by Zanita Careem
Interested in a career in fashion designing? Now is the time to strike at what seemed like a fantasy for most Sri Lankans, is a mere functionality now?

The New York School of Visual Arts (NYSOVA), the first of its kind in Sri Lanka situated in the heart of Colombo, fulfills a long-felt need for those interested in making fashion designing a career.

It is the only school in this region providing the students equipped with fully airconditioned classrooms, technically designed labs, computers, a well stocked library and above all a team of dynamic and friendly lecturers specialised in their respective fields.

Their goal - dedicated to infuse creativity and a professional outlook in fashion designing, their aim is to help students to become familiar with design methology and successfully guiding them to world recognition.

The NYSOVA offers a unique learning environment, developing skills and giving practical training. The school the brainchild of Italian designer Tiziano Picogna, is a boon to those who want to make fashion designing a career.

Of course, it was born to fulfil the major need of today - higher education in this field. Most Sri Lankans go abroad to study fashion designing. This school will be a is a spring board for designers, says Annette Wending Willeke, Director Institutional Development and an architect herself of the school.

Meeting Annette Wending and speaking to her gave me a insight of the school before I discussed the details.

"For us what is important is creativity and individually" emphasises Annette. The concept here is for the students to come up with innovative ideas.

The 21st century demands new skills and broader knowledge. Our 6 month diploma course is designed to meet the challenges of the new century. We’ve designed a curriculum that will allow students to stimulate their creative vision. Thus each student is shown to reconcile his individual imagination with professionalism. The fashion designer is the one who controls the entire production cycle for this reason, he/she will attend drawing classes colouring and rendering techniques pattern making together with marketing history of costume and production in order to be able to start from an idea to the completion of a final product........"

NYSOA gears to the global demand with international standard programmes and faculty and curriculam of world standards.

The students are selected after an aptitude test and this will be the only school which would be totally dedicated to the training of visual arts, fashion designing and merchandising, interior design, media communication & jewellery design.

Fashion for Annette does not simply mean clothes but everything which has something to do with the wish of human beings to create image of the ourselves, to choose objects, accessories and more generally signs which can express their personalities. Aesthetics for the fashion system means colours, fabrics, shapes, jewels, accessories and everything that has to do with the ‘body’. In addition the school will also have courses in interior designing and jewellery designing drawn up by Annette. "Our long term goal is to get an affliation with Virginia Commonwealth University in USA for these three main courses later on perhaps for communications, arts and fine arts, pointed out Annette.

All three diplomas begin with the students doing an art foundation stimulating their aesthetic vision. The whole concept is designed to give students a taste of figure drawing, composition, theory of colour and history of arts. All this will give the students a solid foundation when they get into the main course". Annette explains while showing some of the work already produced by some students. "We are on vacation" explained Annette while showing the school and explaining the concenpt of the course. "Already we have about 26 students and we have visiting international lecturers on various subjects".

Each fashion design student needs to produce three collections of designs. Three outfits from the third collection have to be tailored and presented at the school’s first fashion show scheduled to be held next January.

The students prepare trend board imaginatively and creatively laying out the main idea of their fashion concept and their designs based on this broad vision.

One such eye catching concept was the ‘Biker Wear’ which Annette showed us. Her student visualised her perception of fashion inspired by mobikes. On the trend board they have to show what kind of attire they plan to design, evening, casual or office wear explained Annette. They have to indicate the kind of fabric, the colour and the feel they wanted to infuse.

"We always have field trips to the factories and shops so that the students know about fabrics and to know about what is available. It is a case of stimulating their creative strength the strong point of our schools main concept" pointed out Annette. The students should be able to read colours, feel textures notice blends and believe that you can create a particular look.

Is the course quite tough and challenging I queried?

"Yes of course, it is designed to enable students to be in touch with the fashion world and all opportunities of training and work the fashion industry has to offer in other parts of the world. "We try to open up our students to the broader perspective so that all possibilities and options are open to make a choice".

The school has an added attraction, it will go further by forming a job placement service connecting students to the industries. ‘We have already started small with people who need designers and merchandisers’, says Annette.

NYSOVA is equipped with a sophisticated computer student of designer software. Adobe photo shop, coral draw and a library of latest books and periodicals. "We want the library to open for the public for reference once we have a fullfledged library" says Annette.

In addition NYSOVA will open a gallery on September 27 to provide a forum for emerging young artists. Recently NYSOVA conducted an open day to educate the public on the availability and possibilities of visual arts as a career parts.

NYSOVA is a harbinger of design revolution in Sri Lanka set up with the twin objective of promoting fashion awareness and to meet the growing need of professionals in the industry.

The link between fashion and art is undeniably growing stronger, indeed fashion’s unrelenting search for the new expression of an image reveals this innermost truth.... In adhering to this belief the students of NYSOVA will come a long way opening the door for imagination and making a statement of their own geared to the international market.