Mercedes-Benz announced as new title sponsor of SA’s biggest fashion events

LUXURY car manufacturer, Mercedes Benz, has been announced as the new partner of African Fashion International (AFI)) in title sponsoring Africa’s most globally recognized fashion platforms – Cape Town Fashion Week, Joburg Fashion Week and Africa Fashion Week.

The new titles will be: Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Joburg, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Cape Town, and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Africa, all which will still be brought to you by AFI.

Regarded as the pre-eminent brand associated with international fashion events – including New York, Tokyo and Berlin Fashion Weeks – the title sponsorship commitment positions Mercedes-Benz as partner in showcasing the African style agenda while affording both AFI and MBSA local and international awareness. This new frontier aligns with AFI’s intention of positioning African fashion on a global platform.

AFI has already invested millions of Rands in the development and promotion of African fashion both locally and abroad.

Mercedes-Benz’ alignment with major fashion platforms world-wide brings substantial prestige and bridges the gap of global relevance to AFI’s three existing, major fashion events.

“We welcome Mercedes-Benz into the African fashion world. As an elegant, sophisticated brand, it is the perfect fit with African Fashion International in terms of leveraging the profile of African designers internationally,” says AFI Executive Chairman Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe.

Along with a significant media reach, AFI’s fashion initiatives present Mercedes-Benz South Africa with an opportunity to engage with the market in innovative, stylish, lifestyle focused ways, including strategic opportunities to launch new products.

At the upcoming Mercedes-Benz Fashion Weeks participants will be privy to  previews of the latest and greatest models from Mercedes-Benz that will be will be just as eye-catching as the ramp designs when launched at Cape Town Fashion Week in July and Africa Fashion Week in October 2012 .

“The partnership with AFI presents Mercedes-Benz South Africa with an exciting opportunity to reach influential target groups by engaging with dealers to use fashion to showcase new vehicles through interactive fashion experiences,” says Dr. Martin Zimmermann, President and CEO, Mercedes- Benz South Africa.

Significantly, South Africa is also an important global component for Mercedes-Benz with the new C- Class built exclusively in East London being exported world-wide.

In celebrating the African style aesthetic, AFI showcases the best designers from the continent, offering them access to domestic and international market share while also growing a platform for the sustainability of the fashion industry in Africa in creating jobs through fashion and developing new designers in its Fastrack programme.

Last year’s Africa Fashion Week (which included the Africa Fashion awards and Africa Fashion Trade Expo) proved to be the biggest yet with over 30 000 visitors attending fashion shows and the associated Expo over three days.

Under the aegis of African Fashion International, Africa’s largest fashion event is endorsed by SA Tourism and drew 1000s of fashion entrepreneurs, store & boutique buyers, industry professionals and local & international media to Johannesburg for the annual event which aims to accelerate growth in the continent’s clothing and textile industry.

Over 20 international film crews also covered Africa Fashion Week with excellent exposure for not only African fashion but Johannesburg and South Africa as a whole.

ENDS.

Date & Designers set for Fashion Week Jo’burg

MORE than 25 designers in 20 Shows over four days will give the country a preview of Autumn/Winter collections when Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Joburg runs from March 7-10.

South Africa’s pre-eminent Autumn/Winter fashion event, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Joburg presented by AFI is being held for the first time in an exciting rooftop venue at sophisticated Hyde Park Corner, Johannesburg’s most fashionable shopping experience.

“Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Joburg, brought to you by AFI, showcases South Africa’s established and emerging designers, offering a platform of visibility, relevance and access to the market,” says African Fashion International (AFI) Executive Chairperson Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe. “It also gives a truly South African perspective on autumn /winter fashion and Hyde Park Corner presents the perfect setting.”

Contemporary South African fashion will be on show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Joburg through some of the country’s top designers including Kluk CGDT, David Tlale, Gavin Rajah, Thula Sindi, Spero Villioti, Heni, Leigh Schubert, Abigail Keats, Abigail Betz and the Dax Martin Chocolatier Collection Brought to you by Magnum.

This Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Joburg, will also showcase menswear designers C-squared, Fabiani and Distinctive Man while emerging designers will comprise of Thabani Mavundla,  Danielle Margaux, Black Coal Clothing and will see the return of Wild Fig, Mosewamosa, Loin Cloth & Ashes, Avant, and Grapevine. New to the platform is Tashkaya.

Kick-starting Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Joburg will be AFI’s Fastrack shows – a fashion development programme and competition launched last year – which showcases the three finalists’ collections. AFI Fastrack takes a holistic view of the fashion industry providing internships for graduates in the areas of design, production, photography and styling.

The KZN Fashion Council and Trade Investment KwaZulu-Natal, meanwhile, will present a collective show of the province’s most talented designers including Karen Monk Klijnstra, Genna-Wae Webster, Katherin Kidger and Siyathemba Ngwenya.

Leading retailer Foschini will be showcasing their winter collection, while Hyde Park Corner will also present a collective show.

“In partnering with Mercedes-Benz South Africa and Hyde Park Corner, we believe AFI has raised the international bar for Fashion Week in Joburg,” adds Dr Moloi-Motsepe.

