Designers need to link up with business to market their wares

30 Oct '06

5 min read

The South African fashion industry is a fragmented sector with an uncoordinated approach to business that has not strategised to take advantage of the two-year window period granted by the quotas on Chinese textiles and clothing.

This is according to Renato Palmi, a researcher at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, who said this week that fashion designers needed to partner with business people who could market their work, giving them the space to focus on their creativity. This is common practice in Europe and the US, where the industry is flourishing.

"It is also important for designers to form an industry body which can speak with one voice for the sector and for designers to get together to form co-operatives," Palmi said.

This would get around the problem of selling to boutiques, which only pay the designers on the sale of products and make huge mark-ups.

Palmi called for a national conference that would include key stakeholders in the industry, including the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers' Union (Sactwu), manufacturers, hair stylists, make-up artists, modelling agencies and the media.

Palmi said: "The conference needs to come up with a working document that outlines how to take the industry forward in a cohesive way."

The fashion weeks don't tend to attract international buyers because the designers don't have the capacity to make up the orders they want.

Some designers make their clothes, others outsource to manufacturers and sell the articles to flea markets, boutiques or retailers that are willing to support local products.