A panel of international fashion specialists has announced the successful candidates in the second SAFW Cape Wools SA Designer Challenge.
The South African designers who have been awarded the SAFW Cape Wool SA prize are Carina Louw and Natasha Jaume of Erre for ladies wear, and Keith Henning and Jody Paulsen of AKJP for menswear. Erre and AKJP will take the mantle from 2017 winners, Jacques van der Watt of Black Coffee and Ephraim Molingoana of Ephymol.
The challenge requires designers to showcase the use, versatility and wonderful qualities of our wool in all its facets, but above all, with an emphasis on its developing role in the contemporary luxury fashion arena.
The prize will see the two brands showing their AW19 and SS19 collections at SA Fashion Week, free of charge from Cape Wools. The designers will also have the opportunity to attend the “Making It In Textiles” Conference in Bradford in the UK, during October, with flights and accommodation fully paid for.
ERRE:
ERRE (pronounced ‘Air’) is a South African fashion label that aims to give women a sense of power through the way they dress.
The Pretoria-based design duo, Carina Louw and Natasha Jaume, showed their first Collection at SA Fashion Week in 2013. ERRE has since become a household name in the Creative Fashion Design Industry. This luxury brand is stylish, wearable, feminine, style-savvy, sophisticated and designed for the successful multifaceted woman.
“We believe that when clothing is beautifully made and timeless, it will never be thrown away.”
AKJP:
AKJP was born out of the “Adriaan Kuiters + Jody Paulsen” collaboration between Adriaan Kuiters’ designer, Keith Henning, and artist Jody Paulsen. The Cape Town brand’s signature is its artful contemporary twist on classic and utilitarian menswear. AKJP uses layering, boxy silhouettes and asymmetrical detailing as a signature styling feature. AKJP label continues as one of South Africa’s most innovative brands, and with each range it affirms its place in the South African fashion landscape, as the last word on all things contemporary and cool. Core to the brand is focus on quality, with the intention of making people feel confident in the clothing, regardless of age.
THE JUDGES:
Eddie Marquez, Fashion Brand Consultant, New York
Elizabeth Way, Assistant Curator of Costume at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (or The Museum at FIT)
Louis de Beer, Chief Executive Officer at Cape Wools SA.
Nicoletta Morozzi, Director of the Fashion Department at NABA
Noah Kozlowski, Global Designer Relations at IMG Fashions
Sheila-Mary Carruthers, Design Director at Carruthers Associates, Honorary Professor at Heriot Watt University, School of Textiles and Design
