The Realities Behind Catering Fashion To South Africa's Millennial Consumer

As world's youngest continent, with 50% of its population under the age of 25, Africa's generations Y and Z could mean high returns on investments to those willing to take a leap of faith. A fresh breed of local fashion entrepreneurs is seizing the opportunity currently. By not solely relying on the wives of oligarchs to keep their made-to-order business model afloat, but by selling their ready-to-wear “garms” to a younger, progressive audience instead.

“The majority of my clients are younger. I'd say they're typically in their 20s or 30s. Then 16 to 19-year-olds love my stuff and they'll say: ‘I can't wait to be rich so I can buy your pieces.' I think it's great that these girls already perceive me as a proper brand and that there's that aspirational element,” says the founder and Creative Director behind the brand in question, Siyathemba Duma. The South African who works out of his design studio in Johannesburg's Houghton neighborhood, founded the Matte Nolim brand in the year 2014. Over the years, Matte Nolim has morphed into a universe of flirty colorful fashion, where miniskirts and high waist oversized pants are part of the same galaxy. “Ladies in their 40s gravitate more towards the oversized shirt dress. Also coats have crossover appeal between different generations,” the fashion designer shares as we browse through a rack of his designs. “I personally feel fashion grows younger – and that's what excites me. He adds, “Cause in the end, also that woman in her 40s wants to feel young and fresh.”

There are challenges along the way however, for those trying to win over South Africa's under 35 consumers. Pricing being a key issue, in a nation where 38,2% of the population aged 15-34 is unemployed, according to Stats SA data. “Young people are used to buying at a Zara or H&M price point – when you produce locally things become a bit more expensive. There are things I can retail at a lower price, such as a t-shirt, but I cannot do that across the entire collection. So that's the tricky part – explaining why the garments carry these price tags. A jacket and skirt will retail for 5500 Rand ($394 at the current exchange rate) if custom-made, and 3500 Rand ($251 at the current exchange rate) if mass-produced. 5500 Rand is a lot for these younger girls.”

In keeping with his millennial fan base, the young designer recently wrapped a collaboration with Hyundai, that was part of last December's Afropunk Festival Johannesburg. The collaboration saw the Matte Nolim Creative Director designing three looks inspired by three customized models of the automobile manufacturer - inspired by New York, Paris, and Johannesburg.

Accountant-turned-entrepreneur Theo Baloyi founded his sneaker brand Bathu in the year 2015. “Bathu,” South African township slang for the word shoe, amassed a loyal following of young South Africans by way of its signature mesh sneaker design. The design, available in six different colorways, shall soon be joined by a range of loafers and Bathu ready-to-wear apparel.

This Is What Happens When You Get a 12-Hour Closet Makeover

I know I can’t be the only one who has looked at her closet some mornings and thought, “What am I even doing with my life?” After years of shopping and gathering, everything I owned was a mix of items I love, used to love, just fell in love with, wanted to fall in love with… But so little of it could come together into an outfit that made me think, “I’m the shit.” And I don’t know about you, but if I’m not walking out my front door most mornings feeling like “the shit,” well, like I said: What am I even doing with my life?

This is precisely why I asked the closet makeover team of Cuniform to my apartment in New York last fall. The duo that runs Cuniform—friends Christine Tran and Colton Winger, who met when they used to work at the boutique Totokaelo—travel around the country for private appointments with clients that include execs at Nike, Diane von Furstenberg, and Shiseido. Their process is multifold: 1) purge closets of bad choices and out-of-place items, and oh so kindly haul away the rejects to donate or consign for you; 2) refill your wardrobe with versatile, new and high-end consignment items they handpick for you ahead of time and bring to your appointment, if you so choose; and 3) style you in chic new ensembles of the old and new, creating a “Wardrobe Rolodex” of outfit ideas in a shared cell phone photo album you can then reference for outfit ideas forever and ever.ou can understand, then, how once they arrived, 12 hours flew by, though a typical appointment is 5 hours long.

“If you think about it, the most successful people wear the same thing almost every day,” said Tran (see: Steve Jobs’ turtleneck, Carolina Herrera’s white blouse, Michael Kors’ blazer, Anna Wintour’s tailored dress and jeweled necklaces). “The main goal is to figure out your brand via clothing, so you shouldn’t have things in your closet that aren’t really options—like a dress that never fits the occasion or a pair of pants from when you were skinnier—because it just confuses you when you’re getting dressed.”

And that’s where I needed the most help, really: At this exact point in my life, what is my brand? This is where brutal honesty, as you’ll see below, comes in. On top of all of this, Cuniform is super-focused on social and environmental consciousness. One part is their consignment arm called Cuniform Recycled, which not only finds new homes for the nice but neglected clothes of their clients, but sell on behalf of philanthropic programs like Dress for Success to help increase their revenue.