Local is lekker as clothing industry zips to the forefront
THE once-ailing South African clothing industry is now enjoying a demand for locallyproduced goods, and Durban garment guru Greg Wallis is playing a pivotal role.
With his vast knowledge of the industry and his acclaimed mentoring skills, he is in constant demand to train the next generation of up-and-coming designers and factory machinists.
“I made a vow to myself to make a difference in the industry,” he said.
Wallis recalled that the industry had once been in decline, the result of cheap imports from various offshore countries.
“The industry not only stagnated, but went backwards. Which businessman would invest in an industry that was going backwards?”
Many had been reluctant to employ and train staff and management and buy new machinery, as a result, skills had diminished.
Now, however, there has been a turnaround and there is a major demand for locally-produced clothes.
“And if you look at the senior people in the sector, they are ageing. The time has come for a new breed of specialists.”
As someone once told him, the industry needed the technically advanced inexperienced youth of today to be led into the future by the practically experienced experts of the past.
And Wallis, with almost 50 years in the business of fashion, is the man for the job.
He was the creative director of Lee Wrangler and Lee Jeans for more than 20 years and has been mentoring design students as long.
“And the more I get involved, the more fulfilling it is,” he said.
With the shortage of trained staff in the industry, the mentorship programmes that he runs are proving beneficial.
He is proud to have won the tender from ethekwini Municipality’s Business Support
Unit, with the support of Sindi Shangase, the programme manager, to mentor 25 designers a year, the highlight of the 10-month programme being the Durban Fashion Fair.
Applicants have to have completed their studies and have some practical experience, while some are completely self-taught.
“It’s a marvellous opportunity for someone who has not got the funds or the grades to go to an institute of learning, but has an inborn creative talent to assess someone’s size and make a garment,” Wallis said.
While the programme is backed by the city, the mentees have to buy their own fabric as they have to produce 12 “looks” for their fashion show collection.
The “very intensive” workshop is based on the practical elements of mass production “and there are no books to teach you that”.
His real reward is the look of disbelief on the faces of the designers chosen to put their collection on the Durban Fashion Fair.
“They just cannot believe that at an Umbilo factory in August.
Wallis also holds master workshops at an outlying fashion school in Pietermaritzburg, mentors private students and is about to embark on a new mentorship programme on the Kwazulu-natal north coast. And he is running master workshops for the Botswana government as well.
He was a judge in the 2017
Mrs Universe competition held in Durban and arranged for the Durban Fashion Fair mentees to design Afrocentric garments with a Euro-centric feel for the 83 contestants, thus giving them the chance to get their designs televised around the world.
He is currently the moderator and mentor for a “Made In Africa” competition for young designers across the continent, with the eventual winner getting a host of prizes worth R500 000, including a contract to supply The Space stores across the country, and global exposure to a worldwide TV audience of some 60 million viewers.
And when he is not mentoring, he is busy with his hobby: creating and making wedding dresses.
His international reputation also earned him an invitation to be part of a global team involved in the design of a denim collection for football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.
Being involved in the star’s worldfamous CR7 collection was “thrilling beyond speech”, Wallis said.