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Is it better to work for a fashion brand or start your own?

naven@cafb.co.za — Sat, 16 Oct 2021 21:13:54 +0000

Is it better to work for a fashion brand or start your own?

Starting a fashion business can be done alone, but for it to be truly successful, you’ll need to work with other people, whether you choose to employ them or outsource them. This article is all about whether it’s better for you to work in an existing fashion business or if it’s time for you to fly solo. Let’s get stuck in:

What’s it like to work for a fashion business?

Working for another fashion business means that you’re responsible for helping that business meeting its goals. Depending on the scale of the fashion business you work for, you may be someone who can fill various roles or you’ll be part of a specific department or function. Smaller fashion businesses offer a little more freedom, responsibility and exposure per employee, to all elements of managing the business; there is less bureaucracy and business success is often more visible.

Working in a bigger fashion business is just like working for any other big business. There’s likely to be less integration and cross-functional work per employee the bigger the organisation is, but there are other benefits. Larger organisations tend to have budgets for skills development, so whichever department you do work in, you’re probably going to get access to specialist skills training programmes or accredited courses.

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Benefits of working for an existing fashion business:

This is similar to the perks of regular employment at any other business, and includes:

A certain and regular salary every month.
Possible employee benefits, like pension, medical aid, disability cover etc.
A defined scope of work and company structure, which enables you to focus on a core competency without distractions.
Existing brand equity, so you can network professionally with more impact.
Defined hours of work, with rare disturbances outside of your shifts or business hours.
Human resources staff and processes that already exist so you don’t need to create them.
Health and safety, and compliance, teams who take care of everything from fire safety to first aid, so you can focus on your job as an individual.
Possible car and telephone allowances, or these items can be entirely company-provided.
Repairs and maintenance being someone else’s problem, for the business premises, machinery and equipment.

Downsides to working for another fashion business:

There are also a few downsides to working for another business. Depending on what matters most to you at work, some of these may apply:

Limited creative freedom.
You may need to work overtime to help deliver orders in time.
You get a limited amount of leave days every year, so you have to plan time with family in advance, sometimes as long as four weeks ahead.
Bureaucracy and office or factory politics.
Complex company structures and processes can be overwhelming and confusing.
Limited control over and contribution to developing company goals and strategies.
It can become monotonous and boring over time, especially if you’re not being promoted or cross-trained in other departments.

What’s it like to start your own fashion business?

This experience is unique to every person who starts a fashion business. Your work experience, skill set and interpersonal communication style all play a part. The most sensible way to go about this is to start small, and scale up as you find opportunities to grow your business over time.

Benefits of starting your own fashion business:

We have worked with fashion entrepreneurs and fashion business owners since 2012, and here’s what they say are the biggest benefits of starting their own businesses:

“I get to be my own boss” – freedom and self-respect are yours in your own business.
“I can work flexi-hours” – you can adjust your schedule to work around your family’s needs, like your children’s school timetables or your book club meetings.
“I feel in control” – there’s nobody instructing you on what to do; you can follow your own system and instincts.

Is it hard to start a fashion business?

This is a matter of perspective. Our experience of working with employees and entrepreneurs in the fashion industry since 2012 gives us authentic insight to the process. Here’s what some of our programme members had to say about their start-up journeys:

There is so much admin: CIPC, SARS, banking, POPIA, PAIA, CPA – it’s a gauntlet to work through all of this and understand it if you can’t afford consultants to help.
Funding is hard to come by, and without it, you have to save up for a long time even just for material.
Getting your label into stores can be a challenge; some shops have lots of rules or they only take you in if you’re already in other stores.

Starting any kind of business is challenging, and there’s a lot of red tape around running a company in South Africa. None of this means that it’s impossible. You just need to decide your ultimate goal, and there’s nothing wrong with that being to work and grow your career in existing fashion businesses, or to learn by doing, and starting up your own.

What do you need to start a fashion business?

Like we’ve discussed, creativity is important for a creative business like a fashion brand. Whatever products you decide to create, you’re going to offer a unique style and brand story. Here are the basic needs for you to get started:

