It is not necessarily about talent, or resources, or even the small space that we share. All of the problems of these are just magnified by our main issue: communication, and our lack of it.
Now I know some people are reading this and might be saying "What rubbish he talking?"
And maybe they might have good reason to believe that, because there are many pressing issues the fashion industry faces.
But I have witnessed the effect of the lack of communication day to day, week to week, month to month, year in and year out since I have become serious about fashion.
You see, everyone is brilliant and believes that their fashion jihad is the centre of the universe–including this writer when I began looking at the industry that came before me and is developing after me.
Realising that you are just a screw in the bigger machine, and not the machine that needs screws, changes things. Sure, this is all metaphorically speaking but at the heart of it there are a lot of fashion professionals, industry heads, government officials, bloggers, writers–you name it–who have nary a clue about why we are where we are today.
What is lacking is an ongoing dialogue among designers. At the moment there are nuggets of wisdom but the way in which it is occurring has more of a top-down kind of feel.
From the perspective of a newcomer to the fashion world there are the folks from the 70s to the early 90s, and then there is everyone else post-2008, with designers from UTT at the nucleus. There is wisdom to share and a lot to learn from these two major camps. The trick to navigating the Us-vs-Them kind of feel is to start negotiating and really having dialogue that will foster an even greater learning experience that can truly create room for advancement.
The veterans can help make a map to where we are now and the newcomers, informed by context, can create agencies for change influenced by current international advancements.
That said, the pieces are there. There are feasibility studies ongoing with an effort to develop a strategic plan for fashion. This is critical.
Information is out there in the public and I remember several consultations being conducted by invitation, allowing the wider fashion community to contribute. That data is one part that is necessary and I believe that the Government should have the results of that in their hands by this week.
There are a couple of programmes developed that are providing incubation spaces for emerging designers, not to mention a vibrant developing culture of photographers, writers, bloggers, models, entrepreneurs willing to show how passionate they are about industry development. But if the dialogue is not equally passionate and less condescending we can have some fun with movement.
Li Edelkoort, a famous Dutch trend forecaster, is quoted in a recent interview for Dezeen magazine, saying, "Fashion is insular and is placing itself outside society, which is a very dangerous step. We still educate our young people to become catwalk designers; unique individuals, whereas this society is now about exchange and the new economy and working together in teams and groups."