Under the mentorship of well known designer Irina Tosheva and professor Ljubisha Saveski, we initiated the fashion vocational education programme for a group of students from the “Partenija Zografski’’ School Centre in Skopje.
The programme is carefully designed for youngsters with hearing loss to develop their visualising skills, drawing abilities, attention to details and fabric awareness, sewing, knitting and pattern making techniques, as well as knowledge in sustainability, marketing and advertising, which is essential for a career in the fashion industry.
The workshopsbegan with goals setting and a two months action plan for all activities. What followed next was an amusing and exciting task to create school uniforms one for each other. The group of young adults expressed their vivid imagination and unique vision through making prints on cotton hoodies with the project logo as starting inspiration.
During the workshops, we introduced them to fashion techniques for upcycled design of clothes and accessories. The youngsters weaved original patterns using old fabric leftovers, which later on would be implemented in a final product. They unleashed maximum potential with zero waste for the environment.
Our next workshopwas dedicated to reviving the ethno elements of traditional costumes and mixing them in a modern way, through sketching of contemporary and imaginative clothings and accessories. We compiled and fitted the single recycled woven patterns, thus completing the first model for their capsule collection with excellent teamwork.
New Fashion Workshop marked the enlivening of their previously drawn sketches. They carefully selected the materials, colors and patterns for their models, once again using donated fabric leftovers from factories in collaboration with Textile Cluster MK. The students then demonstrated all their gained knowledge and skills on a sewing machine.
The educational activities within the project ‘RESPONSIBLE FUTURE: CRAFTING YOUTH EMPOWERMENT’ are realized with support from E4E. The final products will be publicly revealed at a virtual exhibition this spring.
