25 years of SA Fashion Week
In August 1997 - launch of the inaugural South African Fashion Week showcasing the collections of thirteen designers over five days to all round acclaim in a 500-seater marquee on Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton, the country’s dynamic commercial heart.
For the next two decades and with a single-minded focus on the “business of fashion”, we expanded SAFW’s capacity as a commercial accelerator that now launches the collections of more than sixty designers seasonally, stages several designer competitions, including the Source Menswear Competition in support of the burgeoning demand for bespoke menswear, and has carved an unrivalled position as the African continent’s only fashion hub of its kind.
In 1998 - launched the New Talent Search - a design competition that is still the only Fashion Design Competition in South Africa giving our talented designers an opportunity to build their businesses. A fast track for them to get media and buyer attention.
In 2001 - launched an Exhibition that took the designers that could not show to the consumers
In 2004 - conceptualized and initiated the Fashion Fusion Project, a program which allowed fashion designers and rural crafters to collaborate in creating highly desirable designer wear infused with uniquely South African craft skill.
The pilot project of ten designers and crafters respectively from the Gauteng region only, soon grew into a collaborative network across all nine of South Africa’s provinces to become one of the most ambition projects of its kind in the world.
In 2006 - started the Student Competition bringing 32 Colleges together in South Africa. Up to 30 students were exhibited at the Autumn Winter Collections each year.
In 2007 - showed the Designer Collections twice per year - Spring Summer and Autumn Winter
In 2010 - launched The SAFW Buyers’ Lounge as a trading space where designers could intersect with the formal fashion retail sector as well as associated industry opinion leaders, the media, personal shoppers and stylists.
This soon resulted in one of SAFW’s greatest, and on-going, commercial break-throughs - the introduction of local designer collections into the major national fashion chains and luxury boutiques around South Africa.
The SA Fashion Week Trade Show took the place of the Buyers Lounge in 2016 – This B2B wholesale platform where 120 designers sell their products to boutiques up to now
In 2011 – launched The Fashion Agent, a sales agency that specializes in servicing the country’s boutique sector.
In 2011 - collaborated with the country’s biggest fashion chain to see the launch of her SAFW Edgars Designer Capsule Collections concept, a shop-within-a-shop that gave more than 25 designers exposure to a massive new consumer footprint.
In 2012 - brought out a Fashion Handbook bringing the industry together. This Handbook featured all the designers in South Africa irrespective of whether they showed their Collections at SAFW or not. It spoke about the achievements in The Creative Designer Fashion Design Industry - an industry that she started in 1997 - addressing issues like sustainability, innovation etc.
In 2012 - launched the Scouting Menswear Competition - the first competition highlighting men’s fashion in South Africa
In 2013 – launched the only post graduate educational programme in South Africa with the aim to bridge the gap between the Fashion Institutions and starting a business. She realised the power that the designers businesses had in South Africa
In 2015 - launched the 21 Steps to Retail educational programme with the Edcon fashion group to equip newly graduated and previously disadvantaged young designers with the practical skills to navigate the formal fashion retail environment.
The initial project saw ten designers from KwaZulu-Natal coached through the sequential steps in the complete retail product cycle from conception to shop floor, resulting in four of the participants selling collections in five of fashion retailer Edgars’ flagship stores.
To date 32 graduates - all of colour - have successfully completed the programme and were retailing collections at 10 Edgars stores nationwide. They will be the designers of the future.
In 2016 - partnered with another major South African retailer, Woolworths, to pioneer the idea of fast-tracking runway fashion availability to the consumer by making the debut “StyleBySA” collection of African-inspired designer wear and accessories available online straight from the runway - a first for SAFW.
Through the Woolworths partnership SAFW launched the labels of Thebe Magugu, Rich Mnisi, Young and Lazy as well as Wanda Lephoto, Lukhanyo Mdingi, Sindiso Khumalo and Reggie Xaba (iFele)
In 2017 - first Fashion Talk saw the light running parallel with the Collections and the Trade Show. This is where the conversation around sustainability started in South Africa
In 2017 - Collaboration with Cape Wool SA and in 2019 this was extended to the SA Wool Cluster Collaboration which marked the beginning of connecting the designers to the textile industry in SA.
In 2018 - published the 21 year of SA Fashion Week book - telling the story of 21 years of fashion in South Africa. Putting South Africa on the World map.
In 2019 - launched an online hub in Collaboration with Edge Evolve an Johannesburg based IT company. This hub leads consumers to the online stores of the designers and are driven by the social media engine of SA Fashion Week. We initiated Webinars that were attended by representatives of 33 countries.
We know that a broader cross section of consumers must be allowed to fall in love with exceptional local design by making it more readily available to the mainstream
In 2019 – Launched the SAFW Pop Up Shop Shopping Centre concept in Sandton City, one of the biggest retail centres in South Africa in 2010 as well as various alternative high traffic centres including Pretoria’s Brooklyn Mall, The Mall of Africa and Johannesburg ultra-affluent Hyde Park Shopping Centre.
Capacity development and job creation has consistently remained an integral part of SAFW’s vision for South Africa and its creative fashion industry.
2019 – launched The Mall of Africa Face of Fashion, to give aspirant young models that, first but vital, head start in a highly competitive environment with the opportunity to debut in a runway show at SAFW.
2020 – against all odds SAFW staged the first Digital Collections – one of a few in the world and the only one on the African Continents generating over 360Million Rands of publicity.
2021 – Selected to be on the Global Fashion Council group bringing more than 37 countries together in the Creative Fashion Designer space.
2021 – Initiated the Fashion Bridges Programme – in Collaboration between the Italian Embassy in South Africa, Polimoda, fashion school in Florence, and the Milan Fashion Week and the SAFW, to start the FASHION BRIDGES programme taking SA designers to the Milan Fashion Week and bringing the Italian Students to the South African Fashion Week.
2022 – Initiated a Collaboration with SAFLEC ( South African Footwear and Leather Cluster) connecting the designers with local Shoe Manufacturers.