Fashion Festival in Cape Town

May2008 will be the month to celebrate being fashionably South African as the SA Clothing and Textile Workers' Union (SACTWU)'s annual Cape Town Fashion Festival (CTFF) gets under way from 1 - 17 May. The festival combines a powerful mix of fashion and entertainment, including a catwalk show in the Company Gardens where Afro Pop group Malaika will perform and fashion shows both in Cavendish Square and the Promenade Shopping Centre in Mitchell's Plain as well as a heavy-weight business imbizo and the country's largest SETA graduation.

It will all culminate in the prestigious Cape Town Fashion Awards that recognises exceptional industry performance, to be held at Spier Estate outside Stellenbosch.

This year the Festival starts on the 1st of May, International Labour Day, to draw the connection between the world of high fashion and the reality of workers, employment and the business of fashion.

In the words of Ebrahim Patel, SACTWU General Secretary and Fashion Festival Convenor, “Fashion can be used as a vehicle to combat poverty and social disintegration as it has the potential to create decent work. But that is a policy choice we must make, from what consumers buy to where retailers source. Behind the fun, glamour and images, there is a serious business and a major employment opportunity and reality. By raising awareness of the industry's strengths and competitive advantages, the festival hopes to serve as a stimulant for its growth.

“The industry faces the challenge of tooling up to address the competition from China and other low-wage producers and so we need to show and nurture the talent, quality, fashion innovation and quick-response capacity we are creating in South Africa,” Patel added.

According to one of the festival co-ordinators, Etienne Vlok, the primary aim of the festival is to profile, position and create buzz around the South African clothing, textile, footwear and leather (CFTL) industry as the sector that, over and above delivering glamour and glitz, has the biggest capacity to drive mass-scale job creation in South Africa. Every R1 million of sales in the clothing sector creates 11 jobs compared with 5 jobs in gold mining for the same amount of sales. The sector also has significant benefits for gender equity as the industry is a major employer of women.

The festival, initiated by SACTWU in 2002, is unique on the fashion calendar in that it is spearheaded by the union and places a special emphasis on the key role of labour to the continued success of the industry. It incorporates workers in various events and activities.

The festival will culminate in the Cape Town Fashion Awards on 17 May where top achievement in nine categories will be recognised. In addition to awards for the Designer and Emerging Designer of the year, the following awards will also be made: Manufacturer, Retailer, Innovator, Small & Medium Business, Fashion Media, Fashion Ambassador and Fashion Icon.