VOLUME / TWO

C o v e r p h o t o g r a p h b y : A n d r e w B r a u t e s e t h

T h e v i e w s e x p r e s s e d i n F L U F F a r e t h o s e o f t h e w r i t e r s t h e m s e l v e s .

LAVANYA NAIDOO

MORE THANK

PAPER CUTS

MARNUS MEYER

FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER

AM I NOT BEAUTIFUL

AS I AM?

BY ALEXANDRA NAGEL

THE SECRET TO

BEING SKINNY &

BEAUTIFUL IN THE

MOTHER CITY.

BY MISS T RAIN

PIN IT, TWEET IT,

LIKE IT, SHARE IT...

SOCIAL MEDIA FAVS

GLYNN VENTER

A HAAS OF CARDS

LORRAINE LOOTS

THE BIGGER PICTURE

RASHIQ FATAAR

INTO THE FUTURE

WHAT IS INSIDE...

We are FLUFF. An unlikely pair who are not originally from the Mother City; we want to get to know the DNA that makes up this body we call home.

We are not tr ying to make that paper promise called money; we are profi l ing Cape Town’s people and tr ying to cut that cl iquey crap Cape Town has.

Let’s get to know each other.

Emil Lime

Founder & Creat ive D i rector / @the l imel ine

f lu f fmagaz inesa@gmai l .com

Alexandra Nagel

Edi tor - in -Chief / @AlexandraNagel

f lu f fmagaz inesa@gmai l .com

Andrew Brauteseth

Cover photograph / @guy_wi th_camera

www.guywi thcamera.co.za

Grant Payne

Off ic ia l FLUFF photographer / @mynameisgrant_

www.mynameisgrant .com

Cindy Horton

Hai r & make-up (Sponsored by Der malogica) / @cindyhorton_

www.c indyhorton.co.za

Darius Meadon

Off ic ia l FLUFF wr i te r / @Dar iusMeadon

Miss T Rain

F lu f f guest wr i te r

Sam van Straaten

Web guy and other s tu f f

www.samvanst raaten.com / @samvanst raaten

www.fluffmag.co.za

@f lu f fmag_sa | #FLUFF

www.facebook.com/f lu f fmagaz inesa

@f lu f fmag_sa

THE BIGGERPICTURE

LORRAINE LOOTS

Lorraine Loots is one of Cape Town’s

most elegant miniaturists, known for her watercolour

collections ‘Paintings for Ants’ and recently, for the

World Design Capital 2014, ‘Postcards for Ants’.

She has a strange taking to a world of minis for an

Avatar-tall girl like herself, firmly believing the world

holds a place for everyone.

@lorraineloots @lorraineloots

Are you from Cape Town?Born in Bloem; lived in the Kruger National Park, had Malaria for two years; moved to Somerset West for six years.

What inspired you to paint such small paintings?Deciding not to be an artist. I studied at UCT GSB and Stellenbosch University, and in time, no one really taught me how to be a functioning human being.

Were you one of those children who used to stick ants in their mouths?Was a loner of a child, always playing with ants.

Do you really only paint one a day?The miniature was the only thing I could finish in an hour.

If you could hang your paintings next to any famous artwork in any museum, which and where would it be?Next to Andrew Wyeth’s “Christina’s World” in the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Why do you feel creating something so dainty can put across such a bold message as opposed to gigantic portraits? It’s about what it symbolises to me, a personal memoir. Something so precious needs to be held in order to get up close to it.

What is the most bizarre subject you have ever painted for those little insects?I get weird suggestions. A guy said he got a voicemail that had just appeared there on his phone and it was the moment God had come down, so he wanted me to transverse that. I still haven’t replied.

Where do you draw such inspiration for your paintings?Stuff I’m exposed to online or outside, when walking in nature. I don’t make things up, I observe.

What is your favourite past time inCape Town?Seeing movies at the Labia (we have to support them guys, they cannot close down).

Any secret projects on the side?I’m actually recording an album with my dad, but no one will ever hear it.

If you could have a tea party with four of your most revered thinkers, past and present, who would they be?Patti Smith, Jack Kerouac, Kurt Vonnegut and Gandhi.

Will you be sticking to painting for ants or are massive murals next on your project list?I’ll be incorporating travel in future works.

A HAAS OFCARDS

GLYNN VENTER

@HEREXVII

A man of much dexterity, Glynn Venter is as smooth as an

extra-matured whiskey. Co-Owner of Haas Coffee and

Haas Collective, we get to know him better as we sit down

in his over the top open plan loft apartment in Woodstock,

filled with trophies, trinkets and grand empiral like chairs.

What’s your guilty pleasure,music-wise?Robbie Wessels. What can we expect from the new Haas that’s different to the one in Bokaap?Bigger, but with the same “haasifica-tion” of space. We are also working very hard to raise the bar for service at the new Haas.