Target audience: you must know who you want to serve, what about your offering will appeal to those people, and how you’ll communicate with them.
Differentiation: there are thousands of fashion start-ups entering the industry every month, but what makes yours different, and why will yours be worth supporting?
Vision: define what success is for your business, and what you will use your business to achieve. The best company vision is one that acknowledges people and the environment, in addition to corporate or commercial goals.
Equipment: the amount and type of equipment you need will depend on what kind of fashion business you’re starting, and what portion of design, development, production, marketing, distribution, sales and administration you do yourself.
Service directory: start researching and shortlisting options for outsourcing parts of your business, from material and equipment suppliers to accountants, human resource consultants and even IT experts.
Workstation: it doesn’t need to be a flashy building in an expensive district. A neat space to work is all you need, whether it’s your dining room table or a spare room in your house. Many people set up wendy-houses on their properties, with electricity and plumbing, to use as home office space.
Brand: a business name for trading (make sure you don’t use a name that’s already taken – you can run a search on the CIPC website to check availability), a basic logo and maybe a label design.
Banking: if you’re hesitant and you want to field-test your fashion business before going through formal registration, start by opening up a new bank account in your personal name, and trade as a sole proprietor for your first 6-12 months, so you can begin to build up capital for growth, and know for sure that you can safely receive and spend business money without getting confused about what belongs to you or to the business.
Capital: usually, to get at least one batch of samples ready, you’ll need to have a bit of money saved away for materials and tools, or to pay for outsourced work.
Mentorship or advisors: this is also where our programmes fit in. It’s wise, and it feels good, to have someone in your corner. You can get advice on branding, marketing, sales strategies, streamlining and growing production once you get it all up and running – this is one item on the checklist that will never be obsolete!

Do you need a business plan for a fashion business?

If you are starting a corporate fashion business that’s large in scale, this requires a lot of capital and if you don’t have it readily available then you need to find funding elsewhere. To get a business loan, or to find private investors, you will most likely need a business plan. Take planning seriously: the business plan will indicate to the investors or finance team how well-thought-out your entire business model is, from identifying market potential to projecting realistic revenue estimates.

Creative Angels Fashion Benefit has a selection of start-up programmes for fashion entrepreneurs, which cover the basics of fashion business management. Some of these programmes are completely free, and some of the premium programmes will offer you the chance to consult with a member of our team, to ask specific questions and get the support you need.

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Can you work remotely in a fashion business?

naven@cafb.co.za — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 21:32:00 +0000

Can you work remotely in a fashion business?

Remote work is on the rise and has been spurred on even more by the social restrictions resulting from global responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Around the world, millions of fashion businesses are facing the challenge of trying to work remotely, or shutting down entire departments or altogether. We’re here to discuss how you can model your fashion business so that it can offer remote work for you and for any employees you have.

What do you need to work remotely?

Working remotely comes with a unique set of pros and cons. It all depends on what kind of work you do, and also whether you’re employed, freelancing, consulting or running your own business. Needs will vary for every industry and role; not everyone in every industry can enjoy remote work.

Working remotely in fashion businesses:

Fashion is a broad industry, which means that there are some kinds of fashion businesses that can easily move to remote work, and others which will experience challenges with this. The scale of the fashion business you work in also plays a role here:

What kinds of fashion businesses can work remotely?

Home based fashion businesses are the most obvious kind: many fashion entrepreneurs work from rooms within their homes or from their garages or outbuildings. The latter applies for some small scale fashion businesses too, especially those manufacturing jewellery and accessories, rather than garments. The reason for this is that the fashion business is still in start-up or SMME phase, where costs are kept as low as possible, and no staff are taken on unless absolutely necessary, often on a casual, temporary or contract basis instead of permanent.

Do niche fashion businesses work better remotely?

To answer this we need to be clear about what a niche fashion business is. It could be a fashion business that is overall small in scale, like a home based business, or it could be a business that is moderate to large in size but only fulfills a single part of the process of creating fashion-related products. In these situations there is less complexity around the business operation, so less production, storage and administration space is required by the fashion businesses in question.

Can large scale fashion businesses offer remote work?

For a selection of employees, yes, this would be possible. The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing all fashion businesses to consider opportunities for remote work. As consumer demand for specific items drops due to the rise in unemployment, fashion businesses are left with less revenue, smaller profit margins and some are even running at a loss. Large scale fashion businesses can offer partial remote work or empower a portion of their workforce to build themselves up as service providers, who can then be outsourced.

Is it risky for fashion businesses to work remotely?

Every business decision comes with risk. When it comes to working remotely, it’s impossible to achieve a 100% compliance status with any health and safety code. How do you know that your remote employees are adhering to safety protocols, like not allowing their children near any machinery or equipment that they’ve set up? How do you track targets and progress, handle equipment failures or service needs? Even if your employees have space in their personal physical environments, for the materials they need to work with, how do you account for the imposition that it might be on them and their families?

