Maria McCloy

I couldn’t come up with a label name, Afro-Accesories? Ausi Accesories? Podesta? Maria Podesta like the Joe Nina 90’s Kwaito song? Zenana which was the name of the ancient women’s palaces in my beloved Rajasthan India? Nothing seemed right, so I figured why not just use the name Mathabo and Jim came up with for me, after all when people see my earrings, clutches or clothes they do say ” Is that a Maria McCloy?”

I’ve always been an accesories addict. My mother says as a child I always loved the market in the places my English dad / Mosotho mum family lived after I was born in the UK (Sudan, Nigeria, Mozambique) before them and my sisters and I settled in Lesotho and going to St Anne’s boarding school in Natal and Rhodes University (to study) Journalism in Grahamstown South Africa before moving to my beloved Johannesburg and making my urban culture and media dreams collide into a dream come true company with my friends Kutloano Skosana and Dzino remember urban culture bible http://www.rage.co.za? Bassiq and Street Journal on TV? Outrageous Records that was home to Zubz, H20, Pebbles and Optical Illusion, Reason started there and we created the second ever SA Hip Hop Compilation Expressions as the gendre bending Coca Cola Collaborations CD.

Anyway, the more things change the more they stay the same. I was born an accessories freak.