AOD School of Fashion: Creating tomorrows Designers & Future Fashion Tech Professionals
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“Sporty Couture” Collection showcased at Graduate Fashion Week London
Bridging multidisciplinary creative education to become the most innovative school in the region in an innovative space at the Colombo innovation Tower with collaborations in a place where design, tech and industry are interwoven , AOD is set to equip its graduates to face the future with confidence and responsibility, placing the challenges and opportunities of the creative sector at the centre of its teaching, AOD is setting up for creating future proof professionals’ who are well prepared for successful careers for a very different future
AOD SCHOOL OF FASHION
The intersection between fashion and tech has presented some of the most powerful business opportunities in the last decade. It represents an incredibly potent way to connect to consumers by making new experiences possible through what we wear. The curriculum at AOD School of Fashion is presented in collaboration with the UK’s award-winning Northumbria University through a powerful set of degrees structured to allow people to see how the fashion business in the future is not just be about clothing; and how wearables can do much more in terms of influencing the fashion world of tomorrow & deliver to that.
The Changes in the fashion Education Landscape has been phenomenal and AOD 3.0 has re invented itself to create the future fashion professional of tomorrow considering the following global shifts;
- Digital technology changing industry
- The need to Embed sustainability
- Need for Multidisciplinary learning and More open curriculum
- Learning on the spot/ workshops must be done more in collaboration industry
- Collaboration across school, across levels, across AOD – Graphics with Interior Architecture, Fashion with Tech and so on.
- The need for Transferrable skills & lifelong learning
Punna Withanaarachchi award winning moment at Mercedez Benz Fashion week 2018 to showcase at Graduate Fashion Week London. Award been presented by Mr Ashroff Omar Group Chief Executive Officer Brandix Apparel Limited.
What to expect when you enroll with AOD School of Fashion
Speaking about the curriculum, experiences and resources available to students, a representative of AOD said that the School of Fashion will be situated at the Colombo Innovation Tower. She added that the idea is to facilitate experimentation, and deeper explorations into opportunities arising with tech-fashion mergers. “Imagine having the opportunity to experiment with 3D printed garments or fabrics, exploring colour-changing textiles with our industry partners like Coats and self-healing fabrics that lead to amazing new ideas like vibrating sportswear that allow you to see your levels of activity, clothes that can communicate or harvest solar energy to charge your devices. This is the future of fashion, and it is what we offer you at the AOD School of Fashion.” She added that the AOD School of Fashion will be working in partnership with global sustainable fashion authorities and accelerators as well, paving the way to more entrepreneurship and young brands to pollinate the fashion business landscape.”
The New AOD Campus at Colombo Innovation Tower is set to offer:
- Access to all AOD school of Design in one sit Fashion Design and Tech, Fashion business & Media & Comm
- Access to world leading fashion education and research activity
- Multi-purpose lecture modern learning spaces for students as well as programmed community events
- Public open spaces including galleries, interactive showcasing areas, foyer and café & Creative Innovation Centre
- Specialist teaching and learning spaces housing Fashion Design, Business, Media and Communication, Design and Technology etc
- Enterprise activity, working within the commitment to use fashion as a mechanism for social and economic change
- Incubation, graduate and start-up support & Student Success Space for Career placement
APD Creative Fashion Talent Punna Withanaarachchi , selected at Mercedez Benz Fashion Week 2018 to showcase in London.
The Industry in Sri Lanka
For countries like Sri Lanka, where a multi-billion-dollar fashion manufacturing industry exists, these possibilities open up not only new business, but also fresh breeding grounds for entrepreneurship and material innovation. Foreseeing how Sri Lanka is extremely well positioned to harness these opportunities, the country’s design education leader AOD has been determinedly championing a progressive philosophy that connects tech, wearables innovation and design thinking with industry. Recently, the school announced that it will offer a wider portfolio of studies that drive a much deeper connection between disciplines like fashion with tech and business, aiming to create professionals who will have the thinking and the skill-sets to unlock the opportunities of emerging fashion futures. The AOD SCHOOL OF FASHION was announced as an academic department catering to this need, by offering a globally rounded, industry relevant study experience that pushes students to see and operate beyond the existing possibilities in fashion. Here’s a closer look at the AOD School of Fashion, the future that it prepares students for, and the career opportunities that it will present to young fashion graduates within the next decade.
While the AOD School of Fashion degrees weave through essential studies in textiles, trend analysis, sustainable practices and understanding the business of fashion, what will form the most interactive component of the study experience are the collaborative projects with industry partners. For example, test projects to approach to practicing sustainability in fashion was recently conducted by AOD in partnership with the apparel giant Hirdaramani, where the end of roll fabrics being burned or disposed of, were used by AOD fashion students to create new collections. Similarly, AOD students challenges themselves to creating a sustainable range of jeans, looking to change the usually destructive course of manufacturing processes incorporated in the making of jeans.
The world thread giant Coats Thread also collaborated with AOD students working with new yarns including eco verde and recycled polyester thread. Meanwhile AOD’s final year students in the School of Fashion are now collaborating with the local tech education pioneers to create new materials and processes. These groundbreaking projects will have an in-depth research process to analyse the existing applications of nanotechnology to understand the potential and the capabilities of the processes and material. This will be followed by selecting a sports or performance wear brand for product pairing to fill the existing gaps in its market for new fabric development. Another headline-worthy project by AOD student Punna was showcased at Graduate Fashion Week in London , featured here that perfectly demonstrated the school’s fashion philosophy, by integrating new thinking of techniques . This incredibly promising multidisciplinary education is set to change the landscape of fashion & design education in the region and support local industries with Design professionals who can take them to the future.
AOD School of Fashion is currently enrolling for its 2019 intake which commences this September. For registrations and more information on the AOD School of Fashion and its degrees in Fashion Design and Fashion Marketing and Design,
call 0775727772, email
info@aod.lk or log on to
www.aod.lk