SAFW Makes History: Pierre Cardin Joins South African Fashion Week
A landmark collaboration connects 24 South African Fashion colleges with one of the great names of Paris couture.
South African Fashion Week has secured the most significant international collaboration in its history. For the first time, the Paris fashion house of Pierre Cardin will work directly with South African fashion students, mentoring the next generation of local designers and opening a door that has never before been open to them.
Through SAFW's relationship with 24 fashion colleges across South Africa, 20 shortlisted students will take part in a workshop led by Pierre Cardin's Artistic Director and designers from the Paris fashion house. Focused on education, mentorship and knowledge transfer, the programme gives young South African creatives direct access to international expertise and creative exchange, building skills and capability across the wider fashion value chain.
The winner receives a three-month internship at Pierre Cardin in Paris. The programme concludes in the Young Designers Award Grand Finale and a Pierre Cardin Couture presentation at SAFW AW27.
For a student in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban or Gqeberha, this is not a certificate. It is a working address in one of the cities where global fashion is decided.
"SAFW has always believed a sustainable, designer-led fashion industry must be built from the bottom up. Strengthening education and skills ultimately strengthens the entire value chain." Says Lucilla Booyzen, Founder of South African Fashion Week
WHERE DESIGN BECOMES INDUSTRY
Founded in Johannesburg in 1997, South African Fashion Week has spent close to three decades building something larger than a seasonal showcase. It has evolved into a year-round industry ecosystem connecting education, designers, manufacturing, media, retail and consumers - infrastructure designed to move creative talent towards sustainable business.
This season, SAFW Student Competition finalist garments will be exhibited alongside the AW27 Collections, placing students and colleges directly inside the wider fashion industry environment rather than at the edge of it. Through the access to market SAFW provides - connecting them with established designers, media, buyers, retailers and sponsors - young creatives gain the exposure and relationships they need to build their brands.
Together, the SAFW Student Competition, the Pierre Cardin Young Designers Award and the SAFW New Talent Search form a single connected pathway: from education, to emerging talent, to independent designer, to sustainable fashion business.
This is the purpose of the SAFW ecosystem - to turn talent into business, connections into opportunity, and visibility into value.
THE AW27 SEASON
The Pierre Cardin collaboration runs within an AW27 season that brings together established South African names and new creative voices across couture, tailoring, menswear, streetwear, heritage, craft and contemporary African design - from Black Coffee, Ephymol and Colleen Eitzen to Sober Design House marking 20 years, and a first for SAFW in David Tlale and Interns by David Tlale, which brings five young designers onto one stage. The AW27 Collections conclude with Gert-Johan Coetzee's show on Sunday, 25 October.
The nine emerging designers of the SAFW New Talent Search show this season as the next step on the same pathway.
*Information provided by the publicist.
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