Over the past few months I have been sitting back and watching the goings on within the fashion fraternity in South Africa - my greatest interest,amusement and frustration has been around “designer” Eric Way.
At fashion week I am generally very critical on a few young designers especially David Thale – as I believe that he is a truly gifted artist so in my reviews I try and highlight areas that most are too scared to say – for example his time keeping and attention to treads! Those comments all seem rather trivial in comparison to the 6 months of nonsense that has surrounded this Eric Way – David I promise I’ll go easy on you in future.
In March a friend of mine called to say that he had been invited to an event in Secunda, South Africa to the launch the new collection for this designer from London called Eric Way. My first response was, “Who?” It was then explained to me that he had designed for the former first lady of the United Kingdom, Mrs Cherie Blair! To which I responded: “Oh poor her – she never did look particularly glamorous did she? “

Follow up:

MR WAYS CELEBRITY COLLECTION
My comment wasn’t unfounded as the “Celebrity Collection” images hit my inbox a few days later.
Let’s just say that my initial thought on the collection was: “I never knew that Ackermans (Primark) had launched an eveningwear range. “ The dresses were cheaply put together, donned with overlays of bad lace and then encrusted in plastic beading being passed off by the designer as Swarovski crystal. The silhouettes seemed to have been lifted straight out of a pattern book for Dallas. In speaking to the designer, in which he spent a lot of time name dropping and telling me how wonderful he was - I had to ask why he would possibly want to launch a collection such as “Celebrity” if he had designed for all these famous people? He seemed to respond to the answer with great ease:” It’s for the poor, this collection would not go down well in United Kingdom – but I put it together for those out of city people that don’t really have money, they would love it.” This confused me a little as on the evening of the launch of his Ackerman’s chic collection – a well known South African socialite, asked about the cost of the one of the dresses a celebrity guests was wearing? Without battering an eye he quoted £85 000.00. I spoke to that person afterwards who said: “I have walked and modelled for some of the world’s top designs including South African couturier Gavin Rajah, never in my life had I had to carry a R85.00 dress and try and sell it off as a £85 000.00 outfit – the dress is now hanging in my wardrobe, she joked, and I’m not even sure the fish moths will try and get to it – they are rather particular in their taste!”

I decided to sit back and watch the Eric Way pantomime play out as he mingled and wooed the Johannesburg society and plugging his now very stale story into every broadsheet and magazine show that would listen to him.
However, I wasn’t just sitting back watching I was also sitting back and researching every story and news clipping that I viewed – and I have to admit I doubt if Disney himself would have come with some of Mr Ways spin stories.

Mr Way has been spinning the same stories since 2003 and the Sex and the City story since 2004, so intrigued by this, after having seen the results of his work, I trawled the internet in searching for images of some of Kirsten Davies’s wardrobe and Eric Way’s creations. At first I came up with a lot of nothing really, except, a scandal pertaining to an international trip that the then first lady Cherie Blair took on his invitation. So I called a friend of mine who is a close friend of Mrs Blair to verify some information. “Cherrie doesn’t even like to mention that name,...” I was told, “not even in jest, all the press coverage of him styling her was generated by him not her and Cherrie often didn’t appreciate it.” I left it at that as those few words from her had said enough.
So once again I hit the internet to try and find some hint of what Mr Way has actually designed and or created for these high profile names – and to my surprise not one image or photograph came up. I even took at look at Liz Brewer’s web site – a premium British socialite, and yes found a picture of Mr Way and her, but still no hint of anything that he had actually created!
Most designers of any calibre would have a catalogue on their website – good thinking I thought, so I logged on to his website and nothing! In fact just a lot of drivel about diets and diet pills not very couture in my opinion.
And so the circus of Eric Way continues as more and more South African press and television feature more and more of him. However recent reports of him calling himself a Haute Couturier and him reportedly saying that he has dressed several of the British Royal family has fired even a bigger controversy around this designers credibility.
I called the Mode de Paris to clarify when a designer can actually publically call themselves a Haute Courtier, and let me tell you Mr Way doesn’t even come close. I questioned him on this very issue and his response was that in London the term is used loosely to describe – “made- to-measure”. Well in accordance to the faculties of design both in London and Paris no designer unless invited by the Haute Couture committee can officially call themselves an Haute Courtier! Neither have any record of My Way being invited at any point or in fact have ever heard of him.
This brings me to the latest story from Mr Way - the Royal family thing! Again it is protocol from the British Royals that if you dress them you receive a Royal commission, a commission rarely if ever given to non British designers. I notice that for a man that loves his own self promotion he does not carry the emblem of the Royal commission. This is the first we have heard of this new story both in the United Kingdom and in South Africa – do the Royals know he has dressed them, along with Kirsten Davies, and the rest.
What will the next chapter of Mr Ways non quantifiable fashion career hold in stall for us – let’s wait and see! God help us all with the new diet pill - I too can loose 10kg in a month thanks to photoshop, and why in South Africa will this pill not pass the European Standards or is SABS easier to get around? I'll keep you all posted as I am investigating this further!
Much love
Errol xx