Johannesburg - In an ideal world, accessories and clothes should always complement one another. In the real world, though, things don’t always work out that way. But the right accessory can turn a drab outfit into a fashion statement – even if only to make it look ironically cool.
This is good news for accessory designers, especially now when fashion is more fashionable than before and prices are rising to meet |the demand.
Accessories provide an opportunity for consumers to buy into the latest looks without having to fork out cash for an entire outfit. Exploiting accessories is not just a South African phenomenon, it’s global, and fortunately our designers are not getting left behind – they are rising to meet the new challenge.
When it comes to accessories, you can’t speak of South African designers without mentioning Missibaba. Cape Town-based Chloe Townsend started the label in 2005 after her studies at the London College of Fashion.
Her range features distinctive leather items across bags, wallets, earrings, brooches, necklaces and hairpieces. There is no doubt about the popularity of her designs in the local fashion media. She has featured in big titles such as Elle, Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan.
Her signature style is easily recognisable, the popularity of her designs dispels the stereotype that South Africans appreciate luxury brands that come only from abroad. If it is innovative, beautiful and unique, the market will respond accordingly. Among her clients are popular singer and style icon Lindiwe Suttle and stylist Chu Shuwannapha.
Townsend has an understanding of the importance of creative collaboration. She has worked with popular local designers such as Stiaan Louw, illustrators and Wayawaya, a group of Norwegian entrepreneurs who help Zambian women develop skills. However, one of her most remarkable collaborations is probably her choice to share a shop with fellow accessories designer Kirsten Goss.
Although she has a studio in Durban and set up shop with Missibaba in Cape Town, Kirsten established her label in London. Her range of jewellery in gold, silver, and other precious metals has attracted fans such as Sarah Jessica Parker and some of the royals (she designed pieces for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, and for Prince William’s birthday party).
Last year, her Lily pad ring won the coveted Design Indaba’s Most Beautiful Object in South Africa award.
Based between Cape Town and London, there is no doubt her glamorous designs are going from strength to strength and capturing the imagination of the fashion conscious set with a taste for luxury.
While the more classic materials such as leather and precious metals have proved definitive winners on the accessories landscape, entrepreneurs like Joburg-based Maria McCloy have been exploring a fast-growing niche that embraces the combination of African inspiration with typically Western design.
Seven years ago during a trip to Lesotho, Maria bought a pair of earrings at a Maseru market. When she came back to Joburg everyone who saw them loved them and wanted a pair. She imported them and sold them to friends, colleagues and popular local brand Stoned Cherrie.
She soon recognised the potential of her business and she incorporated her love of vintage bags and shoes into her range. However, instead of merely selling them as they were, she redesigned the bags and shoes by covering them in popular African-style prints. The repurposed designs instantly caught the attention of fashionistas in search of a statement piece with an African twist. Among the fans of McCloy’s work are Siyabonga Ngwekazi, Zaki Ibrahim and Simphiwe Dana.
McCloy is not alone in recognising the potential of African-style prints applied to typically Western designs when it comes to accessories. Joburg-based brand Babatunde started in 2009 as a headgear design experiment.
These days they offer a variety of headgear designs, umbrellas, bow ties, cravats, iPad and laptop covers, all covered in Africa’s favourite colours and prints. This year their umbrella design was nominated by Elle magazine editor Jackie Burger for Design Indaba’s Most Beautiful Object in South Africa Award.
The power of the African print as a fashion statement has been widely adopted. Blogger Tiisetso Molobi, who is affectionately known as the Urban Mosadi, after her blog Urbanmosadi, has started designing and selling backpacks and camera straps. Her designs make use of the popular West African Kente cloth. The camera straps are covered in it, and her bags are a combination of leather and the cloth. In a stroke of sharp business acumen, she has managed to turn her popularity in blogosphere into an opportunity to sell her accessory range, which has become so popular with the early adopting internet savvy set that she is now setting up a website dedicated to her online shop.
The internet has no doubt played an important role when it comes to the development of accessory brands in SA. However, the internet alone does not guarantee success, of course, but for a designer who has a strong and unique product, it is a useful tool. A good example is Cape Town-based designer Katherine Mary Pichulik. In addition to coverage in mainstream magazines like Elle and Marie Claire, her designs have been published in popular SA blogs like A fashion friend, Skattie what are you wearing, Alixisforhire, Visi and Miss Moss. Her fairly young range of African and Indian inspired bespoke necklaces and bangles, which she started last year has attracted the attention of tennis greats the Williams sisters, it has also been worn by international music and fashion superstar Solange Knowles on the cover of Elle SA. The Huffington Post named her label Pichulik, a “significant South African accessories brand”.
Some may doubt it, but the South African market is definitely on the lookout for those statement pieces that make us stand out, proudly South African and yet global. Considering the sometimes unattainable prices of upmarket designer outfits, more and more consumers are looking to the affordable and undoubtedly more versatile designer accessories to take their outfits to the next level. Admittedly, when it comes to items like sunglasses and watches, SA still has a long way to go. As for everything else, with designers like these and even more to look to, maybe it’s time to shift our attention away from the European or American designer bags and jewels, and perhaps look a little closer for unique homegrown innovation, to complement our South African style. - Sunday Independent