Di launches internationally acclaimed fragrance from the heart of Bedfordview

Di Thompson is a proudly born and bred Bedfordview glamour girl.

She is the owner and creator of SA’s award-winning fine fragrance dimanzi.

The former Jeppe High School for Girls learner said while she loves everything beautiful, she also enjoys playing hockey and dancing in the rain.

“I’m a down-to-earth person,” she said.

Di’s passion is what drives her, “there’s no grey area with me, it’s either black or it’s white”.

From a young age, Di was exposed to a different world.

As the daughter of legendary South African cricket player Eric Rowan and SA ice skating champion June Callaghan, she grew up in Johannesburg’s high society circles.

Her father’s test match record of 236, which he set at the age of 41, still stands as the highest number of runs scored for a player his age.

“My mom was the first South African to ever go to Paris to be trained by Guerlain.”

At the time she was just 10 years old.

It was her mother who introduced Di to the beauty industry.

“She was very glamourous, she had to attend all these wonderful events with my dad. I learnt everything I know from her.”

By the age of 13, Di had already been to 13 Durban July events.

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“We would sit down and decide what we were going to wear then go to Dolly’s milliners in Bez Valley. The area wasn’t all that great but you’d often see Rolls Royces parked outside. That’s when you knew the Oppenheimer’s were visiting Dolly’s. She was the best milliner in the country,” Di said.

“I was nine or 10 and I was already handing out fragrance samples at the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra.”

From a very young age, Di knew she had a “thing” for fragrances.

“I was an only child and my mom always worked. I would go to the factory in Jeppe and help put lipstick in boxes and would assist with fragrances.

“I was either going to go one way or another. I would either embrace the beauty world or I would want to get out. Turns out I love it. I love what I do and I’m so happy that so many doors opened along the way,” she said.

“I grew up a princess of knowledge.”

While in Jeppe Girls, Di took French, a language that would change her life because working her first job sent her jetting across the globe.

“People couldn’t believe a girl from South Africa, a place they didn’t even know existed, could speak French. It was a huge advantage,” she said.

She said her parents taught her discipline.

“Get up, dress up, show up and never give up is something I learnt from my father.”

After school, Di studied towards her BA degree at the University of the Witwatersrand, majoring in fine arts with English and French as languages.

When her son, Rowan, was five, Di opened Le Visage in Bedfordview in a house that was built in 1936.

“Rowan grew up in a very creative world. He was always my creative pebble growing up and became my creative rock.

“He was the inspiration behind the fragrances. He told me to do something for myself, and in 2014 we started with a room diffuser range, which went off very well.”

The two then played with the idea of launching a fine fragrance for South Africa.

“I wanted it to be developed on the same level, using the same processes that Chanel and Dior use, but that is accessible and affordable for the South African market.”

And dimanzi was born, the name a combination of Di and the Zulu word for water, “manzi”.

“Rowan would always say there were no shortcuts to anywhere worth going. He didn’t believe in cutting corners and he said if we were going to do fragrances it needed to be done properly.

Rowan was 36 when he died.

“He taught me to look at the bigger picture and to not sweat the small things. He was a class act and his death made me stronger than ever.”

Before lockdown, the Department of Trade and Industry invited Di to New York to showcase dimanzi at one of the biggest beauty expos in the world.

“We landed and set up, but the expo was cancelled because of the pandemic. It was heartbreaking,” she said.

Di said the event will be rescheduled.

“I’ve had a fabulous journey so far and I’m not done.”

Di is already working on her next fragrance, set to launch in 2021.

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