The Makgarebe Movement

As much as Pris and I love blogging the reality is that it’s still early days, we've only just hatched and every now and then we have mini freak outs about what we’re doing. We are still finding ourselves in the blogging world and carving out a niche. We had one such freak out a couple of days ago and had to say a few  calming mantra’s, reminding ourselves why we decided to start a fashion-lifestyle blog in the first place. We aren't models, stylists or fashion editors. We don’t have unlimited access to designer duds, info on the latest trends or a shoe collection that would shame  Carrie Bradshaw. If you’re not a fashion world insider and want to blog then you usually have some quirky style the world must see.  We don't have that have either. The fact of the matter is that we just love pretty things, fashion and spend way too many hours in a day trawling fashion blogs. Most of the time though we dress like “normal people”. 

Our blog came out of a longing we had to see normal girls wearing clothes we could actually afford and get in our African stores. As much as I love my American and British bloggers they don’t stock Alexander Wang, Mark Jacobs or  3.1 Phillip Lim in Maun stores. We have Mr Price, Woolworths and more Chinese shops than I can bare to count. Even if they did, I’m a recent college graduate with no money and a lot of more pressing needs. I’m not saying that all bloggers are like that but fact is the most popular bloggers do have better clothes, better shoes and better skin (random I know)  than Pris and I. So what did we do? Started our blog where would promote our down to earth style, with affordable and  accessible clothing labels. Nothing crazy, no elaborate props. Something tells me there are a lot of guys and girls just like us out there.

Another major hiccup with the fact that we are serious nerds. Yes we love clothes and looking pretty but we also have this unfortunate love for books, science and current affairs. Life would be so much easier if all we cared about was clothes but sadly we have this “want to make the world a better place” syndrome. A real downer. So this idea popped into our heads. We’re African born and  raised, we've never left the continent but we've traveled all around it. We can't randomly name drop the states or the UK in our conversations but we can name drop Zimbabwe and Namibia.  We have no choice but to blog about what we know, which is Africa. We love it here, have never felt a pressing need to leave and don’t understand why everybody isn't jealous of us. Maybe it’s because Africa gets trashed in the media almost everyday. Wars, famine and  mad politicians aren't great selling points . But maybe our blog could do something about that. Even in the tiniest of ways maybe we could dent that image.  So we decided to start a blog that’s a all African all day.    Thus the Makgarebe Movement was born. Two African girls who just want to look pretty for cheap and maybe convince people that Africa is the coolest place in the world. Showcase some cool Africans along the way and possibly conquer the world. That's not too much to ask is it ?

So much yacking and I haven’t even turned your attention to my first decent photo shoot. Winter is almost upon us. If you've lived in Maun you know winter is notoriously bipolar. This year is no different its getting really cold really fast, we’re having what I can only term “autumn”. Usually we just have  two seasons hot and wet or  dry and cold. I think I like autumn. The colors are beautiful and I finally get to wear those winter clothes I buy and stash away because it hardly ever gets cold enough to rock a fur coat Macklemore-Style (I exaggerate). I pulled this outfit together on one of our colder autumn days last week. The dress and Cardigan are from DFX and the shoes are Aldo. The Pictures were taken in my backyard because....well... why not ?

So here's hoping you keep reading our lil blog. We love writing, hope you love reading. Thanks for stopping by.