AOD Graduate Fashion Showcase 2018:
A showcase of the fantastic fashion talent, networks and prospects in the business of fashion
Held as part of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Sri Lanka, AOD Graduate Fashion Showcase offers industry and public exposure, as well as powerful work networks for graduating degree classes of 2018. Event open to the public, giving After AL and OL students a rare opportunity to understand careers and prospects in the world of fashion.
AOD announced its annual showcase of the graduating class of fashion designers with its ‘Graduate Fashion Showcase 2018’. This incredibly interesting event is an annual showcase of AOD’s graduating classes under its international fashion degree programme and is Sri Lanka’s largest showcase of young fashion talent. The event is attended by AOD’s powerful local and global networks with visitors from the Sri Lankan apparel industry, international fashion and design influencers from the UK, Netherlands and US, as well as established designers from South Asian nations such as India and Bangladesh. The Graduate Fashion Showcase is part of AOD’s powerful employment infrastructures in place and allows its outgoing students to meet potential employers from around the world as well as Sri Lanka’s apparel business, form useful networks with other designers and gain valuable exposure as they step into the professional world. The event is also open to the public as it presents an unusual opportunity for parents, students and young people aspiring to work in fashion, to understand the current standards in fashion and wearable design practices, how individual talent, hard work and work ethics are translated to great employment opportunities, and also how the business of fashion works through professional networks, international links and industry patronage. AOD Graduate Fashion Showcase 2018 will be held as part of the country’s biggest fashion event—Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Sri Lanka—and will unveil during 26th, 27th and 28th of October at DIMO 800 Mercedes-Benz Centre for Excellence. The Graduate Fashion Showcase will open up with a dazzling runway held as a private event for a selected audience of local and international fashion and apparel industry known names and brands looking to recruit fresh graduate talent, opening up a world of opportunities for AOD’s BA (Hons) Fashion and Textile Design Degree graduates.
Despite not being open to the public, the show will be livestreamed globally, reaching audiences across the world and allowing anyone and everyone interested to join the show live as the runway happens. The show will be produced by AOD’s international faculty and a group of runway professionals from Italy, including producers, models and choreographers who will be lending a global perspective to its presentation.
Both the runway show and the Graduate Fashion Showcase exhibition will include over twenty collections of work from designers, who are exploring a large variety of themes ranging from culture, fantasy, deconstruction, sustainability and gender as well as more material dispositions such as finishing technologies, textile innovation and colour. One of the most interesting aspect of these graduate collections are the industry-designer collaborations that portray how the local apparel industry and value chain are beginning to work closely with design talent, to present cuttingedge wearable innovations from Sri Lanka. Graduating designers have collaborated with companies like MAS Linea Aqua, Coats Thread, Dynawash, Anim8, and the Bobbin Group presenting collections that use industry technologies, breakthrough materials, state-of-the-art printing and finishing methods. These collaborations outline how Sri Lanka’s fashion industry ecosystem is spearheading a fresh innovation movement with progressive design driven entities like AOD at its centre. These industry capabilities and graduate talent mergers will be highlighted as a very special component of AOD Graduate Fashion Showcase, as it is a perfect portrayal of the unusual design education methods employed by AOD where young designers are directly exposed to the business of fashion.
The Graduate Fashion Showcase will be open to the public on the 26th, 27th and 28th of October from 10.00am – 6.00 pm at DIMO 800 Mercedes-Benz Centre for Excellence. For more info stay tuned to AOD’s official digital channels AOD Sri Lanka on Facebook, aod_design on instagram, www. aod.lk or contact AOD on 011586772/3 or email info@aod.lk