South African fashion designer Drew Taylor has been living in Cambodia for 17 years now. He is one of Cambodia's leaders in fashion.
It’s been said that risk is necessary for growth, and that’s what South African designer Drewe Taylor did after deciding to leave the country in 2003.
Taylor has been based in Cambodia for 17 years now. After leaving Mzansi as a hair stylist, he has become one of the leaders in Cambodian fashion.
“I did a year in Vietnam, and after Vietnam, I moved to Kuala Lumpur. I was there for seven years. After Kuala Lumpur, I wanted a challenge, and I moved to Phnom Penh and started a business there. I took a chance-it was a rapidly emerging market,” Taylor explains to The Citizen.
Taylor grew up in KwaZulu-Natal’s small town Kokstad. “Between there and Mthatha,” he says. He left South Africa in 2003 for Vietnam, thinking he would spend just a few years outside Mzansi.
He spoke to The Citizen in Russia while attending the BRICS+ Fashion Summit and the Moscow Fashion Week.
“It’s so nice to meet people from other countries as well, coming from developing countries,” he says of the Summit.
“It’s been so nice to see the similarities. Yesterday on my talk I connected so much with a lady from Benin, hearing the same thing about the challenges of buying online or offline.”
He is the founder and owner of Drewe Taylor Designs.
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Taylor’s entry into fashion
Taylor owns his boutique and a hair salon in Cambodia. “I originally started in South Africa as a hair stylist. I had worked on SA Fashion Week,” he says.
In South Africa, Taylor had also worked with an established local hairdressing franchise, Carlton Hair.
His entry into fashion came from wanting to promote his hair business at avant-garde shows.
“I started designing in 2011. There was no industry at all; there were no international retail brands. There was no one local designer, and we got together and started the first fashion week, which was only foreigners who were based there,” he says.
He jokes that he’s now part of the furniture in the Southeast Asian nation.
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Growing together with the country
He says Cambodia’s fashion industry is behind, and it was challenging at the beginning.
“It’s kind of nice that your business and the country, and the entire fashion industry, were growing together. It was developed, and you’re trying to break in, to be part of it since the beginning has been really special.”
Describing Cambodians, Taylor says they are very open to foreigners, which has made settling easier.
“You know, I ended up getting huge respect from a lot of the young designers, they respect me as one of the sort of one of the few people that are part of the early foundations of the industry.”
As engrossed as he is in the country’s fashion industry, he does share that there are things that are solely for Cambodians, who are also referred to as Khmer, which is the dominant ethnic group of Cambodia.
“Of course, there are situations where there are things that are very much Khmer. There are often things that are very Khmer for Khmer and that I am always totally supportive of,” he says.
“I get that…because there are things where I don’t wanna impose myself or ask why I am not involved. I get that, it’s a new market, new generation and where there are things that are really pushing Cambodian designers, I am fully there to support.”
One of his challenges was navigating the language barrier upon moving to the country and learning about its culture and how it operates.
“Now with the country being developed, now so much of the population speaks English and a lot of the time they wanted to speak English to you because it was only helping them improve their English.”
“In terms of me setting up a business, the tax and all of that…it was not difficult at all. It was a struggle with resources like fabric- it was an issue,” he explains.
Taylor says living in Cambodia has given him more tolerance and understanding of people and their different cultures, their diverse religions and different races.
“Also living in Malaysia before that, they have three races-South Africa has a lot of races. Malaysia seemed a lot like home, you know everyone sort of working together because they’ve got Chinese, Malay and Indian and all different cultures and religions.
“For me what I learnt there [in Malaysia] is that everybody is so accepting and understanding of each other’s cultures and religions. Understanding the Hindus, the Buddhists and all their customs. It made me a lot more accepting and nothing really phases me now,” he shared.
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Cambodian industry
Cambodia’s garment industry is a significant economic force, generating billions and contributing substantially to the nation’s economy.
“We get a lot of cut-offs from factories. So you go in, and you’re obviously looking for tropical weather clothing and suddenly you walk in and realise that production has just stopped in Europe.”
“We’ve got a lot of sustainable brands now because a lot of the big companies like Zara and H&M, you know, tons and literally factories full of jersey fabric are dumped. So we have quite a few brands that use discarded from factories.”
Sustainability has become one of the trendiest terms as humans become more conscious of their impact on the world.
Taylor’s business was unintentionally sustainable from the start, as he had to utilise the resources available to him, including fabric discarded by international brands in Cambodia. For most of his clothes, Taylor deconstructs clothes that were discarded.
“We also get containers of second-hand clothing from Japan, so I just see like tons and tons of this clothing.”
He is currently working on his collection for the upcoming Phnom Penh designer’s week.
“It began in 2013, started as a very collective, and now it’s become sort of the most prestigious event in the country.”
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Missing South Africa
Taylor says he does miss South Africa, adding that with each of his collections, he pays homage to the African continent. “Almost every collection I use African fabric. Even if it’s very subtle.”
He was last in South Africa in 2024 to see family and friends.
“I haven’t been to Cape Town in a long, long time. I always end up in KZN because Phnom Penhis such an intense city, a lot of people and heavy traffic. So to be in the southern Drakensberg and have a bit more chilled time, is what I tend to do.”
He tries to keep track of what’s happening in the South African industry. He discovered local sneaker brand Bathu through an article and decided to pick up a few pairs during his visit home.
“It was my main mission to get one, and I bought myself a couple of sneakers. I was really happy because when I left, there was nothing like that. It’s so cool to see local brands doing something really good.”
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