CRÉATION AFRICA: This fashion-focused consulting firm wants to build the ‘LVMH of Africa’

LEO SZN (pronounced lee-oh see-zn) is a beauty and fashion-focused consulting firm that positions itself as an intermediary between creative talent and commercial opportunity.

Kirsten Leo has a fairly simple way of explaining one of the biggest problems facing talented fashion designers.

“It’s all great to make a beautiful garment. But then you’re just making a product. You’re not building a business.”

The founder and CEO of LEO SZN works behind the glamour of African fashion, helping designers negotiate the decidedly less-glamorous business of fabrics, production, pricing, cash flow, compliance, intellectual property and getting their clothes in front of buyers.

That is precisely why the partnership works. “I think that’s also why it’s such a joy that I get to work with creatives. You can’t put a creative in a box. But I can take the idea and mould it.”

Leo says designers have to wear an extraordinary number of hats, and one of the biggest obstacles she encounters is not a lack of talent. It is pride.

“If you’ve got too much pride, you’re too proud to ask for help. It really does stand in the way.”

Ego, she says, is not necessarily a bad thing either. Artists need a degree of confidence to create something and put it out into the world. The trouble starts when ego becomes “disruptive and dehumanising or disrespectful to others”.

Then there is the reality of turning an inspired sketch into something somebody will actually buy. LEO SZN researches consumer behaviour, trends, textiles, imports and other developments affecting the industry, and uses that information when advising clients.

A wonderful creative idea may simply not make commercial sense in South Africa at that particular time.

Leo’s job is sometimes to say so. She is equally forthright about artificial intelligence. “I do [use AI], but I try not to rely on it. Everything needs human interaction. Everything needs human approval, validation.”

She has seen designers arrive with collections or designs generated using AI and says the shortcomings can be obvious when an idea has to become an actual garment. “AI should help us with operations. It should not help us with creativity. It shouldn’t replace our creativity.”

Preserving craftsmanship matters to her. So does convincing designers that beautiful clothes alone are not enough to attract investment. Leo believes that often the problem is not that there is no investment available to African fashion businesses, but that businesses are not investment-ready.

“Building a business means being compliant and having a plan and a strategy and understanding how cash flow works and being able to tell another person what that means for your business.”