Copying what is already working is the fastest way to become interchangeable, and interchangeable businesses compete only on price. That is the commercial argument behind David Tlale’s advice to young designers: there is already enough of everyone who exists, so the job is to build something that is recognisably yours and can be sustained as a business.
Tlale has grown a couture label into one of the country’s better known design studios, with work in both Cape Town and Johannesburg and collaborations with mass-market retailers. In an industry where independent manufacturers are squeezed between imported fast fashion and large retail chains, longevity of that kind is unusual enough to be worth examining.
Originality is a pricing decision before it is a creative one
A business that looks like its competitors gives customers no reason to choose it beyond cost and convenience. A business with a distinct point of view can charge for that distinction. This applies well beyond fashion: the same logic governs restaurants, agencies, manufacturers and professional services. Differentiation is what protects margin.
A recognisable name is not the same as a viable business
Tlale’s point about young designers is that the industry teaches them to produce a show and take a bow, and not to build a brand that survives past it. Design talent and commercial capability are separate skills. The designers who last are the ones who learn costing, production planning and cash flow timing alongside the creative work, which is the gap most creative-sector support programmes are built to close.
Collaboration with large retailers is a distribution strategy
Working with retailers such as Edgars, LEGIT and Jockey puts a designer’s work in front of buyers who would never reach a couture studio, at volumes a studio cannot produce alone. The trade-off is control and margin per unit. Treated deliberately, these partnerships fund the independent work rather than replace it, and that balance is a decision an owner should make consciously rather than accept when the offer arrives.
Exporting a point of view is what travels
What has carried South African design onto international schedules is not lower production costs, which the country does not have, but a distinctive aesthetic buyers cannot source elsewhere. The same is true of any local business considering export: the thing that travels is the thing that cannot be copied locally in the destination market. Support for that route is available through the trade and investment programmes listed on the South African government’s services portal.
Frequently asked questions
Why does originality matter commercially and not just creatively?
Because a business that resembles its competitors can only compete on price and convenience, while a distinct offer gives customers a reason to choose it and lets the owner protect margin.
What do young designers most often get wrong?
They focus on producing collections and shows without learning costing, production planning and cash flow, so the creative work has no commercial structure holding it up.
Are collaborations with big retailers worth doing?
They provide distribution and volume no independent studio can reach alone, at the cost of control and per-unit margin. They work best as a deliberate funding strategy for the independent line.
How has South African design found international audiences?
Through a distinctive point of view that overseas buyers cannot source elsewhere, rather than through lower production costs.
Does this apply outside the fashion industry?
Yes. Any business that looks like its competitors competes on price alone, so the case for a defensible difference holds in services, manufacturing and retail equally.
Further reading
Originally published in August 2017. Updated September 2026 to set out the commercial case for originality in a way that applies to any small business, not only to fashion.
