Fashioning February: Behind the Scenes at Joburg Fashion Week

Fashion Week is not just about New York, London, Milan and Paris, while the glam squads are ferreting from country to country other cities around the world are getting their fashion freak on. Joburg Fashion Week (JHBFW) wrapped up over the weekend after four days of showing fresh, funky and hip outfits by designers. Dali Tembo is on the panel of the AFI (the body behind JHBFW) and works closely with the powers that be to make sure that the event displays the best talent that is on offer.

I was invited by the AFI (the organizer’s of the Audi Joburg Fashion Week, Africa Fashion Week & Cape Town Fashion Week) in November last year to be on their panel of experts for 2011. In recent years, the organization has gone to great lengths to streamline the way in which they choose and evaluate designers on show. In essence, my role was created to aid in this streamlining process by providing recommendations regarding which designers should show for JHBFW. The panel consists of experts from many different areas of fashion and my contribution really stems from my work as a brand strategist and trend analyst for the past six years. It’s been an honour to be considered, and recognized in this way given the behind the scenes contributions I've been involved with over the last few years. The nature of my consulting work required that I was flying between three cities during JHBFW. As a result, I was only able to attend two days of the event. During that time, I dedicated about 10 hours to the designer’s shows and I must say it was well worth every minute of it. The vibe backstage was hectic. Especially for what was my favorite show - designer Suzanne Heyns. It felt more like the behind the scenes of the production of ER. than it did a fashion show. But out of that chaos came some exceptional exhibitions of style and innovation.

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