On a scorching hot day, we travel to the Zola area of Soweto, a township south of Johannesburg in South Africa.
Despite the soaring mercury, the trip is worth it.
Zola was known to be home to some of South Africa’s greatest musicians including Brenda Fassie, Mandoza and M’du, as well as soccer players John ‘Shoes’ Lesiba Moshoeu of Orlando Pirates and Mongezi Joel ‘Ace’ Mnini of Moroka Swallows.
Now, it’s also home to a promising fashion designer.
The small town, with a rough population of 44,000, is where self-taught South African designer Zamaswazi Nkosi crafts his creations for the city’s catwalks.
Nkosi greets us by the corrugated gates of the entrance to his compound dressed in a blue golf shirt featuring an African print pattern – the same shirt he showcased at the South African Fashion Week (SAFW) Spring/Summer 2017. His pants complement the look, along with blue loafers and a white fedora.
Ushering us in, he politely offers to carry some of our equipment. The genial, soft-spoken Nkosi then shows us around.
His workspace, which was once a garage, is attached to his bedroom. Clothes hang on a rack next to the door. Two sewing machines sit at the corner of the room with fabric, needles and thread neatly stacked beside them. Next to them is a table where he irons his garments. You can tell he is a one-man army.
The wall on the opposite side of the room is filled with a collage of photographs, newspaper clippings and awards. A headline from The Citizen reads: “A daring designer”.
“My love for fashion started the day I had no clothes to wear,” Nkosi opens.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2015/04/01/new-kids-on-the-fashion-block/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: New Kids On The Fashion Block</a>
Growing up with a single mother and as one of six siblings, he was forced to improve his circumstances at home. He developed the art of restoration.
“It started with reviving the old to new. Sometimes I would take my sisters’ clothes and redo them so that I could have something to wear,” he says.
Little did he know at the time his innovations would one day be part of the fabric of high fashion in South Africa.
Nkosi began by sewing clothes using his mother’s old sewing machine. From there, he would piece together fabric lying around the house.
“I took my mother’s tablecloth, I stole it actually,” he admits.
Nkosi then crafted the tablecloth with a shirt of his to create an entirely new piece. He enjoyed reinventing things and it’s evident in the clothes he designs and puts together today.
However, Nkosi wasn’t always into fashion. On the wall with the photos, are also the trophies and medals he has won, not for fashion, but for football.
They all date back to the time Nkosi was into soccer. As a teenager, he was a midfielder.
“I was called ‘Teko’ from Teko Modise,” he says.
He imagined becoming a world-class football player in his 20s limbering up preparing for soccer war in the stadiums.
But that dream was shattered when an injury changed the course of his life forever.
This happened when he was 16, playing football in Soweto.
“I got tackled from behind. That was when my knee twisted,” he says.
He didn’t see a doctor, and continued to play. Only now does he regret not going for treatment.
“I thought that maybe if I felt better I could play. Only to find out that I was damaging it and it became worse. Then there was a point where I realized it was no longer working.”
Nkosi was devastated that he may never get the chance to play football again.
He was grieving the loss of his first love not knowing he would find something he would enjoy doing, again.
His sister consoled him and encouraged him to start something new. That’s when he did some serious soul-searching. After weighing his pros and cons, he started thinking of himself as a fashion designer.
“Being a fashion designer, it’s somewhat like a calling. Because I didn’t just wake up and decide to be one or be inspired by someone,” he says.
Fashion taking over his life came as some sort of divine intervention. He says he has never looked back since.
<div id="attachment_36175" style="width: 209px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36175" class="size-medium wp-image-36175" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/291_KM-199x300.jpg" alt="" width="199" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/291_KM-199x300.jpg 199w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/291_KM-300x451.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/291_KM-600x903.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/291_KM-768x1156.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/291_KM-681x1024.jpg 681w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/291_KM.jpg 1361w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px" />Zamaswazi Nkosi. Photograph by Karen Mwendera.</div>
He accepted this calling and hosted fashion shows within his community, in Zola. It seemed the needle – in more ways than one – was turning in his favor.
His first show had only 10 people attending, but that did not discourage him.
Nkosi then attended a SAFW event with the hope he could one day showcase his work on the platform. He watched closely the designs of one of his favorite South African designers, David Tlale, on the runway.
“I told myself ‘no man, I can do this’.”
There was just one hurdle. He had no academic qualifications for the job.
“On big platforms like SAFW they normally require fashion qualifications like a diploma or anything that relates to fashion. So, as Zamaswazi, I had nothing on paper. I only had skill,” he says.
After countless rejections, he one day garnered the courage to speak to the founder of SAFW, Lucilla Booyzen. A nervous but determined 24-year-old Nkosi walked up to her after one of the shows.
Booyzen told Nkosi to do what he had already done before. “Just apply,” she said.
But Nkosi was not having it. The young boy from the township was determined.
“I was like, ‘no if you need paper [qualifications] and I’m dressing my own clothes and it’s proper, why can’t you let me showcase’?”
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2018/04/19/designs-africa-michelle-obama/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Designs For Africa, And Michelle Obama</a>
She then told him to come to her office and talk about opportunities. And the rest was history.
He had to prepare a proposal and showcase his work to a number of top fashionistas. It included creating a fashion portfolio, storyboard and designs of his pieces.
“It took me two weeks to even know what ‘portfolio’ is. That’s how I learned,” says Nkosi.
He was then shortlisted for the ‘scouting menswear collection’ in association with GQ magazine in 2015.
The platform brought his designs to life and Nkosi got his first break at SAFW.
Nkosi has showcased his designs at SAFW events, designing clothes for men that are modern with an African twist. His signature is the hemmed-in African print on to modern clothing. Much like the shirt he is wearing at this interview.
Nkosi relates this to his heritage and humble beginnings that forced him to merge different kinds of material into one. Unlike some of the other designers at sought-after fashion showcases such as SAFW, Nkosi says he designs and sews his clothes himself.
In his hometown Soweto, his friends and neighbors still can’t believe the boy who once played soccer swapped the ball for a sewing machine.
After the interview, he courteously helps us again to carry out our equipment.
Parked outside his house is his red vintage Beetle car with the word ‘Zamaswazi’ engraved on it. He bought the car last year.
Even though the engine doesn’t run he says he plans to work on it so he can do the six-hour drive to attend the annual Durban July.
The trendy man in the white fedora riding a red vintage car through the scenic green landscapes of South Africa to attend a premium horseracing event – it’s a pretty picture indeed.
<div id="attachment_36176" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36176" class="wp-image-36176 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/357_KM-1024x681.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="681" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/357_KM-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/357_KM-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/357_KM-600x399.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/357_KM-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/357_KM.jpg 1902w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Zamaswazi Nkosi designs and sews his clothes himself. Photograph by Karen Mwendera.</div>

