In the same issue of inquirer, readers got a little tip on the new project that I've been working on the last couple of months. read on......
From Milan to Manila
By Alex Vergara
Inquirer
SHE’S A STYLISH BAG Designer who’s striking enough to model her own creations, but Amina Aranaz-Alunan will be the first to tell people, especially potential designers, that running a business isn’t as glamorous as it seems.
“I’m all dressed up today because I’m meeting several people,” she says. “But you should see me while I rummage through materials at the factory. There’s nothing glamorous about it. On the contrary, the place where I work is quite hot and dusty.”
Whenever she goes to the factory, which is almost everyday, Aranaz-Alunan has to go back home, take a shower and change before she heads to another engagement. It was worse when she was pregnant with her first child.
“My sales suffered then,” she says. “But working directly with people who have been with the family for quite a number of years has sustained me. Their passion for work can be quite admirable and inspiring.”
Love for one’s work and the passion to sustain it (including the often-neglected aspect of running a business) will be among the many tenets Aranaz-Alunan and fellow Istituto Marangoni graduate Loralee Baron aim to impart to students as they open the School of Fashion and Art (for inquiries e-mail sofamanila@gmail.com) in the heart of Makati’s Central Business District next month.
The two women have been dreaming of putting up a fashion school with a “European approach applicable to the Asian market” ever since they got back from Italy four years ago.
“I’ve met people who want to study abroad,” says Aranaz-Alunan. “But most of them can’t afford it, while others don’t have the time to spend a year abroad. We really need a fashion school that offers affordable education based on international standards.”
Inspired by the curricula of the best fashion schools in the world, including, of course, the two women’s alma mater in Milan, the school will be offering several certificate courses alongside associate degree programs in fashion design & marketing.
They’re working in partnership with Lex Ledesma of the One School, and are now busy finalizing negotiations with teachers who are also industry practitioners.
“No doubt traveling enriches the mind, but studying abroad isn’t the only path to success,” says Aranaz-Alunan. “Our school makes fashion education accessible for would-be designers and merchandisers. In my time, there were no fashion schools to turn to, thus the need to go abroad. Now foreign fashion education is no longer a necessity but a bonus.”
Click this link for the article FASHION BY DESIGN by Alex Vergara. Which included interviews with Rhett Eala, Jojie Lloren and myself on our experiences on fashion education abroad.
http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view_article.php?article_id=83038
