Styled By The Kokonut Stylist - Article 2

Why A Swaziland Fashion Week Is Long Overdue

As the great Coco Chanel once said: "Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live and what is happening."  No truer words have been spoken ever since!  You see, very often we exclude ourselves from fashion; we think it belongs to other people and it that it does not affect us in any way.  Well, the most apparent truth of life is that we are all part of a fashion lifecycle.

 Fashion has a recurring cycle and you may have bought the sweater you are wearing now from a second-hand clothing stall across the street but at some point, many years ago, it was once high-end-fashion that filtered down to department stores and eventually to our second-hand clothing stalls. You are clothed and warm, that is a basic human right isn't it? Someone once selected that very design of the sweater you are wearing today from a fashion week many moons ago and it has somehow found its way to you. Do you see how the inevitable fashion lifecycle has affected you?

This  multi-billion (and that’s not Zimbabwean but US dollars) global industry that is fashion is even bigger than the motor industry. Big surprise there, huh!  With all the financial recessions that this world has gone through in recent years & months even, luxury fashion labels have not only thrived but managed to grow their businesses.  Luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Hermes, Versace, Bulgari, Alexander McQueen, Chanel, etc. all recorded profit margins as healthy as 40% just in the last financial year and that is major, in any business terms, I don’t care what currency you use.

So all you non-fashion-loving-there-is-more-to-my-life-than-fashion-people listen up. It matters not what you think or in some cases, don’t think of how you dress, you are a part of the fashion lifecycle. This is how it works: every year, there are two very important fashion weeks that happen in all fashion capitals around the world. Those world fashion capitals being Milan, Paris, London and New York, I will add Dubai, Singapore and Johannesburg for good measure. There are two important fashion weeks, namely: Autum/Winter and Spring/Summer fashion weeks.

These fashion weeks happen a few months in advance of the season in order to allow fashion buyers to arrange purchasing the designs for retailers and to organise merchandising in time for that season. A clear example is that we are fast approaching winter right now and we just had the Joburg Spring/Summer Fashion Week three weeks ago. During fashion week, designers who have worked with trend analysts showcase their designs for what will be ‘in fashion’ the following season. What is showcased at fashion weeks is what we refer to as high-end-fashion in fashion terms and it means the most detailed and expensive fashion items money can buy.  After some time, high-end fashion filters down to chain stores that sort of replicate high-end-fashion and mass produce it for their department stores. Department stores are your typical mall clothing shops, for example: Mr Price Stores, Legit, Jet etc.

It's all sophisticated and classy when we wear these expensive fashion labels that showcase at these fashion capitals and Instagram our outfit of the day but think of all the jobs that fashion has created in this world. Then proceed to reflect on all the jobs that it has created in this country alone. Consider our cousins, sisters, aunts and mothers in Matsapha textile firms that are able to put food on their families’ tables. Those ladies and gentlemen at the textile firms are mass producing for some chain stores whose merchandisers once attended a fashion week somewhere in the world. Give consideration to all our favourite tailors at the Commercial Centre  here in Mbabane that we so love, in one way or the other, fashion enables them to make a decent living. Mull over Khulekani Msweli:  the brain behind the Jerem Paul brand, an extremely talented young man who exudes more than enough potential to be our very own Alexander McQueen.  Would it not be amazing to one day to rock your Proudly Swazi  Jerem Paul design? What is stopping us from embracing our own? Have we failed ourselves or are we lazy?

 Now, I would like to bring your attention the  opportunities that we as creative Swazi people have not tapped into because we view fashion as intfo yebantfu labanesikhatsi nemali  futsi njengentfo lengatsi ingumdlalo nje.  Our neighbours with similar economies to ours have thriving fashion weeks. I am talking about Zimbabwe Fashion Week and Botswana Fashion Week then why not have a Swaziland Fashion Week?   Maybe , just maybe, those countries understand the role that fashion plays in their economies or maybe they have tried so many times until they got it right and that is why they have successful fashion weeks. What is stopping us? I know there have been attempts in the past to have a successful fashion week in our country and those have not been that successful.  Why are we failing to nurture what is ours?  I can think of a handful of designers that can showcase their great designs in our very own Fashion Week. 

We have so much creativity, potential and colourful beauty in this country; in fact we have enough of that to have a fashion week that not only attracts tourists into our beautiful country but a fashion week that will be a huge positive contributor to our economy. Personally I am crazy enough (read smart enough) to dream of a Swaziland Fashion Week in the very near future and I may have even started mentally organizing it.  I am hoping that after reading this, your view on fashion will be changed. You see, it’s not just fashion!

This reminded me of my all time favourite SiSwati saying: "Nawe Ngwane awumncane". Let us also tap into our greatness and see where it takes us. A Swaziland Fashion Week is indeed long overdue, the question is, are we ready to nurture and embrace our own fashion designer?

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Written By: Koko Shabangu