Fiji Fashion Week

Cue bright lights, swequins, hairspray and mascara folks. Fiji Fashion Week was here and it was fierce!!

I attended the established designers fashion show - I know nothing about fashion, so I can only comment on the fact I know what I like and what I could wear. So there was a lot of bula represented, but there was also some really interesting and challenging designs. 

The most interesting thing for me - so Fiji Fashion Week is in its fifth year and the woman that runs the show is clearly very entrepreneurial. Which I admire, but I can't help but thinking with all her sponsors showering her with cash and her making a big deal out of it, demonstrates there is a still some way to go before we hit full professionalisation in the fashion sector for Fiji. 

Some other interesting perspectives to consider, that Fiji does not teach fashion as a subject, so for Fijians interested in fashion, they are not being taught the basic skills required to become competitive in the field. And also, we are based on an island with limited resources, sometimes sourcing fabrics can be challenging! 

Fiji does have great potential as a manufacturing hub. The Fiji Fashion Council has been set up and is being headed up by an Australian manufacturer, who waxed lyrical about the manufacturing set up in Fiji and how it expects it will explode very quickly.

All of this made me a little uneasy. Should we be celebrating the strength of an industry that is successful because it underpays its workers and keeps them in shocking conditions. And what place does this kind of discussion have on an evening which is meant to celebrate creativity, young designers and style. 

That was kind of lost in the end. So, I am not really sure how successful Fiji Fashion Week was in the end. I guess it all depends on perspective.