Sophisticated and elegant, ideally located in the heart of Johannesburg’s affluent northern suburbs, Hyde Park Corner presents itself as the definitive standard for fashion-conscious boutique shopping with a distinguished blend of leading international and local brands.

ENDS.

]]> http://www.afisa.co.za/?feed=rss2&p=2593 0 http://www.afisa.co.za/?p=2524 http://www.afisa.co.za/?p=2524#comments Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:16:38 +0000 Vennduke http://www.afisa.co.za/?p=2524

Khothatso was born in Soweto, raised in Vereeniging in a family of 4 by a single parent.  He started his career in Fashion designing when he finished high School in Vereeniging and later registered with the Tshwane University of technology to pursue his passion.  He studied through the years interning in a fashion studio in Pretoria called Monarchy Couture.

Khothatso become a finalist in the Eco Design competition in 2010 and won just before exhibit in Sweden (Malmo) the following year in March 2011.  Furthermore, in his second year of study Khothatso was appointed to be a member of the faculty’s Advisory board committee. Later in the year asked to judge at the Walter Sisulu University’s end year Fashion Show.

Khothatso Interned for Clive Rundle in his final year of study moreover awarded best range innovative winner and best entrepreneurial student at the end year annual fashion show.

He is assertive, ambitious and determined in his construction and creativity.  He pays much attention to detail, values the importance of fit and respects fashion to style.

Hylon attributes his intense curious nature to his decision to pursue his fascination within the field of Fashion by studying Fashion Design at LISOF (London International School of Fashion). He believes that fashion is an incredibly powerful medium not merely being that clothing is the common denominator that all human beings share but as an expression of creation and social semiotics.  Hylon received a Special Mention at the LISOF Graduation Fashion Show for his collection which was described by a panel of external judges as “innovative, original, courageous, creative, cutting edge and a promising and exciting future for the Fashion industry’’.

Kyra is an up and coming designer who graduated from Durban University of Technology. She draws her inspiration from black South Africans, Mother Nature and New York City by looking through photographic references of how black South Africans addressed their use of materials and how they would utilize those materials. Kyra was a finalist in the Sunflower Foundation which entailed designing a bandanna for the foundation. Kyra was also a finalist in the NWJ Bridal Fair, semi-finalist in the Vodacom Durban July Young Designer category and Winner of the Most Innovative Collection at D.U.T’s.Final Year Fashion Show.

Ricci is a 23 year old young designer. For the longest time, since Ricci can remember, the Fashion Industry has always been an inspiration to her. Her daily life and her career have centered on fashion and with such passion and dedication to succeed have gotten Ricci far beyond her own expectations. In 2008 and 2009 Ricci received the CTCFD Creative Award and in 2010 she was appointed as one of the Top 8 Graduates in the Western Cape to show at Cape Town Fashion Week.  In 2010 a few of her garments were used for the November Edition of Cosmopolitan Magazine and again for their March 2011 Edition. Elle Magazine also featured her designs in their May 2011 edition. Ricci’s Graduate Collection was featured on the lifestyle programme Pasella on the SABC 2 channel in November 2011.

 

Wetive grew up in Boschfontein, Mpumalanga. While studying Industrial Sociology at the University of Zululand the demands of new outfits for functions led her to start designing and making her own outfits. Students on campus started placing orders and Wetive moved from subsistence fashion design to bespoke designing that supplemented the Mandela Rhodes Scholarship. Design became more than a way to make a living it became the vehicle through which she could express herself, with this in mind she relocated to Johannesburg to pursue her studies in Fashion and follow her passion at SEWAFRICA. Wetive was awarded Top Student for first and second year and the winner at the Year End Fashion Show in 2011.

“To understand where we are today, we need to explore where we came from.”

A young designer with a macabre curiosity of primal secrets, Kim Gush combines her training in film and fashion with her passion for ancient histories to create stories of the untold. She explores both the traditional and the modern in her construction, meshing old and new worlds into her own hybrid creations. Her garments speak of the crevices of our consciousness, of the beauty of the unusual and of un-human seductiveness.

Jessica lives in the South Coast of Durban, KwaZulu Natal, in a little town called Pennington. She completed her National Senior Certificate at Scottburgh High School in Scottburgh,  then went on to study and complete a 3 year Diploma in Fashion and textile design at the Durban University of Technology. While studying at DUT in 2010 she entered the SSAFW student design competition of which her design was chosen to be showcased at SSAFW, this was a huge achievement for Jessica. In 2011 she designed and made a collection of 7 outfits for the Durban University of Technology’s 3rd year fashion show, her collection was placed in the finals and she has had great feedback from it.

Hugo matriculated in 2005, and made his way from the great Karoo to the dramatic hills of Stellenbosch enrolling to study Graphic Design and Photography at the Stellenbosch Academy of design and photography. After living the student life for three years he graduated in 2008 with a BA degree in applied design. With his degree in hand he headed into Town to study Fashion Design, finally his dream of being a fashion designer began. He is currently in his final year of studying, doing his Btech.