Live!

But elusive... Instead, Joanne Josephs doing her best to look like some calomine lotion that's solidified in the sun. I don't mean to be mean; she's lovely and all, but that muddy-dusty pink jacket further muted by her dusted make-up look... And that oily plum blouse with the wide floppy collars and white buttons clashing with the black microphone (Yeah, you betcha, I think the mic should be considered). And then there's that piece of necklace that, I guess, is Joanne's equivalent to the wide Windsor knots of Mahendra's ties. Wasn't she wearing that the other night?

No, a jeweller friend on Google-chat points out. No, it's not, it's not even from the same shop, she says. She knows her jewellery, clearly.

So, just in: TM lets me know that she has "wrenched [her]self away from Mahendra's dulcet tones" to go out for dinner, as if to say, "I was on the job but then a dinner plan came up". This can't of course be true, since Mahendra is elusive tonight. Gotcha!

Lord knows what you call it

... but it was Joanne Josephs in a rather lurid, I dunno, orange, amber, brown, what jacket? It had a sheen to it. What is it with this fancy-dress wear?

Gold, I suppose

Yep, spotted Live! on 27 March. In his shiny black jacket and a whiter shade of pink shirt, with a maroon tie that could have been raffish were it not for the concentric circles in what, gold?

Sore throat?

Firstly, welcome to TM, Mahendra's Ties very first guest watcher, and congratulations on your first post. It is a natural fit to the genre and I look forward to many great posts.

Secondly, I have no reports to file for Friday, Saturday and Sunday past, as I was No-TV for the weekend. It does seem, however, that Mr Raghunath might be on a bit of a break...

No such thing as beginner's luck

I'm helping RK in his admirable task of 'unpacking' Mahendra's wardrobe.

Am very disappointed that Mahendra remained elusive on my first assignment last night. Instead, the newsreader was a lovely lady (Mandlakazi Mpahlwa?) in a postbox-red jacket with a Chinese collar. My only complaint is that her maroon lipstick clashed with said jacket. Perhaps the stylist and the make-up artist had a fight?

It's not his fault

No report on Mr. Raghunath, but it's not his fault. I was, once again, not close to a television set. Perhaps I should invite roving Mahendra-watchers to join in the fun?

NEWSFLASH

From now on, posts will be categorized:

1. Spotted
2. Elusive
3. No TV

No Mahendra, godammit!

21 March, 8.10 pm, at the TV, bowl of crisps, glass of apple juice, m&m's, the whole toot, but there was no Mahendra. Instead, viewers got to see the lovely Mandlakazi Mpahlwa in a jacket a slightly darker shade of salmon, and a low, sober black blouse.

You've guessed it...

Yes, no Mahendra last night as I was otherwise engaged with good company, wine and food. I did spot some yuppies in pale lemon sweaters draped nonchalantly over golf shirts, and long-legged women unnecessarily in high heels so that, standing, my head was as high only as their hips. Oh, in some unknown designer jeans.

Alas, though, nothing as ebulliently colourful as dear Mahendra.

No Mahendra

But Joanne Josephs in sensible black. Although a bit too much black - too funereal.

Tags: clothes, cricket, culture, fashion, Mahendra, Mahendra+Raghunath, news, SABC3, South+Africa, ties, windsor+knot, worldcup

Striped grey Mahendra spotted

Sunday evening, the colourful one was wearing a grey jacket with strange light grey stripes of varying width and shade - almost like a curtain or streepmuis. This is neo-grey, of course, and not the grey of the old Ego deoderant ads. Blooming from beneath the jacket was a plummy-purple shirt (I kid you not). A striped tie picked up mainly on the purple of the shirt, showed some crimson, perhaps some navy-blue or black, and also silver-grey for the jacket. Nice maybe for a martini at some fancy-schmancy lounge or bar in a fake Italian maul (heh heh) in Gauteng, or for high-rolling in Goodwood's not-quite-Monaco casino. But not for the news, Mahendra.

Mahendra free weekend

Both Friday and Saturday were spent away from television, so no Mahendra spotted.

No Mahendra!

Damn, my first opportunity to report Live! on Mahendra's sartorial misapprehensions thwarted tonight. Rain during play at the cricket World Cup meant a short news bulletin tonight, at about 7.25. But there was no Mahendra; instead, news was read by someone in an orange blouse. Will there be a later, longer bulletin, with Mahendra at the helm?

Unfortunately, I will be out, and won't be able to report. Can't bother to set the VCR for a news bulletin that may or may not happen. I have to admit, though, that starting my Mahendra-watch during the cricket World Cup was a bit ill-timed.

Is it fawn? Is it khaki?

