A future in fashion

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Written by Tsholofelo Mosina for Fourways Review

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It’s an industry few people truly understand and according to Shana Rosenthal, chief executive officer of Lisof, the fashion industry is a highly diverse and mesmerising world of creative commerce with many career paths often overlooked by too many students.

Rosenthal said, “Surely we must blame stigma and ignorance when it comes to perceptions about the fashion industry.”

Rosenthal added that there was an urgent need to change this misconception, because of what the industry had to offer, especially on the business side. “The fashion and retail worlds are vast, fascinating and challenging,” she said.

One such person who has found just that is Katherine Mortner, ladies and design specialist at Edcon, the largest non-food retailer in South Africa.

Mortner said, “I remember attending a career day at school and deciding that this is what I want to do, but was put off when I realised you had to study sewing.” Mortner then studied fine arts for a year, only to follow her passion a year later.

She went on to win the Elle New Talent Award in 2008, which resulted in her being spotted by Stuart Marsh, brand director of Guess South Africa.

Rosenthal outlined the top 10 career paths pupils could consider in the fashion and retail industries:

  •  Planner: Merchandise planning is a systematic approach aimed at maximising return on investment through planning sales and inventory to increase profitability. It’s all about ensuring what the customer wants is available through research, sales tracking, employee training, buying and maintaining the visual aesthetic of a store.
  •  Buyer: Fashion buyers use their sense of style, knowledge of fashion trends and understanding of their target customers’ desire to create an attractive selection of apparel for retail stores. Retail buyers are the brains behind which products or garments are sourced and stocked in advance of a coming season for retail outlets.
  •  Merchandiser: Fashion merchandisers are on the apparel production side and analyse market trends, production costs and previous sales numbers to determine the product direction manufacturers will need to take each season.
  •  Designer: Designers are the creative geniuses who work on the design of clothing and fashion ranges.
  •  Trends forecaster: Trend forecasters predict upcoming trends and reignite trends that are on the decline.
  •  Pattern engineer: The pattern engineer creates the blueprint or pattern pieces for a particular apparel design.
  •  Production manager: The fashion production manager position calls for a person with a passion for detail and an organised mind.
  •  Stylist: Fashion stylists are responsible for bringing to life a photographer or director’s vision for a fashion photoshoot, layout, commercial, print advertisement or music video.
  •  Brand manager: The brand manager’s job is to rev up fashion sales, which can only be done by having a fantastic knowledge of fashion and marketing techniques such as brand equity and consumer buying habits.
  •  Fashion media: This is the world of fashion writers and photographers, fashion public relations specialists, publicists, journalists and bloggers, who help apparel companies and retail stores build and maintain a favourable public image.

Ethical consumers key to cleaning up India’s apparel supply chain: experts

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This article was written by Rina Chandran and is placed courtesy of  the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Employees sew clothes at a garment factory in New Delhi September 29, 2014. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

Employees sew clothes at a garment factory in New Delhi September 29, 2014. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

MUMBAI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Global retailers’ efforts to clean supply chains of slave labor and improve labor conditions will have little impact unless consumers in India, Asia’s third-largest economy, demand more ethically produced goods, industry experts said.

India is among the largest manufacturers of textiles and apparel in the world, supplying leading international brands. In and around the southern city of Bengaluru alone, there are some 1,200 garment factories making apparel for global brands.

But it is estimated that the domestic market accounts for more than 40 percent of the industry’s revenue.

Hundreds of small and medium-sized enterprises use forced labor and treat workers poorly, with abuses ranging from withheld salaries to debt bondage, human rights groups say.

“The industry has the most invisible supply chain. It is also mostly unorganized, which makes it harder to map and regulate,” said Mona Gupta, a senior official at India’s Apparel Export Promotion Council late on Thursday.

“Domestic consumers should raise their voice. If they insist on buying only ethical products, that will bring pressure on manufacturers,” she said at a panel discussion on trafficking and modern day slavery organized by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Asia Society in Mumbai.

Panelists pointed to the example of Apple Inc., which tackled poor wages and working conditions at the factories of its partner Foxconn in China after criticism from consumers among others.