365_KM

From Football To Fashion

A mother’s love for dressing her two-year-old daughter, Atlegang, in unique African clothing, inspired her to start a business.
Shweshwe Baby Couture is a clothing label offering vibrant outfits for infant boys and girls.
Gugulethu Kgongoane, a former digital and marketing coordinator for various magazines in South Africa, launched the brand with an online collection 14 months after the birth of her first child.
The 27-year-old realized she didn’t fit into the 9AM to 5PM work routine, so was even more determined to launch her business.
“When I started, I had about $221 start-up capital in hand and made a conscious decision to re-invest the money I got back [from her previous job] into the business. Our vision is to create a global fashion brand that will inspire the confidence, creativity and self-belief of children growing up and living in diverse, global cultures,” says Kgongoane.
The budding entrepreneur admits success for her means being able to wake up and go to bed feeling fulfilled, challenged and inspired.
“I admire a businesswoman who has faith and understands that while life can be hard at the best of times, faith is the knowledge that things will get better.
“It’s about taking the next step when you can’t see the entire staircase,” says Kgongoane.
The Shweshwe collection includes the Atli Dress named after her daughter and the versatile peplum set that can be worn with other items.
Kgongoane will prioritize innovation, and Shweshwe Baby Couture will be known for playing a role in the progression of kids’ wear.
Innovation certainly came in handy for Kgongoane when she decided to turn the simple activity of dressing up a toddler into a full-time business.

