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Fashion writer Jayde Johanssen says “Anyone can give advice on fashion. However, for some matters, it’s best to leave opinion to the experts.
After all, they’re the ones who managed to make a living out of this zany industry we call fashion, managing to endure day in and day out the trials and tribulations of one of the craziest businesses in the world.But it’s those experts who know fashion the best. So when it comes to tips and words of wisdom, it’s pretty much best to just listen to them”. |
And who better to agree with her than me.
Consciousness knows that fashion can only be understood by those whose passion is invested in it, that is why we caught-up with DJ, Stylist and Artist ;Tumaini ‘True-Jones’ Mabogoane who’s got quite a following, judging from his Facebook page, the company he keeps and the pose that trails his aura of ‘cool’. His brand moniker is ‘Found-by-Jones’ which translates to ‘Styled-by-Jones’, plainly because Found-by-Jones sources the style of its clientele. The stylist says that he variates his venture by including in-house styling and décor to his style chart, drawing inspiration from clean lines, simple basics when combining pieces. This, he says, works with clothing too, such as shoes, accessories as part of the basics to style when dealing with his clients.
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As you would expect or as we see on our style channels, stylists have a way to intrude or rather in a vexing manner, meddle on ones style. Jones says that he believes in ‘personalizing’ style by working out who one is, what one does for a living, what music they listen to, basically what lifestyle one is resident to, and this is all achieved by consulting with his clients and ultimately finding a solution by considering the latter. Fascinatingly, he says “this is part of knowing who you are…I drew inspiration from my mom because she was style conscious and color-scheme conscious, including the music I grew-up on, Hip-Hop. So I used to wear chucktaylor sneakers instead of boots…I would used that as a reference point, add my own badge and have jeans on, that was my style”.
Jones says that fashion has taken a trip towards the 80’s, we can see that with our young folk such as the so-called ‘amaKip-kip generation’ who add pastel colors and skinny jeans, as a “throw-back to the past”. With his styling however, he is keen on “corporate-street-wear”, as a standard or traditional reference to fashion; which the likes of Coco Chanel have championed. But with South African designers, he bets on the likes David Tlale, who has taken back fashion to ‘tailoring’ tradition, smooth lines and simple silhouettes. Internationally, Alexandra McQueen focuses on classic cuts, including Calvin Klein. Still, Jones is not looking at designers but ‘Street Style’. He works on “Corporate Street Style”, which is his signature and says it easily adapts to “look fresh from the office to the club” type of wear. He says; ‘girls like pretty boys, but women like clean men’ because there is a fine-line between ‘simple’ and ‘strong’, hopefully non between ‘men’ and ‘boys’. Jones underlines that a suit is a must-have.
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He is currently focusing on women because he believes women govern or dictate what happens in man-style, so within the corporate domain, men tend to look ‘preppy’, they shop at stores like Markham’s and Truworths-Man, just to name a few. Their new inspiration is from celebrities such as Kanye West and John Legend who pull off a standard-corporate look with their own element instead. Unlike the kaleidoscopic, fickle, intriguing, and ever-changing woman-fashion, wherein the corporate style involves, for example the ‘pencil-skirt’, Jones says that the focus should be on the detailing on the item, for example, quirky buttons on the skirt, the stitching and so on, and of course, with the rigid work dress-code in mind. He finds accessorizing an integral-part of dressing, adding your personality into the mix, like bangles, cufflinks, Mickey Mouse badge; as long as there are ‘traditional-cuts’ involved, a sense of ‘authority’ will reflect because it is ‘who you are’ and ‘face-value’ is what people judge you by and only confidence should beam from one, clothing plays a fairly fundamental role in that.
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Most famous fashion houses focus on affordability now via the credit-crunch, they add a fresher style to their ranges because people can just buy items and add on to what they have. So according to Jones what is hot on the streets in Brazil are flowy-fabrics, color, flowy-jump-suits.
In the UK there’s a throw-back of the 1920’s, in the US- design houses are employing young designers from other fields, such as graphic-designers, architectural-designers and more to influence their next lines or ranges; and lastly in South Africa’s streets, the ‘granny-look’ has dominated but Jones found himself grinning to that because, “we are just not pulling it off properly”. Jones also frowns upon skinny jeans on guys, he says it is scary how and in what color people can wear that in.
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Found-by-Jones is has lots in store for the future, as he has styled Naledi Moleo of Youth Expressions (SABC International), and also looking to style actress Manaaka Ranaaka in the near future, and on the 17th of this month, Jones will give a ‘Style-Talk’ on a woman symposium in Houghton. And of course, style corporate clients.
While True Jones says “carry what you wear”, he is rather in sync with Coco Chanel who says “…Style does not go out of style as long as it adapts itself to its period. When there is an incompatibility between the style and a certain state of mind, it is never the style that triumphs.”
Contact Jones at: foundbyjones@yahoo.co.uk and find his Facebook page: True Jones or Tumaini Mabogoane on Facebook
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