The Fashion District is located in the east end of the Johannesburg CBD, stretching from Troye Street to Goud Street along Pritchard and President Streets. It is filled with more than 300 fabric and notions wholesalers, seamstresses and tailors, clothing and handbag retailers and in the very center, the Fashion Kapitol on Pritchard Street.
The Fashion Kapitol is a city-supported incubator for pan-African fashion designers with 32 permanent shops. And if that's not enough, on Saturdays from 10 until 2, there is also the outdoor Jozi fashion market with more designs sold in the center courtyard in stalls. One of the bigger shops, the Fashion Shack, also runs a cafe' where you can sit outside and watch the local fashion show sashay by.
But Anne and I came for the shweshwe and we were rewarded with a rainbow of it at the Fashion District Wholesalers across the street on Pritchard. Along with aisles and floors of fabric, notions and sewing equipment, this is the place to come for African inspiration shweshwe and Vlisco’s “wax hollandais."
It did remind me quite alot of one of my favorite things to do in New York. Wander
around the garment district in Manhattan, shop the sample sales and stock
up on ribbons, buttons and trim at M&J Trim and Tinsel Trading Company for
my fabric-related projects. Or else go discount
shopping along Canal Street in Chinatown or the Lower East Side.
My favorite fabric-related shop in Manhattan though was a narrow emporium on the upper east side called Tender Buttons where you could find simply the most fabulous new and vintage buttons of the highest quality from all over the world. The button selection at the Fashion District Wholesalers was nowhere near as heavenly as Tender Buttons, but on the other hand I never saw shweshwe fabric like this in New York either. So I'd say it's about even.
We both left sated - me with colorful fabric for some throw pillows and Anne with visions of an African print trench coat dancing in her head. We'll be back ...
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