IN PICS | Masango's gold creation shines amid the 'famine of beauty' at the Durban July

“It’s a famine of beauty. The famine of beauty, honey! My eyes are starving for beauty!” The late André Leon Talley once famously proclaimed in the 2009 Vogue magazine documentary The September Issue about how bleak American fashion had become.

Those dramatic words rang true on Saturday at the Hollywoodbets Greyville Racecourse at the Durban July. For an event themed around “Marvels of Mzansi”, there was nothing marvellous about the fashion. One word summed it up — deepfake.

Many celebrities — Thando Thabethe, Zanele Potelwa, Mihlali Ndamase, Jessica Nkosi, Phupho Gumede, Anele Zondo, Somizi Mhlongo, Sarah Langa, Sithelo Shozi, Lamiez Holworthy, Kwesta, Khosi Twala — and others opted for hi-tech, pre-event photoshoots that flooded social media feeds on Saturday morning.

Social media users, myself included, ate up the content. And just like that, overcooked AI-generated images shaped the perception of the event. But what is real?

In the “Technocene”, we have become accustomed to fashion fakery and caricature. On arrival at the racecourse, it dawned on me: the algorithm had fooled me; in person, those outfits looked anything but picture-perfect. 

The internet sold us AI counterfeits. In reality, many designs were ill-fitting and in some cases, even the colours were completely different from the curated social media content. There was no attention to detail, zero craftsmanship, and simply put, no fashion.

“It’s a famine of beauty,” Talley would have probably said.

The biggest takeaway from the day is that semi-virtual reality keeps getting weirder as we increasingly lose touch with reality. So, spectacle-friendly fashion moments on the internet won the Durban July. 

What does it take to execute a viral fashion moment? Award-winning stylist Phupho Gumede called on SA fashion designer Siphosihle Masango for his. This was one of the few looks that worked both in person and online.

“As soon as they did a theme announcement [in February], I got on a call with Masango, and he took me behind his creative direction for the Durban July, which was that he wanted all his girls in gold jewels. So I was down for it,” Gumede said.

“It was important for me to do the [pre-event] video because I wanted to tell the story without having to go from person to person and explain the inspiration behind it. Visuals are important in this day and age. My great-grandfather was a miner, and my grandparents would tell me how he would come home twice a year. So I wanted to honour that [history] by shooting at a gold mine in Joburg.

“We recorded the video on Friday, and it was a dangerous setting, so we had to be cautious. There was so much heat; my makeup was melting, and I almost burnt my face!”

Masango — the race’s biggest winner — also dressed Ndamase, Cyan Boujee, Gogo Skhotheni, Doromongy and Masterpiece YVK.

“Masango by Siphosihle proudly introduces ‘Igolide’ a sculptural couture gown created exclusively for fashion luminary Mihlali Ndamase,” Masango said in a statement. “Fusing ultra-modern architectural lines with traditional Ndebele iconography, ‘Igolide’ channels the city’s storied mining heritage through the most opulent of materials: 24-carat gold plating and hand-applied crystal beadwork.

“Phupho’s grand arrival ... isn’t just a moment, it is a statement. Clad in Siphosihle Masango’s ‘Gold Armoured’ couture, he steps onto the lawns like a contemporary guardian of South African heritage, bathed in metallic light. Drawing on the struggles of the miners that built the SA that we know today, Masango reinterpreted traditional motifs as sleek, wearable armour — and the result is nothing short of transformative.”