07 May 2017

Managing director of Botswana Bureau of Standards, Masego Marobela has  implored the designers to implement standards in their production chain as there were benefits that could be accrued from their implementation.

Marobela said at the Inaugural workshop of the Masa Square Hotel Fashion Show and Mentorship Programme recently, where 12 mentors were paired each with a mentee in preparation for the fashion show scheduled to be on October 21.

“Such benefits include, the assurance of consistency in your production, a decreased trend in rejections, reworks and customer complaints as well as enhancement of trust and confidence by your customers, which will inevitably lead to sustainable businesses,” she said.

She commended Masa Square Hotel for the noble initiative of contributing to the socio-economic development and employment creation  in the country.

“This programme has been initiated to amongst others strengthen cross industry relationships as well as open up and enhance trade opportunities locally and internationally for our budding fashion designers,” she said.

She said it was through such efforts, that young fashion designers were given an opportunity to realise their potential, seeded from their talent, ability and passion to create and grow sustainable business.

“While fashion is an art, wherein innovation is the key, one cannot separate this art and any other for that matter from the quality of standards and their implementation. For standards to contain rules, requirements or procedures for orderly approach to a specific activity,” she said.

Marobela further said BOBS being the National Body of Botswana, had so far developed over 100 standards in the clothing, textile and leather sector as well as leather and leather products.

“Clothing standards includes knitwear, military clothing, hosiery, their labelling and size coding systems, protective clothing accessories, whilst others included footwear as well as shoelaces,” she said.

She said textile and apparel products needed testing as they were consumer products, adding that they needed to meet certain standards.

“BOBS is at your service to conduct tests and analysis that would go a long way in minimising your operational, financial and environmental risks that may arise in their textile apparel supply chain,” she said. ENDS