Can't sweep back creative tide

Darkie design at Cape Town Fashion Week '07

This mid-year excursion to the melting pot on our eastern coast was not only an opportunity to see what Durban's fashion designers were up to, it was also the perfect excuse to enjoy milder weather.

Seriously, though, the most worthwhile thing about visiting Durban at absolutely any time of the year is the fact that wherever you look, you are reminded that this city is home to a unique brand of creativity that no other town in the country seems able to match.

It's hard not to be struck by the number of extraordinary shops, designers, restaurants, galleries and inspirational individuals the city has bred.

I'm pretty sure that if you did the calculations, there would be more creative people per capita in Durban than in the sophisticated metropolises of Joburg and Cape Town. Take the designer fashion industry: established names like Gideon, Gavin Rajah, Craig Jacobs, Craig Native, Darkie, Leigh Schubert and Colleen Eitzen all hail from Durban.

And off the catwalk, Durban has produced a generation of brilliant thinkers in the world of fashion retail and design. Neville Trickett is the creative bones behind Mr Price and is seen by many as something of a trend oracle.

Ad man and sometime food writer, Neil Roake, brought us The Space designer fashion and décor emporiums and Amanda Laird Cherry put seshweshwe fabric on the map with her Afro-Eastern inspired fashions.

Greg and Roche Dry from Egg have produced award-winning furniture design and about a month ago, interior designer Boyd Ferguson won the Visi Designer of the Year title. Durban is a small place, with relatively few shoppers when it comes to flogging pricey style and cutting-edge design. Yet the city continues to be a crucible for all of these remarkable design talents — most of whom I suspect are not too fazed by Durban Fashion Week's doubtful start.

Carol Morgan and Gavin Rajah at last year's Fashion Exchange +27

The problem boils down to sponsorship. Co-owned by Precious Moloi-Motsepe's African Fashion International and Durban personality Vaneshree Singh, Durban Fashion Week has for the past few years been staged in a swanky tent on the beachfront.

It was slick and professional, so can't have been a cheap affair and in this recessionary year, a bit of Durbs glamour is clearly not on anyone's list of marketing priorities. At least, that's the status quo. The owners say they still hope to present Durban Fashion Week later in the year — as a scaled-down event — should they secure a sponsor.

There's always the Vodacom Durban July, at which a bunch of national designers plus some new young designers will be on show. It's not nearly on the scale of Durban Fashion Week, though, or its predecessor, the Durban Designer Collection, at which fashion designers were given the opportunity to show a complete collection to the media, clients and hopefully some retail buyers.

But something tells me those Durbanites are going to continue creating, regardless of what's happening to our economy.

Some say it's precisely because Durban is so isolated that it has become fertile ground for original ideas absent of international influence. Perhaps the city is even better off without a fashion week.

Absolutely, says Laurie Holmes, one half of Durban's The Holmes Brothers street-wear label. The best of South African fashion should be shown at one premier event in Joburg, he believes.

Holmes Brothers decided to “retire” from fashion shows two years ago because preparation for these events took the focus off selling clothes.

Since then, business has improved 400%, with an annual turnover of about R8-million.

This means Laurie Holmes can continue to get up at daybreak every day of his life, surf until 8am and then head to the office.

Those Durbanites clearly know something we don't.

Source: The Times

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