14895444_10210793794871737_548385419_o

Africa On A Bib

Growing up in Ulundi, in KwaZulu-Natal, Pearl Khethiwe Thusi would watch her mother sew her own clothes at home.
“I was fascinated to comprehend how ideas could be translated into tangible products,” says Thusi.
Those were her first lessons in creativity. In 2007, she completed a three-year diploma in Clothing and Textile at the Durban University of Technology, and relocated to Cape Town, where she worked for a few years. Soon, she launched her label, Pearls for EL, in 2012, designing and manufacturing genuine leather bags and African apparel for men and women.
Starting with 100 leather bags, sold through direct marketing, the brand gained recognition in the first eight months of its inception. Thusi became known as the ‘Bag Lady’, and secured trading space at Durban’s high-end boutiques. She soon opened her own studio in Glenwood, Durban.
Although she often travels to London, Turkey, and the United Kingdom to exhibit and connect with potential customers and investors, Thusi says her customer is here in Africa.
Of late, she has been doing business in North Africa, where she sees potential. In 2014, she supplied 1,000 leather bags, each worth $68, to Air Zimbabwe stewardesses. She also bagged a R3.4 million ($240,000) deal with Zambia Police, and has a continuing partnership with them. Thusi tells us more:
&nbsp;
What challenges have you faced as a woman in the industry?
&nbsp;
I think not many challenges as a woman but just as a general South African. Issues of funding are still a challenge. Often entrepreneurs want to implement ideas now. It is wonderful to have ideas but implementation requires finance which is a long process for approval and response.
&nbsp;
How would you inspire others with your clothing?
&nbsp;
I would like to see women believe in themselves and their dreams. We can’t all be entrepreneurs but in whatever space we play in, let’s do our best with good intentions and motives. Walk away fulfilled after executing a project, give it your best, be genuine and authentic and make your presence felt by being you.
How can businesses or corporates invest in local designers?
&nbsp;
By looking for ‘ideas that can change the world’. It takes time and patience to develop solid leads for investors. I think designers need to start creating and solving problems for today and the future through sustainable production of raw materials to the end product. You can attract investors for a small business with preparation, planning, strategy and proper research. Finding an investor may be the key to launching a start-up business successfully.
&nbsp;
Where do you see African fashion going?
&nbsp;
It looks exciting. More and more designers are focusing on producing quality products, utilizing different and exciting materials. So this really gives a sense of individuality amongst the designers and quite frankly, consumers do want to look different from what’s been offered in the past. Social media also puts pressure for consumers to always look relevant, so designers score here.

IMG-20151103-WA0010

Bagging It!

