Missioni turns creative page; Liberatore mixes real, virtual

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On this rainy Sunday morning, the fashion crowd filed into a richly upholstered movie theater for a full-immersion runway show by Francesca Liberatore, combining real models, hologram images and a film projected on the main screen

MILAN – Five days of womenswear presentations dissolved into more online presentations as Milan Fashion Week began to tail off Sunday, and the fashion crowd prepared to decamp for Paris.

The excitement of live runway shows, the return of celebrities and the blast of fashion parties energized Italy’s fashion capital for the first time in 19 months, with crowds of young fashion lovers gathering outside of venues to breath the aspiration.

Some fashion brands are cleaning house, pushing out leaner collections, during this season of hopeful relaunch. But any deep change of pace is hard to see.

“I don’t see any kind of change in reality,’’ said the new creative director of Missoni, Alberto Caliri. “It is a bit like someone who says they are giving up fried food, but then in a week is back to eating it again. There is a lot of talk but little action.”

Perhaps some of that is due to the sheer desire to be out in the world again.

Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele said he grows tired of people who see fashion as just clothes and shoes, shoes and clothes, “with limited dignity.”

“Fashion is human handiwork. It has a great storytelling capacity,’’ Michele said.

Highlights from Milan Fashion Week of mostly womenswear collections:

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FRANCESCA LIBERATORE’S RITES AND MYTHS

The diaphanous looks borrowed richly from the Renaissance, from the flowing trains, puffy sleeves and draping. Organza, ruching and ruffles create a romantic mood, while latex touches bring the looks down to earth. They included a slit-back coat that lifted with each step and body-hugging trousers.

Organza, representing romance, was constantly grounded by more modern elements. A white organza dress was wrapped over a black minidress. A ruched mini dress becomes poetic with a generous organza skirt in umber and built-in cape in heather blue. A transparent organza coat with a delicate ruffle was paired with matching see-through trousers that were worn over high-waisted panties, leaving the bosom free. Another delicate organza dress appears ripped open, a violent gesture that revealed a black garment below.

Liberatore was eager to resume a live experience to preview her collection, while embracing elements from the digital world that became a critical link with the world during periods of lockdown and isolation.

“All that we experienced has made us understand that, in reality everything can crumble in front of our eyes,’’ Liberatore said. “Here, you have lived the world that has melted down. After that, there is a moment of fear, during which we are unstable. We don’t touch the ground anymore.”

Still, the collection offers a hopeful message. She took inspiration from figurative paintings representing the four Christian evangelists as a lion, an eagle, a bull and an angel in the apse of St. Michael’s church in Ferrara. The deconsecrated church, originally built in the Middle Ages and reconstructed in the Renaissance, is the permanent home of works by sculptor Bruno Liberatore, the designer’s father.

“I was the first to look to rise up, to completely change pace,’’ the designer said. “So the beautiful thing with this new adventure was to have bought together with my family the Saint Michael church in Ferrara, to create a cultural center, a mix between art and fashion.”

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MISSONI’S NEW FASHION PAGE

The Missoni brand has turned a creative page, tapping a long-time member of Angela Missoni’s team to replace her as creative director.

The shift to a more youthful, hip vibe was immediately apparent in Alberto Caliri’s first collection. There was still plenty of fine colorful knitwear for longtime aficionados of the brand, including long floor-sweeping dresses, sexy crop tops and jumpsuits. But the silhouette was bolder than usual, decidedly young and easy to envision at the hippest of beach parties.

Bra tops peeked out of asymmetrical dresses with large cutouts; intricate beading mimicked knitwear patterns on halter tops; silvery bathing suits with floral details were worn with loose trousers. A bikini top had a long trailing train, worn with jeans, for a perfectly updated hippie look. Missoni also picked up on a season trend: straight mini skirts with skimpy bandeau tops, this one in leather with the Missoni logo repeated.

Caliri said he incorporated Angela Missoni’s view of femininity with her mother Rosita Missoni’s bold sense of color, including papaya, coral and yellow. The new Missoni woman is someone sure of herself, who takes minimum fuss to get out of the door in the morning.

“My job was to trim out all that was possible, to make it the most precious and evidently Missoni,’’ Caliri said. “I think any woman would find a piece in this collection.”

Serena Williams turns 40: The tennis star’s greatest fashion moments, from centre court to the red carpet

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Not only is she the reigning queen of the tennis world, with 23 Grand Slam titles under her belt, Serena Williams is a fashion tour de force too.

