New Vehicle for African Fashion
 |
| Full schedule of Mercedes-Benz Jo’Burg Fashion |
LUXURY car manufacturer, Mercedes Benz, has been announced as the new partner of African Fashion International (AFI)) in title sponsoring Africa’s most globally recognized fashion platforms – Cape Town Fashion Week, Joburg Fashion Week and Africa Fashion Week.
 |
| The New Mercedes Benz |
The new titles will be: Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Joburg, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Cape Town, and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Africa, all which will still be brought to you by AFI.
Regarded as the pre-eminent brand associated with international fashion events – including New York, Tokyo and Berlin Fashion Weeks – the title sponsorship commitment positions Mercedes-Benz as partner in showcasing the African style agenda while affording both AFI and MBSA local and international awareness. This new frontier aligns with AFI’s intention of positioning African fashion on a global platform.
AFI has already invested millions of Rands in the development and promotion of African fashion both locally and abroad.
Mercedes-Benz’ alignment with major fashion platforms world-wide brings substantial prestige and bridges the gap of global relevance to AFI’s three existing, major fashion events.
“We welcome Mercedes-Benz into the African fashion world. As an elegant, sophisticated brand, it is the perfect fit with African Fashion International in terms of leveraging the profile of African designers internationally,” says AFI Executive Chairman Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe.
Along with a significant media reach, AFI’s fashion initiatives present Mercedes-Benz South Africa with an opportunity to engage with the market in innovative, stylish, lifestyle focused ways, including strategic opportunities to launch new products.
At the upcoming Mercedes-Benz Fashion Weeks participants will be privy to previews of the latest and greatest models from Mercedes-Benz that will be will be just as eye-catching as the ramp designs when launched at Cape Town Fashion Week in July and Africa Fashion Week in October 2012 .
“The partnership with AFI presents Mercedes-Benz South Africa with an exciting opportunity to reach influential target groups by engaging with dealers to use fashion to showcase new vehicles through interactive fashion experiences,” says Dr. Martin Zimmermann, President and CEO, Mercedes- Benz South Afric
Significantly, South Africa is also an important global component for Mercedes-Benz with the new C- Class built exclusively in East London being exported world-wide.
In celebrating the African style aesthetic, AFI showcases the best designers from the continent, offering them access to domestic and international market share while also growing a platform for the sustainability of the fashion industry in Africa in creating jobs through fashion and developing new designers in its Fastrack programme.
Last year’s Africa Fashion Week (which included the Africa Fashion awards and Africa Fashion Trade Expo) proved to be the biggest yet with over 30 000 visitors attending fashion shows and the associated Expo over three days.
Under the aegis of African Fashion International, Africa’s largest fashion event is endorsed by SA Tourism and drew 1000s of fashion entrepreneurs, store & boutique buyers, industry professionals and local & international media to Johannesburg for the annual event which aims to accelerate growth in the continent’s clothing and textile industry.
Over 20 international film crews also covered Africa Fashion Week with excellent exposure for not only African fashion but Johannesburg and South Africa as a whole.
