Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a panel discussion on Africa Fashion that was hosted by my department at F.I.T., the International Trade and Marketing Dept., and produced by Adiree for Africa Fashion Week New York, which is going on this week.
The questions were thought provoking and covered questions that “inquiring minds wanted to know.” The responses from the panelists were a combination of experience, inspiration, and the reality of the business, such as comments from a gentleman regarding designing with the fabrics and the color palettes “du jour” in order to be a little more mainstream (which I translated to mean larger consumer base, or in other words, more buyers).
Earlier in the day I had been showing my bright and enthusiastic law clerk the trend forecasts for 2011 during a discussion on importing samples not for resale. Sure enough, she was amazed at how the colors and fabric blends we see people on the street still wearing this year were those forecasted (for industry purposes) back in 2009, for 2011. His comment therefore, really resonated with me, as designers and many other industries use these books in order to know the “trend” ahead of time, and use colors and fabrics accordingly in their season’s collections.
The social enterprise aspect of the African Fashion Industry was compelling as well, as not only did the many panelists share the component of their operation that was giving back to a community, whether it was creating libraries or internships overseas, another pointed out how merely sourcing from an African country and thereby, creating jobs and teaching skills, was very much a social enterprise in and of itself.
Talking with the designers about infrastructure issues in African countries, and one designer in particular about her production in Zimbabwe where goods need to be transported to South Africa for export, brought to light the costs involved in doing international trade when selling to foreign markets. It also brought to light corruption issues involved in transportation and reminded me of the insurance and accountability issues that are realities in all foreign transactions, not just Africa.
Questions/comments? Post below or email me at clark.deanna@gmail.com
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