We need an intervention!!!

That's exactly what my Twitter post read when I heard about "Pretoria Fashion Week" (read the official release here)

Look - Joburg and Pretoria are about 40kms away from each other and the social cultures and norms bounce off from each other (ie are similar in many ways, although I personally prefer Joburg... it's more open-minded) so why on earth do we need a Pretoria Fashion Week?

This will officially make 9 Fashion Weeks in South Africa - which is RIDICULOUS! There's Audi Joburg Fashion Week (my personal fav.), SA Fashion week (fall collections), Africa Fashion Week, Cape Town Fashion Week, Durban Fashion Week (which seems to be on ice at the moment), SA Fashion Week (s/s), Mpumalanga Fashion Week, Eastern Cape Fashion Week and now... Pretoria Fashion Week. Is this all becoming a Joke now? Seriously...

What's wrong with hosting a fashion workshop? yes with a ramp, models, social booths for media/consumers and designer, auctions and fashion sales, styling and make-up seminars... or whatever. There should be a movement away from "Fashion Week" and more into the lessons we took from fashion week and how to implement those into our daily lives, answering the fashion questions, engaging the consumer far beyond the 1-dimensional way in which classic fashion weeks do it. Compliment Fashion Weeks instead of "doing your own"...

See, my problem is the over-use and exploitation of the term "Fashion Week." It takes more than a ramp, models, producers and designers to make a fashion week. Rather subscribe to the Dezign Indaba recipe which is a fantastic initiative for designers and artists alike. Or how about the beautiful Fashion event Sarita had at the beginning of the year? (they had a ramp, models, a crowd and celebrities but no one called that fashion week).

I am happy that many more towns/cities/regions are excited about promoting their local fashion talent (really makes me happy), but let's not make a mockery of the term "Fashion Week."

If you feel that there is a need for your town to have a fashion EXHIBITION, please call it that and not "Fashion Week" - that term is fast loosing its lustre because of crazy marketers who want to ride the gravy train of well established conveners - who have done tremendous work to get us recognized internationally btw - by calling their local fashion exhibitions a Fashion week.

Get it right and get it Straight... or rather, gayly forward!