Shoppers who want clothing with a distinctive local identity, Manzini said, should be able to buy it. The diversity celebrated on runways and at festivals, he noted, is not always reflected in what stores actually stock.

The Summit, billed as the largest international business forum for the fashion industries of fast-growing economies, drew retailers, fashion association heads and investors from more than 60 countries. It ran alongside Moscow Fashion Week. Participants included representatives of the International Apparel Federation, PT Pan Brothers Tbk, FARM Rio and Wildberries, as well as experts from the BoF 500 list. African voices were prominent, discussing production costs, access to retail channels and the demands of international markets.

Soweto Fashion Week has already benefited, forging business relationships with colleagues and retailers from Brazil and Sri Lanka. "The BRICS+ Fashion Summit is creating a new global platform where emerging fashion markets can connect, collaborate and do business," Manzini said. It moves the conversation, he added, beyond traditional fashion capitals.

Colleen Eitzen, co-founder of the South African retail chain The Space, set out how stocking local designers can work in practice. The chain carries designers' collections and takes a commission on sales, giving brands physical retail without the cost of running their own outlets. Designers can watch sales in real time, seeing which styles, colours and sizes move and which do not, and respond quickly. Sales consultants, meanwhile, keep personal relationships with customers and tell them when new pieces from their favourite designers arrive.

Brian James Kihindas, director of Nairobi Fashion Week and the Kenya Fashion Council, turned to the price of trading internationally. Small brands, he said, struggle to compile the production data that certification requires and to pay for the procedures needed to sell abroad. He proposed closer cooperation between countries, regional product-testing laboratories, and support for designers navigating different market requirements, all scaled to the resources of small businesses.

Nana Addo Tamakloe, CEO and Founder of Accra Fashion Week, pointed to pressure in domestic markets. Large-scale imports of second-hand clothing make life harder for local manufacturers, he said: smaller brands cannot compete at the low end of the price range, while designer pieces remain within reach mainly of affluent shoppers. Access to international markets, he argued, is essential to the survival of many local brands.

The Summit gave African industry leaders working under very different economic conditions a shared place to meet. Others on the programme included Mahlet Teklemariam of Hub of Africa Fashion Week (Ethiopia), Mmantlha Sankoloba of the Botswana Exporters and Manufacturers Association, Kalistu Ramos Mukoroli of MTC Windhoek Fashion Week (Namibia), Rick Anderson of Mauritius Fashion Festival Week, and Tery Carola of Seychelles Fashion Week.