Known for her fabulous and fearless style, she was the first black female athlete to appear on the cover of Vogue and founded her own clothing brand, Serena, in 2018.

The trailblazing athlete, who celebrates her 40th birthday on September 26th, has served us some incredible fashion moments throughout her career, both on and off the court…

Centre Court style

(Alamy/PA)

Always pushing the sportswear envelope, Williams has worn many a fashion-forward outfit throughout her career – some of them more well-received than others.

When she donned a black catsuit for the French Open in 2018, the garment was later banned by French Tennis Federation president Bernard Giudicelli, who said it had gone “too far”.

(Alamy/PA)

Later that year, Williams took to the court at the US Open in a pair of tennis dresses with tutu skirts, created by Off-White designer Virgil Abloh.

(Adam Davy/PA)

Even when forced to adhere to the strict all-white dress code at Wimbledon, the American manages to get creative with her ensembles, as she did with this sheer leopard-patterned dress in 2015.

Royal wedding

Serena Williams and her husband Alexis Ohanian arrive at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle for the wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry (Ian West/PA)

Williams was pretty in pink while attending pal Meghan Markle’s wedding to Prince Harry in 2018 with entrepreneur husband Alexis Ohanian, choosing a long-sleeved blush coloured dress by Atelier Versace teamed with court heels and a hat by Philip Treacy.

Little known fact: I often wear sneakers under my evening gown. These @maisonvalentino @pppiccioli gave to me last min. I told him be careful I tend to be comfy for long nights #beingserena pic.twitter.com/JRZAOrJvjI — Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) May 20, 2018

Changing into a second look for the reception at Frogmore House, Williams revealed on Twitter that she was actually wearing trainers underneath her Valentino gown, which had a black bodice and floral-covered full skirt.

Twinning with Olympia

“I’m Olympia’s mom,” Williams proudly declares in her Instagram bio, and she loves nothing more than twinning with daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian, Jr, aged 4, who has her own official account on the platform with 629k followers.

Earlier this year, mum and mini-me were photographed on the tennis court in frothy princess dresses, Alexis Olympia with a pink racket to match her outfit.

When Williams wore a tutu at the US Open, Off-White also created a tiny version of the outfit for toddler Alexis.

Met Gala

(Aurore Marechal/PA)

A regular at the Met Gala, Williams always impresses with her red carpet choices.

In 2017, while pregnant, she was resplendent in an emerald green Versace gown.

(Jennifer Graylock/PA)

Teaming up with Versace again in 2019, she wore a neon yellow gown with pink floral embellishments, lifting up the hem to reveal Nike trainers underneath.

For this year’s American-theme gala, Williams switched it up and went with a lace catsuit and incredible feathered cape designed by Gucci’s Alessandro Michele.

Digital Vibes: Zweli Mkhize’s pal splurged Covid funds on Gucci gear, Smeg appliances and monthslong holiday

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Shopping sprees for luxury goods, an overseas jaunt, expensive home upgrades and other personal expenses. This is how former health minister Zweli Mkhize’s close associate blew at least R1m of the money meant for vital Covid-19 communications.

On the day that Tahera Mather splurged R90,400 at a Gucci outlet in Sandton with a single swipe of Digital Vibes’ bank card, her attention should have been elsewhere.

The previous day, 12 October 2020, South Africa’s then health minister had warned in a press briefing that the country was heading for a second wave of Covid-19 infections.

“Covid-19 is still with us, especially if we start thinking that we should be complacent and forget about masks and social distancing,” said Zweli Mkhize.

As the de facto boss of Digital Vibes, long-time Mkhize associate Tahera Mather possessed the tools and resources to curb any such complacency.

After all, the firm had received R150-million from the Department of Health (DoH) to run communications campaigns for the pending National Health Insurance (NHI) and, later, for Covid-19.

However, at the crucial moment when all hands were needed on deck to battle the pandemic, Mather was seemingly more concerned with splurging the firm’s earnings from the health department on luxury goods.

Scorpio’s latest investigation reveals how Mather utilised funds from Digital Vibes’ main bank account for her personal benefit.

This includes tens of thousands of rands spent on a monthslong holiday in Turkey, while South Africa was battling through one of the pandemic’s most trying periods.

The bulk of the money Digital Vibes received from the DoH should have been spent on goods and services for the department’s Covid-19 communications efforts.

However, our investigation has shown that Digital Vibes reserved only a comparatively small portion of its DoH “loot” for legitimate expenses related to the firm’s mandate.

