It’s been an unusual year for what is ordinarily the country’s most visible celebrity designer.
Not because Gert-Johan Coetzee hasn’t been prolific (his exuberant designs continue to be fêted by the celebrity crowd, while his most recent South African Fashion Week collection was a theatrical tour de force). Rather, because the designer — who hails from a farm near Koster in North West — hasn’t made a public appearance since disclosing that he’d undergone a 12-hour operation to remove a benign brain tumour late last year.
Gert, who is recuperating from temporary facial paralysis, was not present for his latest launch on Thursday evening — but his scent did permeate the room.
We were in a department store in the country’s most famous mall (do I even need to mention its name?) for the reveal of a collection of six fragrances bearing the designer’s name.
Walking in, I recalled that it was six years earlier that Gert debuted his first scent, Double Platinum, at a fragrance boutique elsewhere in the very same mall. But this time around, the eau de parfums — at just under R1,900 for a 50ml bottle — are a lot less pricey and boast colourful names like Gimme Gimme, Eau de Trouble and Shhh…
Past a sculptural floral installation that appears to be intertwined with “G”s created with pincushion proteas, I catch up with Stephanie Weil, who, since handing over the baton of the Miss South Africa pageant to the Motsepes, has been concentrating on her communications and events consultancy (the Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation is a client).
I also catch up with someone making her return to pageantry, Ayanda G Thabethe, the TV presenter who yesterday was headed to Vietnam to represent South Africa at the Miss Cosmo international competition.
Ayanda sweetly brought along her beau, Brent Pretorius, an analyst at Discovery, while across the room I notice familiar faces such as Marika Opperman (newly announced as a top 40 finalist in the Top Billing presenter search), her mate Sherinne Winderley and model-slash-DJ Ponahalo Mojapelo.
Proceedings are led by rapper and TV presenter Anele Zondo (in an oxblood-red corset dress from the designer, which you’d either love or scratch your head about), who introduces us to Gert’s husband and CEO of Gert-Johan Coetzee, Vicky Visagie, who in turn is joined on stage by Lucilla Booyzen, the founder of South African Fashion Week.
“Just about Gert, everyone knows what he’s been going through, so I just want to update you. He’s still in recovery, but he is doing exceptionally well, and we hope you will see him in October at South African Fashion Week,” says Vicky.
“From my side, he is more handsome, and he has matured. We really wish him all the success,” adds Lucilla.
In the conversation between Lucilla and Vicky that ensues, we learn how the fragrances, created by Gert with some of the world’s finest noses in Grasse (the French town known as the world’s perfume capital) came about — and Vicky also shares that we can soon expect a stand-alone Gert store to open in the city.
Vicky also points out that although Gert wasn’t able to join us, his namesake, father Gert-Johan Coetzee, and mom, Hestie Coetzee, were in our midst.
While no doubt the fragrances, which range from sweet to moody, will be lapped up by the Gert girlies, let me turn to the nibbles.
Alas, the caterer’s attempt to mix sweet notes with savoury snacks, like a-little-too-chewy chicken kebabs served with a raspberry and tangerine reduction, will be memorable for all the wrong reasons.
I was also flummoxed as to why desserts like orange-infused posset with sugar shards came out at the beginning rather than the end of the night.
On the other hand, the harvest table spread at the newly opened The Venue — in that cooler-than-the-coldest-day-in-Joburg precinct, Nine Yards — on Wednesday afternoon hit all the right notes.
Guests could help themselves to moreish Greek lamb skewers with pomegranate, mint and pistachio dust, succulent harissa-marinated chicken thigh strips with a peri peri cream and a light and fresh melanzane parmigiana, along with crisp flatbreads and focaccia, at the announcement of this year’s winner of the art prize from the continent’s longest-running contemporary art fair.
Kelebogile Marope, who, like Cape Town artist Usha Seejarim, provokes conversations about the mundane and the familiar through her use of sculptures and prints featuring domestic objects such as ironing soleplates, was announced as the 2026 winner of the Joburg Art Fair prize.
“I want to take this moment to thank you for creating this for us as a continent. You have brought us together as a continent that is thinking with the same mind and sharing personal histories that are intertwined. I am so happy to be standing here as a Botswana artist and saying ‘Wow’,” the Rhodes University fine arts graduate — born in Ramotswa, Botswana — told the audience, which included art patron, lawyer and MD of Mirai Rail, Pulane Tshabalala Kingston, and the art fair’s MD, Mandla Sibeko.
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