18 April 2008

Sixth Annual Cape Town Fashion Festival to Celebrate Local Fashion Industry

How does a trade union and manufacturers respond to the massive import penetration of local markets? They turn to fashion promotion to showcase the country's great designs and to make the case for the industry.

And so May 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 1 st 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. Monviso Knitwear machinist, Bianca Adams, was crowned Spring Queen in November last year and will be the Face of the Festival. Her image will appear on street posters, advertising the Festival. Large numbers of union members will participate in events of the festival and workers will take to the catwalk shows alongside professional models to show off the garments that they produce.

The festival will kick off on 1 May with the City Catwalk fashion show in the Company Gardens that will feature collections from eight new and established designers and more than a dozen manufacturers. According to festival coordinator, Fachmy Abrahams, t here is much excitement at factory level about the May Day activity with its fashion component and a large worker contingent is expected to participate.

The Clothing, Textile, Footwear and Leather (CTFL) Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) learnership graduation will also take place on 1 May. Seven hundred graduates will receive their certificates this year, making it the biggest annual SETA graduation in the country. It marks the fourth year that the graduation takes place under the Cape Town Fashion Festival banner as a collaboration between SACTWU and the SETA to endorse the importance of skills development in the industry.

The Fashion Imbizo on 6 May will serve as a hard-hitting forum for stakeholders to discuss critical issues confronting the local industry currently. It will see presentations by Ebrahim Patel who is the initiator and convenor of the Festival, as well as managing directors of several clothing manufacturers.

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: Man ufacturer, Retailer, Innovator, Small & Medium Business, Fashion Media, Fashion Ambassador and Fashion Icon.

The 2008 Cape Town Fashion Festival programme is as follows:

1. 1 May - City Catwalk, 10h30 - 13h00: Company Gardens , Cape Town

Fashion and musical entertainment with Aiden Thomas of Cape Talk as the MC and Afro Pop group Malaika. Designers participating will include I Love Leroy, Story, Ole Ledimo and Superella, as well as manufacturers such as Cape Underwear , Overwear & Duchess and Monviso Knitwear.

1.2 1 May - SETA Graduation, 9h00 - 11h30: Multi Purpose Hall, Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), District 6 Campus, Cape Town

About 700 learners (both employed and unemployed) and 33 factories will be participating. The speakers will include Dr Linda Cooper, Adult Basic Education, University of Cape Town and Andre Kriel, SACTWU Deputy General Secretary.

2. 6 May - Fashion Industry Imbizo, 10h30 - 12h30: Levi Strauss SA manufacturing plant, Epping Industria

Labour, business and government speakers will examine recent efforts to increase companies' competitiveness and the lessons to be learnt from this. Speakers will include Premier Ebrahim Rasool and SACTWU General Secretary/Festival Convenor, Ebrahim Patel. This forum will conclude with a fashion show featuring garments from design labels such as Mantsho, Coppelia, Colleen Eitzen, John Sithole and Tiaan Nagel and manufacturers such as House of Monatic and Levi Strauss.

3. 8 May - Cavendish Square Fashion, 19h30 - 21h00, Centre Court, Cavendish Square, Claremont

A Proudly SA fashion show featuring retailers and local designers with stores in Cavendish Square such as Marion & Lindie, Hilton Weiner, Life by Andre Martin, Jenni Button and Blackbeard & Dare.

Speakers: Helen Zille, City of Cape Town Mayor and Manana Moroka, CEO, Proudly South African

4. 10 May - Cape Flats Fashion, 11h00 - 13h00, Promenade Shopping Centre, Mitchell's Plain

A fashion show featuring young local streetwear designers such as Eboolient, Adam & Eve, Kutala Vanqa, Flava and Soulchild with a performance by Jamali

5. 17 May - Gala Fashion Night & Fashion Awards, 19h30 to 23h00 - Moyo's Restaurant, Spier Wine Estate, Stellenbosch

MC: Soli Philander. Industry awards will be given to recognize outstanding achievement. The categories include Designer, Manufacturer, Retailer and Innovator of the Year. The evening will also include a policy discussion by senior labour and government speakers, a designer show with garments by among others David Tlale, Bongiwe Walaza, Lunar and Amanda Laird Cherry and a performance by Loyiso Bala.

Issued by: Estelle Cooper. Cooper Public Relations.

Tel: +27 11 705 1714 Fax: 086 632 8005 mobile:  +27 82 55 74818

Email: estellec@cooperpr.co.za

For more info, call: Etienne Vlok and Fachmy Abrahams, Fashion Festival Coordinators, SA Clothing and Textile Workers' Union (Sactwu).Tel: 021 – 4474570 Fax: 021– 4474593 Mobile : 082 4480506 (Etienne) or 073 3067605 (Fachmy).

Email: etiennev@sactwu.org.za and fachmya@sactwu.org.za

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