With every new collection, designers strive to deliver something fresh, exciting and innovative to wow their fans and trend-watchers, and to present a show which will have the audience gasping with joy. For this Fashion Week, Craig Port chose the theme Faith Hope Love to showcase his designs and linked an unusual yet entirely appropriate element with his Craig Port and Miss Port couture – canine couture.

The relationship we have with our dogs – our most faithful and loving companions – is in keeping with the theme, and as such Cesar® gourmet cuisine was thrilled to come on board and collaborate with Craig Port at his show at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Friday, 21 August 2009.

Models sashayed down the catwalk accompanied by four highly pedigreed and meticulously groomed and coiffed Westies, which are the same breed famously featured on the Cesar® packaging. The dogs stepped out in designer gear like collars, coats and accessories to complement the human couture and the theme of the show.

Later, at the exclusive VIP after party held at the Table Bay Hotel in the V&A Waterfront, the models and dogs greeted guests and posed for photographs under the glitter of flashbulbs. Celebrity guests included the likes of Errol Arendz, Jen Su, Nicky Greenwall, Michelle McLean, Mark Boucher, Jacques Kallis, Lindiwe Suttle, Sam Pegg and Lee-anne Summers.

Dogs are as comfortable in this privileged environment as their fashionable owners; Port himself shares his life with three pooches – Reggie the weimeraner, Lulu the wirehaired fox terrier and Rocco the pug – and approached the concept of designing for dogs for the first time with enthusiasm.

“Dogs are so beautiful it is very difficult to interfere with that natural look without looking cheesy so the challenge was to be functional and stylish at the same time,” says Port. “I’m delighted with the results, which were inspired by my theme of Faith Hope Love and tie in perfectly with the 2010 collection.”

Dressing our dogs in the same high quality designer clothes as ourselves is just one of the ways we can show them how much they mean to us. Another is to feed them only the most superior meals. We wouldn’t want to eat the same thing every day, so why should we expect our best friends to do so? And as much as we enjoy indulging ourselves with luxurious treats, so do our dogs.

Our dogs favour us with their love, affection and loyalty and what better way to show them we love them back than by serving Cesar® gourmet pet food at meal times? Made with human grade ingredients yet perfectly nutritiously balanced for canine digestive systems, by choosing Cesar® you are ensuring not only the tastiest but the healthiest treat for your animal.

Port says he spoils Reggie, Lulu and Rocco with Cesar® treats daily. “They are definitely indulged with walks every day…they are on the sofa when I’m not looking, and are allowed on the bed for morning cuddles,” he smiles. This is what they mean when they say “it’s a dog’s life…”

Available in three delicious flavours – Chicken Supreme, Lamb Classic and Gourmet Beef – Cesar® pet food is intended as a special treat for your pampered pooch, to be served in conjunction with his normal diet. It will make any Fifi or Rover feel like the Very Important Pup in your life that they are.

Cesar® is available at all major supermarket chains including Checkers, Pick ‘n Pay, Spar, Woolworths as well as leading pet shops. Visit www.cesar.com for more information.

Starting 24 March and running until 02 May 2007, CAPE 07 features over 40 Lions of contemporary African art, showing work in a range of media including video, new media, photography, painting, sculpture and installation.

The 5-week event spans the entire Cape Town Unicity, with exhibitions, performances and discussion sessions taking place in diverse venues including the Iziko South African National Gallery (SANG), The Castle of Good Hope, Look Out Hill in Khayelitsha, the Spier Wine Estate and unexpected public spaces.

Find out whats on this week.

An Full Programme and Artist Listing is available.

Where: Rust & Vrede Cultural Center & St Georges�s Cathedral

A visual arts exhibition runs for the duration of the festival (6 to 24 March) at Rust & Vrede Cultural Center in Durbanville and at the St Georges�s Cathedral in the city. More info here.

Cavendish Square, Cape Town’s most fabulicious shopping destination, invites you to join them for the Art of Accessories.

Between the 1st and 5th November Cavendish Square will host a five day accessories festival to celebrate our love of all things fashionable.

