The ReDress Consultancy's Stitching Links

The ReDress Consultancy’s Stitching Links forum provides a targeted and affordable marketing and promotional platform that is ideally suited for the Clothing, Textiles and Fashion sector, as well as affiliated businesses.

The unique advantage of belonging to the Stitching Links forum lies in being associated with a reputable and respected organisation, and in gaining immediate electronic visibility.

The space created for you in the Stitching Links forum is a LIVING marketing platform. We allow you to take control of your advertising, marketing and promotional requirements without having to spend large amounts of money and time. We provide the space for you to tell your story. The return on your investment in this medium derives from your business having access to a global audience all day, every day, and enabling potential clients to interact directly with you.

What do we mean by a “LIVING marketing platform?”

Your unique space is not a static advert or a once-off promotional campaign with a limited life-span. When you need to change your product profile or have news to relay, you simply send us the information including photos, and a professional editor will package the material supplied, for your approval before we update your marketing platform. We permit a maximum of two updates per month. Your promotional link will fall under the most appropriate tag-heading; for example, a designer will fall under the heading: Fashion Designer.

Businesses find it challenging to reach, engage and capture consumers in a market that is continually changing, with consumers seeking new products and services. The only way an individual or a company can secure and develop such interactions with the market is by having a promotional platform that is accessible every day all day.

The ReDress Consultancy’s Stitching Links forum provides you and the market with a mechanism for instant communication. It allows you to direct existing and prospective clients to your individualised platform, containing updated information on your products and services. Furthermore, through The ReDress Consultancy’s electronic communications systems, your own platform will develop an electronic footprint, enabling you to reach global markets. This is an effective, affordable and focused method of marketing.

According to research, 58 percent of consumers start their product research on the Web. The ReDress Consultancy’s Stitching Links forum provides the opportunity for you to leverage this growing trend.

The ReDress Consultancy’s Stitching Links marketing, promotional and advertising space is an ideal platform for: Fashion Designers, Retailers, Clothing/ Textile companies, service providers, CMTs, photographers, stylists, crafters, industry-related organisations, fashion promotional companies, and traders within the informal sector. Oraganisations that work with a group/collective of designers.

What must you do?

Simply choose one of the options, and inform us of your choice. We will send you an invoice. Send us your first batch of material and once we have received proof of payment, we will post your information and inform you when this is done. Then, simply stay in touch and provide us with your updates.

The ReDress Consultancy Stitching Links Rates:

Please note that The ReDress Consultancy is not a VAT-registered vendor.

Option One: Direct Link to your website

If you have an existing website, we will upload your logo and a brief description of your profile on the front page of our blog and create a link to your website. Please note that no management intervention is involved in using this option. The content of your website remains your responsibility.

For six months: R 250.00

For 12 months: R 500.00

Option Two: Individual Profiles

Send us details on your business, your contact details, and three or four photos. We encourage designers to send us a brief bio-sketch as this will make your profile more personalised. We will edit the material for your approval before we post this up under the most appropriate heading. We will update your content when we receive new information from you. A maximum of two updates per month is permitted. To assist you we can send you a list of questions that will help in creating your profile.

For six months: R 1000.00

For 12 months: R 2000.00
Should you wish us to do a one-on-one interview with you we would charge extra.

To maximise the unique benefit of belonging to the The ReDress Consultancy Stitching Links forum, we encourage you to provide us with regular updates so that we can keep your promotional space fresh, thereby engaging potential clients and the wider market to visit your profile on a routine basis.

Do contact us to access this opportunity.

Renato Palmi

The ReDress Consultancy

June 2010

The ReDress Consultancy-Social Fabric Platform

The ReDress Consultancy SOCIAL FABRIC is our platform for supporting and promoting civil society efforts towards development and empowerment in South Africa where it is needed most. We foreground and welcome input from non-governmental organisations, community-based projects and companies ~ and particularly partnerships of these agencies - that are working cohesively with energy, ideas, passion and determination from the ground, to improve living conditions, create jobs, and build the country equitably.

Some of these ventures have been born from simple logic and personal commitment; others crack out from comfort zones, crossing established divides for a greater vision. All of them demonstrate social concern in action. Join the weave with your story. We are particularly interested in any NGOs, CBOs and community projects that has a clothing, fashion and crafters link. Send us your information for placement on this page.


