Cape Town Fashion Week Interview: Stiaan Louw

The new South Africa takes its fashion damn seriously. The local fashion scene is (like any good fashion scene should be) a hot bed of politics, passion, big talking and the full spectrum of style that lives up to our rainbow nation tag line: from traditional African to obsessively eurocentric and several more interesting places in-between…

Thankfully some designers manage have managed to avoid the obvious ruts and create individual styles that stand a reasonable chance of traveling well. Stiaan Louw, fresh from Cape Town Fashion Week, is one of these designers. Still a relatively new name on the scene his recent collection was considered by many a highlight of the event. His signature style combines careful construction, dyed natural fabrics, graphic prints and quirky offbeat styling. These are his post-fashion week thoughts:

What are the key trends coming through in your collection?

Colour plays a strong role in my new collection, with particular emphasis on golden yellows and reds. Shapes are soft and voluminous but there is more attention on a accentuated waistline. Floral prints are highlighted through soft layering. Overall, the aim of the collection is to achieve a certain sense of simplicity and ease while incorporating strong style lines. The essential item from the new collection is a overgrown pleated shirt.

How do you start putting your collection together?

The conceptualisation phase starts a few months prior to the show. At this phase I work with a graphic designer who develops the prints for the collection. Fabrics are sourced and dyed in the colours selected specifically for the range, then printed, roughly a month prior to the showing of the range. Even though the construction of the garments are roughly designed a few months prior to the showing of the collection, the actual patterns and then the garments are only constructed in the month running up to Cape Town Fashion Week.

How closely do you look at international trends?

South Africa is still strongly influenced by international trends and for this reason it would be natural for local designers to investigate current trends. But I do believe it is also exceptionally important to create an individual identity as a South African designer. When I do reference current trends, I do it from a garment-construction perspective, investigating cutting-techniques.

What local/uniquely South African inspirations go into your collection: where do they come from? And how do they fit into your design process?
The current collection was a study of flowers, which were not only present in the prints but also in the shapes used in the clothes. We studied local flora which were used in the developmental stages of the prints for the collection. In a previous collection the colour palette and sensibilities of the Voortrekker were an inspiration. But I believe that it is not necessarily essential for South African designers to include local references in their work for it to be uniquely South African. What non-fashion sources do you look at when developing your work?

I find inspiration in a variety of different fields related indirectly to fashion and have in the past collaborated with graphic designers, fine artists such as
London based Pamela Thorpe as well as jewellery designers and a sensory branding agency Aromalogo. There is a wealth of information in these fields which can be inspiring and be incorporated into fashion design.

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