Designer home to help others
Guru to share business advice
PORT Elizabethborn fashion designer Laduma Ngxokolo is back in his home city this weekend to kick off a national series of fashion industry-focused talks in major South African cities, with the aim of equipping aspiring design entrepreneurs with the knowledge to think bigger than their products and circumstances.
Presented in conjunction with the MBDA and Chivas Regal, the Laduma Design Business Talks series is looking for designers who want to roundout their creative vision with the practical tools that have taken Ngxokolo to international success.
The first workshop is on Saturday in Port Elizabeth at the Roof Garden Bar, and will cover a variety of topics that Ngxokolo and Chivas see as essential to success in the fashion industry.
The young designer says the talks are a way for him to help students and entrepreneurs become masters of their crafts and realise their dreams, while also serving their community.
“Social entrepreneurship is the most meaningful form of business,” he says. “It gives the businessman the opportunity to uplift and create pride within his community.”
The topics he will be covering on Saturday are:
1 Design: smart design, innovation, how to stand out from the crowd;
2 Funding: funding methods, patrons, proposals;
3 Business and management: financials, workforce, ethics, policies;
4 Sales and distribution: local and global distribution;
5 Marketing: PR, social media, product placement;
6 Legal matters: trademark, copyright, lawyers, patents, agreements, laws;
7 Trends: local and international trends;
8 Business relationships: negotiation, personal branding.
Like many successful South African entrepreneurs, the knitwear designer and innovator of the Xhosa-inspired fashion house MaXhosa by Laduma is from an underprivileged background and started his career with limited access to resources.
Now that he has experience in the global design industry, he wants to share all he has learned with talented, ambitious young designers from similar backgrounds.
Potential attendees must meet certain criteria to be selected by Ngxokolo and his team.
They must have an existing brand, business or credible idea; show passion and understanding of their specialist field and be a struggling entrepreneur or facing business growth challenges due to limited access to resources.
For more information, e-mail ladumatalks@maxhosa.co.za