Cutting and sewing at the Fashion Institute of the Philippines

By Remedios V. Lucio Contributor

As in relevant education, so too in fashion: less is more. Everything that is superfluous needs to be cut out. The value of a school’s tuition is gauged not only by what it teaches but what it leaves out in its lessons. Those itching to go out into the field don’t want a minute more than they need to be in the classroom. This is the philosophy behind Fashion Institute of the Philippines (FIP).

There is no better proof to the effectiveness of the school's approach than the accomplishments of its alumni. Among the roster of FIP graduates are first season Project Runway and Mega Young Designers 2006 winner Aries Lagat and Vanessa Ang, Mega Young Designers 2009 winner and John Herrera, Jerome Ang and Heidi Alindogan who both represented the Philippines in the Singapore design competition and Regine Dulay who represented the Philippines in the International Arts of Fashion competition held in Miami.

FIP Director Shanon Pamaong decided to put a fashion school in Ortigas in July 2003. He was a former teacher of the Philippine International School of Fashion and used to have his own fashion business in Canada for several years. He also lived in Paris for five years where he honed his haute couture techniques.

“During this time, I was requested by local established designers to conduct fashion seminars for them outside of the school because they do not have the time to attend school according to the set schedules of classes aside from the fees being so expensive [P50,000 plus per semester at that time for four semesters]. Before one seminar ends, I will already have a list of students who wants to join the next seminar. The list became longer as the good outcome of the seminar was passed around by word of mouth,” recalls Pamaong.

He decided to establish the school “with a different concept of fashion education [wherein] courses have to be direct to the point, short and brief to cater to people who are already in the business.” The courses include Fashion Styling, Fashion Merchandising, Fashion Buying, Fashion Photography, Basic Fashion Design, Basic Pattern Making, Fashion Make-Up, Bag Making, Fashion Embellishments and Beading to name a few.

There are usually 120 to 170 students. His aim was to compress the usual two-year fashion course into six months. FIP took out subjects such as history of fashion, study of trends and other academic fashion courses because Pamaong believes they can be learned through books and magazines without having to go to a fashion school to take a full four-year course. Instead, they teach the technical aspects of fashion design, pattern making and garment construction even if the students have no knowledge or background in fashion. In two months, the Basic Fashion Design and Basic Pattern can be learned in eight whole day sessions.

It fits those who are running businesses or have a regular 8 to 5 jobs since it only takes one or two days a week from work to complete the courses. They also have evening courses for some of the courses for two days a week from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. It attracted many employed people who wanted to veer away from their current careers or use fashion as a hobby. Others have enrolled themselves to create clothes for themselves and their families. The school has attracted architects, engineers, lawyers and nuns. Those who have graduated from four-year fashions courses who realized the education lacked the sufficient training that they needed enrolled at FIP. Even deaf or mute students are welcomed in the school.

“This is our edge over the other fashion schools—time and cost saving [fees are very reasonable] in exchange for the international standard of training that I shared with them in which a lot of them are not found in published fashion books but an accumulation of training and experiences in my numerous years in fashion in Canada, the US and Europe,” said Pamaong. He added: “We are the only school using updated international tools in fashion [in fact students from other schools and even Project Runway contestants from the first season availed of the tools we are using for their various projects]. In our yearly fashion tour to Europe with some students, we bring back with us international magazines and books not available in the Philippines, which is of great help to the students.”

After the course, there is a graduation show that showcases the student designer’s collections that are modeled by Philippine top models. The panel of judges are the likes of Aureo Alonzo, Fredrick Peralta, Rajo Laurel, Renee Salud, Christian Espiritu and editors of top fashion magazines and publications as well as fashion show directors. The winner is sent by the school on a two-week all-expense fashion trip to Paris wherein other interested students also join.

“Fashion like culinary arts are part of our basic needs so even if you do not want to make it as your career you will always need it in your daily lives, you just have to have the interest and the so-called passion for fashion to make it work for you,” Pamaong said.

For him, the best thing about being a teacher is that Pamaong get to meet a lot of people with different personalities, attitudes and goals. He finds it fun to teach students and help them achieve their goals. He deemed it very touching when he sees his students praise themselves for their achievements and thanks the teachers for teaching them all the necessary learning in the classrooms. The downside of teaching for Pamaong is that there are some students who do not like learning the ins and outs of fashion but just loves fashion and want to be part of the fashionista crowd.

“They cannot be bothered with going through the tedious and sometimes complicated and time-demanding school work. They think fashion is all glamour and they just want to be part of this glamorous fashion world, to be called designers without realizing that it entails hard work to achieve the status, to be able to bow on stage after a fashion show–aiming for the glory without the guts,” he explained.

Fashion designer Herrera, who also teaches at FIP, said that a student has to be interested to be at FIP, and that is the most important thing in fashion. “The only thing that differentiates the really talented one is their determination. It takes a little bit of more than just being interested actually once you’re in this industry. If you try and [sometimes] you’re going to fail. You really have to have your craft and owning it. You don’t make the kind of money that you hope for at first.” Herrera said.

Pamaong said that for someone who wants to have a career in fashion, he has to know what he is doing, his works must be sensible, his designs “intelligent, mind boggling yet practical, wearable and most of all saleable.” He said that with the qualities, the students have to be pushed and trained to bring out their full potential. “A talented student knows how to restrain himself/herself to make his or her work acceptable to any situation or prospective market,” he further explained.

Herrera said the problem with making it in the industry is sometimes the money. A designer has to work extra hard to mount a collection. Sometimes clothes are made for free for a photo shoot. The product cannot be an accomplishment if it doesn’t make the designer happy.

“A school helps but it’s not a requirement. It would help you become a more disciplined designer or it will guide you to know the look that you want. Without that classroom setup, you will commit mistakes that can be avoided. It will be a little bit harder. [But] it’s either you have it or you don’t,” explained Herrera.

Most of the graduates have their own shops already while some are dressing up movie stars and TV personalities. In the Philippine Fashion Week, there are 100 or so participating designers wherein 25 were graduates of the school. And these accomplishments of the graduates from the fashion school have made the faculty members of the school very proud.