Not Julius Malema's Youth League

[slideshow]
I’ve blogged before (at my old blog address) about the Johannesburg fashion movement, The Smarteez. (More exclusive than the mass outlet Amakipkip.)

Now Dazed Magazine have discovered them. For its June special “South Africa” issue (Africans still get “special issue” status everywhere), the magazine’s editors sent a writer and photographer to profile the designers.

The piece is not online, but a slideshow and a video. On the Dazed blog, writer Rod Stanley has a quote from one of the designers explaining how he feels his generation differs from their older cousins and neighbors: ‘… Too young to really remember the struggle for apartheid, they’re less politicised and claim that their “struggle” is now one against blandness and conformity – to them, it’s all about partying, self-expression and challenging stereotypes.’  I don’t think they care for Julius Malema.

Photographer Chris Saunders, who has been documenting the Smarteez for a while now, took the pictures.

There’s also a short film about the Smarteez on the Dazed website.

Sean Jacobs

Via Style Bubble. [h/t Nerina Penzhorn]

Further Reading

Slow death by food

Illegal gold mining is poisoning Ghana’s soil and rivers, seeping into its crops and seafood, and turning the national food system into a long-term public health crisis.

A sick health system

The suspension of three doctors following the death of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s son has renewed scrutiny of a health-care system plagued by impunity, underfunding, and a mass exodus of medical professionals.

Afrobeats after Fela

Wizkid’s dispute with Seun Kuti and the release of his latest EP with Asake highlight the widening gap between Afrobeats’ commercial triumph and Fela Kuti’s political inheritance