THE bright young designer who wins this year’s MHCC Emerging Designer category of Fiji Fashion Week (FJFW) will be sent to Hong Kong — the capital of fashion in Asia to attend their regional fashion week.
Carpenters Group director of retail & marketing Kuna Sabaratnam said in a package totaling $10,000, the prize trip would include spending money for the winner.
He said an opportunity such as this gave emerging designers — those that do not currently sell their garments in retail outlets an opportunity to learn from Asia’s premiere designers and be inspired by what they saw.
The 2012 event attracted over 1600 exhibitors to learn from and over 20,000 buyers.
“The main prize in the Emerging Designer category is that the winner will get to travel to Hong Kong and be there for the Hong Kong and Asian Fashion Week for three nights and four days,” Mr Sabaratnam said in a statement from FJFW.
“They will be given spending money to be able to enjoy not just the fashion but also Hong Kong itself.
“Carpenters as a company, frequent Hong Kong for our own stock.
“In Malaysia, we run a fashion department store and we look to Hong Kong for a lot of what we carry because it is the fashion capital of Asia.”
He said the Suva-based MHCC, this year’s major sponsor for the Emerging Designers category and the main night of FJFW 2012, was committed to making their support of Fiji Fashion Week more exciting each year.
Mr Sabaratnam says its partnership with FJFW, which has spanned several years, will get bigger and better because it is committed to developing fashion designers and the industry itself.
“We will always try to make our contribution to FJFW exciting and each year, we will have something more exciting, maybe India Fashion Week next year and maybe Malaysia next year for the winner,” he said.
“Like FJFW, the MH Family store is new to Fiji and the Fashion Store which is part of MH, is also new.
“We are working hand in hand with FJFW to grow the fashion and fashion retail scene in Fiji and so the partnership with FJFW is about setting up a platform with which the local designers in Fiji can develop.”
Mr Sabaratnam said FJFW managing director Ellen Whippy-Knight’s work had improved public appreciation of local fashion designers and Carpenters was supportive of that work.