The rise of Cape Town, South Africa’s fashion capital

Unrestricted In a country known for its politics and rugged beauty, South Africa’s entrepreneurial young designers are putting Cape Town, the country’s innovative “Mother City,” on the world’s fashion map. Sixteen years after the fall of apartheid, the expression of Cape Town’s unique blend of cultures through inventive styles have thrust the city’s burgeoning designers into the international limelight.; Musicians, designers and extreme sports-enthusiasts define the youthful city that is taking full advantage of the international attention surrounding the 2010 World Cup in order to highlight its emerging fashion scene. With a clothing industry rooted in the unique history and cultural traditions of many heritages, including Dutch Afrikaans, English South African, Indian, Indonesian, Malaysian, Xhosa and Zulu, Cape Town designers have embraced an ethical fashion ethos that celebrates fair labor, eco-friendly production and the city’s myriad of ethnic roots.; Poised on the edge of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, the city yields a rich history of tapestries from the Southeast, tribal African crafts and English and Dutch Afrikaans influences. Designers look to their past to blend traditional designs with contemporary style, ethnic influences and locally crafted materials, embracing their roots while forging a new path through South Africa’s budding fashion industry.; The young, artistic city known for surfing, design and extreme sports, has embraced a DIY mentality bred from an attitude of determination and self-sufficiency born from its location on the tip of a historically overlooked continent.; This celebration of entrepreneurship and individuality has created a thriving fashion scene with a crop of young, independent artists, musicians and designers who have turned the city into a flourishing artistic hub. Designers say anyone who can manage to scrape together the funds to create a clothing collection is supported and encouraged by the local fashion industry – even the slogan of one of South Africa’s many fashion weeks is “Born on the sidewalk, refined on the catwalk.”; Forgoing the days of “brain drain” and “white flight,” more South Africans are now staying and establishing Cape Town as a creative capital for the country, sparking hope among the city’s fashion designers.; This piece is the first of a collection of essays on South African fashion designers in Cape Town. It follows the designers from the summer of 2009 and leads up to the launch of the 2010 World Cup.