For more click here

Saddler Belts

Saddler Belts supports LIV-Village.com
A KZN village providing orphans with a complete family life)
Founded in 1991, Saddler Belts has built a successful business based on integrity and quality. An industry leader and supplier to various sectors including retail and independent outlets, we also supply the tourist industry, the security market as well as recently developing an upmarket branded range for the corporate market.
http://www.saddlerbelts.co.za/
Telephone: +27-31-5693951
Fax: +27-31-5693962
E-Mail: info@saddlerbelts.co.za

LIV-Village.com

LIV provides holistic residential care for vulnerable children with the core vision to:
Rescue, Raise, Restore, Release
LIV exists to raise the next generation of leaders in our nation. It is our mission, our purpose, and our passion. We place parentless children into a family environment where they receive unconditional love, spiritual discipleship, care and nurturing. All their physical needs are met.
South Africa Head Office
TEL: +27 (0)31 562 9986
FAX: +27 (0)31 562 9868
http://www.liv-village.com/home

Amnesty International South Africa

Durban Chapter

Mrs Lesley Frescura

Chairperson, Durban Chapter (formerly National Director)

Telephone: 27 31 266 4150

E-mail: galefra@mweb.co.za

HIV-911 Programme
The HIV-911 Programme is a comprehensive guide to close to 13 000 HIV-related support services in South Africa. HIV-911 strives to ensure that the HIV-911 database is accessible to all South Africans. Anyone can use HIV-911 to provide information on where to locate HIV-related services and support in any area of the country.

Contact:
Telephone: 27 31 2602975

Web: http://www.hiv911.org.za/

World Fund for Victims of Violence and Rape

Contact: Tony Psaila

Telephone: 27 33 3303665

Email: info@tonytractor.org

World Congress of Religion and Peace –South Africa

WCRP is a world-wide movement consisting of men and women of faith who meet to share their concerns about the many factors and situations which threaten world peace and deny human dignity.

Contact: Mrs. Paddy Meskin-President

Ms. Saydoon Sayed-Co-ordinator

Telephone: 27 31 3735404

Web: http://www.wcrpsa.org.za/about.html

Zoe Life

Zoe-Life is an inspiring life-style and wellness strategy aimed at individuals and communities infected or affected by HIV. The Zoë-LIFE strategy aspires to facilitate processes to breathe a life of hope, abundance and destiny back into hopeless situations caused by HIV. ZOE is a Greek word which means Abundant Life. This is life that is overflowing: More than enough! The team at Zoë-Life have a vision to see all people affected or infected by HIV /AIDS to be brought to complete and restored state of wellness.

Contact:

Tel: +27 31 275 6600

Fax: +27 31 208 5806

Email: info@zoe-life.co.za

Web: http://www.zoe-life.co.za/index.htm

The Vuvuzela South Africa’s new Chinese made fashion accessory

The ReDress Consultancy comments on the Vuvuzela and says it will soon become a must have fashion accessory but can it be claimed as Proudly South African?

One result of the Fifa 2010 Soccer tournament is the emergence of the Vuvuzela on the international stage. The Vuvuzela has become a new South African symbol. A symbol or sound of national unity or frustration that is debatable.

We will no doubt shortly see it on national and even international catwalks as a must have fashion accessory.

Creative fashion designers will find innovative ways to dress this cheap plastic tube with textiles and designs and even with branding from the fashion houses and designers of New York, Paris, Italy and the UK and not forgetting South Africa creating a new fashion market.

The question I ask can we claim it as a Proudly Made in South Africa iconic fashion accessory that will see an international audience? Furthermore, who will claim to be the originator? Will we have imported fashion with imported Vuvuzelas seen on our local catwalk?  Will local designers camouflage this imported plastic tube with bead work and other traditional African craft and pass it as local? How will consumers determine which Vuvuzela is made in SA and which is imported? Do they have to have Made in labels like clothing?  The fact that most of the Vuvuzela's seen at the World Cup were imported is another example of South African design been annexed by greed. Why import when they could have all been made here?  

Even Though China did not feature in the soccer extravaganza Chinese factories gained in profits.

The fact that nearly 90% of the Vuvuzelas (some South African’s claim it is part of “our culture”) seen at the soccer World Cup games were made in China is appalling. It is not just the Vuvuzela that was made in China other  products were also made by Chinese companies.

For more read below

Chinese factory steps up vuvuzela production

Tue Jun 22, 2010

By Royston Chan

NINGBO China (Reuters) - A Chinese factory making vuvuzelas is having to increase production to keep up with huge demand during the World Cup (June 11-July 11). Chinese manufacturers say almost 90 percent of the vuvuzelas used in South Africa are made in China. The Ninghai Jiying plastics factory based in the gritty eastern Chinese coastal city of Ningbo is one such manufacturer raking in the profits from the vuvuzelas.

Its general manager Wu Yijun said he has been trying to market the vuvuzela for a long time, and South Africa's successful bid for the World Cup was the turning point for them. "We had developed this vuvuzela trumpet in 2001, but we did not manage to sell it back then. During the 2006 World Cup in Germany, we did not manage to market it for the event, even when we sold other kinds of trumpets," Wu told Reuters.

