NWSD Student Featured In YOU Magazine

Andrea Willow Beyers is a young talented individual from the coast of Mitchells Plain in Cape Town.  Graduated from the Oprah Winfrey Academy in 2017, Beyers feels that Oprah has equipped her with all the life lessons she needs to be a powerful woman.

From humble beginnings, Beyers started her education career at the Oprah Winfrey Academy in 2014. Her grandmother stumbled across an application form in a store newsletter, and so destiny’s plan for Beyers began to fall in place, but it was not yet done crafting its master plan.

A talented artist with sketches that comes alive on paper, Beyers has always had a passion for the fashionable arts. Now a recipient of the Gert Johan Coetzee Bursary, Beyers is chasing her dream towards fashion at the North West School of Design.

Featured in the YOU Magazine of 22 June, Beyers says that her ultimate goal would be to design a couture gown for Ms Winfrey who enabled her with the opportunity of a lifetime. “ I’d love to see her in a beautiful dress designed by me, as a way to say thank you for all she has done for me! “ explains Beyers.

Why Students Chose North West School of Design

Why students chose North West School of Design

It is that time of year that NWSD, like many other fashion colleges are inundated with applications to register for fulltime fashion studies.  All these fashion hopefuls have one concern in common – how to choose the right fashion college?  Fashion training, as a specialized field in higher education can end up costing much more than more conventional and regular training programmes and because they are buying something that is life determining, future fashion students must rely on the credibility of the institution they are applying to. 

NWSD ranks and measures their quality of fashion education by means of student & graduate reviews.  NWSD students were asked why they chose this college, and their responses will give you an idea of this institution’s track record.

1.                   A Choice in Fashion

The best thing about fashion is the wealth of opportunities Careers in Fashion it offers, but school leavers rarely grasp the vastness of the global fashion industry and they, like many believe that fashion training only leads to a career as a fashion designer.  NWSD introduces first year students to the global scope of the industry so that they can, after six months of studying fashion make a well informed choice of continuing in the field of Fashion Design or moving over to the Fashion Management & CommunicationCourse. 

2.                   International Qualifications

North West School of Design is internationally recognized with a globalized curriculum. NWSD fulltime courses have certificate, diploma, first degree, degree, honours and masters degree exit levels based on the International City & Guilds qualifications stature.

NORTH WEST SCHOOL OF DESIGN is an approved (registered and accredited) CITY AND GUILDS. (Centre no: 848446). City & Guilds London Institute was founded in 1878 and is a well known and respected name worldwide in vocational education and training and commands respect from candidates and employers alike. Because NORTH WEST SCHOOL OF DESIGN offer diploma and degree courses that ultimately lead to Foreign Qualifications, they are accredited with City and Guilds, and not with a SETA, SAQA, CHE or DOE.

3.                   Online Learning System

NWSD leads the way in fashion education as the first SA fashion college to merge contact learning and teaching with an integrated online learning system.  The NWSD learning management system is a an online system for managing training and educational records to distributing course work, manuals, class schedules, assignment dates and calendars. 

The NWSD online learning system lower costs, allows for faster delivery of teaching materials, aids students in more effective learning and has a lower environmental impact.

4.                   100 Years Combined Experience

NWSD has recently celebrated their 16^th birthday and with 16 years of educating experience and the academic staff of NWSD holds more than 100 years of experience within the fashion industry, with a good mix of couture, retail, mass production and entrepreneurial studies.

5.                   Always Evolving

“With their hands on approach and care, the NWSD is the best place to go if you want to make it as a designer in this cut-throat industry. They don't waste time when teaching you the best techniques and business skill. With a principal that never stops bettering her knowledge and experience and a very capable staff, it all comes down to the bottom line: The business of Fashion!" Gert Johan Coetzee - Celebrity Designer & Specialist couturier NWSD Graduate Class of 2004 & 2005.

A college is ranked by its staff, students and research.  NWSD can continually evolve because of ongoing industry research and keeping abreast of the latest industry developments.  The Fashion Modules and courses that were lectured in 2014 is totally different from modules that were lectured in 2003. 

