Designers vital to SA economy
If designers are not supplying stores or do not have their own store, they are not designers – they are dressmakers.
And while SA’s creative design sector’s economic influence is on the rise, it is a cutthroat industry that demands substantial knowledge about the business of fashion.
This is the view of Lucilla Booyzen, owner and founder of South African Fashion Week (SAFW), which she started more than two decades ago.
Fashion Week was the only business-to-business platform to market and promote designers in Africa and remained the authoritative voice for SA’s fashion industry, she said.
Booyzen visited Port Elizabeth on Thursday and was the guest speaker at the Business Women’s Association’s annual general meeting.
Speaking to The Herald, she said her overall mission was to continue building the industry so that it played a meaningful role in the national economy.
When she started Fashion Week, just 17 designers were given the platform to showcase their collections.
Today, the two annual Fashion Week events are the largest of their kind on the continent, attracting about 6,500 unique visitors each.
“When you look at the big role SMMEs play in this country, and the fact that there are 360 designers across SA all making some sort of a living, you see the potential impact.
“SMMEs play a huge role in their communities not only in the smaller cities but also in the big cities.
“And this country is really the king of SMMEs.
“But we aren’t just talking SMMEs, we want the industry to grow to the point where it has an actual impact on the country’s GDP,” she said.
The industry’s key players are the designers who understand general business practice and keep up with national and international trends.
She said a designer’s signature was important but it was also about having the ability to adapt to whatever influenced that moment in time, as “that is what keeps you ahead”.
“Designers need to constantly be ahead of the trend, with colours, patterns, with styles – and be desirable.
“They need to have the ability to design something that other people would find desirable – not just one person – lots of people, and lots of different people, must find it desirable.
“You can have the most amazing product in the world but if you don’t know how to do the business, you cannot sell that product.
“If you want to speak to the world through your fashion you have to know what language the world speaks. “It’s a huge challenge. “You cannot just think ‘I’m designing’ – you have to know and understand the whole value chain.
“The good ones tap into what is happening on the streets, in politics, what is happening here and abroad and then all of that information they gather, they work it into design and turn it into a collection,” she said.
“When you buy a designer garment, you buy a dream.”