Tips for working remotely as a fashion business:

If you’re an independent fashion entrepreneur, or a small scale fashion business owner, here are some tips for working remotely:

Manage your time effectively. If you live with other people, there will be peak and off-peak times at which the home environment becomes noisy. Manage your time so that you can check off tasks in smaller chunks of time instead of battling to go a full eight hours. If you need to take advantage of early mornings, late nights and weekends, it might be an option depending on your goals, orders, deadlines and management (if you’re not part of management already).
Dedicate space for work. Not everyone has this luxury but try your best to set up a dedicated table or desk, drawer, shelf, or room, for you to work. A lot of people use their dining room tables and there’s no reason that you can’t do the same. We at CAFB suggest having a system or rule in place where you can work at the table, allow others to do the same if they need to and clear up or keep the space tidy if it’s needed for another purpose by someone else.
Communicate. Unless you’re flying absolutely solo, you have service providers, suppliers, staff or associates and partners, managers or team leaders who you work with. Working remotely means that people can’t pick up their heads to see you working – they may disturb you more often by calling you, or ask you more questions than you’re normally used to being asked. You need to approach communication as an over-communicator who never works on assumption, when you work remotely in a fashion business.

Are there any benefits to working remotely in fashion?

Like we said earlier, working remotely comes with pros and cons and this is no different for fashion businesses. Some of the pros include:

Reduced premises and infrastructure costs: rent, utilities, telephony etc. – this is a big deal if you’re the owner of the fashion business.
Reduced travel costs to and from work.
Eliminating travel time to and from work.
Reduced labour costs if you choose to outsource more functions when your fashion business works remotely.

The bottom line is that you can work remotely in the fashion industry. You’ll need to plan it carefully and make some big decisions about the day-to-day activities, but it is possible at all scales of business and it is an option for you.

If you have other questions about fashion business, you can browse the rest of our articles or check out our fashion business programmes to fast-track your learning and success.

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How to grow your fashion business with CAFB:

naven@cafb.co.za — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 21:36:00 +0000

How to grow your fashion business with CAFB:

Starting and growing a fashion business are two different things. Starting a fashion business as an independent entrepreneur will be different to starting one as a former corporate or commercial fashion business employee. Growing a fashion business depends on many variables, some of which we’re discussing in this article.

Is your fashion business ready for growth?

Starting up and scaling up are different. To know if you’re ready to enter a growth phase, you need to assess your business the way it is right now. There is a wide range of business review models and frameworks available for you to do this, but here are the essential aspects you need to focus on:

Brand awareness: how well-recognised is your brand among your target audience?
Marketing: are people looking for your products; is there enough demand for what you offer?
Sales: is your product available to the people looking for such products? Is it easy enough for your customers to access what you offer?
Administration: how organised is your fashion business, internally and when dealing with customers, service providers, suppliers and partners?
Production: can your current production process and layout deliver orders and stock on time?

Growing brand awareness for your fashion business:

Brand awareness is measured and achieved in different ways. Today there are convenient digital tools that you can use to assess something called ‘online sentiment’ – these tools scour social media feeds and publicly available information on the Internet to show you how the active web users may feel about your brand.

You can also use web analytics and other tools like Google Search Console to determine how visible you are to the groups of people searching for both your brand, and for keywords that are relevant to your products. Digital tools work best in today’s world because they make your brand, products and narrative accessible to millions of people without them needing to physically speak with you or see you.

What’s the difference between brand awareness and marketing?

Sometimes brand awareness is considered to be a part of marketing. The biggest difference, though, is that brand awareness activities and campaigns usually don’t have sales-related goals. Marketing is all about feeding your fashion business sales opportunities, but brand awareness is measured differently, like with some of the tools described above.

Fashion business marketing:

Marketing is an extremely broad business function. Today, the most successful fashion businesses integrate their marketing with their product development, sales strategies and even their production and logistics functions. Fashion business marketing can be both traditional, digital or a hybrid mix of both.

Traditional fashion business marketing may involve printed clothing catalogues and newspaper ads, like the inserts that used to come with Sunday morning newspapers. It can be more costly and more difficult to measure effectively, which is why digital advertising continues to grow in appeal. Digital marketing is a combination of artistic and analytical skills, where targets are more clearly defined, and you can attribute the cost of a sale specifically per channel, if you structure it the right way.

If your fashion business offers eCommerce facilities, you can use digital marketing activities to track even more activities in your business. Often, in a country like South Africa where developing communities might form a part of your target audience, a hybrid mix of both traditional and digital marketing works best.

Fashion business sales:

Now that you understand fashion business marketing, sales becomes easier to handle. If your marketing strategy is effective, you’ll create interest in and demand for your products. Sales, then, simply becomes focused on the transaction of meeting customer demand for your products.

To grow your fashion business sales you need to grow your marketing. This doesn’t automatically mean spending a lot of money but it does mean making an effort. It’s during the sales process that you can discover clues to help improve your brand awareness and marketing activities beyond current performance.

If people want your product but can’t find it, there’s only so long they’ll wait before finding a substitute or, even worse, altering their situation so that their needs change and your product no longer has a place in their lives. Fashion is known to be a fast-paced and fickle industry, hence the term ‘fast fashion’. How are you going to keep your customers happy?