"After South Africa was successful in its bid for the World Cup, we made our hardest push for the vuvuzela to be used for the tournament," he added. His factory also manufactures other plastic products such as toys and water bottles, but he said demand for the vuvuzela has pushed his production line into overdrive.

"With regards to the production volume, from January to April this year, we were producing 250,000 vuvuzelas every day to fill containers that are exported from Ningbo port," Wu said. "The production had stopped in April but there has been a gradual increase in our production in recent days. "We were making 10,000 vuvuzelas a day for the past few days and I estimate we will make 25,000 per day in the next few days. "The demand from the Chinese market alone is surpassing our production capability," he said.

© Thomson Reuters 2010

Made-in-China's at World Cup

June 23, 2010

China failed again to produce a soccer team that could qualify for the World Cup, but a Chinese firm made the list of official sponsors for the first time in history. YingLi Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd. (NYSE: YGE) is one of the eight 2010 World Cup sponsors. The company in Baoding, Hebei province, makes photovoltaic modules under the Yingli Solar brand. It presented what it calls the first carbon-neutral commercial display in FIFA history at the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg. Yingli also provided solar flashlights as giveaways to journalists, for example, at the event. Yingli spent more than a reported $80 million on the sponsorship. A few more examples of made-in-China products at the World Cup, with at least some plastic content:

1. The official match ball, Adidas Jabulani, is molded from ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) and thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU). The balls are made in China by Taiwan-invested Jiujiang Si Mai Bo Sports Equipment Co. Ltd., using latex bladders made in India, thermoplastic polyurethane-elastomer from Taiwan, ethylene vinyl acetate, isotropic polyester/cotton fabric, glue and ink from China. The company has produced more than 12 million of the Jabulani - which means "bringing joy to everyone" in isiZulu.

2. China Dafeng Industry of Yuyao, Zhejiang, molded more than 40,000 plastic seats for the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.

3. Reports say more than 90 percent of the plastic vuvuzelas used at the game are made in China. Chinese manufacturers said the profit averages only 0.20 yuan ($0.03) per piece.

4. Fu Ismail Semiconductor Precision Industry Co. Ltd. in Jiangsu province made for the South African government 50 large outdoor TV screens that measure 20 square meters (215 square feet) each. Fu Ismail is owned by Taiwan's Hon Hai Group. The screens are leased for a total of $1.1 million.

Posted by Nina Ying Sun

Reference http://plasticsnews.com/china/english/chinablog/

South African Children's Clothing designer

One+1 is a unique and vibrant childrenswear fashion label. Owned by the creative and innovative Michele Woodroffe the One+1 label which was established in 2002 is a well known and favorite South African label for mothers seeking beautiful designed and finished clothing for their children.

Contact this creative South African designer on:

Email: oneplusone@mweb.co.za   or on Telephone: 031-2059008.

You can find One+1 on Saturday’s at the Essenwood Market.

One+1 blog: http://oneplusoneatlarge.blogspot.com/

                          

By The ReDress Consultancy. Supporting South African Fashion.

Counterfeit soccer clothing hurts South African clothing industry

The amount of illegal soccer related imports plus the fact that the vast majority of the 2010 soccer items including Bafana Bafana shirts were not made in South Africa has not brought much sustainable development in job creation for South Africa's clothing and textile industries.

These Bafana Bafana shirts selling from a major South African retailer were made in China and Lesotho.

Adult Bafana Bafana shirts made in China selling at R99.00 from a major South African retailer

Children's Bafana Bafana shirts made in Lesotho selling at R89.00 from a major South African retailer

That is why it is important for South African consumers to support local products such as the new brand AfriCan.

A sample of the AfriCan soccer shirts that were made in South Africa.

INTA announced this month that imports of counterfeit World Cup clothing to South Africa have blighted the country’s textile industry. While most official World Cup merchandise is made in the Far East, a segment of the South African industry had hoped to benefit from sales of locally produced official garments related to the national Bafana Bafana team. However, the influx of fake-branded clothing to South Africa has distracted consumers from purchasing indigenous goods – counterfeits have provided them with a cheaper means of keeping up with fans wearing licensed products.

In its announcement, INTA drew upon figures from the South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (SACTWU), which indicate that 14,400 jobs have been cut in the country’s textile sector over the past year as a result of World Cup fakes. SACTWU general secretary Andre Kriel said that 2,000 jobs had been lost in Cape Town alone. ‘Soccer supporters and South African citizens can save these jobs and grow the manufacturing capacity by ensuring that they buy locally made products,’ he added.

Merchants working for counterfeiting cartels have targeted unsuspecting tourists and fans, who have not always been able to tell the difference between fake garments and their official counterparts. But despite the negative impact that counterfeit goods have had on South Africa’s economy, seizure operations have been productive. In the past six months, South African customs authorities have impounded fake World Cup goods worth R66m, or US$8m.

