The designs and collections of the students at MaPa Fashion Design Academy were recently featured in a runway show with 66 models of varying nationalities as part of the students’ graduation projects and to promote the school.

This year’s presentation – titled Show Me Something 2022 and held on February 5 – captivated the hearts of the audience who gathered together for it at FT Gallery.

“It’s the school’s requirement for students to do a mini-collection of three sets for graduation, although they need to have six sets in their proposal. For purposes of the fashion show it’s actually an open decision whether the students want to take the chance or not. We still award them their certificate either way,” school manager Pov Kenny tells The Post.

“After the show, the school keeps the students’ collections for about six months to help promote their clothes. If someone is interested they can contact us and we can help connect them to the students. The design is just the sample, we will cut and measure an exact size for them,” says Kenny.

Kenny explains that the school was founded in 2018 by Sieng Ranet – a fashion designer who received his education in Thailand – and the show took place for the very first time in 2019. However, due to Covid the shows in 2020 and 2021 were cancelled.

The school puts out a casting call for models annually on their official page and people who are interested in modelling. However, the school leaves the final decision to each designer to choose their own models while guiding them in how to look for models most suitable for their particular collections.

Kenny says there were three rounds for the Show Me Something 2022 runway show. The first round collections were from the students who have studied for two months, the second round was for those who have studied for five months and the last round consisted of the 14 graduating students.

“The designs from the first two groups are actually from their class projects but we brought them to the runway because we thought it would be great to have it as an opening,” the former drawing teacher turned administrator says.

Among the fanciful designs from the 38 students, one of the standouts is the collection of graduating student Heng Sokthair. The collection includes a dress, pants and crop top with white and green colours and she says it is inspired by the Luna Moth.

Sokthair – who owns and manages a printing shop as her main job – says that the life cycle of the beautiful Luna Moth intrigued her so much that she chose it as her inspiration.

“On the day that I was thinking up collections for my graduation project proposal my hands were full with family, work and studies issues. There was too much to handle and I was getting depressed.

“Then I came across the story of the Luna Moth and how it struggles going from one stage to the next and I imagined that the period they spend inside their cocoons must be, but the beauty behind this story is that no matter what they’re facing they have a clarity of purpose by turning themselves into stunning living beings,” Sokthair, 38, says.

She says that before coming to study in the short course programme at Mapa she did have some basic knowledge regarding printing design, sewing, drawing with computers, and so on, but not really in the fashion field.

She says she has learned a lot in the past six months. The school has taught her Illustration, sketching, sewing, use of colours and the feelings they give in different seasons and also the history of fashion.

After finishing the course she now says that she’s begun to understand that the major is more than the stereotypes she used to think of related to fashion. It revolves around the concepts, inspirations, colours and more to create a collection.

“When Sokthair was attending school here we were much smaller. We didn’t have enough teachers which is why her course only lasted six months. Thankfully, now we’ve been able to expand and develop a year-long course with a two-month foundation class students must take before attending the rest of the classes full time,” Kenny says.

Kenny further explains that in the foundations class the students learn how to use the sewing machine and how to do design sketching along with a creative project where they recycle garbage into clothing.

The full time course is divided into three semesters. The first semester the students learn sewing, pattern making and illustration. For the second semester they learn fashion design, fashion history and fashion concepts. Third semester they start to do the collection learn making mode board, textile and fabric. One main thing the students will also be taught how to make their CV for their future job.

“Our school focuses on those who have difficulty in a language like English, so we teach in Khmer and our teachers are Khmer and we try to translate all of the documents we use for the course into Khmer. We really want to give them the best educational experience in fashion that we can.

“And it’s wonderful to see that some of our former students have now been able to work in the design field and some have opened their own business,” says Kenny.

Sokthair has chosen to continue her studies with the Modern Ethnic Design Center and she will do another collection of 10 outfits for that programme.

Sokthair says that she would love to create her own fashion label. That seems like a far-off goal for now, however and she isn’t sure how her future career in the design field might develop so for now she remains focused on her studies.

“My starting age for fashion design school is considered kind of late but I believe it’s never too late to study and never too old to fight for your dreams. And I want to encourage the younger generation and whoever wants to be a fashion designer to pursue what you love whether you are young or old, there are no age limits to learning,” she says.

She says that Covid actually helped her in this regard because the slowdown in business at the printing shop she inherited from her parents gave her enough time to pursue the passion for design that she’s had since childhood.

“But they should start young if they can because they will have more time to gain experience and their brains will be more open and creative. They may also be more motivated to succeed. If we chase after some goal and there’s no real purpose to it we’ll easily run out of energy, but if we love what we are doing then we’ll find a way regardless of how tough it might be,” she says.

Kenny’s advice for would-be fashion designers is that they must truly love the field of fashion, understand themselves, be prepared mentally and have the time and money to invest in their education because this major can be a lot more challenging than some people think at the outset.

“One thing I want to assure them is that they don’t need to be intimidated by thoughts of what they’ll be able to do after graduation because many opportunities await them and there are always new ones to discover as this field has been rapidly growing in our country,” Kenny says.

For more information on the MaPa Fashion Design Academy, visit their Facebook page: @mapafda