Well I’ve become a lot busier. My life and my schedule is nonstop. If it’s not a client it’s a fitting, if it’s not a fitting, I am lecturing at a university, if it’s not that i’m raiding someone’s closet and re styling their whole outlook on fashion and trend, and being a mini “therapist”. By the time the clock hits 11:00, i’m a complete zombie. BUT I am doing what I love, so i’ll do it all over again the next day!

I think the most important thing for me, ever, is staying grounded and having a good support system when I am at my weakest. I feel that my work and what I do wouldn’t be so important if my family and close friends weren’t. Many people have asked, “ Anisa, why haven’t you opened a shop yet?” or “Anisa why aren’t you living jhb?”. Well I always say that for me this is for the long run I am not in any hurry to have extreme stress at a young age. I still want to happy while still earning a living. At this point in my life I am extremely happy in my life, I have no worries while still earning my place in the fashion industry.

Cold but exciting! I think I lived my dream without really, mentally being there. I feel like it’s someone else that did all that work and did all those interviews and drank all that coffee. It was really well organised, Jan (my hero), was amazing. I asked him so many questions about things I was curious about. I walked for miles and miles to just feel the city in my soul. There was one particular interview that I did, on the day of the fashion show actually, where they were asking about my story, my past, how I got where I am etc. And all of a sudden I started crying?!? On camera!! (like the way they do on the E! Channel when they do true Hollywood story). I couldn’t believe it!! I showed in the same tent that Alexandra McQueen and other big designers that I grew idolizing showed! What?!

I was in my father’s home town, Ifakara, Tanzania. It’s an old, forgotten village and I was amazed by the innate splendour it carries.

Everything there is slower and calmer.  The landscape, the old demolished, but never cleared buildings, the warm wind that soothed my skin, the children running in the dirt roads with no shoes but a have huge smiles in their faces, the colours of the different and unpredictable insects and the peace in that village reminded me of what was important. This collection is really me going back to basics, remembering all the things that made me happy, and really stimulated me to tap into my world elsewhere. My silhouettes are less detailed which is something new from my New Romance collection. I was really thinking about the consumer and how I would deliver bigger quantities.

Plenty! To the point where I started laughing when I shared a lift with Raven-Symoné and she spoke to me and all I did was stare …HARD. I really wasn’t prepared.

1.       I was standing outside the Bryant Park hotel with my new PR manager based in Philadelphia, Kathy, having a chat and who comes out of the hotel? Russell Simmons. Okay so if you’re big Hip-hop fan and you know the history you’d understand the chills that crawled up and down my spine. I managed to say hello but he was in a hurry. He had just come out of seeing Naomi Campbell’s Fashion for Relief show.

2.       That same night we decided to go shopping as everything closed at midnight which was great! I was trying on some high heels at the only Topshop in New York and I hear a very familiar voice I look over the jewellery rack and I see Angela Simmons – Russell Simmons niece. It was awesome!

3.       I of course also saw Naomi Campbell, but I had to move out of the way because the paparazzi mean business there. They will push anyone for a good picture

4.       We also saw Kelly Osbourne, she’s really pretty and looked great in her beaded outfit and is very slim.

5.       I got to chat with Solange Knowles she was really sweet and I got to take a picture with her (she’s really tall). I gave her my business card and invited her to come watch my show. She said she loved my showstopper from my Midnight collection piece especially the skirt. That really made my night!

When I walked out and bowed for the first time at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week 2010 – My spirit had never shone so bright as it did that moment and I had my family right there to experience it with me. And to think 2 weeks before that moment, I was soaking up the sun in east Africa with no idea what was about to happen! Life IS really like a box of chocolates!

Work work work!!!take a 10min nap and some water and work some more!!