The four day trip organised by Masana Chikeka of the Department of Arts and Culture commenced this morning after a 12 hour flight from Heathrow! Fashion Enter and FashionCapital have been joined by Sarah Wilkinson, Head of Design at leading etailer asos.com for this intensive buying trip with the aim of building unique relationships and working collaboratively together to support new and emerging fashion designers.

The two main objectives to this trip are firstly to source up and coming design talent to bring back to the UK market and ultimately sell on asos.com and the second to source beading and craft work from the crafters of the Fashion Fusion project which then links to the work Fashion Enter is doing at The Workshop with Haringey Council.

Today Sanlam SA Fashion Week began and our first port of call was the exhibition to review the designer’s collections being showcased. We were shown around the Department of Arts and Culture stands and were able to met with Masana the Deputy Director as well as Vusi Ngobeni, Assistant Director and Lindi Ndebele, Director of Multimedia at the DAC. It was fantastic to sit down with everyone face to face to discuss the possibilities on how we can work together.

We also met a wonderfully inspirational woman called Carola Ross who was the project manager of an initiative called The Thuthuka Jewellery Development Programme. The stand showcased a series of hand made pieces of jewellery each encased in a glass jar. The designers were students from community jewellery schools all coming from a very poor background where often the family would have very little income supporting up to 8 family members. All the money earned would go on the student attending these jewellery classes. It was a story of hope and commitment and Carola showed great passion when talking about the talents of her students. As we studied each design some real key pieces stood out showing fantastic innovation and creativity so much so there are talks about getting some of these designs selling on asos.com. Watch this space for updates…

We then worked our way around the ladieswear designers displaying garments often fused with the intricate beading and embroidery work of the Fashion Fusion crafters. A few of the designers particularly stood out showing some great fashion forward designs through the cut, detailing and embellishments. Palesa Mokunung, a young designer, instantly made an impact on us with a strong collection of directional dresses. A maxi dress with delicate embroidery and draw string pockets was exceptionally stunning!

Other names were Stoned Cherry who has a shop in Rosebank mall which we shall be visiting on our trip and Black Coffee whose catwalk show is taking place this evening. Both names you will hear more about on FashionCapital!

We were also lucky enough to meet with the MD of Sanlam SA Fashion Week Lucilla Booyzen. She gave us a real insight into the history and development of fashion week here and it was fantastic to see how it all operates. SA Fashion Week has been running for 14 years now and you have to remember this is a third world country, the culture is very different from London so to see designers now breaking away from typical African styles and exploring high fashion that could be seen on the catwalks on any one of the fashion capitals of world is wonderful.

The next few days holds further fashion shows, visits to craft villages to see first hand the crafters in action and meetings with designers. There is a real buzz of excitement here over the projects beginning initiated. This is not only a first for the UK but also a first for South Africa and we hope these two countries inspire and enthuse the design talent that deserves to be recognised!