'Fashion Search’ organized by AOD and held alongside ‘Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week’ inspires young aspiring fashion designers

Design is no longer a stranger to Sri Lanka as power industries such as apparel and textiles, tea and tourism as well as other industries embrace design as a method of value addition and on some occasion to completely reinvent a business. Design in itself the conceptualization and the creation of new things. It stems from a mix of creativity, logic and innovative thinking. This is a skill that can be developed and fine tuned from a young age to create a well thoughtout, refined outcome that serves a greater purpose.

AOD, Sri Lanka’s leading design educator is at the forefront of such modern progressive thinking supporting creative talent and providing a platform for aspiring designers to explore their potential and indentify their strengths in terms of design. ‘Fashion Search’ held alongside ‘Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Sri Lanka’ was created for students with innovative ideas and dreams of becoming a designer to take an initial step towards a future in design and gain exposure to the fashion industry in Sri Lanka and one of the main internat ional fashion events - Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.

The competition was held as two challenges; fashion design and street style photography. Students were guided to be inspired by the Spring/Summer 2018 trends in designing their own collections and photography in order to convey the importance of staying upto- date on trends and also being able to thread in your own individuality and unique ideas. It was an opportunity for students to think free and flesh out their more unconventional ideas and discover their own potential while gaining an insight to a highly-specialized field which requires special talent and skill.

Students of various educational backgrounds and those who are still in the process of finding their true ambition were inspired to explore their creative potential and probe into their imagination to come up with original ideas. The finalists were selected for an exclusive internship backstage at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Sri Lanka and were given a one-of-akind experience learning the finer details and experiencing the amount of effort and energy that is required to organize and execute an event of this scale. Devin Waduge, a student of Royal College and the winner of Fashion Search stated; “I loved the whole experience.

It was amazing being backstage and being able to get involved in the event as well as have my work exhibited. It also made me realize my true potential and what my true passion is about. It completely changed the way I thought about fashion design and my future”. AOD has been behind the development of design and creativity related skills through its many initiatives in grooming the next generation of young design talent.

The business world has already realized the importance of such skill and the careers in the industry are full of great potential. AOD strives to create design professionals with the right education who are up to the challenge of redefining the future of the country as well as making a significant contribution to the economy and international creative industries. ‘Fashion Search’ is one such initiative which will be continued in the years to come in an even larger scale pushing the boundaries of design thinking and providing students the opportunity to follow their true calling.

For free design career counselling, or to understand more about studying Fashion, Fashion Marketing, Interior Design Studies, Graphic Design and Motion Graphics & Animation Design with 100%internal design degrees from Northumbria University UK, reach

AOD on 0775727772, 011 5867772 email info@aod. lk or walk in between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday - AOD, 29, Lauries Road, Colombo 4. www.aod.lk.