The Foschini Group

Foschini

Foschini, the women’s clothes retailer, has a great choice of locally manufactured, fashionable women’s tops, knitwear, jackets, pants and suits across their instore labels. Foschini sources 65% of its fashion locally and the company has its own clothing manufacturing business. They realised that locally made fashion can compete with imports through speed of delivery. However, when I last checked, their jeans were all imported, as were their shoes and most of their accessories. You’ll find a good choice of girls’ clothing at Foschini, too, whereas locally made clothes for boys are rare(r). Foschini also sells locally made lingerie by other brands (see the ‘Clothes’ chapter).

Locally produced: Majority of clothes apart from denim ones.

Markham

Markham, the Foschini Group’s main men’s store, has only the occasional business suit and shirt that are made locally under the Cignal label. Their T-shirts, pants, jackets and knitwear are all imported, with Mauritius featuring quite often as the source. If you are a Levi’s Jeans person, you’ll find some 501s and 507s at Markham that are made in the Western Cape. It depends on the cut and wash, though, so you’ll need to double-check the label.

Locally produced: Some business suits and shirts, some Levi’s jeans.

@home

Most things at @home are not made at home, nor even locally. In fact the place might be more accurately called @China. This is where their s&p baking tins come from, as well as many of their glasses and their, well, china. All their blankets, throws, chenilles, so invitingly soft and in Africa-compatible colours, are made there. As are their bathrobes. Ditto the appliances brand Breville which is advertised as Australian is actually manufactured in China. The 400 percale linen items are imported as are the 100% cotton ones. Their Guesthouse towel range as well as their bamboo towels are made in Portugal. Other towels come from India.

Locally produced: They stock some Glodina towels under their Everday towels. And the feather duvets (inners) are proudly South African.

Mr Price

If you are looking for locally produced women’s or men’s clothing Mr Price is not your shop. They do stock the odd local item – usually men’s cotton T-shirts and women’s cotton or viscose dresses – but you have to be a patient label reader to unearth items made in RSA. All their denim pieces come from China. They stock many garments made in Mauritius and some from Lesotho and Bangladesh (read more about this below).

Locally produced: Your best bet is children’s clothes, the younger the child the better. There you can find a nice range of fashionable tops and bottoms at the low prices Mr Price aims for.

Truworths

Truworths

In women’s fashion, Truworths has a reasonable choice of local garments. There is no obvious ‘pattern’ in terms of fabrics or items. If you read the labels you’ll find locally produced garments amongst all their shop labels, generally more tops than bottoms and – was I happy to find this – some locally made denim jeans and some knitwear. Your best bet is to look out for the actual ‘Truworths’ range, which seems to have the most locally produced items. Truworths also retails locally made lingerie, though not their own brands (see the ‘Clothes’ chapter).

Locally produced: Various women’s clothing items, most consistently in the ‘Truworths’ range.

Truworths Man

Truworths Man is a good bet for shopping for locally produced men’s clothes. They have a wide range of dress shirts and suits. They are not the most expensive items in the shop either, but compete well with the items made elsewhere, eg in Mauritius. They also have some locally made jeans as part of the Hemisphere label, although many are imported.

Locally produced: Double-check, but many of their formal and funkier shirts are made locally, as are their suits and other pants. You can also find some local jeans here.

Truworths LTD and Daniel Hechter

You’ll find the occasional item made locally at Truworths LTD, both in the women’s and the men’s range, but it is the exception. The same goes for Daniel Hechter.

Edgars

Edgars stocks a number of brands which have some locally manufactured clothes in their ranges, eg Bad Boy and Bad Girl, Charter Club, D66, Jockey and Sissy Boy. See here for details.

Locally produced: Leather belts and clothes from Thula Sindi.

PEP Stores

PEP Stores stock school uniforms under the Student Prince label. All these items, apart from the shirts, are made in South Africa. The Trustees shoes are also locally made, though not the Toughees. Otherwise the store is selling stock that is largely manufactured overseas – certainly all shoes, jackets, blankets and towels are imports (with the exception of the rare Colibri towel).

Locally produced: The best bets in terms of local children’s clothing are cotton pyjamas, acrylic/polyester knit tops and some uni-coloured, basic jeans and corduroy pants. For men, there are some RSA made socks and belts on offer. For women, some tops and belts. The bodyline label (vests and sleepwear) has some local stock in the range as well.