Fashion business administration:

Often overlooked, the administration side of a fashion business is in fact its foundation. When you think about growing your fashion business, you need to remember that you’ll be handling more calls and emails, sales orders, transactions, ordering more materials and possibly even needing to grow your staff compliment. All of this can be stressful if you don’t have a growth plan in place.

Growing production capacity in a fashion business:

Without a production plan, you’ve got no fashion business. It doesn’t matter what scale you’re at right now; if you want to grow, you can’t avoid reviewing this function of your fashion business. Any kind of product, whether an accessory or a garment, is produced through a process of transforming and combining input materials; successful fashion businesses also include quality control as a part of the production process.

How to tell if your fashion business is growing:

When you choose an area of growth for your fashion business, you’ll need to decide how you’re going to measure that growth. Here are some metrics we suggest, for measuring growth across your fashion business:

Brand awareness

Social media following
Organic search impressions for your website (visibility)

Number of unique visitors to your website

Marketing

Marketing cost per sale per channel
Percentage of abandoned eCommerce carts that get recovered through remarketing activities
Number of enquiries about stock availability and product variations

Sales

Revenue
Number of sales orders
Number of products per order

Administration

Number of invoices generated each week or month
How long it takes to process daily administration (eg. checking emails)
Number of enquiries you process over all your communication channels

Production

How much material you process weekly or monthly
How many units you produce weekly or monthly

How many production staff are required to fulfill orders in time

While these metrics are only suggestions, and not the entire scope of how you can measure the growth of your fashion business, they can be useful for you in your business journey.

What to look out for while growing your fashion business:

Growing a business comes with a unique set of challenges. You can ruin a good thing by growing too fast or taking on too much operational cost without growing your revenue and customer base enough. You can also stress your team out so much that your product quality drops, and your fashion business loses money on managing returns and processing more administrative work as a result.

This is why we strongly recommend choosing one area of growth at a time, and planning it out properly so that you can measure and adjust for that growth over time. If something goes wrong, you’ll know about it long before it becomes a disaster, and you’ll be able to consult with advisors or adjust your strategy in time. Taking on too much or being too ambitious with your business can create more problems that it solves and this is what you need to avoid.

How can CAFB help you grow your fashion business?

Creative Angels Fashion Benefit offers a range of free and premium fashion business programmes that you can subscribe to, to help you with the process of identifying your best growth area, then developing and implementing a growth plan to your advantage. What we offer has been designed by our team, and draws on professional qualifications and decades of collective experience. Our premium products offer you even more support no matter where you are in the world.

Who can register for CAFB’s fashion business programmes?

If you want to grow your fashion business then you’ll need to have started already. If you’re only just starting out and you want guidance on doing it the right way then we recommend that you choose from our specially designed beginner programmes. It doesn’t matter if you’re a fashion graduate, a dressmaker, patternmaker, tailor or an independent entrepreneur; what we want to see is your desire to further your ambitions and grow what you have now, into a more successful fashion business.

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Learn to model without matric or a high school diploma

naven@cafb.co.za — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 08:32:00 +0000

Learn to model without matric or a high school diploma

All around the world, students leaving high school are under pressure to present good grades in order to receive opportunities to work and build a career. This is both a good thing and it also creates a whole other set of challenges for young people, so our programmes help young people build creative careers without matric certificates or high school diplomas.

Matriculating or graduating from high school is a big deal. It determines whether or not a student will get into college, and for which field of study. It is also seen as a mark of competence, and is used to benchmark a person’s employability, which can be unfair.

Not everyone is destined for academic success, but society has commoditised education to the point at which no high school certificate means less value as a prospective employee. Although technical skills might be lacking in a student without such a qualification, it doesn’t mean that the student won’t be a great employee or a successful business owner later on in life. We at CAFB believe that creative careers are just as viable as traditional medical, engineering, scientific or financial careers.

Learn to model:

Modelling is about the way you carry yourself in certain environments: understanding how to walk, speak and present yourself and other brands with grace, dignity and appeal to the target audience. This means that anyone can learn to model, and that the height, weight and measurement requirements of the mainstream modelling industry are disintegrating as more people come to the realisation. We don’t enjoy using labels, but we do take notice of the headlines that mention differently abled people and diverse physiques taking to the runway or featuring in catalogues.

You can use our free and premium programmes to learn to model. Our digital programmes are designed to help you learn about the basics, and if you’re serious about building yourself a modelling career then you’ll be interested in our premium products that help you enter the industry safely and with a higher chance of success.

Do you need matric to learn to model?

No. You can learn to model without any previous experience or qualifications, including matric or a high school diploma.

Can you use modelling to earn money to study?

