It is a rare day that a South african designer has young Hollywood TV stars clamoring to wear their clothes. But reality TV starlets have strutted the red carpet twice in the past two weeks wearing numbers by local designer Gert-Johan Coetzee.
First Kourtney Kardashian wore the nude piece with white detailing to the People's Choice Awards (although the rumour is that it was made for her sister Kim). And then this past weekend, The Hills star Kristen Callavari wore a similar sequin dress to her birthday celebrations in Vegas.
First, I will offer my sincere congratulations to GJC. This is something worth celebrating. This is how a designer starts to make their name internationally. This is a really notable accomplishment.
And yet, there has been little on the news and blogs about what he has achieved. Mostly I think because GJC is not regarded as one of SA's hot young talents. The super-short, super-tight, super-shiny and mostly formulaic garments that he showed at his debut solo collection last year were commercial but not 'fashion' and so we turn our heads and think that the caliber of reality TV starlet rather matches with the line he produces. Well shame on us. I for one am going to wish GJC well for his career and hope he goes from strength to strength. His design aesthetic may not be to my taste, but success is success and the whole point of this blog is to promote our designers and their success. Well played sir.
Thanks to Lieza Timms and SA Fashion Week for details.