The one who spoke the new language of a youth-out-of-turmoil, was Gideon – young, warm and not the self traumatised artist most designers are wont to be!

Like sister events in the rest of the world, The South African Airways (SAA) Durban Fashion Week, has become a definitive way of catapulting small cities into the big arena of national promotion and global recognition via the shenanigans of fashion. Bandana Tewari attends – along with smartly turned out journos and eccentric stylists – the first Durban Fashion Week.

Durban was a busy city in summer. Between the street, screen and ramp, all eyes were on this city, fondly called the ‘playground of South Africa’. Obscurely tucked away along the great Indian Ocean coastline, overshadowed, more often than not, by two other great South African cities, Cape Town and Johannesburg, Durban, jewel of the Kwazulu-Natal region, was bustling with life. The lobby of the Hilton Hotel was the envy of any great soiree – invitees from Italy and France, chic journalists from fashion magazines, eccentric stylists, each with an entourage of hangers-on, culminated to participate in the first South African Airways Durban Fashion Week. Said Vanashree Singh, the convener of the fashion event, in faux whisper – “Enjoy the experience. Durban is South Africa’s best kept secret!”

That Durban should host its own Fashion Week, pitted against two comparatively established fashion weeks in Johannesburg and Cape Town did come as a surprise to the fashion fraternity. But, like sister events in the rest of the world, The Week has become a definitive way of catapulting small cities into the big arena of national promotion and global recognition via the shenanigans of fashion.

For a nation that has been vandalised and colonised, history, nay, heritage is everything. Show after show there was a strong display of national pride that found itself expressed in various forms. As designer Andrew Verster’s show resonated with the South African President’s voice declaring, “I am an African...,” models sashayed in ruche skirts in warm organic fabrics with the jingle-jangle of wooden Afro pendants; Afrikhadi harked back to the vision of Gandhi as multi-panelled skirts made a ramp foray. Dresses in shweshwe (cloth that came with the Germans in the 1850s and popularly absorbed by all the tribes in South Africa) were aplenty.

Tarun Tahiliani mesmerised the city of Durban with his collection that not only showcased the growing maturity of the Indian fashion sensibility but also exemplified without a doubt that Indian embroidery and workmanship is unparalleled in the world. African Mosaique from Ethiopia on the other hand showcased the finest crafts from the Dark Continent.

Regular Verve contributor, Bandana Tewari whets her appetite for travel and wandering the globe, through the trendsetting fashion circuit.

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