SA Menswear Week makes a refreshing comeback

Seasons come and go but one serious concern remains for the state of fashion — the flailing runways.

As one of the big four, London went so far as cancelling shows last June to focus on showrooms. On the local front, SA Menswear Week is attempting to refresh the approach with a new lease on local design.

The new phase sees co-founder and creative director Simon Deiner kick off The Week of Fashion. The shift comes after a three-year hiatus that helped determine their footprint and approach. As attendance drops and sales feel the pinch by buyers and consumers, Deiner believes the landscape has changed globally. However, he said South Africa is different in how we approach it, especially with 2,500 daily attendees.

“The benefit of being involved in fixing platforms such as London is that we are seeing what’s working and not working in other places twice a year and we are trying to take those best practices and we are putting them into our space.”

Focusing on designer development, the Week of Fashion will feature womenswear showcases, industry discussion sessions and curated travel experiences to promote tourism, among others.

One of the key factors to the alignment is allowing transparency between consumers and designers, including Gabriella Charlotte, who has empowered a large value chain that started with one machinist.

While the designers might be sorted, it is the public fashion weeks also need to win over. Owing to the growing interest in avant-garde red carpet fashion and celebrities being more common in the front row and as faces of campaigns, stan culture, along with social media pop culture enthusiasts, have embraced the digital age of fashion.

At Menswear Week, Deiner is approaching this through key media and a revolving door of content creators who have direct interest in design houses. Attendees are also encouraged to wear local, a feature other fashion shows have often made a mistep with.

While the assumed recipe for success has been celebrities and influencers in the front row, Deiner believes its corporates invited by designers and those who support local designers turning them into brand ambassadors to support local.

While it has always been assumed women are bigger fashion consumers, men are giving designers and retailers a run for their money, something Week of Fashion feeds into with their shows. Deiner has noticed a great interest in designers who cater to menswear.

“Men across South Africa have a higher disposable income. Women are closing the gap rapidly but the mid-level men in general are spending more,” said Deiner.

“Over the past decade, the grooming space has taken off ahead of where the average Joe is buying clothing. From that trickle down, they are buying more. They are padding out the wardrobe and adding pieces so they don’t wear the same thing every day. For the most part, guys are spending more to have a selection in their wardrobe.”

With growth going higher year in and year out in South Africa, Deiner hopes to create sustainable businesses.

“I’m not talking green sustainable, because that’s really a bit of green washing more than anything. It’s sustainable in being able to pay people without having to beg and being able to give them bonuses,” said Deiner, who hopes to continue “rolling up his sleeves” to help ensure all the designers they show see success.