INTA executive director Alan Drewsen warned that all consumers were vulnerable to fake-branded World Cup items, which are not just localised to South Africa. ‘Fake goods not only mislead consumers, but lead to the loss of legitimate jobs in the affected industries,’ he said. ‘FIFA and South Africa have increased their efforts to block the sale of counterfeit goods, and we hope that consumers will be watchful and not knowingly purchase any fake merchandise.’

Reference CPS Global

24 June 2010

For a full report on fake products click here

Mid- Year Update on Asian Textile / Apparel Sectors

CHINA: There are indications that a “quiet migration” of textile and apparel companies from China is taking place as operational costs in the PRC rises. The winners of this migration are Vietnam, Cambodia and Bangladesh.

This is resulting in China now shifting its focus on more integrated design intense manufacturing targeting China’s growing internal fashion sector and seeking penetration into the global fashion design sector.

A key indication of the migration, particularly in Southern China, the “textile hub,” is reflected in the sharp decline in imports of machinery and technology by the region’s textile and garment industry. Japanese and German machinery manufacturers, whose products are popular with textile manufacturers in Southern China, have confirmed that demand has plummeted –by 35 percent in some cases –because of the migration to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. However, those companies that remain are forced to invest in operations to produce upper-end products.

Chinese exports for textile and apparel during the months January to November 2009 was down 11.02 % (154, 12 billion US$) compared with the same month to month period in 2008. However, statistics reflect a 2,2% increase in textiles and apparel for January 2010 compared to the same month last year.

While exports declined China’s domestic and apparel market grew. Retail sales of clothing were 24.7% higher in November 2009 than that of the previous year. Even though the global market for 2009 was unstable there was continual investment in the textile sector. Investment in fixed assets for the first eleven months of 2009 increased by 9.53% in comparison to 2008.

This is the last year (2010) of the 11th Five-Year Plan for the Textile Industry and the second year of the Textile Restructuring and Revitalization Plan. China is focusing on new technology upgrades and on its local market to compensate for the decline in exports and the shift in foreign investments.

THAILAND: Thailand earned US$17,628 billion in “fashion exports” for the year 2009, an increase of 2,24% from 2008. The textile sector’s input into the total export results was US$6.443 billion, whilst the apparel sector contributed US$2,961 billion, with leather goods, “travel-kits, shoes and gems and jewelry making up the remainder. Export projection for the same products for 2010 is expected to reach between US$20,315 and 20,999 billion. One of the major factors driving this growth is the collective input and single vision of Thailand’s government and private sectors.

VIETNAM: It is estimated that a total of US$58.5 million will be invested in the textile and apparel sector for 2010 in technology upgrading, according to the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex). The company is the largest textile company in Vietnam. According to The Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association the textile and apparel sector requires nearly 2 billion square meters of fabrics per annum to service these sectors. Currently Vietnam’s local production capabilities is 700 million square meters which equates to 35% of the total demand. Imports from China, Korea, India and Japan make up the shortage. Due to Vietnam’s cheap production cost (cheap labour) a Chinese fabric supplier Texhong Textile group will be investing US$100 million in a new yarn plant.

INDIA: India’s synthetic and rayon Textile Export Promotion Council plans to double its exports of man-made textiles. Currently India accounts less than 3% of the global market. Indian exports of man-made textiles is worth US$3,42 billion. India exports 32% of its man-made textiles to the Middle East, 21% to Europe, 16% to the US and 15% to Africa.

BANGLADESH: Currently Bangladesh exports apparel worth US$10.9 billion. Imports of textile equipment from Italy equated to 41 million Euros in 2008 and 18 million Euros of new technology during 2009 which consisted of finishing equipment, spinning, weaving and knitting equipment.

Written by The ReDress Consultancy.

Sources:

Textile Global. 14 May, 2010

China Textile Magazine. 12 April 2010

ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel - Apr 2010 Issue

South African Drum Headgear

SUPPORT LOCAL DEVELOPMENT -BUY LOCAL

MADE IN SOUTH AFRICA

For more information

Contact Maurizio on 0833011946 or by email: rizo@absamail.co.za

The Daduma Hat is a proudly South African product which has created employment for 15 people.

Manufactured in Gauteng, South Africa, the creators of the Daduma Hat have trained their staff in the skill of assembling the hat to produce a unique and quality product.

You can purchase these hats directly from:

The Lifestyle Centre in Ballito at the Superspar
Durban North-Gelashley Superspar
Eduform in Durban North
At the La Lucia Mall- La Cave bottle store
Waltons Stationary suppliers in Springfield Park
Vedocor Systems (wholesalers and distributors) inside Associated Timbers and Hardware store in Umhlanga

This is an ideal product for corporate promotion, functions, give-aways and tourists wishing to show their support for South African products by wearing Proudly South African on your head.

Promoted by The ReDress Consultancy-Stitiching Links