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support from buyers for retail outlets is not unique to Durban, but is also prevalent in Cape
Town and Johannesburg.
Now in its fourth year, the Cape Town Fashion Week promotes itself as the “largest
gathering of fashion talent.” According to information obtained from the relevant website,
72 designers took part in this year’s event and a further nine in a special associated event.
The promotional material for the Nokia Cape Town Fashion Week states that its objectives
and goals are to “seek alternative niche markets and alternative unique selling points in
order to stimulate job creation.” The organisers feel that it is the fashion designers that “are
the future of the ailing clothing and textile industry, and the only way forward is compete
through creativity and individuality.”
Privately owned and now sponsored by Sanlam, the first South African Fashion Week took
place in 1997, with fewer than 20 designers taking part and an audience of only 2 500. In
2006, the organisers report that over 100 designers took part in the event, yet their website
provides the names and bio-sketches of only 39 designers. The contact details of the
designers taking part in 2006 are not provided. This paucity of designers’ contact details
could be attributed to organisers wishing to retain control over external communication
with the designers.
8.12 Comments on Fashion Events
Evaluating the promotional material of these events, all offered similar viewpoints, and
most prominently, advocated that the designers focus on the higher end of the market in
other words design intensive, unique products that are different from what can be seen in
the clothing retail chains. None addressed the problem of counterfeiting, and none had
considered composing a concept document outlining how they through Fashion events
might develop, create jobs and catalyse efforts to sustain the local clothing and textile
industries. Amanda Gowing, Editor of Glamour Magazine, corroborated this lethargy:
“They [the stakeholders] talk about cohesion and the importance of the industry, but they
never formally mobilise or activate anything tangible to take the industry forward”
(Interview, 22/6/06b).
Another weakness observed in relation to the Fashion Week events is the lack of follow-up
and evaluation of their areas of success or failure. Two respondents with a national media
voice in the industry (Jackie Burger, Editor of Elle Magazine and Amanda Gowing) said
that South Africa’s Fashion Weeks are still “immature.” They felt that the shows do not
actively promote the designers, and that the public imagination is narrowly focused on
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