The words “the medium is the message” coined by Canadian communications theorist Marshall McLuhan seem apt for Nigerian designer Mai Atafo. He truly is the best medium and model of his work.
When we meet him, the always-immaculate Atafo is dressed in a clean cut black suit, white shirt, yellow tie and socks. His minimalist, unpretentious – and rather understated like the man himself – eponymous shop is located in the heart of Victoria Island, Nigeria. He strides in to meet two new clients in search of the perfect bespoke suit. They have come to the right place.
Pieces of clothing featuring traditional Nigerian design mingle with modern eclectic prints on the racks in the open-plan shop floor. The Mai Atafo brand is known for its Savile Row masterpieces. To the uninitiated, Savile Row is a street in central London known for its bespoke tailoring, and Atafo is a Savile Row Training Academy-certified tailor, of both men’s and women’s suits.
After listening to the new clients and their brief, he asks: “Why do you want this style?” An understanding of what the client is looking for sets the premise for the ensuing four weeks that will go into producing a unique, bespoke suit, typically costing anywhere upwards of N200,000 ($1,000). This level of perfection and attention to detail has earned Atafo an enviable reputation amongst his peers in Nigeria’s fashion industry, and beyond.
Fashion had not always been Atafo’s calling. When he was younger, music was his first love. He was told that as a two-year-old, he only walked when he heard music, and resumed his crawling position when it stopped.
“Until I was 10 years old, all I ever wanted was a guitar, but unfortunately my parents never got it for me otherwise I would be making hits instead,” says Atafo.
His dream of becoming “the next Michael Jackson” was not on the tarot cards though. The sixth of seven siblings, he thankfully also grew up with a keen eye for fashion.
“To me it was more important to look good than to eat,” he says.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-30959" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Mai8-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Mai8-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Mai8-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Mai8.jpg 387w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" /> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-30958" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Mai7-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Mai7-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Mai7-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Mai7.jpg 387w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" /> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-30956" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/MaiA2-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/MaiA2-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/MaiA2-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/MaiA2.jpg 387w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
After acquiring a degree in Agricultural Economics and a master’s degree in Information Systems in the United Kingdom (UK), Atafo decided to stay on in the West. After five years, he decided it was not for him.
“I decided one day that I am more than a statistic, I am more than yet another African looking to make it in the UK, so I took a chance and decided to relocate back home.”
He secured his first job in the research department at British American Tobacco where he stayed for four years after which a stint at Guinness Nigeria PLC followed as an Innovation Manager and then later as brand manager. While at Guinness, Atafo decided to start his fashion career on the side.
And what was Atafo’s trigger?
“My sleeve length is 27 inches which is quite long because the average length is 25 inches, as a result, I struggled to get clothes that fit.”
So he decided to get his own clothes tailored; a practice from secondary school. There was another impetus. A friend was getting married and the groom’s men decided to upstage the bridesmaids. Atafo designed a range of African print-inspired waist coats and matching trousers in lilac and purple that were an instant hit and after replicating the style for five subsequent weddings, Atafo decided to go with his heart and enter fashion, full-throttle.
“I saved money that was equivalent to my one year salary and decided to take the chance. I said to myself, if in one year it doesn’t work, the worst that can happen is I will be a brand manager again.”
That was never to be – he has only worked for himself since.
Five years on, his brand is the recipient of top accolades in the highly-competitive Nigerian fashion industry. Developing the brand was not without challenges though, especially in light of the perception that it is more acceptable to pay higher prices for bespoke pieces made in the West than for those produced locally.
Even though Atafo holds the certificate from London’s elite bespoke tailoring school, he says he still encounters variables of this perception.
“I remember once a customer came to me with a $4,000 Tom Ford suit from the ready-to-wear range. However, the suit was ill-fitting and I was going to charge less than $1,000 to have it tailored and yet the customer complained that the price was way too much.”
Atafo believes it is still a long way before luxury African brands are fully acknowledged. However, he is in no hurry to open up shops abroad. Far from the contrary, Atafo is a proudly Nigerian brand, the name ‘Mai Atafo Inspired’ is born from what influences him the most – his strong Nigerian heritage. He is on a mission to create the first African bespoke brand for the international market, and be a cut above the rest.

