Last week YSL were kind enough to jet myself and a few other beauties up to Jozi to attend the SA Style Awards at Hyde Park, of which they’re a sponsor.

Prior to the fashion gongs being handed out, guests got to watch a very special YSL-themed fashion show in which seven local designers got matched up to seven limited edition YSL Couture eye shadow palettes, each representing a collection or period of time in Yve’s life and had to use it as inspirasie for a dress. I only managed to get decent snaps of four of them as I was sitting on the side of the ramp and the blerrie models didn’t really turn to the side much. Clicking on my collage below will make it bigger.

Our gorgeous MC was Lala Hirayama who’s ‘MWEB WiFi chameleon dress’ was also a bit of a show stopper in that it uses a GPS to figure out where it is and then displays an appropriate pattern. For example, the fancy pants Style Awards required sparkles but if it where in Durban it would immediately whip up a Zulu ‘print’.

Do you think that if I’d hugged her hard enough she could magic the Telkom peeps to come on over and sort out my ADSL line? I’m spending my life savings on a 3G dongle as I type and not being able to live stream the next epi of How to get Away with Murder is making my want to kill myself.

But ja, getting back to the glitz – celebs who won big in the style stakes included YOU’s Chu Suwaphanna (Most Innovative Style) who I’m totally biased towards ‘cos I love him to itty bitty pieces. Other big winners were Roxy Burger (Most Stylish Performing Artist in TV), Zuraida Jardine and Josh Lindberg (Most Stylish Couple).

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After the awards wrapped up, we crossed over to the Hyde Park hotel which is also where we happened to be staying. This was great as it made stumbling ‘home’ in a champers-fuelled blur a total breeze and the next day’s hangover brekkie would involve delicately smoked salmon as opposed to face planting into a Wimpy toasted sandwich. But speaking of food, you have nooo idea how good the floating dinner was. We’re talking creamy, dreamy risotto, a prawn taco station and a smorgasbord of gold-flecked desserts.

Being on Atkins at the time – a slightly adapted version that doesn’t count champagne as carbs – I could only peer at the puddings with big puppy dog eyes but don’t feel too bad for me. I literally stationed myself right next to the prawn pan and proceeded to eat as many as I could ‘cos I’m totally klassy with a K. Nobody noticed though – they were too busy watching zexy biets Chiano break it down on the dance floor. You’ve got to admire a girl who can open a floor all on her own and then dance like nobodies watching – even though they are.

After ensuring only a select number of lucky guests would get a prawn in their taco, I headed off to bed, feeling smug that I’d kinda sorta stuck to my diet. And then this happened…

Anyhoo, the next morning, after awaking from my diabetic coma, myself and the beauties headed back to Hyde Park to check out Maison YSL, a pop up museum/shop of sorts to celebrate ’50 Years of Edgy Beauty’. Here visitors could learn more about the fashion house thanks to info and piccies displayed on the walls and shop the brand’s lust-haves – things like YSL Touche Eclat and Rouge Pur Couture Golden Lustre lipsticks.

Despite being spoiled with several YSL items and then some in the previous night’s goodie bag, we were given yet another YSL gift box. I opened mine to discovered it contained the Couture Palette in Ballet Russes (no. 11), inspired by the colouful, avant guarde Russian Ballet-themed collection Yves created in 1976. It’s the same palette that was given to Lauren Du Plessis of Avant Apparel, to act as the touchstone for her dress, and this meant I’d get to chat to her about it over a coffee.

As it turns out, Lauren is lovely as are her beautiful clothes but here’s the thing – she’s all about the dark stuff and we had a super awesome migraine-drug induced convo than ran something like this:

Lauren: This was very difficult for me. All the rooms in my house are black.

Me: Oh wow. Like everything? It’s all black?

Lauren: Yes. It’s just what I’m comfortable with.

Me: Is that why it was so hard? Is it, like, super dark inside?

Lauren: No. I mean, my rooms aren’t dark.

Me: They’re just black?

Lauren: No. I don’t have black rooms. I just like black.

Me: Oh. So you weren’t being literal.

Girl: No. I just said ‘My rooms are all black’ meaning in my (design) house, I use a lot of black.

Me: I see. (a pause). But to double-check – it’s like not your ‘real’ rooms? They’re not like all black…

Thankfully, once the caffeine kicked in, we moved on and Lauren used a lovely make-up metaphor to describe how she’d created the dress. To begin, she used the lighter, golden hues of the palette as the ‘foundation’ for her gown. She then added colour by dying a piece of lace using the brighter shades of Ballet Russe, blending them into one another to create an ombre effect, the same way you’d carefully blend your eye shadow.

Speaking of which, if you want your very own limited edition YSL Couture palette (R795), you’ll find them in selected Stuttafords and Edgars stores nationwide. Thank you L’Oreal Group SA for a lovely evening (and day) out.

Love, love

Leigh