Peek into SA Fashion Week's Crystal Ball

Thembi, Me & Chandre'

All Fashion fundi's (including me!) got the 
opportunity to glimpse into this summer season’s 

trending looks as South African Fashion 
Week (SAFW) launched the 
Spring/Summer 2012 collections of 
leading South African designers in 
Johannesburg at the end of March.

The event showcased 41 of SA’s most 
cutting-edge designers 

including Suzaan Heyns, Black Coffee, 
Clive Rundle, Rubicon and Mantsho as well as

menswear designer, Naked Ape, 
from 29 March until 1 April. 

According the director Lucilla Booyzen, SAFW’s decision 

four years ago to align the timing of its events to the 

retail sector’s buying cycles which is six months ahead of a given 
season and to introduce the Buyers Lounge to expand exposure to this 
sector has seen designer sales growth increase by 24% to date and 
has resulted in a growing footprint of 146 stores nationally that stock SA 

designer collections 

This includes the  launch last year  of a dedicated 
SA Designer Capsule Collections store-within-a-store at the Edgars 
chain’s flagship Melrose Arch shop which will be 

replicated in the Edgars store in Sandton City in April.

"Meet The Men in Black..."

The launch this year of SAFW’s Fashion Agency “The Fashion Agent” 
under the directorship of former Hugo Boss International Brand Manager for 
Womenswear, Annette Pringle-Kölsch, is expected to give further impetus to
 the sales drive, here and internationally.

The highly visible SA Designer 
Pop-Up Store, held annually in September since 2010 in Sandton City, 
the country’s leading fashion mecca, was also continuing  to 
be critical to SA Fashion Week’s success in putting local fashion design 
on the radar to a larger numbers of consumers, she emphasises.