Broadening brand bases

Standing in the gathering heat in Freedom Square, Soweto, hundreds of gorgeously attired, fashion followers and celebrities assembled for the launch of the Soweto Showcase. A far cry from the days that saw the signing of the Freedom Charter, the event, encased in glamour, as glaring as the sun above, kick-started Jo’burg Fashion Week on August 21. For the emerging designers exhibiting their work here, the event wasn’t merely about connections to South Africa’s history; it was about broadening the market base.

‘If we talk development, do you need development in Sandton?” asks Lesego Malatsi, operations director of Mzansi Designers.

‘Sixty to 70% of the buying power in South Africa is in black hands. But most of the people buying can’t get to places such as Sandton.”

Malatsi was speaking from the design collective’s downtown offices in Rissik Street, Johannesburg, in the run up to Jo’burg Fashion Week, and the opening in Kliptown, where Mzansi Designers will show their work.

The Soweto gig, which included upcoming names, such as Earthquake by John Sithole, Nhlanhla and Malikah, marked the beginning of a two-week orgy of fashion in the city. The build-up started with Jo’burg Fashion Week and will end with Sanlam SA Fashion Week.

For Mzanzi, exhibiting its brand in South Africa’s iconic township is a business-savvy step.

Township life is no longer synonymous with an apartheid era hang­over; it’s the breeding ground for South Africa’s emerging money-spinners. It’s indicative of how much has changed when Malatsi explains that the label had hoped to open up a store in Soweto’s Maponya Mall, but couldn’t afford the rent. Instead it has taken up premises in the CBD, where its new store will open at 17 Harrison street, and where it is confident it will still reach its desired market.

‘Most people in townships are brand conscious. We need to create visibility to this buying power, to shift the mindset of the consumer,” says Malatsi.

Mzansi Designers supports 14 emerging designers, who create across Mzansi’s labels, such as Umabo. Malatsi, with executive director Dimakatso Dikgole, founded Mzansi in 2003, to give fresh talent an entry point into the fashion industry.

And Mzansi is proudly South African. Both Dikgole and Malatsi feel that fashion is a way to preserve local culture through its tastes and mores. Malatsi says there is an urgency, a need for African designers to identify themselves, and prevent any further aesthetic compromise when it comes to fashion design.

‘I’ve seen no European designers compromise their culture. We’ve bought into so much of that lifestyle, into so much eurocentrism,” says Malatsi.

‘With the world focusing on South Africa for 2010, with the best Constitution [in the world] we have set a trend with our values. We need to take that forward to every other level.”

Cape Town designer Malikah Hajee, another young talent on display at the Soweto showcase, feels that overt distinction in the industry is unnecessary. That a garment is designed and made locally is enough.

‘I don’t need to make everything an African piece. It is already, it was made here,” she says simply.

For Malikah the Soweto Showcase is an opportunity to further her brand, to ‘show everywhere, show in all styles”.

But putting on the show has not been easy for the young designer, who still has a nine-to-five job, she want to entrench her brand, but keep body and soul together.

‘In this industry you have to have money. It’s very hard for upcoming designers, people don’t have faith in you, but young designers are the ones with the most creativity,” she says: ‘It takes time to make it.”

To finance her way while she starts out, Malikah designs for a clothing company that supplies to smal, but established, retail chains such as Hilton Weiner.

Malikah, however, is happy to start things slowly. ‘I don’t want to rush into things. You have to know what you are doing and I am slowly building a name for myself.”

On show is Malikah’s menswear, a collection of cool and casual garments, reflecting South African fashion’s love of all things street. But, she says, her clothes are properly tailored, adding a more classic dimension to the collection.

John Sithole’s young label, Earthquake, is all about street.

‘Earthquake is all about people who live on the street—it’s engineering clothes for them to feel confident.”

Sithole sees the Soweto showcase as an exceptional platform to grow his brand. While he believes the brand can work anywhere, showing in Soweto is about ‘developing bases” and comes down to ‘marketing strategy”.

While emerging designers meet emerging markets with the Soweto Showcase, Jo’burg fashion week moves back to Sandton City’s Mandela Square for the rest of its shows.