Silver surfer on the runway

Cape Town-140728-Martin van Geems (55) is a model who took part in the Mercedes Benz Cape Town Fashion Week. He wore clothes under the Non European label. Picture DAMON ABRAHAMS

Cape Town-140728-Martin van Geems (55) is a model who took part in the Mercedes Benz Cape Town Fashion Week. He wore clothes under the Non European label. Picture DAMON ABRAHAMS

Published Jul 30, 2014

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THEY say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but 55-year-old male model Martin van Geems proved that is not the case when he walked the runway for the first time in his life at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Cape Town (MBFWCT).

Geems’ modelling career began less than two years ago when he was “discovered” from a street casting.

“This guy came up to me and said he was looking for someone who looked like me who can surf,” he said.

With the nicknames “Neptune” and “The Silver Surfer” and having spent much of his life by the sea, he said of course he could. And it wasn’t long after that he was whisked off to Rio and then Rajasthan to film the Emirates “Hello Tomorrow” campaign.

When he returned from his travels, he thought: “This is fun. I should do more of this.”

He signed with “established, but not pretentious” Cape Town agency Fusion and since then has worked on about 17 commercials, including two for BMW.

Before his life as a model, and actor – he plays a “sleazy pirate” in Black Sails, he sought refuge in France as a war resister. He remained there for 15 years, studied arts, married and had two children. When Mandela was released from prison he returned to South Africa to see “what was what” and in 2000 he made the decision to return home, work as an art director, live in Kommetjie and surf as much as his heart desired.

“When I left, I didn’t think I would come back. I didn’t ever see it happening,” he said.

On his runway debut, he said he was happy to be asked and immediately said “let’s do it” when he was approached by local brand Non-European.

“This all just came about,” he joked.

“All of a sudden I’ve got an agent and I’m on the runway.”

But he felt it was also important to make people aware that when you get older, your brain still remains the same.

“Older people still have the same emotions, the same feelings, the same enthusiasm as before. The only thing that changes as your façade,” Geems said.

Non-European designers Louis and Tarien Erasmus wanted their new collection on the MBFWCT runway to focus on identity, encouraging people to express and celebrate who they are.

On their choice to have a combination of younger and older people modelling for their show, Louis Erasmus said they wanted people to reflect: “Who am I? Who are we collectively and how do we work together as we form a community?”

“The expectation was for more than a reaction but rather a mind-shift - we hope that people will stop and think and consider how their choices influence their community and environment,” he added.

He said they were “pleasantly surprised” that the response they got from the show was that people “got the message” and asked questions like “what is keeping me back” and “who says I can’t break the stereotype?”

The show and their choice of models related to their brand’s philosophy that if you are what you wear, then by wearing Non-European you are “embracing the truth of being South African, original, not copied”.

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