Kamer chameleons: Wasps, hipsters and Boere blend in at Jozi craft fair
IT was a gathering of Joburg’s moneyed clans at St John’s College in Houghton last weekend.
Breton-stripe- and pashminaadorned Wasps mingled with Afrikaans linen-attired moms and dads and cool young hipsters sporting beards and braids.
They had all congregated for Kamers Vol Geskenke, the craft fair that originated in the Cape but has now branched out to other provinces.
The Herbert Baker-designed walkways and courtyards of the old school were teeming with people. They had come for a bit of retail therapy and to congregate around a picnic table in the dappled shade, perhaps with a bottle of local MCC and an overpriced cheese platter.
“It’s proof that even if it’s a flea market up a hill in the middle of the day, we’re there — Joburgers go to stuff,” said Sunday Times Fashion Weekly editor Tiaan Nagel of the fact that such a varied posse had de- scended on the school — on a long weekend, when so many people were away, nogal. From David Gillson, the celeb hair stylist, to Koos Groenewald, who is one half of edgy design duo Jana + Koos, they all turned up.
Shopping for linen and candles in a Hogwarts-like setting is a refreshing and charming alternative to the city’s usual bunting-heavy markets and strip-lit malls.
One downer? A serious food shortage at most of the stalls on Saturday afternoon.