MOSAIC stitches running up the pavements, garment patterns on streetpoles and threaded colour gateways are to mark the exciting, new-lookfashion district in downtown Johannesburg.

Mayor Amos Masondo recently announced the commencement of the public upgrade of the fashion district.

The face-lift, to be complete by mid-July, involves demarcatingthe area with 11-metre high gateways that look like colourful fabricthreaded through the street poles that will light up at night. Thesewill be complemented with signage consisting of 48 large steel garmentpatterns erected on street poles. And on the pavements will be threedifferent stitch patterns, cut into the paving tiles and filed withmosaic tiles.

The pavements will be further transformed with benches withinlaid mosaic stitch patterns, and trees in a part of town that isparticularly bare of greenery.

The district takes up 20 blocks - End Street in the east, VonWielligh Street in the west, Market Street in the south and Kerk Streetin the north, and is a colourful part of town with shops spilling outtheir merchandise onto pavements. The northern section of the districthas several Art Deco residential blocks, but it is otherwise largely anindustrial area with textile factories and clothing shops.

You'll find anything from racks of jackets and tables ofslippers to strung-up dresses and shirts on the pavements. Also on thepavements are women and men with sewing machines and huge bags ofcushion stuffing, making their products in the sun.

The fashion district has been in the eastern part of the CBD for overhalf a century, with tailors and seamstresses working from its ratherdreary buildings until the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the localindustry hit the doldrums.

There are several reasons why the industry took a dive:globalisation and the dumping of big runs of garments from Asia, andthe higher cost of labour and manufacturing in Johannesburg compared tothe cheaper operations in Durban and Cape Town.

But in the last two years it's foundits feet again: factories have opened up again as smaller, moreefficient operations, and most importantly, they've now found a moresecure, niche market, and there's plenty of those: ethnic Africandesigns, which are becoming more and more popular and can't be producedby Asian sweatshops because they're very individualistic; small runsfor burial societies, choirs or school uniforms are other examples. 

And the area is certainly buzzing: there's around 500 tailors andseamstresses operating from this part of town, either as individualoperators or as small factory productions, says businessman Rees Mann,who many believe can take a large measure of credit for the revival inthe fashion district.

He's been involved in the industry since 1981, following in hisfather's footsteps - fresh from completing his apprenticeship in Europeas a tailor, he arrived in Pritchard Street in 1948, and described thearea as "crammed floors with hundreds of women frenetically sewing, thehustle and bustle of the streets and clothes hanging on fashiontrolleys being pushed energetically across the roads from sweat shopsto wholesalers to retailers".

His father eventually had his own business: "Mannettes, manufacturers of ladies' coats, suits and dresses".

But by 1992 the area was quiet. Rees saw an opportunity in thedepressed conditions: he travelled around, buying sewing machines andother equipment in bulk, selling them to the informal manufacturers whowere emerging from the downturn.

And he saw a niche market in garment accessories. In 1994 heopened the Johannesburg Sewing Centre at 109 Pritchard Street, which hesays is the biggest garment accessories supplier in the country. It'snot unusual for him to order a million metres of ribbon. He has over 7000 styles of buttons and 500 thread colours.

He's quite happy to supply micro businesses in the districtwith accessories in small quantities at reasonable prices whichnormally only manufacturers would offer. He also supplies dresspatterns in six different languages, empowering more people to learnskills and set up their own businesses.

"My consumer base extends into Africa, right up to Senegal," he says.

This outlet was complemented by opening three more stores: a pleatingstore called Pleat It; a bridal hire and accessories store called MamaRose's Bridal Boutique, which hires out up to 16 gowns a week; and asewing machine repairs and spares store, Singer/Brother Superstore.

But perhaps his mostenduring contribution to reviving the industry and the district is theestablishment of the SewAfrica Training Centre in the same building,last year. 

It serves to give training to the informal fashion trade, improvingtheir existing skills and introducing them to new ideas, and to learnthe basics of design and illustration. Lectures are given by 10 finalyear Fashion Design and Clothing Management students from WitsTechnikon.

And to enhance these skills further Mann has called in finalyear CIDA students to offer basic business management skills. CIDA is South Africa's first almost-free university, taking promising students from disadvantaged situations from around thecountry, and offering them a four-year business administration degree.

Mann has 60 full-time students enrolled at the Centre, andplans to push that figure to 100 next year. The centre hasaccreditation from the long-established City & Guilds of London ArtSchool.

"I put in half a million rand to start the Centre, which Idon't expect to get back. It's my social responsibility investment inthe community," says Mann.

And to provide the graduates with a forum to show the industrytheir work, Mann has a fashion show and exhibition venue, on thebasement floor of the building, called The Fashion Venue. It has afunky feel with a black ramp offset against bright cityscape murals.

And to give the graduates and other young designers an outletfor their work, in August Mann will be opening a shop called @ 109where they can sell their garments.

To encourage student interaction Mann has opened a café on the streetlevel, called The Fashion Café, where students from the Centre and theTechnikon meet and exchange ideas, and draw on the magazines and booksthat Mann has left on the Café shelves.

One of the Centre's graduates is Mohamed Desai, 43, who did a one-yearcourse and has opened a small boutique called Out of Africa Fashions,two blocks from the Centre in Market Street, selling his own ethnicdesigns. His father manufactured garments in Lenasia, which he wasinvolved in. He says: "I felt there was an opening for traditionalgarments, so I went for a refresher course at the Centre, bought fourindustrial machines, and now produce my garments in the shop."

His customers are 95% local, and include professional womenlike company directors and lawyers. He opened his shop in February andmost of his business has come by word of mouth. He gets his fabricsfrom the district or from Durban, a major fabric manufacturing centre.He sells ethnic jewellery too, some of it imported from southernAfrica.

He's planning to expand to Bank City in the CBD and to Braamfontein.

And Mann has managed to persuadetop designer Clive Rundle to move into the district. Rundle, whoselabel was well-established by the mid-1980s and is known for hisavant-garde couture, took 500 metres of factory space in 2001. Butwhat's exciting about the district is that it represents a good deal ofAfrica - there's designers from Ivory Coast, Ghana, even as far asSenegal.

Soro Lenikpele in his small one-roomed factory

One of these is Soro Lenikpele, 30, from Ivory Coast, who operatesfrom a small room on the 3rd floor of a building in Troy Street.Dressed stylishly in a pale-blue linen jacket and leopard skinwaistcoat, he's been in Johannesburg since 1997 and in the men'sfashion business for 13 years. His is a one-man business and he importshis fabrics from Ivory Coast. He supplies outfits for most of the menin the South African TV soapies. 

Funding for the upgrade has come from two principal sources:the Ford Foundation and the City of Johannesburg through theJohannesburg Development Agency, with a total investment ofR2.5-million. These funds are administered by BCG-BEES, an informationand referral centre servicing the industry and helping to network thesmall entrepreneurs working in the area. BCG helped bring in CIDA andWits Technikon.

Mann hopes that the revamp of the district will help bring big business back into the area.

Stitch patterns being created on the pavements	Rees Mann in The Fashion Venue
Mohamed Desai in his shop	Sewing machines and large bags of stuffing - manufacturing continues on the pavements