Fashion is anything but frivolous and this was evident from the recent showcase by the talented Taylor’s University Bachelor of Fashion Design Technology (Honours) programme students.
Dubbed “The Show – A Fashion Fusion Showcase”, the July 6 event featured four collections: “Organic Geometry”, which fused materials and colours to form shapes and structures of garments; “Unconventional Fashion” where mixed media art was used to create texture and depth; “Layered Fashion” where textiles were layered; and “Genderless Morphe”, which transformed into conversible designs.
A partnership between Taylor’s University and Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week (KLFW), The Show was held at the varsity’s Subang Jaya campus.
During the event, a total of 39 innovative creations that challenged traditional fashion norms were presented to mark the intersection of art, fashion, sustainability and technology.
Leading up to the showcase, students from the Bachelor of Interactive Spatial Design (Honours) programme were given the opportunity to collaborate with the fashion design technology students and industry partner Virtualtech Frontier to present a fashion show in the metaverse.
Taylor’s University deputy vice-chancellor and chief academic officer Prof Dr Pradeep Nair, in his speech, said it is essential to nurture a new generation of talents driven by sustainability and technology as these are the designers who will challenge conventional fashion norms, paving the way for a brighter and more ethically responsible future.
“In today’s progressive world, designers are reimagining traditional techniques and experimenting with cutting-edge technology to create eco-friendly fashion, fostering a more ecological manner of consuming and
producing clothes. “We want our students not only to graduate with the ability to design unique garments, but to also have a purpose, leveraging technology to that end,” he said, adding that The Show highlighted how the varsity has incorporated technology-enabled learning and an impact-based approach to its degrees to achieve a sustainable fashion future.
“Today, 36 student designers across four semesters put their carefully crafted artistic skills on display through a series of creative fashion fusion collections that intersect art, fashion, sustainability and technology – a relentless pursuit of challenging conventional fashion norms through vivid styling that transcends cultures and geographical boundaries,” he said in a press release.
Describing the students as innovation-driven and the pride of the fashion design technology programme offered by Taylor’s Design School, Prof Pradeep said The Show was supported by some of the country’s top local designers.
“It would be wonderful to see how industry and academia can come together to spur creativity and innovation in the fashion scene, for the betterment of the world,” he said.
Prior to the event, a show-and-tell session was held at co-working fashion studio Mayamode to present the nation’s first 3D Fashion Pod.
The 3D body scanning technology aids precision body scanning and digital measurements, increases production speed, eliminates physical samples, lowers sample making cost, and reduces material waste for a more sustainable fashion production process.
Apart from empowering education institutions to infuse technology in the education sphere, the 3D Fashion Pod will complement the National Size Malaysia Campaign, which aims to collect and analyse the body data measurement of Malaysians to develop the first national standard sizing system that will benefit local consumers and the garment industry.
