Kirsten Leo

What does your company do?

LEO SZN is a creative consulting firm that specialises in business and brand development for fashion designers in the SADC region. We specialise in collection development, brand development, campaign production and press & PR outreaches. Our aim is to connect local fashion designers with their immediate market by producing commercially viable collections that remain sustainable and authentic to the designer's intentions, and we focus on efforts that create more opportunities for international expansion.

What is your biggest success?

Each day with LEO SZN feels like our biggest success, as we continue to reach the targets and goals that we periodically set. Our biggest success is all thanks to the small successes along the way. That said, our pride and joy is certainly LEO SZN's Annual Event, where we partner with various brands to curate an exceptional experience for our exclusive guest list of key industry players. We host our guests for a hand-picked 5-course dinner and then whisk them off to SA Fashion Week's Autumn/Winter showcases. We are very excited to be hosting another evening again, to celebrate South African fashion. We are also really proud of our Signature Launch Bundle package - it has yielded some wonderful insights that strengthen the firm's position in the market, and sold faster than we could have imagined!

What has been your biggest hurdle?

Our biggest hurdle is access to critical machinery and raw materials in the textile industry in South Africa. Our designers are incredibly talented and have the resilience to succeed, but they are faced with the very real hurdles of an immobilised textile industry. This has a knock-on effect on the greater fashion industry, where designers needing business support and access to business-related resources might not be able to afford such services. We continue to seek ways to overcome, with small successes on the way.