Edcon celebrates young and innovative designers

ZAHNRI Gertse was announced as the winner of the 21 Steps to Retail programme, a component of the Edcon Design Innovation Challenge which was held at the George Bizos Hall at the Apartheid Museum in Ormonde on June 27.

The fashion show celebrated the designs of the second cohort of talented young students. The design innovation challenge is an initiative that was launched in September 2016 by Edcon and allows young, aspirant designers a platform to showcase their work.

Neo Rangaka was awarded second prize and Cordelia Maponya placed third. The 21 Steps to Retail programme has been facilitated by Runway Productions, which also organises the annual SA Fashion Week South Africa Premier fashion show.

The event began with a special fashion show wherein each of the 13 designers showcased a portfolio of their work comprising a full eight-piece collection. Prize money to the value of R20 000 for the winner, R15 000 for the second-placed designer and R10 000 for third place was awarded during the event.

A total of 13 post-graduate students from design colleges around the country were chosen as finalists this year. Nine of the finalists have been admitted a 12-month internship at Edcon in Edgars and Jet, where they will gain valuable experience in areas such as buying, merchandising and quality assurance, ladies and men’s wear, children and active wear.

Elelwane Pahlana, divisional executive group transformation and government relations at Edcon, describes how this initiative forms part of Edcon’s transformation journey.

“We have undertaken a number of initiatives by leveraging our expertise and using our platforms to empower women and youth. As the largest non-food retailer in the country, we see it as our duty to drive such initiatives and share our expertise to better the industry as a whole,” said Pahlana.

The Edcon Design Challenge is a learning programme that seeks to enhance the skills of young designers, teach them entrepreneurial proficiency and generally increase the number of local designers from which Edcon can source its merchandise in keeping with its strategy to buy from local manufacturers. Edcon is the only retailer to be a Proudly South African partner. This partnership has led to past participants of the challenge showcasing their working at the Proudly South African Summit, as well as working with top designers such as David Tlale.

One of the primary objectives of the programme is to bolster Edcon’s supply chain and give young designers an opportunity to see their designs sold in Edcon stores. Of the first cohort of Design Innovation Challenge participants from 2017, five were chosen by Edgars buyers to have their ladieswear collections sold in stores from last year, and six more menswear collections will be sold in Edgars from August 2018. In addition, Edcon has employed five of the 2017 intake of young designers while the remainder has secured other employment or are pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities.

Mercia Maserumule, the executive for CSI and sustainability at Edcon, explains how the selection of the young designers for inclusion in Edgars stores is a validation of the goals of the programme.

“The results achieved thus far resonate with what we aimed to achieve, which was to adopt a diversified approach integrating CSI, skills and entrepreneurial development in order to drive local talent development and support the business supply chain. The result has been the creation of a pool of talented young designers who are equipped to succeed on their own terms.”

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