6.                   Alumni

NWSD alumni are this institution’s greatest success stories who have a permanent relationship with the principal. 

Gert Johan Coetzee

Anel Botha

Sylvester Falata

 Mercia Itumeleng Matlhaku

Jose de Canha

Kobus Rautenbach Couture

Eulogoe Zeloo 

-          

7.                   Fashion Shows

NWSD has recently hosted their 15^th annual graduation fashion show by introducing the first Platinum Fashion Festival.  This sold out event testifies of great community support as well as media and industry support.  Students all agree that the most remarkable thing of the 2014 Platinum Fashion Festival was the vibrancy of the audience which confirmed the great success of the shows. 

The 2015 Platinum Fashion Festival is already booked as a 2 day event which includes not only student collections but will also create a platform for emerging designers, a food fair and a designer’s fair.  The objective is to host a fashion festival for fashion lovers and not necessarily only fashion leaders.

8.                   The NWSD Family

NWSD embraces an extensive community of diverse people.  Students come from all four corners of SA as well as Namibia and as far as Madagascar.  Because fashion is all around us, the dynamic world of fashion is not limited to SA’s bigger cities.   Because Klerksdorp is central, safer than larger cities and offers more affordable accommodation, parents are not as reluctant to send their young adults to an out-of-town college. 

9.                   Work Hard, Play Hard

There is a lot of great things about NWSD’s world of fashion – the excitement, the creativity, the buzz, but don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s all glitz and glam.  NWSD students develop a culture of productivity and they soon adopt the creed of Work Hard, and Play Hard. 

For more reading:

·         NWSD Success Story

·         How To Apply

·         News & Blogs

·         NWSD Videos

PFF Student Fashion Installation

A Fashion Installation creates a platform for showcasing fashion through art.  

For the 2014 Platinum Fashion Festival, North West School of Design's Installation showcased 1st year student's corset designs by incorporating live music and theatrical head pieces with their interpretation of the theme - Dark Romance

Models and fashion created a live backdrop creating a splendid array of colour and movement while individual looks were showcased and displayed on a rotating turntable.

  

Working on our Platinum Fashion Festival collections

We all know that is not easy to plan any event and it's even harder to design and make collections that are of high standard, on trend, sellable and that shows the fashion student's innovation and technical abilities.

Our students are dedicated to their work and they always have fun doing it! Here is a look at the steps the students of NWSD take to get to the end result.

Concept to Collection Presentation

Assessments of the 2nd year concept to collection for the upcoming Platinum Fashion Festival.  Presentations included preliminary design ideas based on market and trend research, fabric choices, inspiration boards and theme motivation.  

Production Planning

Each 3rd year’s collection is based on thorough trend and market research.  The final year fashion students also studied the different price point categories for fashion retail merchandise before they came up with designs for their own collections, ensuring their fabric choice, styles and price points all align well with the relevant price point category and retail market. 

Pattern Making

Pattern making plays the most important role of designing a well structured garment
and the NWSD students know exactly how to use the award winning X!act Patternmaker.

Fittings

In the final days before the Platinum Fashion Festival, all the models have to

come for a fittings to ensure every dress looks and feels amazing on the runway.  The garment is first tested in calico fabric before the final pattern is cut in the end fabric.  

Work Through The Night

The Annual Work Through the Night is tradition here at NWSD.  It is hard work, but

gives the students extra time for layout and cutting.   

Garment Construction

"Do it right the first time, then you won't have to unpick!", Marlene Oosthuizen 

Quality Assessments

Each garment is thoroughly inspected by lecturers and students are constantly advised on techniques to be used to ensure that all garments are sewn to meet the NWSD quality standards.  

Next up

So this is where we are at for now, next up we have final fittings where each look is assessed for styling, thereafter is the dreaded final submissions and finally rehearsal time on Friday 7 November!

PLATINUM FASHION FESTIVAL WEBSITE

BOOK YOUR TICKET