If you could pick another city to live in for a year, which would it be and why?New York. I feel like a rock star. When you walk around in New York, you feel like you are on a movie set. You can be anything you can imagine. A cowboy. An Indian…

Have you ever done drag? No, but I totally would if the opportunity came up.

What inspires you to keep growing creatively?Other people – if you surround yourself with the best talent then you’ll never be stumped for inspiration.

Which celebrity would you pic as a wild card when in a relationship?Vin Diesel. Definitely Vin Diesel.

What is your favourite blog?Macho digital art.

What is your favorite piece of furniture that you have ever bought? My fucking ugly dining room chairs. I love them for their ugliness andbecause I had to save for two yearsto afford them.

When you are not designing/creating/direct-ing/managing all these businesses, what is your favorite pass time in Cape Town?Walking in nature. I love just wondering up the mountain and leaving the city and life behind me. If you lost everything tomorrow, but could keep just one thing from all your possessions, what would it be and why?My cat, Pepe.

Best advice you have ever received? Not to take life too seriously.

If you had to think of one new invention right here on the spot, which would it be?A tool that selects your outfits for you every day.

Do you collect anything strange?Yes, I collect trophies. My biggest trophy isfor a netball tournament.

Describe your favourite pair of underwear.Grey Ralph Lauren boxers…it’s all aboutthe comfort.

Where did you have the best cup ofcoffee in your life?A one-man shop close to 37th & Lexington Avenue in New York. It was a strange little shop with aChinese owner.

What is your favourite word?Verruklik.

- in te rv iew by Dar ius Meadon

MORE THANPAPER CUTS

LAVANYA NAIDOO

‘Quill’ has many aliases for a word; from a feathered pen to sewing fabric, even the thought of Harry Potter gets in there somehow. Lavanya Naidoo takes the word to the extreme however, using paper as the chosen medium to fold, twist, strip and glue the world around her into a matchless masterpiece.

@lavanyanaidoo @vanna_design

How do you begin a project?Start with sketches and then work on

a light box.

What quilling piece made you the most money.Twinings Tea in London; I put it back

into property.

You were chosen as one of the 10 Design Indaba Superstars, what did that do for your career?It was a really nice thing to put on

my CV and I got to network with

agencies.

What is your day job?Woolworths Art Director on the

Special Occasions team.

Would you ever give it up to play with paper all day?Not really. I feed off of other people’s

energy,

What is your favourite thing to do in the Mother City?To walk through Newlands Forest.

What is your biggest dream that you think is unattainable?See, I don’t really think about the

future that much so I don’t really

have dreams.

If you had to choose a song that best represents your personality, what would it be?‘Natalie’s Rap’ by The Lonely Island.

Does your milkshake bring all the boys to the yard?It brought Graham to the yard. I don’t

even know how I got into his yard.

If you could read the thoughts of just one person, who would it be and why?My Creative Director, so I can present

his thoughts as my own.

Would you quill FLUFF’s logo for our next cover?Will you pay me?

What was your nickname in school?Lasagna, Pie Girl; my mom gave me

a lot of pies.

What is your favourite type of paper?

Gold paper, because Indians like

gold.

If you could be any Disney princess, which would it be and why?Pocahontas, because she’s Indian

but a different type of Indian.

THE SECRET TO BEING SKINNY & BEAUTIFUL IN THE MOTHERCITY- by Miss T. Rain

THE SECRET TO BEING SKINNY & BEAUTIFUL IN THE MOTHERCITY

I’m sure many others have noticed how the closer to the city you are, the number of good looking people increases and the dress sizes seem to decrease. It is this inverted ratio that just typifies Cape Town glam – a CBD filled with cover models everywhere you look. It is not even just a Western Cape thing (not to discriminate, but we all know North of the ‘boerewors curtain’, the only beautiful thing you can see there is the distant view of Table Mountain).

In the Southern Suburbs where the students run riot, first-year spread has taken over as more than a seasonal look. It has made that side of Cape Town a designated chubby zone.

So, with Cosmo and Men’s Health poster children roaming the streets, it’s easy to think that the city centre is quarantined off for the gorgeous only. I live in the city and what mystifies me is how these people manage to look so good. I am a glutton, yes, but the hedonistic lifestyle that the city propagates is part of a puzzle: how do they (the beautiful) overcome these temptations? Every night of the week there is a plethora of gourmet

this and that to choose from, which is overwhelming and hard to resist. For me the endeavour to look thin and fabulous is further hindered in winter. I succumb to comfort eating and drinking which inevitably results in a pot belly. Although, I would like to consider it temporary as I try and disguise it under my layers used to keep me warm.. Yet I seem to find myself walking out of the house looking like a trendier version of the Michellin-man.

So the secret to being thin and beautiful in the city, I have realised, is not that there has been some kind of alien invasion where they have taken on attractive human drones, no. The truth is that these sleek city gods have learnt the art of balance.

For every wonderfully trendy, expensive, pop-up bar and restaurant the city has to offer, there are also the free-balancing activities of mountain hikes, bike trails, skate parks, promenade runs and yoga circles available to city dwellers. This aids in beating the bulge, and allowing one to still indulge.

