9 October 2006
By Neil Fraser
WHEN I first wrote about the fashion district, back in 2000 (Citichat 42, 2000), I posed the question: "How does one take a good idea and turn it into reality?" I answered my question as follows: "With a lot of hard work - strategies have to be developed and institutional frameworks established, as well as a practitioners' forum, practitioners' support, empowerment programmes and place marketing programmes devised and investment obtained, and so forth. And, as of this week, it's all rolling."
Well, the last comment, while true, may have been a tad premature, over-ambitious and not taking into account just how long the "rolling" would last. I seem to have written about the fashion district every year since that comment in 2000, and with great expectations, but now, at last, a major intervention is about to take place that should be the catalyst to move this important initiative from "rolling" to reality.
The idea of a fashion district developed from research undertaken in 1999 by Professor Chris Rogerson of the University of the Witwatersrand. This was followed in his report for the Inner City Task Team, "A new opportunity for growth or mere survival? The clothing industry of inner city Johannesburg".
In the report, he concluded: "It is clear that the early 1990s have seen a period of considerable change and restructuring in the inner city clothing economy of Johannesburg. Key features of this restructuring have been the progressive emasculation of the formal clothing economy, particularly in the wake of competitive imports, and the parallel rise of a burgeoning small-enterprise clothing economy, dominated by black South African entrepreneurs (the majority, women entrepreneurs) and yet with an increasingly important segment of production from immigrant-run businesses."
The good professor then went on to say: "It has been suggested that inner city Johannesburg contains the makings of an incipient clothing cluster or industrial district which stretches from Fordsburg across through to the CBD. A set of interventions might be put forward to strengthen the competitiveness of this cluster as a whole and to seek to shift the industry away from a trajectory of mere survival to one of long-term growth. The range of different types of interventions that might be considered can be drawn from the experience of planning for the support of other industrial districts, particularly in the developing world."
So what interventions have taken place? Firstly, there was an analysis of the needs of and gaps in the local small, medium and micro enterprise garment industry. Secondly, there was research into the clustering of industry and the potential that this area offered to achieve this. Thirdly, training programmes were designed specifically to start to meet the needs and plug the gaps. Fourthly, physical demarcation was completed - all pavements in the district are marked with a colourful mosaic "electric sewing machine" pattern and imaginative pylons delineate the entrances to the precinct. Fifthly, the Fashion District Institute, FDI, was established in May 2004 with the following role:
- Custodian of the vision;
- Marketing and business promotions;
- Facilitation of interest and development;
- Support for business; and
- District caretaker.
The sixth intervention came from the private sector, in the form of two initiatives from businessman Rees Mann, namely the opening of SewAfrica in 2001, followed by the Afsew Centre in 2004. Mann is the mover and shaker behind the revitalisation of the fashion district.
SewAfrica
Apart from various other support facilities, SewAfrica provided "an opportunity for development and training that will enable individuals in the informal clothing manufacturing sector to obtain national qualifications that will facilitate the creation of wealth and employment. SewAfrica provides accredited courses that are relevant and appropriate to a sector that would not normally have access to technikons and fashion design colleges. It provides affordable courses that are structured in such a manner so as to allow the candidate to gain the necessary skills while generating an income. It provides a nurturing and supportive environment."
These words were reported in one of my earlier newsletters, Citichat 44, 2001.
The Afsew Centre went to the next level, as I explained in Citichat in March 2004: "The two top floors, six and five, have been designed as a 'fashion hub' and have been reserved for 36 emerging designers … Here such designers will have access to nearly R100 000 worth of equipment so that at this embryo stage they will not have to expose themselves to the cost of the capital investment needed in their industry.
"Floors four and three will house the training centre previously housed in SewAfrica, at 109 Pritchard. The two lowest floors, two and one, have been sub-divided into 10 studios and let to established designers. Unlike the emerging designers on the two upper levels, these designers are self-contained, having their own staff and equipment. The ground floor houses the 'Fashion Shack', a retail space where all the designers in the building will exhibit their wares, which can then be bought by the public.
"But it will also act as a showcase and stimulus to buyers to meet the individual designers whose work they may particularly fancy for the purpose of placing additional orders, and so on."
The fashion district will ultimately cover some 32 city blocks between Von Wielligh, Jeppe, End and Commissioner streets. It contains an intriguing set of buildings, 40 percent of which are older than 60 years and 70 percent of which are currently retail-related, providing about two kilometres of retail budget clothing. Of the current businesses, 80 percent are fashion-related, more than 100 tailors and seamstresses are clustered in informal production houses (with many times that number working off the pavements). It has eight milliners, six fabric dyers, 30 fabric sellers and 13 haberdashery shops.
The vision for the district is to be "The fashion capital of Africa", which requires it be uniquely African through becoming the "urban edge of African fashion" And it aims to:
- Showcase Africa's creative attitude;
- Revitalise the inner city fashion industry;
- Develop innovative talent and businesses; and
- Create growing and sustainable linkages.
Africa's design centre
As the urban edge of African fashion, the district seeks to be Africa's design centre, a cutting-edge home for African designers but still an area for a bargain; catering for all needs; providing a wide range of products; and offering unique products.
Earlier this year I reflected on the latest intervention, the Fashion Kapitol, saying: "So, I have been writing on and off about this initiative for five years with little to show on the surface other than Rees Mann's initiatives (namely, SewAfrica and Afsew). But all that started changing last year as the behind-the-scenes planning and scheming of the previous years started coming to a head.
"A Fashion District Institute was established with an interim board of directors and an executive director. The City council expropriated a building, almost a complete block between Pritchard and President streets, which will shortly be demolished to make way for the Fashion Kapitol, in essence a public space or square dedicated to fashion, complete with ramp, cafés and 'boutiquey' shops.
"An investor has bought the 1920s Gallo building that backs on to the Fashion Kapitol for restoration … Another investor has bought four buildings for conversion into low-cost housing and trendy lofts - real industrial space lofts.
So things are starting to move - fashion is starting to swing."
Well, three months later and what is going to start swinging, literally within days, is the wrecker's ball. A demolition permit has been granted and Stand 4600 Johannesburg will be flattened in a couple of weeks, enabling builders to start on site. Within the first half of 2007, the Fashion Kapitol will be a reality.
Fashion Kapitol
While SewAfrica and Afsew were important private sector initiatives, they were quite self-contained within the district, whereas the Fashion Kapitol is primarily a public space-fashion ramp around which will be clustered all the support structures for the industry, namely, shops, boutiques, coffee shops and so forth.
The Fashion Kapitol should form the real catalyst to spur on the development of the inner city fashion scene. It will provide a focus for the fashion district; a magnet for visitors; a place for "pause"; a vibrant retail information centre; the FDI offices; a fashion house; and an outdoor fashion ramp.
The last of the interventions, which would have been undertaken earlier had economics allowed, will also now be put in place. It is the establishment of a City Improvement District. This is a key component of the building blocks leading to a successful specialist precinct as it will provide the urban management (over and above that provided by the City council) to ensure that the fashion district is "safe, clean and friendly".
From 1999 to 2006 is indeed a long time. But it is a fact of life that urban degradation takes place incredibly rapidly as a reaction to a host of negative circumstances, while urban regeneration is slow, often painful and requires deliberate and continuous positive action. The interventions that I have outlined have appeared to be slow but each has built on the other and I believe that the pace of change will now accelerate.
Viva African fashion, viva.
Regards, Neil
PS: There is a great exhibition on at Constitution Hill in Section 4. "Gandhi: A Prisoner of Conscience" is really worth a visit.
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