PUSH, PULL FACTORS

Estimates of the number of people trapped in forced labor vary. The International Labour Organization says 21 million people are victims of forced labor globally, while the Global Slavery Index says there are 36 million slaves in the world, half of them in India.

The conditions of garment workers in South Asia have come under sharp scrutiny following the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh, in which 1,135 workers were killed, many of them employed by suppliers to Western retailers.

In India, legislation exists against bonded labor and child labor, but enforcement is weak.

“Unethical practices in the supply chain must be the responsibility of corporations, but corporations first need to accept the problem exists,” said Dhananjay Tingal, executive director of Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement), which says it has freed more than 85,000 children from various industries.

“Corporations must be proactive and engage with the public, as well,” he said.

Global apparel brands H&M, Inditex, C&A and PVH in January committed to improving the lives of workers in Bengaluru, after a report said laborers lived in appalling conditions and were denied decent wages and freedom of movement.

However, campaigners say the seasonal nature of work in India’s textile industry, the advent of fast fashion and the competitiveness of the business have helped create conditions leading to the exploitation of workers.

“There is child labor not just because of a supply-pull factor, but also a demand-push factor,” Gupta said.

“The only way to resolve the issue is to sensitize everyone: businesses, workers and consumers. It can be done,” she said.

 

Buy local because it’s tops

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This article was originally published on Independent Media’s World of Work website. 

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Buying and wearing locally designed and manufactured fashion should not be a “pity party”, or an attempt to force consumers to buy garments just because they are “local”.The purchase of a local fashion product should be an almost unconscious decision that occurs when customers see merchandise that they love, and feel a strong urge to buy.

Yes, we have had many international retail brands and stores finding a home in local retail space; but as an industry, we have the advantage of intimate knowledge of local consumers and markets.

We should be delighting shoppers with on-trend products, at the right price, in the correct fabric, with trims and quality to match these amazing designs.

The vast majority of consumers in South Africa cannot afford to make a conscious decision to buy local products, or are unable to consider the importance of the origin of the garments they purchase. Decisions for these LSM rankings are based purely on affordability and functionality.

For the few who can actively choose, the decision tends to be focused far more on aesthetic appeal than on price alone. These consumers will look at the visual attraction of fashion items as a first criterion.

For this reason, South African fashion design and retail should be in a position to regain market share from international branded products, by capitalising on their first-hand knowledge and understanding of the consumers, and the market.

The South African clothing sector employment peaked at 149 000 jobs in 1996. In 2016, we struggle to confirm 80 000 formal jobs in this sector. Total retail sales were quantified by Statistics SA at R868 billion in January 2016, of which 22 percent (R191bn) was attributed to clothing, textile, footwear and leather goods (CTFL) retail sales.

This is where the opportunity lies for us as a country. If the CTFL sector retail space consists of 50 percent local retailers, and 50 percent international branded retailers, then the local retail “pie” is worth at least R95bn. We know that South African retailers procure at least 25 percent (R24bn) of their product from the local value chain.

The increased international retailer competition is forcing South African retailers to make better use of their local suppliers, to ensure a quicker turnaround time on fashionable products.

This methodology is linked to quick response and fast fashion models, based on the concept that 60 percent of a clothing retailer’s product can be sourced from anywhere globally, to ensure the lowest price, at the best quality, using a six- to nine-month lead time, from design concept to consumer purchase.

The other 40 percent requires a much faster lead time (four to eight weeks) from design concept to consumer purchase.

This portion of the retail buy is not basic commodity items, but rather fashionable, trendy and innovatively designed products that attract customers into the retail store.

These “fashionable” products can be sold at higher price points due to the uniqueness of the items, and the limited quantities of goods.

Once in the specific retail environment, it is hoped that the customer will purchase other basic commodity items to wear with the alluring fashion pieces.

The shift in South African retail procurement practices from 25 to 40 percent locally designed and manufactured product will not only assist retailers to regain and sustain market share; but result in the doubling of local manufacturing jobs to over 155 000.

