Fashion week is South Africa’s premier annual autumn/winter fashion show and one of the country’s foremost sartorial events.
The runway will display a stellar collection featuring the likes of Marianne Fassler, David Tlale, Stefania Morland and Leigh Schubert, as well as many exceptional newcomers.
Menswear will also receive a substantial showing in the form of collections from 10 leading labels such as Fabiani, Augustine, Ruald Rheeder, Laduma and Viyella, as well as the four emerging menswear designers featured in the African Fashion International Next Generation incubation programme: Zano Sithetho, Prudence Mphaphang, Sello Medupe and Jenevieve Lyons.
Other elite labels to be showcased include Abigail Betz, Morphe and Avant Apparel from Johannesburg; Shana, Selfi and Tart from Cape Town; and Pretoria’s Irmgard and Tsotetsi KL.
African Fashion International executive chairperson, Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe said, “The unprecedented talent lined up this year proves that South Africa’s fashion industry is growing from strength to strength.”
The theme for this year’s fashion week is Creative Freedom: Under the Pillars of Fashion, Art and Design.
In keeping with the theme, fashion week is an equal-opportunity platform fostering creative independence among the new generation of talent in the fashion and design industry. Fastrack, Next Generation and FashionTalks programmes all feature in the 2014 Mercedez-Benz Fashion Week line-up, and aim to identify enrichment opportunities for young, up-and-coming designers in the fashion world.
“Through these initiatives, the South African fashion industry will be supported, aiding efforts to bolster the industry as a whole, thereby benefiting the entire economy,” added Moloi-Motsepe.
The 10 finalists of the Fastrack initiative will have the opportunity to showcase their own designs on the same runways as renowned labels. The FashionTalks seminars will follow the theme, Cutting From New Cloth: Innovation in Fashion, and will extend their mission to promote new talent on a global platform through educating the local design community on the importance of cultivating innovation and sustainability.
With these initiatives and the participation of 34 of South Africa’s top-drawer designers, fashion week will be as much about providing for fashion’s future as it will be about respecting its past and embracing its present.
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Joburg takes place at the Sandton Convention Centre from 20 to 22 March.
