Tiaan Nagel's New Summer Collection In Store Now!

Check out Tiaan Nagel's new Summer Collection at his new concept store at 44 Stanley Ave, Johannesburg - DA

Missibaba

Check out this amazing product! - DA

Take Six - Nine Takes, The Fashion Fusion Project

“You have to think in a specific way and within the crafter’s abilities, which might seem limiting but in fact stretches the imagination. It’s about innovation. Their aesthetic and creativity lie in a methodical, repetitive and meditative process. We look at a crafter’s range, choose what we like, and edit from there. There is something about a hand-made process that adds personality. A dress can be very fl at but craft gives a garment depth, so we use repetitive shapes effectively as embellishment. Although beading is over-exposed, we chose it and tried to make it new. We love buttons, which the beaders work so well with. So we developed a button-like motif. It’s challenging to think differently and make it relevant to our brand. I’ve yet to meet an unhappy crafter.” – designers Daniça Lepan and Jacques van der Watt – designer Black Coffee

“I taught myself to crochet and started making scarves and gloves. Now I crochet all sorts of clothes, pullovers and even dresses. I like making my designs. I have my own studio in Nelspruit. I know my work and what it is worth. For Sanlam South African Fashion Week, I made accessories.” - crafter Lettie Mashabane

Extract taken from nineTAKES – The Fashion Fusion Project, published by Channel F Publishing, R200. Available: info@soda.co.za or on 011 442 7812

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Durban Collections Programme

THURSDAY 15 OCTOBER

19H00
Narain Samy
House of Olé
Ephymol

21H00
Lunar
Gugulam
Two
Francois Vedemme

FRIDAY 16 OCTOBER

20H00
Colleen Eitzen
In partnership with DAC — working with crafters from the Eastern Cape
Amanda Laird Cherry
In partnership with DAC — working with crafters from Gauteng
RjKay Creations
Terrence Bray

The South African Fashion Week / DAC Fashion Fusion Project

South African Fashion Week (SAFW) was launched twelve years ago as an independent platform to showcase South African fashion design. At the time, I recognised that, apart from our talented contemporary designers, we had an untapped reservoir of traditional crafting skill. Having become marginalised from the mainstream design community, it was producing parity products for the conventional curio market. The idea of bringing this handwork resource into the modern design process meant that we could give our crafters – many from impoverished rural areas – a new relevance, both creatively and financially.Our local designers also became alive to the possibility of differentiating their offering by tapping into our unique heritage in a way that was acceptable to modern tastes.My idea of matching our creative past with our contemporary design environment to the benefit of both was immediately shared by the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC). The Fashion Fusion Project, was launched in Gauteng Province in 2004. It has since expanded across the country, and there are currently collaborative crafter/designer hubs in each of the nine provinces. With their retail footprint in South Africa and insome cases also abroad, the designers who participated in 2008 – Abigail Betz, Terrence Bray, Amanda Laird Cherry, Colleen Eitzen, Sanché Frolich of Story, Robyn Lidsky of Ruby, Nkhensani Nkosi of Stoned Cherrie, Caren and Gina Waldman of Two, and Daniça Lepan and Jacques van der Watt of Black Coffee – have given considerable commercial impetus to the project. Their outlets have opened up a ready conduit to the consumers of Fashion Fusion products, and this has increased the project’s income streams considerably.Ultimately, the vision is to establish retail hubs in each of the provinces in addition to the existing designer outlets in Johannesburg (Gauteng), Cape Town (Western Cape) and Durban (KwaZulu-Natal). This will mean that towns such as Polokwane, Port Elizabeth, Rustenburg, Witbank and Nelspruit will receive a colourful boost that can only be beneficial to their own marketing efforts, particularly in local tourism.Much of the vision is still to be realised. It is now five years since we embarked on our very exciting journey.

Lucilla Booyzen
Director
South African Fashion Week