MaiA5

The Bespoke Tailor Who Wanted To Be Michael Jackson

It was a sunny southern hemisphere spring day in October 1931 when businessman Max Sonnenberg and his son, Richard, opened the doors of a small shop in Cape Town&#8217;s city center. Allegedly housed in the dining room of the old Royal Hotel on Plein Street, within spitting distance from parliament&#8217;s back entrance, the store promised to bring value and affordability to South Africa&#8217;s white middle class.
Timing was far from ideal. The Wall Street Crash two years before had submerged the world in a frothing whirlpool of economic turmoil. South Africa too, was affected. Despite hardship dominated by poor economic growth, tumbling exports, and mass retrenchments, the store was a success. It did so well that it captured the entrepreneurial imagination of serial businessman Elie Susman who had made his fortune from cattle, banking, and retail.
<div id="attachment_4090" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-4090" class="size-medium wp-image-4090" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/DSC_0382-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />????????????????????????????????????</div>
Having a genuine eye for business opportunities, Susman was taken aback by the success he saw, prompting him to financially back the opening of a second store in Durban. More branches followed suit and soon Woolworths was deeply embedded in South Africans’ day-to-day shopping lexicon.
Since the 1930s, Woolworths has morphed into a multi-billion-dollar holding company, comprising the familiar Woolworths food and clothing brand, as well as Australian brands Country Road and David Jones. The latter, a denim retailer, was bought last year for $2 billion. The acquisition proved to be a massive boost for Woolworths Holdings Limited (WHL), which saw its profit over the first six months to December 28, 2014, jump by 29%. Sales increased by 55%, to $2.56 billion. Without the David Jones business, sales would have grown by only 12.5%.
The David Jones acquisition also led to an expansion of WHL’s footprint, to 1,200 stores in 15 countries worldwide, including Australia. The 633 Woolies branches in 12 African nations, including Botswana, Namibia, and Kenya, however remain the company’s backbone. This number is likely to increase.
“We want to grow our footprint by some 10% per annum for the next three or four years,” says Group CEO, Ian Moir, adding that a lot of attention will go to the food side of the business. “Our food footprint has more than doubled since 2010.”
While WHL has been doing well, things have not always looked bright. The retailer was badly affected by the economic crisis of 2008/2009, which sank South Africa into its first recession in 17 years. Moir says the attitude of the company, which only comprised food and clothing at the time, towards its customers, was one of the culprits.
“We had become complacent, arrogant, and too expensive, and we were not listening to our customers. As a result, our sales plummeted during the recession,” he says.
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The downturn forced Woolworths to rethink its strategy.
“Someone once said that one should never let the benefits of a good recession pass by,” says Moir. “The Woolworths of today sees the customer as king, not the product. That is the big difference. If the customer thinks we are wrong, then we are wrong. If the customer thinks our prices are too high, then the prices are too high. That has been the biggest transformation since the recession.”
Complaints are taken seriously, says Moir.
“We used to be known as arrogant and not wanting to listen. Today, we reply to all complaints, queries, and criticism through our customer communications and social media teams. I even get some of them.”
The Woolworths approach has been well received in South Africa, as well as in other African countries such as Botswana and Namibia. Here the brand is still growing substantially. In some countries however, Woolworths didn’t manage to get off the ground. Nigeria is one of them. Last year the company decided to pull out of Africa’s largest economy for the second time.
“We were losing money hand over fist. Nigeria is a very difficult market for any apparel retailer to make money in. Firstly, the Nigerian retail market is largely informal, with very few shopping malls. The rental of the shopping malls that do exist, is very high,” says Moir.
“Doing business is very difficult, generally speaking, from traveling around to getting goods in the country,” he says, adding that Woolworths uses the same suppliers regardless of the location.
“We made a mistake by going into Nigeria, despite having the right partner,” Moir confesses. “It was the second time we tried it, and we won’t be trying it for a third time. Nigeria just doesn&#8217;t work for us.”
Moir doesn’t see Woolworths’ Nigeria adventure as wasted time. Making mistakes, he says, makes you grow.
“You, as a business, can always get better, and you will always make mistakes and there are always things to learn. My biggest fear is complacency in a business. If you think you won’t make mistakes, then you will fail.”
In other countries, business is going well. Moir says this is a result of the way Woolworths treats its employees.
“Our salaries are competitive and our benefits are better than elsewhere.”
Based on feedback from employees, the jobs portal, Indeed.co.za, gives Woolworths four out of five stars as an employer with staff discounts and incentives lauded. It, however, says salaries are too low and work hours too long.
The brand’s strength, according to Moir, is associated with value, principles, integrity, and sustainability.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-4091" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/woolworths-120-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
The company donates $79,000 to educational causes every week. Moir also says the company is committed to environmental sustainability, such as minimizing water consumption and reducing the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Despite its good intentions, Woolworths has faced the wrath of environmental activists more than once, and for a multitude of issues, including the treatment of pigs, the use of GMOs and claims the company’s free-range milk was not free-range at all.
“That type of activism is good for us as it forces us to do the right thing,” says Moir.
“That is why we, apart from selling free-range eggs, want to ensure that free-range eggs are used in all Woolworths branded products, down to the cake mix. This was a tough process. You are, after all, dealing with large suppliers of which you are not the only customer. As a result, you can’t do things as fast as activists would want you to. It takes years sometimes.”
Environmental activist, Caroline Hurry, however, claims the company won’t speak to her.
“They refused to answer any of my questions in writing. In the beginning, when I started investigating their practices in relation to animal cruelty, they suggested I call them for ‘a little chat’. But being a journalist, I insist on answers in writing. I have also found that the soy in their bread had the second-highest GMO content in the country&#8230; Woolworths doesn’t label all their GM food. At best, the label says ‘may contain GMO’. I have now been blocked on Twitter, by the very account that told us to ask questions,” says Hurry.
While he has sympathy for environmental activists, Moir is no fan of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which calls for the active isolation of Israel and for the country to end its occupation of Palestine. In South Africa, BDS has its teeth firmly sunk into Woolworths. Their objective is to force the retailer to stop selling Israeli products – 0.4% of its total offer.
“These protests were very unpleasant for our staff and customers, with pig heads being left on our shelves and people charging through stores, knocking over our goods, destroying them even. We have had protestors lying on the floor, pouring blood over themselves. A court order has stopped this.”
Despite the court order, the protesters claim their actions were costly for the retailer.
“The campaign is successful and growing. An independent report, released by Wits University, states that WHL has lost close to $3 million, since the start of the #BoycottWoolworths campaign in August last year. A survey among 300 people has shown that 84% of respondents said they stopped shopping at Woolworths shortly after we called for boycott,” says BDS coordinator, Muhammed Desai.
Despite a few setbacks, Woolworths has grown from a small store in Cape Town to an international retailer – a story of shopping bags
to riches.

