College of the Arts Fashion Show

Date/Time: Friday, 30 January 2015, 19h30

Venue: Franco Namibian Cultural Centre Gallery

Entrance: Free

The Fashion Design diploma at the College of the Arts is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the first graduates entering their careers as fashion designers. At a dedicated fashion show at the end of January, all students who have completed the Fasion Design diploma over the past ten years, will showcase their work.

The aim of this 10th anniversary celebration is to bring graduates together and share their skills, knowledge, experience and achievements. The fashion show will be the platform for new partnerships and collaboration within the emerging industry. The best designs will be announced and awarded during the show. Through this celebration we are also looking forward to creating partnerships and collaborations within the growing Namibian Fashion Industry. The celebration will also be a competition for the emerging designers. Fashion designers Marianne Fassler and fashion magazine editor Johno du Plessis from South Africa, and Meryl Barry, the CEO at the Pupkewitz Foundation will judge the competition. The Graduate Winner will accompany College of the Arts lecturers, Beate Hamalwa and Helena Hangula to London on 26 of February 2015 to showcase her/his collection at the London Fashion Week. Hamalwa initiated the Fashion Design diploma, recognising the industry’s need for innovative and creative thinking and job creation. At that time, Hamalwa designed costumes for an adaptation of the play Eiffel Tower Wedding Party by Jean Cocteau, directed by Vincent Colin. Since then the Franco Namibian Cultural Centre has played a big role in developing the Fashion Design diploma.  They sponsored industrial sewing machines and other equipment. In 2005 Bianca Mofogeng and Helena Hangula visited Lycee La Calade College in Marseille, France. A distinctive difference in creative and technical thinking was shaped by French fashion professionals, for instance Fashion Design by Clara Matheron and Fred Sattler; Photography for Fashion by Marie-Alicia Noalles; and Jewellery Design by Mikael Kra.  Later two puppet-making workshops were offered by the German Embassy. The first intake had only seven students while this year the college received over 60 applications of which 20 will be successful. Last year the college received accreditation through the Namibian Qualification Authority for the Fashion Design diploma.