With women making up 71 percent of all CTFL workers, and each person supporting up to seven people at home, this shift in retail procurement practices, and consumer buying trends, could see more than a million South Africans benefiting.

The call is thus not for patriotism on the part of individuals who cannot afford to be such; but rather a call for South African designers to come to grips with understanding the South African consumer.

Know what drives demand in your particular market.

Whether you design for independent retail, online retail, or formal retail,you must be able to read global trends, and understand point-of-sales data, to ensure customers are attracted and delighted by South African designs.

Buy local, not because it is local – but because it is amazing!
* Anita Stanbury is SA Fashion Council chief executive

H & M promise fair living wage to garment workers by 2018.

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download (1)This article originally appeared in the H & M Blog.

“It has always been our vision that all textile workers should be able to live on their wage. We are focusing on our strategic suppliers to start with. Our goal is that all of them should have improved pay structures for fair living wages in place by 2018. This will affect around 850,000 textile workers.

Everyone who’s employed by the fashion industry should earn enough to live on – whoever they are and wherever they work. Unfortunately, this is not the case in many of the countries that we rely on for garment production.

Change is happening, but we think it needs to happen faster. That’s why we’ve created a pioneering roadmap to a fair living wage. It’s our plan for a global change in purchasing and supplier practices, workers’ rights and government responsibility. We’re going further than any fashion company has ever gone, and we’re encouraging the rest of our industry to follow our lead.

What is a ‘fair living wage’?

A fair living wage should at the very least cover the worker and their family’s basic needs and a discretionary income. This wage should be reviewed annually and negotiated with democratically elected trade unions.”

 

TFG looks for space to bring premium UK brands to SA

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imagesThis article was written by PALESA VUYOLWETHU TSHANDU for BDLive
CLOTHING and apparel retailer The Foschini Group (TFG) is looking for retail space to bring its recently acquired UK chains Phase Eight and Whistles to its home market.

The group’s chief financial officer Anthony Thunström confirmed Phase Eight expansion plans in SA, saying: “We are currently looking at locations for Phase Eight. We probably will bring a limited number of both Phase Eight and Whistles stores to SA, (but) they could only be in your absolute premium shopping destinations.”

Mr Thunström said that the retailer thought it had a location, in Johannesburg’s Hyde Park mall, but had found that it was better suited for its G-Star Raw clothing store.

There was “massive growth that we continue to see in SA, and that really is because of the diversity of the different brands that we’ve got”, he said.

The group, which owns brands such as Markham, Mat & May, Charles & Keith and Donna Claire, acquired Phase Eight for £140m last year to spring-board its UK portfolio.

Last week, TFG announced it had bought a 100% stake in high-end mass market retailer Whistles for an undisclosed amount.

Kyle Rollinson, an analyst at Avior Capital Markets, said TFG’s expansion of Phase Eight into local markets would add value to its retail offering.

“Foschini has an extremely good portfolio of brands and I think it’s more of a value add, rather than trying to counteract a weak offering. Their offering is strong,” Mr Rollinson said.

TFG is no novice. Woolworths introduced its private label brand David Jones into its South African stores earlier this year, after it acquired the Australian-based women’s wear retailer in 2014 for R23.3bn.

Mr Thunström said: “I don’t think from a strategy point of view anything has changed … there is an advantage in risk diversification in terms of being in different geographies, and it’s certainly been a rand hedge.

“The reality is within this financial year … we will have opened roughly 200 stores in SA this year, and if I look forward over the next five years, we’ll open between 9,100 new stores in SA, so that’s massive growth that we continue to see.”

Chito Siame, an equity analyst at Mergence Investment Managers, said: “I don’t think that would be their primary strategy with regards to recently acquired foreign brands.

“Phase 8 would probably roll out faster in a Macy’s than back home. They are searching for growth, and they’ll buy it if they have to.”

Phase Eight has 107 stores and 203 concessions throughout the UK and Ireland. It also has 15 stores and 113 concessions in 16 global markets.

TFG shares gained 1.02% to close at R141.44 on Thursday.