A womxn providing a platform for other womxn to express themselves through fashion. February’s Stellenbosch Womxn is Bagcine Gabelana (Bugz) who co-founded @Style_Indaba. We met up to chat about the initiative and to see just how fashion inspires her.
Interviewer: How would you describe Style Indaba in your own words?
Bugz: It’s a fashion page based on and for Stellenbosch campus, if we get the opportunity we would expand to other campuses.
I: What is your vision for the page and what did you want to achieve when you started it?
Bugz: There’s two of us who started it, the other person initially came up with it. He contacted me and said “Do you wanna start a Stellies page?” He’d already gotten a name and a logo, and I was like “Cool, okay let’s hit it,
” and literally the next day we started the page. Obviously [our vision] is to build the brand and one day cover events.
I: Do you still post on Instagram much or do you mostly post stories, how often do you post on Instagram?
Bugz: So the page runs at the beginning of every day, starting Monday. So from 8 till 17:30, and then our story runs the whole day. At the end of the day we decide on the person that looked the best and then we post them on Instagram.
I: do you edit the pictures at all?
Bugz: It’s normally just the picture we’ve taken, we will adjust lighting for the person just to make it a little bit better, but there’s generally not a lot of editing that goes into the picture.
I: All-time favourite African, womxn fashion icon?
Bugz: Nandipa (@Nan_deep), I think she’s the one person who I can look at and see myself in that outfit, and I can see her train of thought.
I: What have you noticed since starting this initiative about societal pressures placed on womxn about how they should dress?
Bugz: I’ve noticed that womxn who don’t fit the normal body avenue (like too small or too big) as well as womxn who don’t dress according to the status quo, as in very sexy, pretty or feminine, kinda get left out. We don’t open our eyes to the way that they dress and we don’t look at them as attentively.
I: How do you think fashion empowers womxn?
Bugz: It allows you to express yourself at an extreme level. I don’t really like generalising womxn because I think to each their own, and we’ve been told this or that is what a womxn is, especially with dressing but there are no barriers in fashion. Especially being a black female or seeing how Muslim womxn are dominating the fashion industry right now, I think you can keep to your religious and cultural dress code but you can express yourself in so many ways.
I: Any tips you can give to our readers about staying fashionable and getting noticed by style indaba?
Bugz: Just express yourself. If you come in your traditional outfit and stand out on that day then you’ll definitely make the page. I’ve seen a girl wear slip slops and a skirt and she looked amazing! So we don’t look for what we like necessarily, we look for what fashion is. If you make what you wear unique and express yourself in the most extreme way so that we can recognise you then you will definitely be noticed by us.
Go give @Style_Indaba a like and a follow on Instagram!