ABSTRACT
This chapter examines restructuring trends taking place in the landscape of clothing production in Southern Africa, a peripheral part of the global clothing economy. It identifies several critical elements in the changing global production environment of the clothing industry, particularly concerning changes in retail practices and international trading regimes. Special attention centres on analysing certain ‘local responses’ by enterprises and other stakeholders towards changes occurring in the global economy of clothing production. The global patterns and dramatic geographical shifts taking place in the clothing industry have been a response to diverse sets of pressures. Organisationally, clothing manufacture in South Africa evidences a dualistic structure with both a formal and an ‘informal’ element of production. The clothing industry of South Africa clearly encompasses a complex mix of formal and informal producers as well as specialist firms which link into clothing.
