20 students from NZ Fashion Tech have been awarded Prime Minister’s Scholarships for Asia, giving them an opportunity to travel to India for 5 weeks of internationalised learning.
In the first stage of a unique New Zealand / India education collaboration, ten stunning looks designed and made from hand-loomed Indian silk saris by Diploma students at NZ Fashion Tech as part of their academic course work opened four Resene-sponsored public shows at New Zealand Fashion Week.
And in the second stage of the collaboration, 20 Diploma students from NZ Fashion Tech’s Auckland and Wellington campuses, will prepare to travel to India in November for another career-defining opportunity.
Academic Director of NZ Fashion Tech, Val Marshall-Smith says: “This year the design brief from our tutors and Resene encouraged students to let their imaginations run wild and we’re delighted with their work. The brief was created in the form of a storybook and it took the students on an imaginary journey from the confines of a ‘virtual unreality’ set in a future time, to a colourful, mystical, wondrous place.”
“The reason NZ Fashion Tech welcomes collaborations like this is that they give our students a taste of the real world of fashion – a real client brief, a tight time-frame of four weeks, a competitive challenge and some exceptional rewards: in stage one of the project, Resene gives ten students the opportunity to show their work on New Zealand’s biggest fashion stage and a prize for the top designer, and in stage two the Prime Minister of New Zealand gives 20 of our NZ Fashion Tech students a Prime Minister’s Scholarship for Asia taking them on a fashion education exchange to India. We believe both experiences are life-enhancing for the students and beneficial for New Zealand’s apparel industry,” she says.
NZ Fashion Tech has been delivering applied fashion design and technology programmes In Auckland and Wellington for 20 years, and throughout that time they’ve seen the industry become design-led and global.
NZ Fashion Tech gives its students as many real-life experiences as possible, such as the Fashion Week collaboration with Resene and a unique education exchange with India (see details below) and sees part of its role as a tertiary education provider helping students transition into work.
Managing Director Kevin Smith says: “We place students in work experience aligned with their goals and interests and arm them with communications skills and 97.5% of our 2014 Diploma graduates went on to relevant employment or further education such as business studies. We never have less than 90% of our grads achieve their employment or education goals.”
NZ Fashion Tech’s business model is believed to be unique within the sector. While other providers deliver fashion programmes within other degrees, NZ Fashion Tech offers fashion programmes exclusively, with emphasis on preparing graduates for a design-led fashion industry.
From the crimsons and tangerines of silk saris flowing from women who perch side-saddle on motor-scooters zig-zagging across lanes of traffic to the lime greens and daffodil yellows of fresh produce abundant in street markets to the inky purples, velvet reds and deep blues of formal India, it’s fitting that colour has brought India and New Zealand together.
The 20 NZ Fashion Tech students awarded the Prime Minister’s Scholarships for Asia in 2015 are:
Auckland Campus
Abigail Cribe
Angela Pendolero-Hug
Angela Su
Khrishae Teriaki
Lani Simpson
Melissa North
Samantha Williams
Samuel Malloy
Seraphina Wood
Surayya Tayir
Sumner Elliott-Moore
Virginia Mann-Lagatule
Wellington Campus
Austin Delaney
Caitlin Bartholomeusz
Emily Chin
Grace Casio
Grace Kleinsman
Isaac Coulston
Jerome Taylor
Will Fincham