Seventeen students from the Faculty of Fashion and Lifestyle Creativity (FFLC) took part in organising fashion designer Joe Chia’s Spring/Summer 2017 Showcase and Web Store Launch event on 7 September.
Joe Chia is an award-winning Malaysian designer known for his minimalist, urban and edgy but uncomplicated creations. In 2014, Joe Chia was named ‘Asia’s Most Influential Designer’ at the Malaysia Fashion Week. In addition, Joe Chia was also named the ‘Best Menswear Designer’ by fashion magazine Newman and was considered as one of the Top 40 successful young people under 40 years of age by Prestige magazine.
Joe Chia’s Spring/Summer 2017 Showcase benefitted the students in various ways, as it exposed them to real life and real world experiences of assisting during a large fashion showcase and fashion event. The students worked closely with the designer and the PR team to help produce and execute the show.
Olivia Joan Patrick, third semester student of BA (Hons) Fashion and Retailing from Malaysia, felt really excited because taking part in the Showcase meant attending her first fashion event as an insider in the fashion industry.
According to Olivia, the showcase was “a stepping stone for me in the fashion industry because it’s where you start learning how to deal with models, how to see the designers, how they worked, how they created this event, so it is actually exciting to participate in this event.”
Olivia’s classmate Lisa Sikana from Zambia felt that participating in the Showcase has opened her eyes and deepened her understanding of how the fashion industry works. “It’s a very great opportunity to participate in such things, things that I hope to be doing in the future.”
According to Lisa, she had different roles in the Showcase. “I moved around and socialised with different people who have different roles preparing for this fashion show. It helps me see what it’s like to be in the fashion industry, how hard it is, and working with people, how to organise such event for myself when I establish my brand.”
Olivia agreed with Lisa, saying that studying fashion at Limkokwing University has been the right decision as the University has given her a lot of opportunities to attend high profile events that enabled her to experience the industry first-hand instead of just being told about it.
Allowing students to work in the Showcase is part of Limkokwing University’s industry-driven approach, which sees its students work on real projects commissioned by its industry partners and work side-by-side with industry veterans to create original works.