Creative production of unique solutions to problems.

My name is Aphelele Chonco, I am currently doing my third year which is the last level of studying towards a National Diploma in Fashion and Textiles.

For as long as I can remember I have always been an aspiring fashion designer and everything that I imagined myself accomplishing was somehow fashion related. My dream has not changed, as in I do not dream of being apart of another industry, I must admit to it having developed and transformed. What makes me say that you may ask? Well from the word go I had known I wanted to get my diploma and jump right into running my very own business and I must admit through my first and second year I was almost certain that was the way it would unfold… Who can blame me though? By that time I had developed a clientele and it is the very obvious norm for all fashion design graduates to start their own business and make reasonably priced garments for a very picky clientele.

Going into business as a fashion designer has been, unfortunately, painted as the very same stale picture. I would beg to differ, I rate fashion is an industry that has not being explored to it’s fullest potential. As much as we see the many individuals rising up as claiming to be aspiring or even established I believe the industry has the potential to house all but it obviously will not seem so if we get married to that same, stale entrepreneurial approach.

Another aspect of the development of the industry that is forcing us designers to get more creative in our approach is being so dominated by the Chinese mass markets and the likes. The truth is their uprising and development affects locally brewed brand quite terribly yet they only provide a problem that we as designers can work productively at solving. Isn’t that the true description of design after all? The creative production of unique solutions to problems.