Gauteng showcase its creative sector muscle at the Durban July 2010
Johannesburg – After a successful hosting of the fashion meets music project during the FIFA 2010 World Cup tournament, Gauteng is now taking its drive to build a solid and viable creative sector economy to the rest of the country with a showcase of GP’s emerging designers at this year’s Durban July this weekend.
Gauteng’s emerging designers, State of Guru, Distinctive Creation and Deities will join other national top designers at the Metro Fm/Dela Sol Marquee to showcase their latest spring collection power by the Gauteng Economic Development Agency. “We are seriously attending to the business of fashion and plans are in an advanced staged to formalize the Gauteng Fashion Council which will be the umbrella body for the industry in Gauteng,” explained GEDA Chief Executive Blake Mosley-Lefatola.
Gauteng is fast becoming the fashion capital of Africa, with world-acclaimed designers, crafters and related accessories guru’s are all based and doing their business here. One of our main objectives in supporting this sector is our drive to determine how much is the industry contributing towards Gauteng and the country’s GDP and how best can we position this sector to quickly assist the provincial government’s efforts to create decent and sustainable jobs.
After the Durban July experience, these designers would form part of our export readiness training programme preparing them for the much sort after export market firstly into the continent and later globally. Already GEDA is forging strategic relations with the Turkish Moda Fashion Academy, the Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro fashion councils and locally we work closely with the dti and the Africa Fashion International to position our industry firmly in this competitive market, so the future looks bright for our designers.
