Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Cape Town. All the pretties.

So fashion week has come and gone in Cape Town, leaving the Mother City in it's sparkly wake.
I only attended Thursday and Friday nights so I did  miss the one show that had everyone talking- KlukCGdT, which apparently had ballerinas, and a Rapunzel and various other fairy-tale inspired beauty.
So Thursday night was King of Bling Gavin Rajah, and Jenny le Roux's Habits label which I loved.
Gavin Rajah's collection was inspired by love and poetry and the language of flowers. It floated between long, romantic, beaded gowns and pieces that looked like they belonged on a 1950's Italian holiday. He used tons of lace and truck loads of beads.
These are some of my favourites:

Habits Spring/Summer line was inspired by the movie The Artist and so Jenny le Roux sent out some flapper style dresses, and cute little hats and gloves. 

I expect we'll see more of the roaring twenties this year in fashion, with the Great Gatsby movie coming out later this year.

My absolute favourite thing I saw on the runway was a series of white, organza dresses, which had neon colours underlayed underneath. The neon was just so subtle, and layering it made it different from the rest of the neon.

You can't really see the orange underneath in this image, but it's there.

These beautiful, flowy dresses used up to 8m of fabric each. And made huge, billowy tents of loveliness when the models turned.

Thula Sindi went for tough looking leather and lace, and combined it with really feminine pieces for a "tough mommy" vibe.

And then on the more wearable, daywear front, Michelle Ludek and Ruff Tung really impressed me.

Michelle Ludek teamed up with Belinda Lee Ludek who did the jewellery-massive, bold pieces to go with her fairly simple, relaxed clothes.

Ruff Tung used a palette of orange, coral, mint, and neutrals:

I particularly loved this dress below, printed with the word Lobola and the little cows. It's a fun, tongue in cheek look at the practice of lobola (in certain South African cultures, the bride's family negotiates Labola with the groom's family before marriage).

There was so much more prettiness to love, but these were some of my favourites.

Pretty, right?

*All pics are by SDR, and are taken from the official African Fashion International website.