Fashion Passport To The World: The Award-Winning Savannah College Of Art And Design

Randz Manucom

April 25, 2019, 12:12 PM

Just a few hours away from Manila is a premier arts and design school for students aspiring to be fashion designers. Top creative institute Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) specializes in fashion, among others, and produces the best local and international talents in the region. After spending a day touring the school grounds, talking to the students about their experiences on campus, we ended the night with full-on fashion alongside the Hong Kong elites. With fashion schools sprouting around the globe, we experienced first-hand what makes this institution the best in its field.

The School

SCAD considers itself to be one university, but with four campuses around the globe: Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; Lacoste, France; and Hong Kong. Admission to one is considered a passport to experience all four campuses, depending on your program and the curriculum that is tailored to your needs.

SCAD Hong Kong was the former North Kowloon Magistracy

The school prides itself for its diversity. With about 14,000 students and 700 professors, it welcomes students from everywhere around the world. In the Hong Kong campus alone, where there’s equal attendance of local and international students, all get to have the same learning experience that fuses ancient heritage and Western influence, a trend that is a hot topic at the moment. “It's less about East looking to the West and more about the West looking to the East," shares Robert Meeder, SCAD Associate Chair of Fashion Marketing & Management and Luxury & Fashion Management. Gone are the days when fashion is centralized in cities like New York and Paris, but more spotlight is given to Asian megacities like Tokyo, Shanghai, and, now, Hong Kong.

Since opening its doors in 2010, the UNESCO award-winning building was transformed into the modern, creative hub that it is today

The five-story establishment houses the creations of its students and alumni in its halls and main areas—a rotating museum-like showcase that changes every two years

The Programs

As a premier arts and design school, heavy focus is given to its creative programs. With degrees in more than 40 majors and minors in 75 disciplines across all campuses, there is a place for every kind of artist. Walking along the halls of this campus, we met Filipino students taking up fashion courses at SCAD—and their number is growing.

The Hong Kong campus offers 22-world class undergraduate and graduate programs in 15 disciplines, focusing particularly on animation, fashion, and photography

The campus also prides itself with world-renowned business programs. In 2017, The Business of Fashion Global Fashion School Rankings named the SCAD graduate luxury and fashion management program number one in the United States. That and the 99% employment rate for its students make SCAD a top-notch choice for creatives looking to make it in their chosen field.

“The top-ranked fashion program at SCAD offers a rigorous curriculum structured around principles of design, unbounded creativity, and state-of-the-art technology, and this is evident in the latest fashion collections produced at SCAD Hong Kong,” said Mr. Khoi Vo, Vice President for SCAD Hong Kong.

With collaborations and design opportunities to work with industry leaders like Swarovski, Disney, and Gucci, along with school visits from designers Guo Pei and Tory Burch, an admission in SCAD is a hot ticket to success.

The Fashion Showcase 2019

After a day of touring the school grounds and learning about the students and its programs, we ended the night with the annual SCAD Fashion Showcase. Twenty senior fashion students from all four campuses around the world showcased their 52 designs in a show curated by Michael Fink, the Dean of SCAD School of Fashion.

SCAD student Cheryl Ma’s piece from her collection “RISE”

SCAD student Maria Nava’s look from her collection “Green”

The Hong Kong campus was transformed into a multi-level experience with fashion vignettes and tableaus, that culminated into a runway show featuring all the designs from the exhibit. The showcase was a testament of SCAD Hong Kong’s end product: Students brimming with years of mentorship and hands-on experience in their field, ready to take on the fashion world.