Fashion At All

Chaos on the catwalks

Fashion Designers face an upward battle in South Africa - not least because our clothing and textile manufacturing sectors face a growing presence of cheaper Asian imports after the termination of quotas in December this year. What's more, there's been no new agreement negotiated with China to stave off a flood of cheap imports that's resulted in crowding out SA's manufacturers and stifling growth in our fashion industry.One strong advocate of local fashion is industry expert Renato Palmi. Even though the industry took modest steps at its first Fashion Exchange +27 conference in Cape Town last month to help SA's designers become profitable and sustainable in the highly competitive global market, there's as yet no coherent plan for redress, says Palmi. "The Government is trying but its strategy is currently all over the place. From an industry perspective there's no collaboration or cohesion. The industry is fragmented, with much dog-eat-dog behavior."That means if the industry has any hope of flourishing against the onslaught of cheaper Asian imports, it will have to find new niches in the market that give it a competitive edge over the Chinese.Having worked for world-renowned luxury fashion brands such as Bally and LVMH (the Louis Vuitton group), Italian-born Giovanni Lepori, who made several presentations to SA designers at Fashion Exchange +27, highlighted key areas of focus for countries hoping to build a sustainable fashion industry. "You can't compete with Asian exporters on price. The price game isn't sustainable - which means countries like SA have to move further up the value chain and create quality luxury products for tailored niche markets."Lepori says Italy's fashion industry is a useful example of how to combat challenges worldwide. "The Italians have focused on innovation and skills investment to stay ahead in this game. They've stayed away from mass markets and focused on niche markets, exploiting the craftsmanship and existing expertise in that country in areas such as tailoring, leather goods and fabric manufacturing to create high quality garments and justify their premiums." The value of luxury brands is that they often have high margins and are surprisingly resilient to cyclical changes, says Lepori. Then there's the opportunity to capitalize on ethical fashion at the high end of the market in developing countries such as SA."SA has the opportunity to make money from the 'ethical fashion' trend that's currently highly prevalent in European markets. Such markets derive value from knowing their fashion is contributing to a better world in some way and they're prepared to pay a premium for it," says Lepori.But that raises more acutely the question of how that would happen in an industry as amorphous as fashion. Says Palmi: "We need an unbiased umbrella body that can co-ordinate and address policy affecting designers. When the quotas where discussed two years ago there was no organization that represented the fashion designers. SA retailers - the big boys in that sector - have a representative body, the clothing manufacturers have a representative body and even the workers are represented. But the fashion industry isn't."Trouble is the industry seems to be looking to Government to create solutions. But Palmi warns that approach isn't sensible. "This industry needs to work towards being more self-sufficient and less reliant on Government to lead it."Most industry players agree the first step would be to create a unified front by encouraging designers to become more collaborative and co-operative. Gavin Rajah, one of SA's commercially successful designers and Tziona Aronson - the brains behind the recent Fashion Exchange +27 conference - share that view.Says Rajah: "The industry needs to take a more intelligent view of itself and work towards improving and perfecting the craft in a way that's profitable. I find many young designers out there are clueless about the basic skills required to create a profitable business."

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