Lucilla Booyens has a single colour in her wardrobe. No prizes for guessing it is black. She assures me that there are absolutely no other sneaky colours in sight in that minimalist haven. Well, maybe some white.
I feel a little pang of jealousy — it’s too late for me now — but it would be fantastic to know that I did not have to worry about what to wear today. It would all blend seamlessly into my signature look. Oh for such a thing as a signature look.
Lucilla is the Anna Wintour of the South African fashion landscape. Not because they share any relationship with each other — or the devil for that matter — but because when you think South African fashion you think of the woman who brought us South African Fashion Week. The longest-running seasonal designer showcase in town. Plus they both have a power bob — Lucilla’s is red.
It was by no means a direct path to a lifetime of capsule black and a hand on the tiller as she steered the fashion ship towards crafting an identifiable national style identity. Lucilla grew up on a farm outside Pretoria and was an avid sportswoman whose first fledgling steps away from her bucolic roots were as a sports science student in Joburg.
I literally got a standing ovation for a show in Los Angeles, shows in New York – all over, and I realised we needed to start a fashion week here, because if we did not have a designer-led industry we would have nothing
She is telling me this over an obligatory glass of bubbles — this is fashion after all, darling — and a truly spectacular ceviche in Don Armando, Mastrantonio’s stylish, art-filled, wood-panelled steak restaurant in Illovo.
They are tempting us with some truly sexy cuts of meat, but I am a sincere fan of their melted Provoletta cheese in a little pan, oozing onto my fork and directly into my mouth, and I can’t possibly consider not ordering it.
Lucilla explains that fashion really found her through modelling, which she started as a means to make money while she studied.
“And then I started producing shows because I was never a very good model — too short and the camera never really loved me. But I loved the shows, which was lucky because I worked all over the world. I literally got a standing ovation for a show in Los Angeles, shows in New York — all over, and I realised we needed to start a fashion week here, because if we did not have a designer-led industry we would have nothing. But I had to wait until 1997 to start. It would not have been possible before that.”
Some 26 years and more than 43 seasons later I ask what her take is on the industry now. “It’s difficult for me to understand why people don’t see the power that sits within the industry. If we had the understanding of that and we could secure more sponsorships, we could grow it much faster. We compete with other options, like soccer, and I wonder how is it possible that you can’t see that not everyone plays rugby or soccer but we all wear clothes.”
Her philosophy is borne out in all her choices, including the one to only wear black — she believes that the Fashion Week is bigger than her.
“I am never a judge at fashion week, I don’t choose winners, I don’t choose designers, I don’t choose models, because I don’t want to be in the position where I have to be chosen. I know I want to be the power in myself and I don’t want to allow anybody to have the power to choose me.
“But I do it, it’s like a thing I have to prove to myself every time I go to a sponsor and ask them to choose South African Fashion Week. I run it completely as if it is not mine. It is the designers that give me the energy and the inspiration to carry on every day. I am inspired by the people I work with that are like-minded, and that is what makes me carry on, and, of course, my husband.”
They had been together three decades and raised their daughter but the subject of marriage did not come up until 15 years ago, when he asked her out of the blue. “We had never spoken marriage; we were together for 30 years — it’s incredible how life works; this wonderful man who supports me every day. I’m depressed and he will say, must I tickle you?”
If she had to give her younger self advice what would it be?
“The first day I was in Johannesburg I sat in the window seat, it was the first night I had ever slept away from home except at my grandmother. I sat at the college of education and I looked at the Joburg tower and I thought, sjoe, you look so alone, just like me. But I love my life, I would not have it any other way.
“I have had incredible opportunities, but I think that everybody gets incredible opportunities if you look. From the day you are born, but the problem is that we are either too scared to take those opportunities or we don’t see them because we are so involved in other things. Some come and they are not successful; not all of them turn into fashion weeks, but you don’t know what could happen — whether it is a fantastic contact for the future or just a friendship — people bring huge opportunities, amazing people.
“I think it comes from growing up on the farm. My family had difficult times, but the positivity comes from seeing things grow — from knowing that if you planted the seed, it will grow — it might not grow now but it will grow next season.”
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