More opportunities for fashion designers

Saturday, February 14, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 46)
By Rebecca Kwei
Fashion designer, Michael Allan David of Allan David Collection has called on young designers to strive hard and come out with innovative designs since the fashion industry is constantly rediscovering itself and will, therefore, seek new talents.
Speaking to The Mirror in Accra after he had participated in Createurope: The Fashion Academy Award in Berlin, Germany, he said there was a lot of opportunities for people in the creative industries provided they remained innovative and not lose sight of their identity.
Createurope: The Fashion Academy Award which was initiated by Goethe-Institut served as a network for relevant academic and training centres and promote intercultural exchanges between young designers.
It was open for fashion design students and young fashion designers aged between 18 and 32 from all of Europe.
According to Allan David, although the competition was for European designers, Dr Ulrich Sacker of Createurope recognised that there was a lot of talent in Africa because he had seen the works of ace designers such as Kofi Ansah and Oswald Boateng and thus decided to invite other African designers to participate in the one week project.
The African designers came from Ghana, South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire, Sudan and Cameroon.
Allan David said although the Africans did not participate in the main competition, they exhibited their collections and also attended workshops on the new trends in the fashion industry.
He said the programme exposed him to other designs from Europe and also had the opportunity to share ideas with European designers and the need for networking.
He expressed appreciation to the Germany government, Goethe Institut and the German Embassy for their support.
He also participated in Afric Collection Fashion Parade which was held in Cameroon recently to showcase the best collection from the continent.
Presently, Allan David says he is preparing to participate in another fashion show for African designers slated for Kenya in April this year.
The challenge for him after participating in all these fashion shows, he said, was to strive hard and come out with better collections.