Sandra Burke gave Limkokwing University’s Faculty of Fashion & Lifestyle Creativity students a talk on the opportunities, trends and challenges of the fashion industry on 6 October.
The talk was held at the Limkokwing Branding Gallery. Attending the talk were students studying BA (Hons) in Fashion & Retailing, BA (Hons) in Fashion Design, Diploma in Hair Design and Professional Diploma in Hair Design.
Sandra Burke is the Director of Burke Publishing as well as international designer and visiting lecturer to several universities. She is an author from the United Kingdom with several publications on fashion illustration techniques and creative processes.
Her publications are used as guides for aspiring fashion designers, stylists and illustrators. Her published guidebooks include ‘Fashion Artist’, ‘Fashion Computing’ and ‘Fashion Entrepreneur’.
On giving advice to students, she explains that while passion is a desirable trait among designers, graduates must pick up as many new skills before getting into the industry. “You will need to learn other skills to succeed,” she said. “The fashion industry requires various skills that supplement each other.”
A well-kept portfolio would provide graduates with better job prospects according to her.
While emphasising the importance of design production, graduates would need to create designs that are both stylish and commercially viable.
“Business acumen, technical drawing and networking is just as important,’ said Burke.
For graduating Fashion & Retail Design student Adilya Botabayera, the talk helped her realise the significance of her previous designs.
“It was good to have a proper feedback from industry professionals as this prepares us for our future careers,” she said.
