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divisive environment prevails in the contest for control of South Africa’s fashion designers
and the industry that revolves around them, these event-owners should take at least some
responsibility for the decimation of a still nascent South African design industry.
Within the clothing design sector, there is acknowledgement that finding mechanisms to
address the various challenges facing the broader industry is imperative. Yet, while energy
and resources are misdirected towards gate-keeping and shifting of responsibility, no-one
with influence in the industry has developed or opened up for consultation any strategy
proposals for integration of the key role-players and areas of endeavour for sustainable
growth.
The intention to establish a Fashion Council through the Cape Clothing Cluster to represent
the fashion sector as a whole and to guide policy development and implementation is
promising, but mobilisation towards the set-up of such a Council must be effected
transparently and thoroughly. Government representation in its membership should be
complemented with that of organised labour; a national survey or other means of broad
consultation would be critical to its authenticity, as would ensuring that independent
designers have a voice in its deliberations.
Similarly, the creation of fashion clusters or hubs in different cities - and within different parts
of the same city – could advance and accelerate the progress of the clothing and textile
sectors, and indeed, of many other industries servicing them, whether these be based in
and derived from the formal or the informal economy. However, in the early stages of this
concept being applied, competition for limited resources in the form of sponsorship,
funding and markets could be increased. This would necessitate the various clusters
collaborating, networking and using economies of scale to influence buyers, suppliers and
the consumer market. Otherwise, following the regrettable example set by the owners of
South Africa’s Fashion Week events, they could end up tussling amongst and against each
other for these resources, while the designers, who constitute the kernel of the present and
future industry, suffer the consequences, and a potentially flourishing industry could be
turned “inside-out”.
It is this disturbing prospect that inspires the designers interviewed for this study with a vision
for their industry that involves turning the idea of “inside out” into a strategic foothold for
evolution, i.e. working proactively from within the industry to face down external threats to
the survival of their own businesses and the clothing and textile industry as a whole.
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