INTO THE FUTURERASHIQ FATAAR

@rashiqfataar @RashiqFataar

Found in the austere building of the Dutch Consulate,

Future Cape Town’s Rashiq Fataar suits the little piece of

Holland on Strand Street; offering a taste of the urban

world. Intelligence is an under-adjective; his vision for

the Mother City is out of the talk-shop phase, headed

straight for the workshop. “The story of our city unlike

many others, can still be written.”

How was your brainchild Future Cape Town born?It started informally on social media, on Twitter in the period leading up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

What has contributed towardsFuture Cape Town’s success?Firstly, passion. Secondly, our amazing team and our supporters and partners, locally and abroad.

You were an Actuary not too long ago. What made you become an urban blogger? I always had a passion for planning and city development. I studied maths because I was good at it, and used social media as an outlet to share my real passion. Given the response of our followers, we decided to build an organisation that was different from others, and created a platform for others to share their views too.

What have been your favourite designs at the 2014 World Design Capital?(Oh gosh, such a difficult one) The Density Syndicate by the African Centre for Cities (ACC) and International New Town Institute (INTI).

Say the first word that comes to mind when I say art.First Thursdays.

Tell us about your latest projects, the Department of Design and Young Urbanist Network.Department of Design is the Dutch contribution to the WDC 2014. It is a space for dialogue about South Africa’s sustainability challenges through public workshops and events.The Young Urbanist Network will aim to

create a platform for young urbanists to connect so future cities are designed better.

Which is your model city and why?Medellín, Colombia; the way in which the city transformed itself – now it has better spacing and housing.

List three things that make Cape Town different to other cities.Potential, varied beauty, history.

What does Cape Town’s entertainment scene offer you in your spare time?Accessible exhibitions. There are more interesting things to go to than just parties, and now more than ever opportunities to get involved without paying.

Any tips on where we find the secret street art hidden around Cape Town?On Church Street, next to Deluxe, on the pull-down garage door.

If you had a choice between a hamburger phone and a duck one, which would it be?Duck, it’s yellow.

What local artists simply make you want to jump around in your underwear?Think King. They’re the cool of the cool.

Do you Instagram sunsets too?More of a buildings person…

What do you think the future really holds for Cape Town?More integrated, but possibly more chaotic. Transforming our city requires bold solutions which will move us out of our comfort zone.

Without the filters of Lo-Fi and Amaro, the sun sinking behind Lion’s Head just isn’t as glorious anymore. The birth of sight-for-sore-eyes Instagram has taken the pleasure of observing life with all its natural light to a dark and brooding circle: ‘social’ media.

Is life really that hideous that we feel the need to filter the crap out of it? Will no one know what your picture is trying to depict without you putting a hash tag #in #front #of #every #single #thing?

Recently acquired by social media giant Facebook, Instagram is an app exclusive to mobile devices, allowing people to take pho-tos and edit them with a bunch of different lighting and contrasting options. Since our attention spans can no longer last more than a couple of milliseconds (take the seven-second Vine videos, for example) and we no longer enjoy reading long-winded memoirs on the internet, Instagram is for those kids who enjoyed Clip Art and Paint instead of Microsoft Word and Notepad.

Fair enough, I love pictures. But putting a filter on every single picture is like someone clicking ‘synonym’ on every word in Micro-soft: pretentious and over done. Authentic-ity is lost. Before you know it, you won’t be filtering the picture anymore, but filtering the filters instead.

Why do we need coatings of pre-made hazes to make our experiences more memo-rable, why use an app on a device that tells you what beautiful can and can’t be? If I was a sunset, I would feel utterly insulted if someone filtered me. Am I not beautiful enough for you in all my rays of red, gold and orange to be looked upon just as I am? Perhaps we are admiring beauty through the wrong lens. Try using your eyes for once and not your Instagram.

AM I NOTBEAUTIFUL

AS IAM? B y A l e x a n d r a N a g e l

Beauty lies on what is on the outside for Maximilian Pazak’s striking Packaging board. Follow him on Pinterest and remain unwrapped.

A friend to hear your fashion woes and share your voguish clothes. Befriend this blog to get in on the fashion crowd. www.afashionfriend.co.za

Who knew Cape Town could be so sharp. Follow @des86des86 on Instagram for an edgy (literally) view on the City.

Follow @Craig_Stack, the Mother City lover, to get the lowdown on what keeps Cape Town’s young nightlife bustling.

FASHION FORWARDMARNUS MEYER

“I am naïve, crazy and neurotic, confusing at times and sometimes a bit of a drama queen. I fall over equipment, run into cars, break cameras, and I am known for poking models in the eye by accident. I get emotional more often than I’d like to.

I am unorganized and most of my time is spent trying to find my car keys… But in the end, none of this matters because when I pick up my camera I know what I am doing and, I love it!”

@marnusmeyer @Marnus_Meyer

QUILLING BY

LAVANYA NAIDOO