South Africa: Update
02-09-2009
On 15th September we will be visiting South Africa during Sanlam SA Fashion Week. FashionCapital will be reporting live each day whilst Fashion Enter and asos.com review SA fashion designers and visit the townships to review the beading work of the Fashion Fusion project. This will also be linked to The Workshop in Haringey and Haringey Council with Martin Tucker, Regeneration Manager (Employment and Skills), from Haringey Council also attending.
Masana Chikeka, Deputy Director from the Department of Arts and Culture has organised an intensive few days of meetings with designers, top industry figures including the Director of SA Fashion Week, and fusion crafters. A buying programme has been organised where SA designers will present their collections to Fashion Enter and asos.com and along side this a craft tour will take place to review the crafters work including embroidery, beading, felting, leather, screen printing and batik.
About Sanlam SA Fashion Week
The Sanlam SA Fashion Week was launched in August 1997. Fashion industry stalwart and accomplished show producer, Lucilla Booyzen's extensive exposure to the international designer circuit had led her to believe that the newly democratic South Africa, emerging from the stifling confines of a siege state and buzzing with optimism , creativity and a restored international status, was ready to unleash its relatively untapped, designer talent..
The first event took place in Sandton, in a large marquee, in what is now known as Nelson Mandela Square. It featured a mere seventeen designer collections, with most of the designers being unknown to anyone but a few, jealously-guarded patrons.
The prescience of introducing an platform that could serve as an independent showcase for South African designers, both to the local market and the world, and in this way, unearth and grow talent, proved to be profound.
In eleven years, the small band of original designers have grown into a vibrant creative community of established SMME's. Some are actively exploring the growth potential of export trade whilst others focus on the local market's enthusiasm for a distinctive SA signature.
Most importantly, it is a community that is constantly being revitalised by a steady stream of newcomers who now have a readily available marketing opportunity to gain the necessary access to key opinion makers such as the media which is so vital to gaining a foothold on the first rung of a successful future career.
This is a very exciting initiative which will provide awareness and develop international relationships within the fashion industry. A huge thank you to Masana Chikeka without whom this would not have been made possible.