Instead, roughly R100-million was funnelled to a range of implicated parties in an alleged looting spree that almost beggars belief.

Companies and accounts controlled by Mather and her immediate family pocketed nearly R30-million.

Mkhize’s former PA, Naadhira Mitha, along with other suspicious third parties, also received a large chunk of the money, while payments from the company’s account benefited Mkhize and his son, Dedani, and the latter’s wife, Sthoko.

[caption id=“attachment_1046756” align=“alignnone” width=“960”] © Provided by Daily Maverick Tahera Mather and Zweli Mkhize in 2017. (Photo: Supplied)[/caption]

The payments identified in this piece were made from Digital Vibes’ main bank account and are in addition to the nearly R100-million transferred to Mather’s company and to the other parties’ accounts.

In other words, Mather not only oversaw the transfer of the lion’s share of the contract’s value to her own entity and to the other actors involved in the saga, she also spent some of the remaining funds for her personal benefit.

Mather has admitted that she had been responsible for some of the expenditure we’ve uncovered.

The R150-million Digital Vibes received from the DoH was paid in 19 tranches between late January 2020 and early February 2021.

Using money Digital Vibes received from the DoH, Mather:

Spent at least R170,000 at upmarket fashion stores, restaurants and beauty spas;

Diverted nearly R530,000 towards renovating her house in Blythedale on KwaZulu-Natal’s North Coast; and

Splurged nearly R200,000 during a two-month stay in Turkey.

Some of the money also went towards covering the municipal bills for Mather’s house and to pay the private security firm looking after the property.

“In response to your queries, I was responsible for all the payments and purchases except for G4S [the security firm] and KwaDukuza [the municipal bills],” Mather told us.

She said Digital Vibes’ director, Radha Hariram, settled those expenses from the company’s account.

Hariram did not respond to queries.

Our investigation found that Mather spent the entire months of December 2020 and January 2021 in Turkey, where she used Digital Vibes’ bank card for luxury accommodation, jewellery, clothes and other expenses.

Apart from the wastage of taxpayers’ money, Mather’s trip abroad will no doubt raise a few eyebrows because of its timing.

During the months in which South Africans were battling through a second wave of Covid-19 infections, Mather, the true directing hand behind the company that had been paid to help combat the pandemic, was busy spending some of this money in a country 8,000km away.

The flagrant abuse of the money Digital Vibes had received from the DoH began months before Mather’s trip to Turkey.

Our analysis reveals that Mather began utilising the company’s funds for personal expenses in early 2020, shortly after it had received its first payments from the DoH.

Smeg it up

Transactions that followed payments to Digital Vibes from the DoH in early 2020 strongly suggest that Mather – and whoever else may have had access to the bank card – from the outset viewed the company’s account as a personal piggy bank.

Digital Vibes received its first payment, an amount of R7.4-million, on 29 January 2020. The second payment, in a series of 19 transfers, valued at R1.8-million, reflected in the company’s bank account two days later.

The shopping spree formally kicked off on 5 February 2020, when someone swiped Digital Vibes’ card at a Pick n Pay store in Stanger (KwaDukuza), Mather and Hariram’s hometown.

During the lifetime of the DoH contract, some R28,000 of taxpayers’ money was spent at grocery stores alone.

The KwaDukuza municipality received some R42,000 from the Digital Vibes account for Mather’s municipal bills. A further R6,800 was used to settle the bills from her private security provider.

But these were relatively small expenses, at least compared to the nearly R530,000 Mather used for renovations at her house in Blythedale.

[caption id=“attachment_1046766” align=“alignnone” width=“2560”] © Provided by Daily Maverick Tahera Mather’s house in Blythedale on KwaZulu-Natal’s north coast. (Photo: Pieter-Louis Myburgh)[/caption]

The first payment from Digital Vibes’ account that we could link to the home upgrades was made in late February 2020.

Throughout the rest of the year, Mather routinely paid contractors from Digital Vibes’ account for all manner of work relating to the project, including flooring contractors, electricians, architects and landscape designers.

In total, she diverted about R527,000 from Digital Vibes’ account to renovate her house, according to our analysis.

This includes payments totalling nearly R193,000 for top-of-the-range kitchen appliances. (See graphic)

The Smeg ovens, coffee machines and other appliances were purchased at the start of February 2021, mere weeks before Scorpio first exposed the Digital Vibes contract.

