The Alexander Report

DIVISION IN THE FASHION RANKS

There has been a fair amount of responses from the article on the MTN Durban Fashion Week debating the value of Fashion Weeks in South Africa and their benefit to the South African fashion sector. What is obvious from the debate is that there is a clear division in the fashion sector between those who support the Sanlam SAFW and those that support the Durban and Cape Town Fashion Weeks. As an independent observer and one that has been saying for a long time that the industry needs to put aside their territorial affiliations for the betterment of the whole industry it is very frustrating see that this spat continues.

I conducted a snap survey with some of the designers that took part in the 2006 Durban and Cape Town Fashion Weeks (my reason for excluding the Sanlam SA Fashion Week participants is that there seems to be so much gate keeping around making contact with the participant designers). I hope Sanlam SAFW will change this stance.

I received a thirty percent response rate from designers that took part in the 2006 Fashion Weeks. Nearly all of them said that a year down the line they had seen the benefit of participation in these Fashion Weeks. Some said, “The response was incredible for both press and visibility and business growth.” Another designer said, “I was able to expand my customer base further through private clients and interest from boutiques.”

There was some complaints that the more known designers seem to get more assistance and help from the organisers with one designer saying, “The [better known] designers get all the attention and us newcomers are kept in the background.”

Further responses to the importance of Fashion Weeks in different locations was that there is not a “culture of buyers” in this country who will travel to different Fashion Weeks across the country so Fashion Weeks in particular locations are positioned to access potential buyers and clients in these locations. Some designers said because they are based in either Cape Town or Durban it is important for them to showcase their brands in these locations affording them an opportunity to expand their market in these cities. Some responses said that logistics and cost would be a problem if there was only one Fashion Week and felt that many designers would be excluded due to these problems.

There was one response from a very well known and successful Durban based designer, who said,

“Personally I think that all these fashion weeks have already done so much damage to our industry, the international magazine editors think we are a joke. How can a 3rd world country at the bottom of Africa host more fashion weeks than The US?. SA fashion week was started 10 years ago by Lucilla Boysen and is still the hub for fashion in SA, these other events jumped onto her hard work once it started to gather momentum and more importantly look lucrative. Projects like Ifa Lethu were pioneered by Lucilla 3 years ago and have been exceptionally successful, why do we need another one.

The designers that have been chosen have very limited commercial product in the market place (one is not even a fashion person he is an artist) [this refers to a comment from Greg Wallis], that is a really good start. The only people with any serious commercial background are Greg and Karen. It’s just another excuse for fashion designers to get a free platform to pepper there egos. Why out of all the people that do all these shows every year is there so little local product in the stores?

List the 10 most well known designers in SA and then go to the local mall and try and buy there product. I have tried on various occasions to stock local designers in my store with very limited success but those same designers manage to do two fashion weeks a year, which takes so much effort and finance.

There is something fundamentally wrong. It is not about being fabulous or famous; it is about building a successful business, which starts with producing a good product that can stand up against the imported stuff.

Unfortunately, that is hard work and compared with swanking down the catwalk is rather a drag it would seem to our designers. The only sure fire trend for the SA fashion industry is more fabulous fashion shows.”

I am in agreement with some of the points made in the above response. How many of the designers who do take part in Fashion Weeks are sustainable or are able to produce in mass but this question can only be answered by linking the entire value chain from designer, manufacturer to retailer. Why is it that we cannot find the “10 most well known designers in local shopping malls?”

In conversation with this designer, I asked him to elaborate on his comment, “I have tried on various occasions to stock local designers in my store but with very little success.” His response was that the designers he had tried to forge business partnerships or opportunities did not have any sense of business ethics. He stated that the designers did not keep appointments, that they had no clear business plan, the quality of their products was questionable and furthermore they expected him to do most of the work.

It is imperative that the industry forge respectable partnerships, look beyond egos, and collectively come together for the sake of growing the industry and assisting the growth of small business development. If not it will be the designers that will be caught in the middle of such territorial struggles.

I would welcome comments on the statements made above.

RENATO PALMI – MDevStud
ReDress©
Research, Business Development, Writer:
Clothing, Textile, Fashion and NGO Sector
Email: yakshack@iafrica.com

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