How David Became A Goliath

She ships out hundreds of jackets every year from Sweden to Japan. Yet, Taran Tarr, unbelievably,  has chosen to run an international cosplay clothing company from her home in a remote mining town 80 kilometers west of Johannesburg.
“I live in Carletonville in the middle of nowhere. When my friends come here they say they have gone into the twilight zone. The town looks like it is set 20 years into the past. I had to ask how I could promote my stuff.  I had to figure out how to promote myself without having to go to Johannesburg constantly,” says Tarr.
Number 5 Beryl Street is a small house. With a rusty gate and low concrete walls, this is the headquarters of BlakBunni cosplay. When Tarr opens the door you would be shocked. Her living room is more mountains of material and sewing machines than lounge and TV. Here, Tarr, along with three ladies including her mother, make character hoodies and cosplay outfits.
In this front-room factory, everywhere is a busy needle. Tarr’s most popular item is her Toothless hoodie, based on the Dragon from How To Train Your Dragon that sells for $150 on Etsy.com.
“It’s like my bread and butter; I make about five or six a month.”
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30678 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/IMG_5673-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_5673-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_5673-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_5673-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_5673.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
After school, the 28-year-old Tarr chased a career many in a town of miners and engineers could never dream of – a fashion designer.
“I tried to get a job as a fashion designer, but apparently, I was not contemporary enough for the industry… It had to work. I had to make it work, because I couldn’t find a job anywhere else,” she says.
Tarr tried her hand at modeling before she moved back home to sew Matric dance dresses and the occasional cosplay outfit. She took a risk and asked her friends at a comic book store, based in Johannesburg, if they could put her hoodies on their shelves.
“That’s kind of where it started. It was just me sewing at the time and it was really tough to meet demand. Back then I could only do two hoodies a week.”
Getting the business off the ground in Carletonville took time, says Tarr. She went in with what she calls a bad business partner and struggled to make more than R1,000 ($80) a month. Social media changed everything.
“I struggled to find inspiration for two years, I didn’t want to do anything. So I got rid of the bad people around me and I started learning how to promote my stuff on social media. Things then exploded. I started getting tons of commissions, I started making more hoodies. I could employ the ladies. In two years, I have grown so much. I am now making R10,000 ($800) a month,” says Tarr.
Because 80% of the outfits Tarr makes sell overseas, sizes are a problem.
“It took a long time for me to learn to make things for people you never see. It’s pretty blind. So I usually ask for photos of the people in tight clothes and for the measurements online so that I have an idea of them. I build a 3D image of them in my mind.”
Orders on the BlakBunni book can be stranger than fiction. Tarr once had an order come in from New York for a full body leather suit for the opening of Persona 5.
“I usually don’t do body suits because they are so difficult. It wasn’t even a spandex one, it was leather. And I am never going to see this person.”
The cosplay business also has hard knocks.
“Last year I was in tears most days because the post office was on a solid six-month strike. The amount of people I had to refund because stuff got lost in the post was incredible. I am sure I lost R10,000 ($800) in refunds.”
Tarr has become more than the fashion designer she wanted to be. Her pieces might not be on the runways of Paris, but they will be carried on the backs of geeks from Japan to Mexico. It is stranger than fiction; you couldn’t have made it up.

