Nandi Mngoma x South African Fashion & Style IT Chirl | Musician

About two years back I used to see her at MOTHERLAND Co(ffice)FEE shop a lot. When it was still uncapped internet vibes, hip and we would all camp there looking fabulous and casj about it. After a few weeks waiters would start giving you THAT LOOK when you roll in, tote bag on forearm packed with your notebook and all essentials for the day. Yeap, exactly THAT LOOK, that kinda LOOK your mama would give you when you accidentally bump in to her in the wee hours of the morning when tryna sneak in the house after you have slept ou at them clubhouse.

Subsequently it boiled down to one cuppa coffee for a one hour of free internet connection and we all like errrmmm mmmmkay!

One day, as we sat there at MOTHERLAND COFFEE SHOP, I was like; “OMG who is that chirl she is sooo fierce, so beautiful, I love her!” Fast forward a few days later we all chilling having drinks and SPILLing some JUICE and laughing. Double fast word to today Miss Thang is well on her way to becoming a super star and I am writing a blog post about her. Let us hear what she has to say: 

You are respectable lady who is brilliant at what she does and you always boh-ring-it chirl.

"I gats to boh-ring- it girlfirend... Okay"

LOL! No but seriously, I am honoured by your gracious words, means the world to me that someone like myself is being loved by so many for simply being "myself" and being the best that I can be, in hopes that I will one day leave a meaningful legacy.

How would you describe yourself in one word?

Natural

What is it that you do and why?

I am a singer/songwriter/die hard fashion lover/presenter, worked at a media company and studying the legal side of media as a whole.

My immense love and passion for the media industry my whole life has pushed me to make sure I understand it from an academic, artistic and business point of view. It is of paramount importance that one invests in their passions and feels empowered by the wealth of knowledge one gains from learning about what their love. 

You are a biggest inspiration to someone reading this; may you please share with them a few words of wisdom they will forever cherish, and ignite their will power to keep on keeping on:

I say this to everyone, and it due to the fact that it’s the truth, "nothing is impossible to a willing heart" and most importantly it’s so important for people to live their life according to this motto and that is to have people say "who is she, and what did she do.. She was herself and she did it all"

I think being you, and being true to your passions and talents is the most important thing. I also would like to stress the point that at no stage of your life do you ever need to compromise your morals and principles to get what you want. God has a plan, and it will take shape in his time. Do not fear failure as there is no human being on earth, who has never failed.

Has there been a defining moment in your life that made you decide to take the direction in life that they did?

I've loved what I've been doing since birth; I was fortunate enough to get the opportunities that I did such as being a kids presenter at 15 yrs on a kids show on SABC 2 and be involved in the arts as a youngster. But I come from a clan name "Mngoma" which has a lot of artistic and academic people.

Your STRICTLY two favourite South African bloggers?

Although I am a blogger myself; I have to say that According To Jerri!! And definitely my sisters blog. She's a 5th year student in Medicine at UCT and has big plans to get better to lead and live better lifestyle, be healthier and to generally love themselves. She's all about health, style and a good mind set on wealth. www.blogparty-ct.tumblr.com

Give me names of the three unsung heroes of South Africa’s fashion, style and trends playground – fresh faces, underdogs and preferably people I don’t know.

Keith and Bonolo from www.styletribesa.tumblr.com .They're amazing and so talented, and most importantly are so true to South African style and Fashion.

Tzvi Karp, is someone else who is so talented as a designer. I'm constantly in awe of his talent and beautiful work.

Which country or city in the world do you think would allow you to be truly YOU?

Heaven, and since that doesn't exist on this Earth, I've decided to create my own city or country. I'm a person that can be put in any country or city and always be true to myself.

If you were written about in the newspaper, on the front page, what would the headline say?

African talent like you've never seen before...

What are your views on people who do not like to pay for others knowledge and skills on an area of their specialty?

I think it’s terrible but also fact is people who do such terrible things are clearly short-term thinkers.

I say this because ones talent always stays with them whether they get paid for it or not. If you decide to exploit ones talent, it only takes someone else to acknowledge that person’s talent and treat them the way they should, most importantly paying them for their talent as a token of appreciation.

When do you stop doing things for free and start talking money?

When people approach you for your skill or talent.

South African bloggers; what is it that they doing completely wrong?

I'm quite fond of South African bloggers, although I would appreciate it if they'd treat their blogs more as a business than say a diary. If they could see potential capital or growth for their blogs, as many bloggers do abroad.

Do you buy clothing items based on the fact that you saw a celebrity wearing a loaned designer outfit? Does it matter, does it make a difference?

No, I'm more inspired by street fashion than our celebs, we're going through a bit of a pageant stage in our media (South Africa), where more makeup, eyelashes hair etc is better, and I'm personally not really inspired by that. Being pretty, shouldn't translate in you being stylish.

The era of SA celebs that inspired me fashion wise were Nkhensani Nkosi, Noni Gasa, Bonnie Henna and Khanyi Dhlomo.

The most unglamorous thing about fashion is?

Making fashion more about money than fashion itself, putting a class system to fashion. Fashion belongs to anyone and everyone. Whether you be rich, middle class or working class. You too are fashionable.

I think it’s terrific if you are person who can get inspired by beautiful beading on a Maasai village man as much as you're inspired by Victoria Beckham. Everyone is capable of being fashionable and being influential too.

SHAKE YOUR TITS, I LOVE YOUR WORK!