15 August 2014
It’s been almost two years in the making, but after the most extensive development and research cycle in South African fashion week history, South African Menswear Week will finally be launching in 2015!
Cape Town will play host to SA Menswear Week for the 2015 season, with the first event to take place immediately after Paris Menswear Week, which places the dates from 04 to 07 February 2015. The second event will take place in the first week of July 2015, and once again in Cape Town.
All designers have been invited to participate, and the first designer applications are already in. Our curation panel will oversee all applications, as well as invitations so that only the best designers will walk the catwalks. The curation panel is made up of fashion, business and creative industry experts, and numbers 12 panelists. Each person is considered an expert within their field, and a weighted motivation for, or against, system, with blind ballot ensures that each designer is judged individually and only the strongest cases make it through the two rounds. As to our knowledge, no other fashion week in Africa employs such a stringent, yet fair process.
In terms of logistics, the SAMW team will be working with Africa’s best fashion production company, Group of Creatives, to creatively direct our three show venues, as well as handle the production and direction of every fashion show. GRP/cr8/ also brings a team to handle the music, video and choreography of each fashion show. Our designers have already started with Jen, Seth and the team so that every show is unique, world class and produced to the standards our international media have come to expect from world class platforms.
The City of Cape Town as our official host has provided us Cape Town City Hall as the home of SA Menswear Week. It’s the perfect space, providing a number of venues that create intimate showing venues, as well as areas for hospitality, retail and infrastructure needs such as backstage and storage. There are other city venues under consideration as the space and operational needs of SAMW grow.
Lastly, we wish to welcome all media, designers and partners to register with us so that we are able to keep you up to date with all developments.