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The Businesswoman  In The Twilight Zone

Success stories in South Africa’s clothing industry are few. They are about as rare as finding a standard white T-shirt in your local mass market retailer without the ubiquitous ‘Made in China’ label attached.
The clothing industry has lost around 150,000 jobs since 1996 as it valiantly fought, and lost, the tornado of imports of fast, cheap and disposable fashion from the Far East. It’s estimated that 90% of the clothes hanging on rails in South Africa today have made their way to local shores in vast container-loaded cargo ships chugging across the Indian Ocean.
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It’s the eulogy of a globally uncompetitive economy. And yet, the patient shows signs of life.
Keedo Clothing, a children’s clothing company, is thriving 21 years after its inception. All items are manufactured by a team of 100 seamstresses in Cape Town’s industrial belt and sold in company-owned stores around South Africa as well as exported to 16 countries worldwide.
“Keedo has weathered the 2008 global recession, a flood of cheap Chinese and other clothing imports, a disastrous cotton harvest in 2010 and the collapse of the local textile industry,” says Nelia Annandale, Keedo’s founder.
Keedo began to take form in 1991, shortly after the birth of Annandale’s twins.
“After they were born, I realized that there was not much available in South Africa in terms of children’s clothes which was fun and one hundred percent cotton and good enough for my beautiful offspring.”
Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say, and Annandale created clothing patterns, dyed fabric and stitched up tiny t-shirts, shorts and dresses – all on her kitchen table. But it wasn’t until two years later, in 1993, that inspiration to sell the garments commercially struck.
“I was involved in a near fatal skiing accident which left me in a hospital bed for weeks. During one of my sleepless nights, I realized I had to do something to combine my passion for children, my passion for clothing, for nature all in one and create a brand,” she says.
Annandale had no funds, no formal business training and no experience to speak of but she did have clothing samples; which she took in a brown paper packet to her bank manager’s office and asked for a loan.
“Luckily, my bank manager was a woman so when she touched the clothing she knew it was special. I was granted a little loan and that was what I used to start my business.”
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The first Keedo store opened in 1994 but the company was still very much a one-woman show with Annandale making patterns, cutting, sewing and hand-drawing pictures of animals on the fabric which are core to the company’s nature conservation identity. The shop was tucked away in Cape Town’s sleepy northern suburbs – a good 30-minute drive from the city’s flashy tourist attractions and coastline. This is why it came as a surprise when a Swiss tourist wandered into the store with her small child and bought up a good portion of the merchandise on offer. She returned a little later with a proposition to take Keedo to Europe.
“She called me the day before she was due to fly home and asked if she could take my clothing to Switzerland. She bought a box full of samples and tried it out at an informal market. Three months later, we opened the first international Keedo store in Baden, Switzerland.”
Annandale has spent the two decades since then completely immersed in her company; although these days, she spends less time cutting and sewing and more on conceptualizing new product lines and driving strategic decisions. She is still inspired by children and nature.
Annandale won an award at the International Women’s Entrepreneurial Challenge; the 9th Annual Award for Top Women Successfully Leading Business: Top Gender Empowered Company: SMME; the Cape Chamber of Commerce Exporter of the Year Award in the design category and was named the Business Woman of the Year at the Black Business Quarterly Awards in recognition for her role in transformation.
Woman make up 85% of Keedo’s workforce and the majority of them are single mothers. Annandale says the defining moments in her career are those in which she has had the opportunity to witness women grow from being shy and uneducated to confident individuals in charge of their own lives and jobs.
Her dream for Keedo is that it remains a South African-manufactured product and continues to create jobs in her homeland.

Tag: Clothing

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