I have been thinking about this for nearly a week. Trying to wrap my head around it. Trying to overcome the disappointment. And, yes, a fair degree of embarrassment. Let me explain. I am incredibly proud of being born in South Africa. I spent half my adult life living abroad, and the longer I lived away, the more South African I became, the more I wanted to live here, invest here, celebrate here. And all the while that we were talking about Stella McCartney designing the British Olympic team's kit and Prada doing some for the Italian team, we were asking who everyone thought would do the South African team uniforms and sports kit. Well, we have an answer. It is not a local designer. In fact it is not a designer at all, rather a company called
Erke. A Chinese company. Who have a contract with the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee until 2016. Yes, you heard correctly.
So my first point is this. While I understand that maybe we don't have everything the team needs locally (do we?) couldn't we have got a local designer involved in some way? Couldn't someone have seen the opportunity to promote and celebrate local fashion design on this global platform? What a sad missed opportunity for an industry with so much potential. An industry that needs all the help from official departments that it can get. How much more fun would it have been if the kit had been designed with some input from some of our best and most talented fashion people? Just ideas or something. C'mon guys. C'mon. This is SO frustrating.
My second point is a little more tricky. At the same event last week, SASCOC also announced the South African mascot for the Games. In order to place focus on the tragedy of poaching, it is a giant, cuddly rhino called
Chukuru who apparently likes to dance. Lovely. He also wears the Olympic rings on his very precious horn. Let's take a look at this situation. So we have a Chinese company contracted for the foreseeable future to make lots and lots of our tax money for producing the kit for our Olympic team who are represented by a rhino, with emphasis on his horn. The very thing that the demand from the Chinese traditional medicine industry has nearly razed these precious animals into extinction. Really? Really??
And at the end of it all, there is no pride in wearing this kit. No local involvement. No financial boon to a local designer or company. No patriotic flavour involved in it all. How totally and utterly sad. Shame on you SASCOC.
How do you guys feel about this? Have we missed a fashion trick here? Do you care? As ever, let me know.
