21 years of SAFW: A display of the freedom of fashion

28 October 2018 - 00:00 By REA KHOABANE

As with all aspects of South African life, apartheid left its ugly mark on local fashion. Where were the black models and designers before 1994?
"We did, of course, have clothes on," wrote commentator Adam Levin about fashion before democracy. "Yet strip away everything that was borrowed, along with the sprinkling of historically frozen ethnic styles, and look for anything on our bodies that expressed who and where we were at that moment, and South Africans stood stark naked before the universe."
During its 21 years in existence, South African Fashion Week (SAFW) has been part of the creation of a uniquely local look. Fashion doyenne Marianne Fassler remembers holding her first fashion show in a church hall in 1976, the year of the June 16 Soweto student protests. At that time Fassler moved in artistic circles opposed to the apartheid government. "I was always collaborating with performers and theatre producers and mixing with everybody in the art world."
She studied at Wits University, supported the Artists Against Apartheid movement and moved in radical circles. Fassler used black models in most of her early shows, a decision that was unusual at the time. She also sent her models down the runway to the rhythms of South African music.
"I dressed most of the hottest 'black' groups, and particularly Joy," she says. The female trio's Paradise Road became SA's unofficial anthem in 1980.
Fassler says Lucilla Booysen, the founder of SAFW, has been instrumental in creating a vibrant industry. "She understands that fashion is not just about clothes, it's about what you are communicating and how you reflect your lived reality. This is what makes South African fashion relevant."
Says Booysen: "I created a marketing platform for the designers to engage with the media and consumers."
She says that before SAFW was launched, designers had a limited number of clients and worked only for them. "Now local designers are visible, accessible and found in big retail stores."
The first show, in 1997, featured 14 designers, two of whom were black. Now fashion week has 57 designers and is staged twice a year for the spring/summer and autumn/winter collections.
Booysen says half the new designers are black, "and it's exactly what we want".
According to the SAFW website, about one-third of SA's womenswear designers showed their work at this year's event. They supply more than 115 stores nationwide.
Designer Tshepo Mafokwane says fashion week has taught her how to merge her everyday creations with those that attract private buyers. "I saw fashion week as glitz and glamour and people creating things they couldn't produce en masse. You should showcase what you can offer."
Designer Ephraim Molingoana says the inclusion of black designers in the early years of SAFW was not without controversy.
"When Lucilla introduced black designers to participate, I remember some white designers pulling out and saying they wanted no part in this."
Molingoana, who started out as a model, launched his brand in 2002. He has worked as a celebrity stylist and dressed the likes of Lebo Mathosa, Lucky Dube and Brenda Fassie.
"When I was bored with that I didn't know what to do, but I knew I belonged in the fashion industry. That's when Lucilla and [trend analyst] Dion Chang sat me down and told me to become a fashion designer. I told them I'd never sat in front of a sewing machine and they said: 'Get a seamstress and execute the ideas in your head.' "
His menswear fashion label Ephymol was among the first crop of black labels. These included Stoned Cherrie, which emblazoned South African heroes such as Steve Biko on its T-shirts, and Loxion Kulca.
Established in 1999 with only R17.50, Loxion Kulca was SA's first black-owned street brand.
"It was inspired by the new possibilities of our country's young democracy," says founder Wandi Nzimande.
"It was about expression and self-realisation, being proud of who we are, where we come from and the infinite possibilities ahead.
"Our first show at SAFW was in 2002 after an invitation by Lucilla, who inspired us to create designs for the ramp. It was a great challenge for a ready-to-wear brand to create couture inspired by the streets."
Loxion Kulca dressed kwaito and hip-hop artists such as Mapaputsi, Skwatta Camp, JR, ProKid and HHP.
Nzimande says the post-apartheid transition has been difficult but exciting. "It's about changing mindsets and creating new possibilities."
For most local designers, their creativity is influenced by their backgrounds, from their grandmother's beads back in their villages to the street corners of townships. Their work is a reflection of who they are.
At its best our local fashion industry is a mirror of ourselves...

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