Yes, of course! We have trained plenty of people who booked modelling jobs to help pay for their studies. You can use your modelling skills and confidence as a way to raise funds for other goals in your life, be it studying any academic field or achieving other milestones in life.

Fashion modelling qualifications

Fashion modelling is a multifaceted industry. This means that there are many ways to work in the field, and there are different schools of thought about each one. Although fashion model training is evolving around the world, the industry standards aren’t fully formalised into academic structures.

Training is expensive at mainstream or professional agencies, and it can be costly to begin your modelling portfolio, let alone get better at the craft. This is why we offer a range of free and cost-effective digital programmes to help you learn without taking student loans. Click here to look at the options.

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Is fashion modelling a real career?

naven@cafb.co.za — Sat, 06 Jun 2020 12:51:00 +0000

Is fashion modelling a real career?

A career and a job as a fashion model, like with everything else in life, are two completely different things. You could know enough to successfully work a few modelling jobs but to build a career takes passion, dedication and discipline, like with all other fields of work. You need to make a decision about what success really looks like for you before you go ahead and try to build it.

Most people, when they start out, have this idea that modelling is a fast-track to living a high life: parties, cash, luxury everywhere. In reality it’s like every other career path: you have to start at the bottom, learn and work your way up to the higher earning roles. If you’re not in it for the long run, you may get some well-paying modelling jobs but you’re not going to stand out from your competitors as a worthwhile investment to any agency that’s charging big bucks for an hour of talent on site.

The good thing about fashion modelling is that whether you make a career of it or you try it out for a while and pursue something else, the skills will always stay with you and you’ll have that inner fire of blazing confidence to draw on time and time again from the career path that you do eventually settle on.

How much money do fashion models make?

Fashion models start out probably being exploited for volunteering their talent. ‘TFCD’ is a mismanaged concept today and there are red flags popping up everywhere you look. There’s a difference between what we believe should be happening and what actually goes on around the world.

Here’s what should happen:

If you haven’t modelled before: it’s okay to volunteer to network, get yourself some entry level work and possibly get yourself scouted. The pay is anywhere from a few hundred rand to just over a thousand if you’re working for more established organisations.
If you’ve volunteered as an extra or walked at a show before: you can negotiate for a slightly higher fee once you’ve had some experience working with a production team. Depending on who you’ve worked for or with, you can use that to your advantage.
If you’ve completed a beginner’s course and have no experience yet: Depending on who you’ve been trained by, you can use this to your advantage. We at CAFB have been training aspiring models since 2012, and we’ve enabled people to go from our courses directly into model agency talent books. This kind of work can earn you anything from a stable minimum wage with travel and fitness benefits, to moderate or high paying freelance work.
If you’ve completed a beginner course and have between 3-10 jobs in your portfolio: At this point you have momentum and a few references for your portfolio or CV (resume). You can earn a mid-weight salary if you’re working full time for a single professional agency, doing a mix of photographic, runway and commercial bookings.
If you’ve completed advanced courses and have worked for more than 20 bookings: This is where you start earning well enough as a professional model, and you’ll most likely be managed by an agency. Professional models often prefer letting someone else worry about contracts and admin, and show up to do their best work, leave and get paid for it.

How can you earn more as a fashion model?

There are times when it feels like you’ve hit a wall as a fashion model. You’re getting regular bookings but either it’s the same thing over and over, or it’s not paying what you’re aiming to earn. You can use the following ways to increase your earnings as a fashion model:

Perfect your technique

Do the basics really well and you’ll stand out as an asset. Doug from Mira 9 Group tells us every year that hardly any of the models at professional castings, screenings and auditions get the basics right. Do you know what a model stance is? Is your posture correct? How do you actually transition from standing to walking?

This is precisely why we’ve made the basic lessons available by email so you can learn the right techniques and perfect them from wherever you are in the world.

It seems almost frustrating how simple these things are: sitting, standing, walking. Do them really well and show that off at your auditions and you’ll book more jobs, develop a reputation as someone who knows what you’re doing and open doors of opportunity to higher paying jobs in the process.

Networking

Every career can be furthered through networking. Who knows you is just as important as what you know. Fashion modelling is no different.

Expand your network to include people who can mentor you and introduce you to project managers, commercial directors and other creative professionals. Today you have the advantage of social media networks like LinkedIn and Facebook as well: use them. Networking doesn’t mean shoving your profile under the nose of every creative project decision-maker either, so be mindful of how you open and maintain these relationships.

Diversify your portfolio

This applies to you as a fashion model as much as it does to an investor. If you’ve only ever auditioned for runway shows, try out for commercials or photographic work. Modelling for stock photos is another option, and even working as an extra on a set for a series or movie. You can earn more by trying something new.