As well as the opportunity to pick up the perfect little something for summer, there will also be a feast of fashion related goodies for you to sample. Activities include: fashion makeover workshops with style diva Amanda Gowing; the chance to model in a high fashion photo-shoot, a futuristic fashion installation from some of South Africa’s hottest young designers as well as jewellery-making workshops for younger fashionistas.

And of course, like the best things in life, the events are all free!

The 11th Spier Arts Summer Season in partnership with Hollard kicks off in December 2006 and continues to March 2007 and will provide a spectacular line-up in all the artistic disciplines.

The format for this year’s summer season includes several smaller festivals within the main programme. It promises a spread of entertainment over a few days giving audiences the opportunity to create their own experience by moving between the different performances.

The festival programme was officially announced on 6 October 2006 at the Spier International Poetry Exchange. This event is organised in association with Winternachten, a literary festival based in The Hague. Since 1995, Winternachten has been instrumental in establishing and maintaining a network of writers and poets in the Netherlands and its historically related countries. Indonesia, Surinam, Aruba and the Dutch Antilles are represented by poets Gibi Bacilio, Def P, Tan Lioe Le and musician Ronald Snijders. The South African poets include Jeremy Cronin, Harry Garuba, Rustum Kozain and Joan Hambidge.

The Spier African Music Festival, which is the first festival this season, has become a well-established crowd-puller. It has been associated with big names such as Baaba Maal, Johnny Clegg, Judith Sephuma and Hugh Masekela. This year there is no shortage of talent with the likes of Salif Keita, Jimmy Dludlu, Dorothy Masuka, Zamajobe, Lebo Mathosa and Rus Nerwich. Audiences can enjoy music in the relaxed setting of the Spier Field during the day and the popular amphitheatre during the evenings. Up and coming bands will be performing in smaller venues across the estate with a conversation series between musicians on the Spier River Deck.

This festival includes a benefit concert – Songs of Hope – for the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation featuring Freshlyground and Vusi Mahlasela. Desmond Tutu’s 75th birthday celebration provides music lovers the opportunity to partner with the foundation in their efforts to bring hope to people living with HIV.

Philip Miller, the renowned South African composer, has collaborated with various South African musicians in composing the Rewind Cantata. This works seeks to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and to honour the victims. Rewind Cantata will be premiered at St. George’s Cathedral where the first testimonies were heard. This performance will take place on Human Rights day and features Sontonga Quartet and the voices of Fikile Mvinjelwa and Kimmie Skota.

The last December event is the ever popular Carols by Candlelight, presented exclusively for Spier by Richard Cock.

In January Pieter-Dirk Uys, a veteran of South African comedy and theatre, premiere’s a new work – “Evita for President”. Uys is a master at confronting South Africa’s demons, with a comedic edge. Evita Bezuidenhout is gracing Spier’s stage to show that she is ready to lead South Africa with her weapon of mass distraction, humour.

Based on the overwhelming success of the Spier Poetry Festival for the 2005/6, an expanded Festival has been included for the coming season. The informal staging and setting allowes audiences to move between the presentations and design their own experience of the event. Antjie Krog will curate for the coming 2006/7 poetry festival. Poets and performers participating this coming season include Gabeba Baderoon, Samm Farai Monro (from Zimbabwe), Ingrid de Kok, Rocco de Villiers, Willie Kgositsile and many others.

Cargo is the seventh in a series of inspired collaborations between two of South Africa’s most exciting movement theatre companies. Magnet Theatre, in collaboration with Jazzart Dance Theatre, presents a transformative work based on slavery.

Resident director, Brett Bailey, presents Macbeth the Opera produced by Third World Bunfight and Cape Town Opera. An African general and his ambitious European wife murder their king and unleash atrocities on the crumbling African state they inherit. Brett’s unique vision, combined with Verdi’s sublime music, promises an explosive interpretation of this opera.

For further information visit the website www.spierarts.org.za or contact the booking office on 021 809 1111.