Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
independent designers if they wished the industry to grow. She observed that there was<br />
also a market niche for CMTs and designers to collaborate in creating new design lines,<br />
with the CMTs’ production being geared to accommodate smaller and faster runs.<br />
A new development in retail space management is the advent of private retail outlets in<br />
suburbs. Victorian and Edwardian homes have been bought and renovated to offer<br />
consumers an interesting, intimate and unique shopping experience in an environment of<br />
varied and distinctive character. One such outlet EUPHORIA, chosen for study by this<br />
researcher is a Durban-based shop, set in a converted house and complemented with a<br />
small in-house delicatessen, while providing space for 14 local designers to market their<br />
products.<br />
The owner (Interview, 20/5/06) heading up this establishment said the business policy is<br />
that the shop takes 35% fee on the sale of garments, which covers the cost of the space<br />
taken by the designer, administration costs and the marketing of the retail outlet. In<br />
addition, the owner provides the designers with 14 years of experience and knowledge in<br />
the clothing industry. The owner explained that most of the designers renting the space<br />
had come from the informal sector by selling their clothes at craft-markets, and that this<br />
was their first step into formal retailing.<br />
The aim of the project is for designers to use the retail outlet as a platform to expand their<br />
market and learn about retail business, beyond which “hope<strong>full</strong>y, they will outgrow the<br />
provided space, which would then offer opportunities for new designers to enter the retail<br />
market.” The owner sets firm criteria for the tenant designers in terms of pricing, quality and<br />
sizes.<br />
The owner remarked that the corporate retailers are responsible for the volumes of imports<br />
(mostly from China but also from other Asian countries), as the buyers for retail chains work<br />
with an allocated budget, and if local suppliers cannot meet the pricing benchmarks,<br />
products are sourced offshore. Furthermore, all buyers try to undercut suppliers in order to<br />
reflect savings on their budgets <strong>report</strong>s.<br />
The owner observed that most South African consumers “succumb to the foreign fashion<br />
trends and what is portrayed in the fashion magazines, and it is this market that the big<br />
retailers are able to target with trendy, contemporary fashion designs at affordable<br />
prices.” She said that most consumers are not seeking unique South African-made designs,<br />
and that this is an area on which fashion designers and buyers, clothing manufacturers<br />
103
Change language