Fairlady September 2017

I he beginning of Spring is such a beautiful time of year – it’s fresh but not freezing in the morning; the evenings are softer and longer so you can venture outside for a bit, and the green of new leaves is always inspiring. It makes the morning school run a lot easier too, not having to get up and wrestle the kids into some kind of schoolgoing shape in the cold and dark. The school run’s been slightly different for us anyway, this year, because Seventeen is in matric, and this is the last year of morning madness. Well, for him, at least; we’ll still be out there next year with Sixteen, who is up next, battling the road rage of parents in big cars on their way Somewhere…

1 SANTA SHOEBOX If it’s September, it must be the deadline for Santa Shoebox. Filling a shoebox with treats and essentials (like toiletries and stationery for school) is a really rewarding way to give to underprivileged children at this time of year. All you need do, if you haven’t signed up already, is go to santashoebox.org.za, select a name (you’ll be given the child’s gender and age), and then set about making that child’s Christmas really special. 2 VINTAGE WITH LOVE 2017 Looking for a bargain? If you’re anywhere near Cape Town this month, you need to make sure you’re at African Pride 15 on Orange on 1, 2 and 3 September for the unmissable Vintage With Love sale. Trust me: the three-day pop-up shop has…

WINNING LETTER Your article on AfrikaBurn made me cry You see, Tankwa was my sister’s Nirvana. She’d spend a week in her happy place every year, and the other 51 planning costumes and working with the committee to put the event together. Her pet project was the lost and found booth. Justine didn’t make it to the Burn this year; she died of a massive brain haemorrhage on 11 February. To all the naysayers who criticise Burners as self-indulgent middle-class people playing at being poor, I beg to differ. The turn-out (in full regalia) at Justine’s celebration of life, and the support and generosity given to her children was phenomenal. They also paid tribute to her by renaming the lost and found booth, JustIn(e). I lie: Justine did make it…

You’re never fully dressed until you add the fragrance that perfectly captures who you are. The Mademoiselle Rochas Eau de Parfum was created for the energetic woman in love with life and beauty. At the heart of this gorgeous fragrance is an explosion of florals – handfuls of distilled rose petals from the exclusive Rochas fields, a profusion of wonderful Egyptian jasmine, a violet accord floating in the air – all delightfully packaged in a circle of glass with a silk ribbon pinstripe motif.…

Although Heike le Cordeur always enjoyed being creative, she joined the corporate world after matric. ‘In 2010, I was in my fifth year as a business process analyst in the IT department at Media24, flying to Joburg every week. But the creative spark never died, and becoming pregnant with my daughter triggered a slow exit from the corporate environment to start something I could do from home in Cape Town,’ says Heike. ‘A friend in the events industry asked me to do the flowers for some of her smaller weddings, which I did from my own kitchen. ‘Only when every single surface in my house was covered with flowers did I decide to create my own little studio at home, and started Fleur Le Cordeur.’ Every one of Heike’s floral…

Drew Barrymore is relentlessly positive. Just scrolling through her Instagram feed makes you feel cheerful. Even through her darkest times, including a troubled childhood, she seems to find a way to grow and learn from any experience. ‘There’s a warrior aspect to being happy. You’ve got to fight for it,’ she told Good Housekeeping. Drew is also possibly the ‘realest’ celeb out there because she’s so open about the messes and spills of life that we all go through, and so willing to let her guard down. Over the past few months she’s been rocking quite an unconventional look for Hollywood’s usually overly preened elite. Her brows are grown out, as are her dark roots. And the reason is simple: ‘I don’t feel like tweezing right now,’ she says. ‘I…