Empowerment incubation is a strategy to address unemployment in South Africa. It was determined during 2013 that 50% of jobs were lost in the South African Clothing and Textile Industry since 2003. Contrariwise, this situation has presented opportunities for prevailing local fashion design businesses to collaborate on government funded initiatives that promote transformation and empowerment linked to entrepreneurial opportunities.

Repurposing images has become an integral part of the ideation phase of fashion design processes. The use of online images presents both a challenge and an opportunity for fashion design students who use images of others to communicate a design concept through mood boards. The challenge pertains to the authenticity of their design concepts.

Although the authors of this paper acknowledge the importance of referencing of visual material as a strategy to prevent plagiarism, the argument is made that compilation of mood boards with existing images can be further explored, especially with regard to the accountability of an individual in relation to the concept authenticity.

The South African government has invested in skills development ever since 1995 in an effort to facilitate more opportunities for small business and micro business (SMME) owners. Skills development programs offered in South Africa include the development of technical skills like apparel construction. At least 129 active apparel SMMEs were operating in the Pretoria region of Gauteng province during between 2001 and 2013. Most of these SMMEs provide custom‐made apparel for their individual customers and the owner‐designers of these businesses are involved in the design process of the custom‐made apparel, but also play an imperative role in the business functions that directly relate to the design process.