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Fashion Week will show off craft producers

12 Jun 2011

The Cape Town Fashion Council and the Cape Craft and Design Institute (CCDI) organised a matchmaking session on 2 June 2001 at the CCDI Training Unit in Cape Town, as part of the Foschini Fastrack Day. The resulting collaborations will be showcased on the catwalk on the first day of Cape Town Fashion Week on 13 July.

Young fashion designers prepare to meet the craft producers.

Photo credit: SDR Photo

This developmental initiative, aimed at fast-tracking the careers of students and graduates in both the fashion design and retail industries, saw 20 students from the Design Academy of Fashion, the Cape Town College of Fashion Design, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Northlink College and Elizabeth Galloway meet with eleven craft producers, who hand make everything from funky jewellery to elegant handbags and soft mohair wraps.

CCDI executive director, Erica Elk, said that it was a challenge for craft producers to access markets on a sustainable basis and to ensure they stayed in touch with the latest trends. She appealed to the students to not only select handmade accessories but to work together with the craft producers to stretch creative boundaries in creating new products and to incorporate handmade elements into the garments.