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9.1 Conclusion<br />
CHAPTER NINE<br />
Conclusion and Policy Recommendations<br />
The designers researched in this study appear to have achieved success because of<br />
common attributes and approaches: they all have a clear understanding of the business<br />
of fashion; they spend resources and time on cultivating and developing their brand in the<br />
market, and more broadly, in establishing a reputation of reliability and quality<br />
craftsmanship. They have also identified their niche markets and created brand<br />
recognition within such spaces, where consumers tend to be less price-sensitive and prefer<br />
to acquire uniquely designed garments.<br />
Collectively, they overcame similar hurdles when first embarking on becoming<br />
independent designers. As established practitioners in their field, they confront ongoing<br />
contextual challenges such as local and global competition, limited access to affordable<br />
supplies and to key markets, and the difficulty of finding some equilibrium pricing of their<br />
merchandise within reach of local markets while rendering reasonable profit margins.<br />
Through interaction with these designers and encouraging them to critically think about<br />
and discuss their views and concerns for the South African clothing and textile industries, as<br />
well as the roles of those actors that contribute to the clothing value chain, this study<br />
reveals that there are designers with tangible and productive ideas for a more cohesive<br />
local industry. It has also yielded evidence to suggest that the creation of an iconic South<br />
African fashion aesthetic that would be financially accessible to a broader consumer<br />
market is possible.<br />
However, it is also imperative that designers find ways to produce for a larger market base<br />
that wants to be identified by the uniqueness of the clothing they wear. South African<br />
designers need too move into the prêt-a-porter (ready-to-wear) market where design and<br />
quality of the garment is preferential and the price is not low but not to high (Santagata,<br />
2002:2).<br />
The designers in this research sample find themselves falling prey to in-fighting and territorial<br />
positioning between the owners of the three primary national Fashion Week events hosted<br />
in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg. This reality, in and of itself, is an indicator of the<br />
perceived commercial value of this terrain by the relevant stakeholders, but if such a<br />
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