Well, there was Simon Gear providing the weather forecast and coming to you Live! I can tell you that he's wearing a jacket that is the same colour as the stubble on his head. Is it fawn? Is it khaki? You tell me. Underneath, a nondescript cream shirt (I guess they probably call it something fucking fancy nowadays, like custard-apple or something. Jesus!) and a silver (! or is it grey? Still...!) tie. Modest knot. Good for you Simon.

Tags: Mahendra+Raghunath SABC3 clothes fashion news ties cricket worldcup

No Report

Otherwise engaged, I missed Mahendra last night, 14 March 2007.

Black, Buttermilk, Salmon

Last night (13 March 2007), the 7 o'clock news was a bit late due to the cricket. I was wearing my cap, so the Windies beat Pakistan.

Mahendra appeared in a shiny black suit, an amasi coloured shirt (I guess designers call it buttermilk), and a salmon tie with a massive knot. I don't know of what fabric the suit is made, but it is shiny as hell. The buttonhole on the lapel was crimson (or was it some or other 'button for a cause'? My reception is not perfect...) - as a fellow Mahendra-watcher pointed out, who needs a corsage if you have a crimson buttonhole?

Then there were those large buttermilk cuffs sticking out of the suit-sleeves. I mean, you need some cuff, certainly, but not to the extent that your shirt looks over-sized. And then, what's up with these modern shirts, where the collar, while small/ narrow, is designed with a wide flare? Is it to accommodate those over-sized (super-sized?) tie-knots?

Which brings me to: What's up with those large bladdy knots with which people tie their ties these days? Come on! When I was a kid, the idea was to tie a samoosa-knot: a smallish, neat and tidy equilateral triangle, exactly the size of a decent samoosa (check out these links for samoosa: here, here, here). But the huge knots people use now! With samoosas, I generally steer clear of the big ones - you know, when they're bigger than your hand or, god forbid, bigger than your face. Samoosa is a snack, not a meal, and super-sized samoosa, or any meal for that matter, is obscene and indecent.

So with these bladdy tie-knots - they're obscene. Yes yes, I know, fashion and culture is ever-changing. I don't dispute that, but what does the change mean? These big bladdy knots are a bit bling, aren't they? They seem to want to announce the 'arrival' onto the scene of the wearer. But what scene?

Somewhere back in my academic past, when I was enthralled with the Birmingham School of popular culture studies - i.e. when to study it still mattered as a challenge to traditional academics; i.e. before it became part of the status quo - I may have read a nice little Marxist study on clothes: whenever things become big, it is an expression - by designers and wearers - of wealth. I.e. it's showing off to the world that you can now afford as much fabric in your clothes as the next dolt.

So it seems with these bladdy big-knotted ties.

There is, of course, and as is with everything today, a plethora of information regarding, yes, ties, on the internet. From what I can glean, these big knots seem an evolution of the Windsor Knot, already a knot by which to show off. And, (sigh), everyone has a different bladdy description and definition.

Based on the visual evidence, I would like to call these big knots Pratt Knots (heh heh), but apparently, Pratt Knots (or Shelby Knots) are only semi-wide compared to the Windsor. But I do think that the bladdy big knots make people look like prats, which is what people who wear bling would be if they belonged to the land-owning aristocracy.

12 March 2007

I am afraid to report that I missed Mahendra last night - so no report on his clothes.

Who is Mahendra?

Mahendra Raghunath is the primary newsreader for SABC3. His most outstanding feature is not his news-writing or news-reading abilities, but rather his outlandish outfits. Yes, fashion does now dictate that people dress more colourfully than in the past - more and more for men, dark suits are being replaced by something flashy so that a boardroom may resemble a wedding. Big bright ties and bright shirts are replacing the understated dark suit, white shirt and sensible tie.

I have no problem with bright clothes, but, really, not in the newsroom. Typically, a news anchor should dress conservatively, soberly: you want to focus on the voice and you don't want bright pink ties with gigantic knots distracting you or throwing the plausibility and authority of the voice into question.

And imagine the contrast between footage from, say, Iraq or a floodswept Mozambique on the one hand, and the image of a brightly lit, colourful character reading the news on the other.

One could engage in a sociological reading of how South African tv personalities misread sartorial occasions (remember Deborah Patta dressed in evening frock and bombastic jewellery while reporting from NYC in the immediate aftermath of 9/11?) - that would make some interesting reading on our vapid bling-bling culture.

Follow me, though, as I document as regularly as possible what Mahendra wears for the news. Reportedly, he is dressed by Damat and Tween, a Turkish affair (what? I thought the SABC was proudly South African?), but certainly he could ask them for more sober selections, which they do have.

For a taster, you can see what is in Mahendra's fridge at TashiTagg.