SA FAshion Week: Have We Found a South African Fashion Identity?

For the last four years the debate has raged in my mind, what is South African fashion? What should it be? Does there need to be a SA fashion identity? If so, do we need to be able to define it? What and who does this identity serve and can we all unite under one identity? I mean this is big, hairy stuff. Just because we love fashion doesn't mean we are not deep, hey.

In the past I may have sat somewhere to the left of needing a single, unifying fashion identity. And while I can see a distinctive South African style on the streets of our major cities, I would have said it really doesn't need to be defined tightly, as fashion expression should be free, depending on your personal influences. Until now.

At SA Fashion Week I started to see room for possibility. I started to see what it could be. I started to understand how we could all grasp what a South African fashion identity could be. It doesn't mean we all have to dress the same, you understand. But it provides an overarching context and markers of an identity.
The three designer collections that hinted at what may be were 46664, Sies Isabella and Mantsho. This is what they did:
1. They all designed with clear international fashion influence. In a world of mobile web, we are all informed, all the time, as to what is happening and what people are wearing across the world. This is an essential part of how we see ourselves - a clear and distinct part of a broader, global context;
2. They all play with colour. The colour trend plays directly into our African landscape, literally and figuratively. The gift of colour, which resonates so powerfully in our climate and geography (as opposed to the muted environments of London, Paris and New York), is how we express ourselves and now we are free to do so within the international fashion construct;
3. Prints and tribal influences are clear and present. And worked out so that they are accessible to everyone. Draping, colour blocking, insignia are all reflective of our indigenous tribes, and yet expressed in a global voice. This is essentially the secret of our identity.
By combining international trend and fashion influence with tribal influences and geographic forces, we come to a voice that is uniquely ours. I don't believe that this quest is anything close to being fully resolved yet. But the hints are there. The ideas of coming and the context is clear. Is it any coincidence that these were three of my five favourite collections at SA FAshion Week? I don't believe it is.
All pics by @SDRPhoto