Toss out the prejudice in your mind because you don’t know how good you are at something until you try. Really try. Not just half-bake an attempt at it because you’ve decided that you’re no good anyway. Choose something you can try and then apply, audition and show up for trials. That’s how you’ll earn more.

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How is Africa’s youth the key to building a strong economy?

naven@cafb.co.za — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 13:07:00 +0000

How is Africa's youth the key to building a strong economy?

It can hardly be disputed that the importance of youth and the current ‘millennial’ generation transcends economics, social issues and national prosperity, particularly in Africa. The demand for skilled workers in the knowledge economy has created hindrance for a large portion of the world’s youth, especially in developing countries where higher education systems are burdened with the challenge of ‘adding value’ in terms of enhancing the employability in the new age labour market. A lot of young people around the world are sadly unable to find decent work, despite many of them holding professional qualifications.

Is it worth going to college if you live in Africa?

Worthy of note is that today’s youth find themselves in an era where, for the first time in modern history, the pure economic value of a higher qualification has reached an unprecedented low. Azim Shariff, in his book, observed that adults engaged in self-employment more than youth, especially in developed countries. He further observed that self-employment is much more appreciated among Sub-Saharan Africa than other regions of the world.

Africa’s youth have a distinct energy and value:

Youth are recognised as a major source of human capital and serve as key agents of socio-economic, cultural and political development, not to mention their valued and insatiable appetite for technology and its advancements. The boundless vision, ideologies and energy of young people (less than 35yrs of age, according to our South African classifications) are essential for the continuing development of society. Their training, development, intellectual perspectives and productive abilities are key determinants of the progress and future of the human race.

Why is it so hard for youth to find jobs in Africa?

It’s an uphill battle for millions of young people across the world to find employment and secure long-lasting opportunities because of relevance. Being a lifelong student, as a principle, has never been more important than it is today. We should be strongly encouraging present youth and future generations to accelerate their critical thinking abilities, innovative questioning methods of design, and we should be fostering creativity instead of damaging it through obsolete education systems and endless lists of standardised assessments.

Where can Africa draw inspiration for its education systems?

Consider education in Poland, Finland and Iceland where nature and climate change are critical challenges which children are invited to feel responsible for contributing to the solution of: homework is unheard of and classrooms flex between the indoor and outdoor environments. This approach radically changes the relationship that youth develop with the world around them.

Youth deserve a seat at the decision-making table, as proven by young Greta Thunberg who fearlessly took on the United Nations and began a modern climate revolution among youth, questioning the necessity of adhering to a timetable which ignored the plight of our planet. Robust economic growth will only be achieved if we can extend a hand out to truly empower youth. All this talk of sustainable development goals and impact investing really amount to nothing if we don’t invite the key audience to engage with those very voices, on the issues at hand.

What’s the impact of youth unemployment in Africa?

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to calculate the devastating effects of a high unemployment rate. Lower production, thinner distribution of wealth, less tax capital: the reach is deeper than we realise. Is it too emotionless, then, to think of unemployment as an inefficient use of existing resources instead of a reason to throw a pity party?

Opportunities for unemployed youth in Africa:

Considering mass retrenchments underway at companies like Standard Bank, is it too cold and brutal to ask the fundamental question of what could 1000+ former employees do to bring up their own skill levels and address their need for income in a different way to applying at another similar organisation? Then again, it’s also worth noting that not everyone who is out of work is considered unemployed. A high net worth individual not dependent on being registered as an employee within an organisation actually doesn’t fall under the label of ‘unemployed’ persons.

Hence, it’s usually those with mid-level net worth or below that which are stereotyped into the funnel of crime to literally put food on the table for their families. What does this get us? Neighbourhood deterioration and more pressure on already-burdened police forces which battle enough corruption on a day-to-day basis.

Youth employment solutions you can be part of:

So, what are we trying to tell you? Buy fruit and veg from your local farmer’s market; spend money on tickets to watch local theatre productions in between your visits to watch the blockbuster movies; create work and create opportunities for young people where you can because your single idea may easily impact more than 100 lives within just one year of bringing it to life.

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Exploring the perception of gender in Africa.

naven@cafb.co.za — Wed, 08 May 2019 15:52:00 +0000

Exploring the perception of gender in Africa

Women empowerment in Africa:

Women Empowerment is a significant topic of discussion, mainly in Africa and other developing regions. Leaders have lately realised that the development that they aspire to cannot be achieved unless we achieve gender equality by empowering women. The economic empowerment of women refers to their right to control economic decisions, income, assets and other equivalents; improving their economic and social status.

What is women empowerment?

Women Empowerment means promoting women in their social, political and economic development; providing them equal opportunities of employment, education, economic development and allowing them to socialise – the freedoms and rights that are in equal terms with male counterparts. It is the process which empowers women to believe that they too can achieve their aspirations as do the men of society.

