SA Fashion to receive a major boost with the launch of Autumn/Winter Fashion Weeks
Cape Town, April 2006 - The fashion landscape of South Africa is set to receive a major re-shuffle with the announcement of two new world-class fashion weeks. The events fill a long standing gap in the fashion calendar for an Autumn/Winter fashion week to bring South Africa in line with the international fashion calendar. The Autumn/Winter Fashion Weeks will take place in March 2007 under the titles: Cape Town Fashion Week and Jo'burg Fashion Week. The events will run within days of each other to allow greater access by foreign media and trade.
The move was prompted by pressure from designers and fashion media to have a platform for Autumn/Winter collections and represents a coming of age for South African fashion; finally giving local designers a platform to compete on a global level year round. The two new dates on the fashion calendar compliment the three major Spring/Summer fashion weeks that take place annually between June and July and the organisers will
be looking at further synergies between all of these events.
"This is the most significant move in African fashion in the last decade; and represents a major leap forward for our designers. The launch of these events allows our designers to now compete internationally in both fashion seasons. Our goal is to make the world-class talent of South African designers more accessible to international audiences. We are looking forward to meeting with government and SACTWU in the hope that we can make sure the benefits of these Fashion Weeks are spread across the entire industry," said Paul Jackson, Managing Director of Leisureworx.
This is the first major step towards a Pan-African fashion series involving partner events from across the continent.
As part of the initiative, driven by the need to make South African fashion more accessible to foreign trade audiences, Cape Town Fashion Week and Durban Fashion Week will be co-operating to hold Spring/Summer events back-to-back in 2007.
Dates for Autumn/Winter 2007:
Jo'burg Fashion Week 28th February - 3rd March
Cape Town Fashion Week 7th March - 10th March
About Leisureworx:
Leisureworx is a specialist event management company specializing in conceiving, managing, executing, and sponsorship procurement for major events - several of which it owns. The organisation is jointly owned by Naspers and Managing Director, Paul Jackson. Leisureworx was started in 1999 and today, it owns premier events such as Nokia Cape Town Fashion Week, Cape Town Flower Show, Investec Polo Showdown and Durban Fashion Week in conjunction with Vanashree Singh. Visit www.leisureworx.com for further information. |
Nokia Cape Town Fashion Week