Gucci girl

After the DoH effectively changed Digital Vibes’ mandate to include Covid-19 communications, the firm started bagging ever-larger payments from the department.

This appeared to have unleashed a sense of profligacy in Mather, as illustrated by her purchases at luxury clothing stores, beauty spas and other such businesses.

Between 11 and 15 May 2020, the DoH settled a series of Digital Vibes invoices worth nearly R28-million for billings related to the pandemic.

A few days after the last of these payments, Mather swiped the Digital Vibes bank card at a Nike store in Sandton, draining more than R3,000 from the account. A few weeks later, she spent about R35,000 at Sandton’s iStore.

But this was just the start of the extravagance.

From September to early November 2020, a period that saw Digital Vibes pocket a further R35.5-million in Covid-19 payments, Mather went wild with the company’s card.

Large purchases at a variety of fashion stores and other shops, mostly at Sandton City and the Hyde Park shopping centre in Johannesburg and at Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront, drained altogether R170,000 from the account.

This included the single card swipe for R90,400 at Sandton City’s Gucci store, as mentioned at the start of this article.

Mather also splurged tens of thousands of rands at Diesel, Christian Dior and Tiger of Sweden stores; at a wellness spa in Cape Town; on luxury cosmetics; and at an upmarket luggage vendor.

[caption id=“attachment_1046760” align=“alignnone” width=“2560”] © Provided by Daily Maverick A Tiger of Sweden store at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. Mather spent thousands of rands of Digital Vibes’ money at a Tiger of Sweden outlet in Sandton, Johannesburg. (Photo: Pieter-Louis Myburgh)[/caption]

Missing in action

A surge in Covid-19 cases during November 2020 all but confirmed that South Africa would experience a second wave of infections.

“We need to intensify communication, to make people understand that if they do not adhere to the [Covid-19] measures the numbers will rise,” a stern-faced Zweli Mkhize said at a media briefing on 27 November.

But Tahera Mather, the person who controlled the funds Digital Vibes had received for Covid-19 communications, had already left the country.

The dates for her departing and return flights are unclear, but Digital Vibes’ bank records give us a pretty firm idea of her movements in Turkey and the length of her stay.

On 23 November, five days before Mkhize’s address, Mather made her first cash withdrawal from a bank in Turkey, taking the equivalent of about R4,300 in Turkish lira.

And on 27 November, the day Mkhize issued his warning, Mather withdrew a further R4,000 from an ATM.

In other words, at precisely the moment in which Mkhize was calling for better communications efforts to help slow down infections, Mather was enjoying a trip abroad, where she splurged the very funds Digital Vibes had received from the DoH for Covid-19 awareness.

Between 23 November 2020 and 1 February 2021, while in Turkey, Mather drained more than R190,000 from the Digital Vibes account.

This includes roughly R97,000 in cash withdrawn from ATMs and bank tellers.

The rest of the money went towards accommodation, jewellery, and to clothing and textile stores.

Mather’s son, Wasim, was also in Turkey during the same timeframe.

“I don’t want to comment on anything but my son did not use any company card in Turkey. I had the card for the duration of my trip. You can check out my dates of travel and use of the card,” Mather stated in May, after we had quizzed her on a range of issues relating to Digital Vibes.

Wasim may not have touched the company’s bank card, but, while in Turkey, he certainly enjoyed some of the deal’s ill-gotten fruits.

On 1 December 2020, Wasim posted a picture of himself on Facebook holding an expensive-looking camera and lens.

[caption id=“attachment_1046761” align=“alignnone” width=“2048”] © Provided by Daily Maverick Wasim Mather with his new camera gear, courtesy of the Digital Vibes contract. (Photo: Facebook)[/caption]

He was in Turkey’s Kayseri province, according to the caption of another picture in his feed.

The Nikon D500 camera and lens from the same manufacturer were bought at a South African photography outlet and cost altogether R87,450.

Scorpio established that Digital Vibes paid for the items in July 2020, about a month after the firm had received a R6.7-million payment from the DoH.

We also obtained an invoice for the items bearing Wasim’s name.

Mather stated that her son was never aware that the camera and lens had been purchased by Digital Vibes.

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU), through legal proceedings at the Special Tribunal, is currently trying to claw back some of the Digital Vibes “loot” from Mather and others accused of benefiting from the allegedly corrupt deal.

It remains to be seen whether the graft-buster will retrieve every last rand of taxpayers’ money wasted on Gucci products and other indulgences. DM

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