Due to provincial budget cuts, the fashion design and marketing program at Lethbridge College will undergo a change starting next year with a complete program re-design.
When the college held a student presentation a few months ago, students new and old were very excited with what they saw.
The re-design has been something that’s been wanted for a few years and fashion design chair Vicki Hegedus is glad it’s finally come to fruition.
“I think it’s fantastic,” said Hegedus. “It’s something we’ve talked about for a few years and wanted to have the opportunity to do. Every program goes through a program review every five years anyways, but we’ve known that this was the direction that we’re quite excited about. It’s one the industry wants and so we’ve finally got the chance to get it off the ground and it’s really exciting for us.”
The College went international, trying to find out what the fashion and design industry was looking for when it came to college programs. The new program, fashion design and sustainable production, is pending government approval but has been a work in progress since May for fashion design instructor Brenda Brandley.
Brandley is looking forward to the improvements made to the program.
“There are some changes we’ve wanted to make for a long time because you always want to improve the program,” said Brandley. “It’s a constant thing with all programs: make sure things are up to industry standards and that we’re offering everything we possibly can to our students. Although our program is a very, very good program, there are some changes that we’re able to make that are really quite exciting.”
The college wants to keep the program unique; taking away aspects that would make it similar to Olds College’s costume design program. Lethbridge’s new program would no longer teach costume design, custom wear or anything to do with fashion marketing.
The current fashion design and marketing students are ending their year with their annual Collide-O-Scope on April 23 with a theme of “Biomimicry.”