Cape Town Fashion Week kicked off with the Fastrack initiative, aimed at giving promising design students a chance to show there worth.

Impressive clothing created by 10 new-comer South African designers graced the catwalks. A delighted audience saw bright colour blocking and ditsy but clean prints, soft minimalist lines and loose slouchy silhouettes.

Here are a few pictures from designers  Bianca Teixeira, Pietrie Morton, Tina Loftus, Dalena le Roes, Mia Kriek, Lisa van der Vent, Rochelle du Plessis, Habrḕ Wahl and Chelsey Wilson.

Fantastic work!

Watching this event made me realise just how nerve-wracking it is for young South African fashion design students after they’ve finished their studies. The South African fashion industry is a hard nut to crack. Granted, it’s on the up-and-up, but thank goodness for initiatives like this one to give them a boost.

For all those student fashion designers and clothing makers that are stuck after they’ve completed their studies, selling online is not a bad idea. Especially if you want to be your own boss or you can’t find a position in the over-crowded job market. You won’t need much capital to start up; you could do everything from home.

Just a thought.

And bidorbuy is an easy way to start. With the amount of people buying and selling on the site everyday (something like 50 000 successful selling transactions a month), and the fashion section shooting up in sales every month, the ease as which you can get your little business up; it’s definitely something to think about.

Any designers out there who sell online or are thinking about it? Let me know about your experience.