Casual Day nets R500 for charity

Fashion unconscious: Human resources staff celebrating Casual Day in inimitable style.

Bows, pom-poms, fairy wings, leopard prints, tiaras and mismatched socks. That's what the best-dressed human resources staffers were sporting on Casual Day, 7 September.

The day marks a national fundraising project to support disabled people. The initiative has been going for 12 years. Dress differently, the campaign suggested this year. And they did, all for a good cause.

Together the staff raised R500 for the Paarl School in Brackenfell. This facility provides education and care for children with cerebral palsy and specific learning disorders.

The prize for Best Dressed went to Cheryl Samuel (appointments office). 'I'm going for an Ugly Betty look,' she said. Yes, her purple pop-pom Alice band did elicit some curious looks in the morning traffic. But it was the perfect foil for acid green Australian Socceroos silky boxers, stripey socks and leopard-print leggings. To die for, as they say in the classics. Or was that dressed to kill?

'I'm the fairy godmother!' one staffer said, in pink and silver wings and spangled wand. Be useful if she were in charge of research grants. Or parking spaces.