About us

Retail division:
The Fashion Underground CC has a range of fashion ladies handbags that are available exclusively at selected YDE stores, under the label “The Fashion Underground”.

Please see tab “Handbags” for more info.


Meet the Team:

Serle Wust
(Specialist in sourcing, production and logistics)

Serle has been involved in the production side of the clothing, footwear and apparel industry for the last 18 years.
He has run production operations manufacturing various products from underwear, shirts, pants, shorts, SA military clothing, kiddies and ladies to men’s footwear.

In 2006 he was appointed logistics manager at Universal Footwear (known to the industry as Zoom Footwear). His initial tasks involved handling the overseas (China) production of infants, kiddies, men’s’ and ladies footwear. Included in this production was a large percentage character/license based products like Disney, Barbie, Marvel and Warner Bros.
He travelled extensively in China and was required to constantly source new suppliers and ensure existing suppliers were manufacturing products according to specification and standards.
Often he was called upon to trouble shoot problems in various factories at short notice.

He controlled the logistics of all character products coming into South Africa under the Universal Footwear portfolio. This included direct liaison with international product executives based in London and China. This function included the assurance of factory compliancy for license product that had this requirement. If the factory was not certified he would assist them in gaining that certification.
When dealing with chain stores he provided the technical expertise in product development and order acquisition. Chain stores included in his portfolio Foschini, Fashion Express,Woolworths, Truworths, Ackermans, PEP, Mr Price, Edgars and Stuttafords.

In 2008 Serle was given the responsibility of setting up two footwear assembly plants in order to create a more cost effective product. He successfully completed this project and today Woolworths takes up most of the product supplied by this facility.
In 2009 Serle was presented with an opportunity to take up ownership in an entity and now successfully runs several diverse operations.



Astrid Wust
(Specialist in design, sourcing, product development)

Astrid has been involved in the retail fashion industry for the last 10 years.
After obtaining a 2 year diploma in Fashion Design and completing a 6 month post-graduate business course, she opened a retail clothing outlet recruiting 12 budding young designers with their own unique style, creating a special environment for the fashion enthusiast.
Traded for 2,5 years and over this period also designed a menswear and ladies wear range, over and above the marketing and managing of the store.
In 2002, she joined House of Vanilla, an accessory manufacturing company as their designer, patternmaker and merchandiser. Responsibilities included designing and presenting ranges to the clothing retailers as well as seeing orders through from pre-production stage to delivery and assisting in any problem-solving on the production floor.
She also oversaw the marketing and co-ordinated the distribution of the “Vanilla” range housed at the Young Designers Emporium stores.

In 2004, joined Universal Footwear as an accessory product developer, working with imported product like handbags, belts, jewellery, headwear and warm handle (scarves and beanies).
She managed a range of retail store accounts which included Foschini, Fashion Express and Luella, amongst others.
Her portfolio covered areas from sourcing and presenting product/ ideas, costing and working product into customer’s required pricing to price negotiations, placing of orders, creation of spec sheets for production and assisting suppliers with problem solving production issues.

The position required extensive travelling to China and Europe to source suppliers and product.
In 2007, she was formally promoted as sales manager of her division. In 2008 Astrid left Universal Footwear to pursue an opportunity of managing and growing 2 businesses, the foresight being that these 2 businesses would fund other new business ventures.
These businesses are currently operating successfully with extensive growth obtained.




"Fashion Leather Handbags, Belts, Wallets & Accessories, Disney Licenced Children's Footwear, Disney Baby Bags, Bokkie Footwear "
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