Following President Ramaphosa’s national address on Sunday, the National Horseracing Authority has confirmed that the Vodacom Durban July race day will go ahead on Saturday, 3 July.
First-time VDJ invited designer, Lara Klawikowski, is returning to the scene of her earliest career highlights where she won the VDJ Young Designers Award in 2008 while still in school. Speaking to The Durban North News, Klawikowski, who is selected as one of the judges for young designers, said she is honoured to be part of this year’s showcase and hopes everything goes well. “I am extremely excited to be part of the show even though there will be no audience because of the pandemic.” Klawikowski designs wearable art – bespoke women’s wear, handcrafted at her studio. Her designs are intriguingly tactile and artisanal, with a distinctive artistry, femininity, edge, and other-worldly beauty. She employs unpredictable pattern-cutting and garment construction and constantly experiments with texture and fabric, both evident in her #VDJ2021 “Birds of a Feather” collection. “I drew inspiration from the botanical detail of flowers, particularly multi-coloured parrot tulips, for the textures and shapes of dresses, I’m using flowers that resemble birds as inspiration for my VDJ looks. I’ll once again transform fabric waste and plastics made for recycled materials into glamorous up-cycled designs,” she said. The Vodacom Durban July race meeting will be available to view on Tellytrack (DSTV Channel 249) and via the official broadcast on SuperSport 4 (DSTV Channel 204) from 1pm to 4pm on Saturday. The first race is at 11.15am with the VDJ run at 3pm and the tenth race is at 4.45pm.
