Powell’s Designer Workshops
The fashion industry is a much bigger industry then one would ordinarily think.
This is to do with the fact that for the most part, you as a consumer would only see the final products and commodities that you would purchase at an outlet. Industry stakeholders had to work together for you to have completed that transaction.
To bolster and strengthen the fashion industry, the Bottega Gold Fijian Fashion Festival; an initiative of the Fashion Council of Fiji is targeting skill development of the central and broader fashion industry, i.e. the skill development of designers, models, photographers, bloggers, makeup artists and all other relevant stakeholders.
Beacon of fashion education
Leading up to the Festival on June 1 and 2, the organisers of the Festival has partnered with Andrew Powell who is a beacon of fashion education for us in Fiji, to deliver a series of workshops centered around Designers— from sketch to finished product.
Mr Powell joins only a handful of Fijians to be hired by a global fashion brand.
He was hired by ‘KOOKAI’, one of Australia’s most successful and iconic fashion brands with hundreds of stores around the world including Australasia and in Europe, as their Pattern Making manager at the KOOKAI Factory.
His experience in the broader Fashion industry, coupled with his knowledge on how the fashion industry operates in Fiji allows him to contextualise the industry and be able to relate and adapt western fashion business ideals to a Fijian setting.
The Festival organisers is holding another workshop with Andrew Powell this Saturday at the Suva Business Centre which will focus on fashion sketching, creating specification sketches, creating your own print and where to print and fashion marketing—i.e. branding and marketing strategies on a budget. The workshops are open to the public but with very limited space.
If you are interested in attending the workshop this Saturday, please send an email to ‘bula@fijianfashionfest.com’. The Bottega Gold Fijian Fashion Festival has one more designer workshop scheduled for May 5 that will focus on pattern-making and grading, trims and materials and costing garments.