Patriarchy vs. women empowerment:

Patriarchy has done well to create a myth that motherhood and chores around the household are the only spheres ordained for women. Being considered the natural bearers of life, it is taken for granted that women are to fulfill the roles of child-rearers alone too. Patriarchy celebrates this innate capacity of women as ‘woman power’. It indulges in an exaggeration of the motherly values of nature.

Patriarchy vs. feminism:

Self-effacement, unconditional love and devoted service are demanded from women for the perpetuation of patriarchal norms. This results in an idealisation of motherhood which confines women to the roles of nurturers. Feminist movements recognise this as the trap – patriarchy elevates motherhood and misleads women in order to exploit and circumscribe them.

Feminism movements attribute motherhood (as a construct of patriarchal society) to be highly oppressive for a number of reasons. One of these is because the patriarchal version of motherhood is far from a liberating or enriching experience. It’s an expectation.

This makes it even more important for patriarchy to receive contest from society. After all, why should it be acceptable that a woman be forced to pursue a man’s perception of what happiness should be for her? Betty Friedan relates the true essence of motherhood in her book, The Feminine Mystique.

Women empowerment and motherhood:

Motherliness is a way of life: it enables a woman to express her total self with the tender feelings, the protective attitudes, and the encompassing love of deep-rooted genetic tendencies that go with motherhood. But patriarchy misuses it as an instrument to subordinate women as a whole. The experience of maternity has been channeled to serve male interests and to stabilise patriarchal laws as the universal law for women.

How does marriage influence women empowerment in Africa?

In addition, the sanctity of motherhood is accepted only when acknowledged by matrimony. The man-made society commands that motherhood is valid only within the bounds of marriage and it desecrates unwed motherhood as a curse for women. What about the irresponsible men who father children out of wedlock and walk free without the responsibilities or child maintenance lingering in their minds?

Women empowerment and working women:

Women across the globe have been taking the world by storm through leadership and empowerment, yet the urge to tear down the reputation of others still hasn’t left us. Both men and women are guilty of degrading women in our society. Instead of being shown appreciation and encouragement for having the strength to go out, work and advocate for meaningful empowerment, they are slated for neglecting their families and homes.

Women are treated differently for pursuing careers:

We have men who claim to want to provide for women and permit them the freedom to follow their dreams, not willing to consider that a working life may very well be exactly what women are driven to build. The threat of potentially being overthrown as the breadwinner is sometimes what drives the overbearing attitude of men, toward women who pursue professional qualifications and choose higher-paying intellectual careers over the opportunity of assisting their family or husbands’ families’ businesses by contributing in operational or trade-based roles. Our entire society would be better off recognising the profound potential of such women, instead of trying to contain it.

Is the homemaker role synonymous with women, in Africa?

Here in Africa, we face a few unique challenges too. A woman who steps out defying the norms of the society is considered to lack virtue. This is one of the major barriers to the empowerment of women in society.

Though women in metropolitan areas and other cities around the world have joined various professions and are making it big in this male-dominated world, people living in the rural areas are still not open about the idea of women seeking education and working. In some instances by virtue of having a different gender from male it is enough reason not to be given the basic right to education and have no say in the family or business matters. Women empowerment is a serious issue.

What’s the point of women empowerment?

Women must be empowered so that they can lead a better life. They must be educated and trained to be financially independent. In addition to it, they must be provided a safe environment to live freely and independently.

Women empowerment is not only essential for the growth and uplifting of women but also for the overall development of our nation. It would increase the literacy as well as employment rate of the country and help it prosper.

(An article by Mphatso Kampeni

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Meet the CAFB Fashion Photographers.

naven@cafb.co.za — Fri, 30 Nov 2018 16:25:00 +0000

Meet the CAFB Fashion Photographers.

Since 2012 we have had the privilege of working with photography students from City Varsity Cape Town, as well as a few other seasoned professionals in the field. Today we’re highlighting some of our partners and previous student photographers. Why? Because we want you to recognise quality photographers so you can book them when you need to.

Cape Town Property Photographer

Steve and Rhoda Miller of Cape Town Property Photographer are a husband and wife team. They expanded the scope of their photographic work years ago, rebranding from Steve Miller Photography. The Millers now concentrate on property photography, working with luxury real estate agents across the Western Cape, dedicating time for CAFB Fashion Show photography when we need them.

Anel Nolte Photography

Anel Nolte first began working with us while pursuing her qualification in Photography through City Varsity Cape Town. Anel’s flexible way of working, and naturally curious mind make her exciting to work with. Her rates are reasonable and the quality of her work is outstanding, as can be seen by flicking through our albums of her work on our Facebook page.

