The sun slowly began to set behind the high rise buildings in Cape Town’s city bowl casting a huge orange glow over all those attending Markham X Fedisa annual Flash… the perfect setting for the perfect partnership! Markham and FEDISA have been in partnership over the past six year’s supporting young design talent
On Thursday the 30th May FEDISA hosted the #markhamxfedisa (Markham X Fedisa) annual fashion flash which has been a collaboration lasting over 6 years now. This is a spectacular showcase of emerging designer talent, which demonstrates the perfect synthesis of academic content and the Retail Industry. “At Markham and The Foschini Group (TFG) we believe in the future of design and manufacturing. With this ethos in mind, we continue to grow our own TFG production and design arms to support our brand portfolio along with creating a truly unique product. This is why Markham and TFG continue to grow our strong partnership with Fedisa.” Head of Marketing at Markham, Nicol Rademeyer.
This year the competition was for the FEDISA 3rd year students, the module focussed on the Markham man of the future. Students had to interpret the fashionable man taking into consideration the garment needs commercial market relevance, sales potential of the design and that it’s not only a showcase piece. Many exciting and cutting edge looks were displayed on the evening making it extremely tough on the judging panel. The three winners were selected out of 52 and these very proud students stood on the ramp showing off their winning looks. A big congratulations to first place, Layla Barker, second place, Chavonne Kaye and third place: Georgina Morris.
“Markham offers graduating students the opportunity to enter our TFG Graduate Programme with an exciting career progression within a large corporate multinational. We also offer a select group of previously disadvantaged students’ full bursaries with internships for their 3-year academic studies. The aim of the bursary is to develop empowered fashion professionals who can take fashion from “concept to consumer”, supported by a leading academic foundation in fashion.” Head of HR at Markham, Janine Scullard.
FEDISA sees value in partnering with large scale corporates like TFG and Markham giving their students the confidence to understand that future career opportunities exist locally. This is what fosters design talent and fashion forward thinking. As the leading institute for undergraduate and postgraduate fashion studies, FEDISA goes above and beyond when it comes to providing world class fashion education. “Collaborative assignments form an integral part of the curricula. These partnerships equip students with the ability to seamlessly integrate the fashion industry” Academic Director of FEDISA, Marinella Avvakoumides.
Watch this space as South Africa’s hot new designer may very well come from this exciting partnership!