Exhibitions & Events News South Africa

Fashion week to be held early

Despite the credit crunch being faced by retailers — and figures that are expected to show a bleak festive season — the Audi Joburg Fashion Week has been moved from March to this month.

The fashion showcase — now in its third year — will be running in Sandton later this month. Spokesman Evan Schiff said the move would allow fashion publications to cover the event in time for it to be featured in their autumn and winter issues.

The event, which targets the top end of the market, is billed as showing the “premier autumn-winter collections” that are said to be “the most exciting seen on a South African runway to date”.

Schiff said that, unlike the global trend, fashion shows in SA were more consumer orientated and items showcased would appear on the rack with minimal alteration.

Internationally, the ramp was an area on which to display design creativity before the clothes were altered suitably to be acceptable to the ordinary consumer.

Fashion is a multibillion-dollar industry and is driven partly by fashion shows where the trade is exposed to the latest creative thoughts from designers.

In SA, said Schiff, fashion and shows were a growing industry.

However, most of what is seen on the ramp during the fashion week will end up — in a similar format — in small boutiques and being sold to private individuals.

Much of the fashion showcased was turned into once-off items, he said.

Larger chains such as Foschini and Truworths tended to focus on international trends and did not buy from the show — although they did keep a finger on the pulse of SA's fashion needs.

The credit crunch, expected to weigh on festive season sales by the credit retailers, will affect designers, but not as much as it may affect retailers.

Schiff said the items were sold only to the top end of the market.

Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe, chairman of organiser African Fashion International, said it was the show's aim to “ensure that both the global and local interest and commitment to South African fashion is kept at an all-time high”.

Source: Business Day

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