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formulate collective approaches to local content promotion in South Africa and abroad.
Mrs. Vanashree Singh, the convener, said that she experiences immense difficulty in
communicating with designers and was disappointed at the poor response, as such
research is imperative for her to gauge the value of the Fashion Week according to the
answers provided by the designers.
To investigate responses to the 2006 Durban Designer Collection (DDC), the same
questionnaire was e-mailed to 16 designers, to which a total of 70% responded. All
respondents felt that the DDC had added value to their skills and exposure levels. On the
question of support from South African consumers (in Durban) for the event, 44% said it had
been good, 35% said it had been fair and 21% said it had been poor. Eighty percent of the
respondents said that they had established new client prospects (individual consumers),
while 54% said that they had sold some of their range directly to consumers after the event.
Regarding support for local designers by the government, 10% said it was good, while 60%
said it was fair and 30% said it was poor. South African consumers support for local content
was gauged as fair by 60% of the respondents, while 40% said it was poor. Responding to
the question about competition, 90% of the respondents replied that the greatest form of
competition was from cheaper imports. Seventy percent said that the retail sector
constituted a form of competition through copying of their designs and by importing
cheaper clothing, while an astounding 80% said that there was unfair competition from
other independent designers. Eighty percent of the designers said that they would like
more fashion events to be hosted, and 80% said that they would support a national body
set up to assist them with business skills, exports and promotion. A total of 54% the
designers said that they would like some form of quality control to govern entry to fashion
events, and 90% of the respondents would support a conference bringing designers
together to devise means of jointly promoting local content.
Many of the respondents did not elaborate on their answers, but in reviewing the
completed questionnaires, it is clear that fashion events are seen as effective in promoting
local content, and that there is reasonable support for these events from South African
consumers. Regarding competition, analysis of the responses relating to imports from Asia
is difficult, bearing in mind a possible bias arising from the extent of media reportage about
the impact of such imports. However, responses about competition from retailers who
copy local designs warrant deeper investigation, for instance: which retail outlets are
doing this and whether the designers can prove such claims. The high percentage of
designers willing to support a body that would assist them with business skills, exports and
promotion is important and worth scrutiny by industry leaders. The collective support for a
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