In the News | 2 February 2023

Africa

Arise Fashion Week returns today, kicking off fashion month and celebrating its 20th anniversary with mainstay designers like Ituen Basi & Lisa Folawiyo, new visitors like UNI FORM, Bianca Saunders & Xuly Bet, and a partnered jazz festival.

IFFAC & AFF's African Fashion Futures Incubator announces 14 designers in its first cohort for a pilot program being implemented by Seedstars.

Africa No Filter's Bird Agency reports on Dakar's cultural capital revival.

HYPEBEAST Africa launches a dedicated Instagram channel.

South Africa

Fashion entrepreneur Daniel Sher introduces Together MFG, the new manufacturing arm of a business portfolio that also includes conscious brand Good Good Good and retail outlet Duck Duck Goose.

Woodstock, Cape Town-based Together MFG soft launched in late 2022, just in time to add the t-shirts from Thebe Magugu's collaborative charity capsule with Dior to its portfolio, along with work for Rich Mnisi and Wanda Lephoto. "For 12 years, we’ve been focusing on making the best possible t-shirt, and manufacturing for an LVMH brand without any returns or complaints felt like a coming-of-age moment for our business, our manufacturing team and myself as a business owner," Sher shared in an update on Duck Duck Goose's blog.

The team still phones home for help, home being the Maitland, Cape Town heirloom factory Sher's wife & her family have owned and operated for 29 years – where Good Good Good used to make its lauded tees along with the rest of its mostly genderless basics collection, before outgrowing the space at the end of 2022. "It felt sad and intimidating to leave the home that Jacqui (Sher's mother-in-law) had built for us, and we still find ourselves phoning her on an almost daily basis asking for advice, experience shares and general guidance. This move was a growing-up moment for our business, and it feels like a big step in the right direction for our newly independently established CMT."

Dan and his team have also recently joined the popular Watershed marketplace at the V&A Waterfront Mall, and been featured in Courier magazine's annual 'how to start a business' magazine, available in limited copies from Duck Duck Goose.

The One Blue Heart blue carpet gala will take place in February in support of the Turtle Conservation Centre, with a slow fashion dress code & guide prepared by Twyg.

Truworths, which has long been a credit-led business, will grow profit by an estimated 11% even as a challenging economy slows cash sales across fashion.

Old Mutual's Nobesuthu Ndlovu encourages SMEs to play by some core rules to enable financing.

Global

Tahirah Hairston's report for The CUT on challenges at Pyer Moss was the global fashion conversation of the week.

While rumours continue to swirl re: Louis Vuitton's new creative director, Gucci puts the mill to rest with another in-house hire from the Kering group.

Global fashion education leaders are introducing the metaverse to their curriculum, and virtual & digital fashion makes its environmental case.

Tik Tok intensifies fashion week marketing olympics.

Fashionista publishes new guide to US sustainable & ethical fashion.

Until the 20th of February, The New Landscapes: Fashion, Textiles and Technology Catalyst R&D Grant Scheme is offering five collaborative grants of up to £6,000 cash and up to £15,000 in-kind support to proposals. Topics: enabling sustainable design practice development, SME knowledge exchange that supports sustainable and socially engaged production & design, and helping young designers advocate for more of the same & related technologies.

Docuseries King of Dreams comes to Showmax with the story of Bernard Arnault and the key creative geniuses who helped him make LVMH what it is today – Kimberley Schoeman reviews.

André Leon Talley's life is surveyed through an auction of his belongings.

Also, the rumoured Nike + Tiffany & Co collaboration makes its debut, sales slow down at SHEIN, social media reaches retirement age, AZ Factory announces new 'amigos,' ESPRIT makes a comeback, milkweed floss offers a proven fur & down alternative and Kristen Fanarakis offers a take on the media's role in sustainable fashion.

Sales slow down at SHEIN – (BoF)