Recently, the most exciting event of the year was held – well, in the creative industry – in Cape Town. Yes, it was the 33rd Annual Loeries Awards (as in the Oscars of the advertising world). Besides a sea of brilliant advertising minds descending on Cape Town, Riaan ‘Don’t be a hater, Yo’ Cruywagen and David ‘The Hoff’ Hasselhoff were also in town as emcees for the awards. True story! Marie Claire also walked away with a Bronze Loerie thanks to The Jupiter Drawing Room’s innovative adaptation of our  October 2010 Black and White issue in association with Skip. Yay! Well done us!

So, with a Loerie in hand, we needed to celebrate – and what better way than at Marie Claire’s official Loeries Winners after party at an amazing venue, The Reserve. A big thanks to Patron, on which the guests sipped all night long and to Grolsch, who pulled out all the stops to make it an unforgettable evening! Guests also enjoyed a brilliant performance by The Arrows.

Some of the quests enjoying Patron

Here is our fabulous editor, Aspasia Karras, telling us why Marie Claire teamed up with the Loeries this year:

Stylish people, stylish drinks, stylish music … stylish evening:

Kuli Roberts and the Zoopy team got some brilliantly funny behind the scenes footage of our party:

What a fun night!

Now, I know what you are thinking – “This isn’t a new trend”…and you are 100 % correct! But given that this laid-back yet elegant hairstyle is a “fail-safe” for most ladies – myself included, I thought I would share this video with you, as it is with impeccable precision that Sunnie Brook (sunniebrook.com) masters the perfect ballerina bun.

Image via:gilrs-hairstyles.com

And here it is…the official video for Lady Gaga’s “You and I”

Marie Claire and Sunglass Hut brought super fashion blogger, Bryan Boy, to SA. Zoopy caught up with Filipino born Bryan Boy at the Salvation Café in Milpark where he chatted about blogging and life in general…

I definitely have a thing for sunglasses. I can’t seem to have enough pairs and come Summer i need at least a new pair or two! and the fact that Rachel Bilson is the style director (for the second year) and is working closely with the Sunglass hut team to deliver the latest trends and styles in eyewear means there will be some definite new eye candy purchases from my side!

“Rachel truly personifies our brand values: she is incredibly stylish, talented, cool, fun, sexy. She is a key asset in helping us connect with our target consumers, and best represents Sunglass Hut as the leading authority on premium eyewear.”said Fabio d’Angelantonio, Chief Marketing Officer at Luxottica.

The Rachel Bilson Summer campaign launches at all Sunglass Hut stores nationwide from 1 August 2011. Featuring Rachel wearing a pair of diamante embellished Versace’s at R2590.00 the campaign is the celebration and culmination of these two celebrity brands.

Leila Petersen

The lovely people at LIFE have done the legwork and put together this fun slideshow of where the top 50 babes from the 80′s are now.

Click here for the full show.

In Cape Town: we put together a couple of boxes of much needed necessities and delivered them to the Saartijie Baartman Centre in Manenberg. The centre is a safe haven for women and their children who are victims of domestic and/ or sexual violence. On average they house around 30 women and 50 children at a time who are in need of safe accommodation. It was the first time I’d been there and was amazed at the great work that is being done. Along with providing housing, Saartjie Baartman also offers the women counselling, legal advice and job skills development.

For more information on the wonderful things they are doing have a look at their website www.saartjiebaartmancentre.org.za.

Director Synnov Skorge, Eulogi Rheeder from Marie Claire and centre manager Shaheema Mcleod.

A few of the children who are currently living at Saartjie Baartman.

The children’s play area and in the distance the self contained homes. These serve as transitional housing for shelter residents who are in need of extended safe accommodation.

In Johannesburg: We took up a collection for a women’s abuse shelter in the West Rand run by POWA. POWA’s mission is to be a powerful multi-skilled service provider which contributes to the complete eradication of violence against women in society, in order to enhance women’s quality of life. A group of about eight women, some with kids, stay at the shelter. We were told by the facilitators that the women were in need of warm clothes, toys for the kids, cosmetics, magazines, books, heaters and a DVD player. We managed to collect all of these items which would help make the women who were staying in the place of safety more comfortable.

The women who end up in such shelters as you can imagine have fled their homes, scared for their lives and their children’s and probably left in a hurry leaving all their creature comforts behind. The idea was to bring a little piece of that back to them. And we hope they did.

In the interest of protecting the location of the shelter, we didn’t take any images that could potentially jeopardize the safety of the women and children.

Fashion week kicks off tomorrow and if you haven’t got tickets yet don’t despair. Foschini are giving away eight tickets for Friday night.

To enter fill out the form below before 12pm tomorrow. Winners will be contacted via email.

For more information about fashion week visit www.afi.za.com and www.foschini.co.za

Together with the invaluable exposure to design, pattern-making and manufacturing processes, the experience will equip the new graduates with the commercial and business skills required to be successful in the retail industry. The Foschini internship will culminate in manufacturing the graduates’ garments, which will be sold in three Foschini flagship stores countrywide.

Cape Peninsula University of Technology fashion design students being briefed about the Fastrack programme.

The Foschini Group Recruitment will also be present and in addition to presenting career opportunities at Foschini, will run an exciting sms competition from their exhibition stand on the day. You could win a gift card loaded with R20 000 for any one of the 14 Foschini Group stores.

Visit www.afi.za.com and www.foschini.co.za for more information.