Anel offers all types of photography in Cape Town: weddings, engagements, fashion catalogue, portfolio, family, newborn, maternity and pageant or event photography.

City Varsity Cape Town

Since 2013, we have worked with the students and staff of City Varsity Cape Town in a number of ways. One of our most consistent projects has been working with Photography students, which is how we began working with Anel Nolte. The college has enabled us to give working experience to many students, and in exchange we have received outstanding and world-class photographs over the year

Other CAFB Photographers

In 2018 we also worked with Models for the Brand photographers, Morne and Yosoof. Our fashion show guests at One&Only Cape Town appreciated their warmth and approachable personalities upon arriving at the grand ballroom. Some of our cast and crew, like special guest Melissa Smith, continued to work with them after the fashion show, which is what we like to see: Angels collaborating and supporting one another.

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CAFB supports the Helderberg Child Welfare branch.

naven@cafb.co.za — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 14:52:00 +0000

CAFB supports the Helderberg Child Welfare branch.

How did CAFB show support to Helderberg Child Welfare?

On the 23rd of June 2018, Creative Angels Fashion Benefit hosted a workshop for beneficiaries at the Helderberg Child Welfare. The workshop was co-sponsored by Lights, Camera, Action owner Channa Geldenhuys, and Shireen Stanbull of Purple Scarlet Designs, who is also a registered member of the CAFB’s fashion business programme. The children of Helderberg Child Welfare got to learn how to model and act, for half a day, and spent another half day exploring fashion design as a possible career option.

After all the fun and learning, a delightful spread of authentic Thai snacks was served by Nonkhai Jai Yen Thai Foods. From start to finish, the day was a success, and more young minds were introduced to creative career opportunities.

CAFB teaches Helderberg Child Welfare to model and act.

Co-sponsor, Channa Geldenhuys of Lights, Camera, Action, brought along her video camera to create a fun-filled experience for the Helderberg Child Welfare beneficiaries. She taught the teenagers how to stand, walk and hold their facial expressions like professional models and actors do. After practicing their walks for a while, each student got to do a mock-up TV commercial, filmed by Channa, and see themselves on ‘TV’.

CAFB teaches Helderberg Child Welfare about fashion design.

Co-Sponsor, Shireen Stanbull of Purple Scarlet Designs, drew from almost 20 years of her industry experience to teach the students about fashion design. Shireen guided the Helderberg Child Welfare beneficiaries through the process of coming up with outfit ideas, plotting them out on paper, and how to use off-cuts to add the finishing touches onto their draft designs. At the end of the design session, each student entered their designs into a random draw for the chance to attend the CAFB 2018 Fashion Breakthroughs Fashion Show, and two winners were selected.

How did Helderberg Child Welfare rate their CAFB experience?

Mrs Elsie Smith, Social Auxiliary Worker, at the Helderberg Child Welfare, sent us a letter to thank us for the workshop. Here’s what she had to say:

“We as an organisation want to express our heartfelt gratitude to be chosen by you… The workshop proved to be a highlight to all the participants. We are looking forward to see the progress in the lives of the winners.”

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Nadia Charles: South African Educator and force for good

naven@cafb.co.za — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 15:12:00 +0000

Nadia Charles: South African Educator and force for good.

Who is Nadia Charles?

Nadia Charles is an Educator. She redirected her career from corporate banking to education, to pursue her calling of positively transforming South Africa through working with youth. Nadia is also a co-founder of a non-profit organisation called Collaboration For Good.

How is Nadia Charles related to CAFB?

Prenessa Nalliah, CAFB Founder, and Nadia Charles connected through the Founder of The Academy of Life Coaching: Patricia Manshon. Prenessa had seen Patricia share a post from Nadia about raising funds for some students at Sunnyside Primary School in Cape Town, to be able to join an international soccer tour to Thailand.

As part of a joint fundraising initiative between Nadia Charles and the Creative Angels Fashion Benefit, Nadia accepted an invitation to become one of two guest speakers at the CAFB 2017 Fashion Show. Since then, Nadia has worked with the CAFB on a number of projects, and her organisation is a trusted partner of the CAFB.

What inspired Nadia Charles to become an Educator?

Nadia is deeply inspired by her religious faith. Her life experience as a Muslim woman and her personal trials from chlidhood to adulthood all combine into the strong force for good that she is, today. She sees hope for the future in the students she teaches.

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Exploring the perception of gender in Africa.

Exploring the perception of gender in Africa

Women empowerment in Africa:

What is women empowerment?

Patriarchy vs. women empowerment:

Patriarchy vs. feminism:

Women empowerment and motherhood:

How does marriage influence women empowerment in Africa?

Women empowerment and working women:

Women are treated differently for pursuing careers:

Is the homemaker role synonymous with women, in Africa?

What’s the point of women empowerment?