"Fake Kate Middleton Covers Marie Claire South Africa"
"Marie Claire's 'big scoop'"
"Marie Claire explains THAT Kate Middleton cover…"
"a Frankenstein cover featuring the head and hands of Kate, stitched onto the body of a fashion model"

Marie Claire's editor, Aspasia Karras, has tried to explain that, "The cover is actually a hyper-realistic illustration of Kate, meant to be a fan-art tribute to fashion's new royal icon,"

"We approached five illustrators with the idea and asked them to have some fun imagining what it would be like if Kate came to South Africa on a state visit and decided to wear clothes by our favourite local designers," she says.

"We chose Clive Kirk's hyper-realistic drawing for our cover."

But of course, the controversy remains. I don't know about this cover. I am a Marie Claire fan, but the cover definitely did strike me as strange. Creative, but strange. Maybe something to put inside the magazine, but on the cover - I'm not sure.

What do you think? Is this really the false advertising it is being made out to be? Or is this just genuine creativity?

Labels: kate middleton, marie claire

posted by Zinhle Zee Mncube @ 1:49 PM 0 Comments

Terry(fic)

So I just happen to be in the June issue of Marie Claire South Africa talking about about all things Zee Fashionista, and my love of all things French - that is French food, French style, French men, and, and...

It is definitely an honour for me to be featured in Marie Claire not only because is it one of the best women's magazine's in South Africa, but it also happens to be right up there with my favourite monthly reads. Terry Pheto, a talented South African actress who currently stars as a heart surgeon on The Bold and the Beautiful, is the cover girl. I must admit, I want Terry's life. I mean modeling Louis Vuitton in Paris for the cover shoot, and getting invited as a special guest by Louis Vuitton to attend their ready-wear runway show - seriously?


Buhlebonga alerted me to Sbosh Mafu's tweets on the hype surrounding the cover - you know, a black woman on the cover of a magazine usually deemed 'white' and I must say, I do agree with her.

No doubt this is a great cover, with a deserving cover star. But if we did have more black women on the covers of local magazines, in a country with primarily black people and with magazine target audiences that are (surprisingly or unsurprisingly) primarily black, maybe there wouldn't need to be so much hype. Hype that is sometimes more about the mere appearance of a black cover star rather than the actual merit of the women being the cover star.

That's my piece. How do you feel about the matter?

Labels: covers, marie claire, zee fashionista

posted by Zinhle Zee Mncube @ 1:21 PM 1 Comments

Put a sock in it

Cintia Dicker in the September 2010 issue of Marie Claire France. Of course I love the whole Parisienne vibe of the shoot, but I also like the sky-high heels and thigh-high socks combo she wears in the first picture. Naughty, but nice.

Labels: marie claire

posted by Zinhle Zee Mncube @ 12:06 PM 1 Comments