Celebrating its 1st decade in fashion education in Sri Lanka and being the first formal fashion education institute in the country, LIFT (Lanka Institute of Fashion Technology) is now beginning to reveal its success stories through its long existence in the industry, the expansion of subjects and most of all students’ achievements in the fashion industry locally and internationally is the strength of this institute. "My passion for Fashion and lecturing led me through all these years to succeed with innovation in Fashion Design Education.
Niroshani Leanage |
Living in a creative environment and nurturing young talent has become a way of life to me. It's heartening to see how my students achieve their goals in life, showing their talents extraordinarily in the international fashion scene. I believe that the strong foundation we lay for every student who enters LIFT makes them reach their dreams in this most competitive industry. Fashion is an international subject that needs international exposure. Experiencing various lifestyles, cultures etc... helps a lot in gaining a complete experience in education for a student in this field. LIFT Overseas Study Placement Centre (a subsidiary of LIFT) is dedicated for this purpose with links around the world with some selected universities that has excellent reputation for Fashion/ Textiles/Footwear and Accessory design.
Niroshani Leanage (Director of Studies)
Shalini Hettiarachchi entered fashion education at LIFT just after her A/Ls. After completing the Advanced Diploma in Fashion course at LIFT she was transferred to Singapore to complete her final year of the Bachelors degree in fashion design at Raffles Design Institute in Singapore.
Shalini's experience
Studying at LIFT was a whole new experience to me! Because most people think fashion designing is a very easy thing to study and some people thinks it's only about sketching the designing!
Believe me it's a lot more than that. And you will have lots of sleepless nights if you don't do the work on time! At LIFT I learnt Fashion Illustration, pattern making, pattern grading, presentation skills, history of costumes, draping, sewing skills and lots more like fashion business studies and Computer Aided Design etc... which made it easier for me to do my degree in Singapore!
After I finished my Advanced Diploma at LIFT I wanted to do the degree, so I applied to Raffles Design Institute which is the best institute for Fashion Design in Singapore. My transfer to Raffles was made easier through LIFT Overseas Study Placement Centre and I was offered the final year of the degree.
Learning at Raffles was one of the biggest experiences that I had in life. The first day in Raffles was great; there were 24 students in our class from India, China, Jakarta, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and there was another girl from Sri Lanka also. At Raffles we get to take part in lots of competitions during the course, you get a good exposure!
During just one year I took part in a Puma styling competition, Triumph lingerie competition, kids fashion show and also we did a show with Robinson (big department store in Singapore) at which we had to design an evening wear out of a bed sheet ,it was a very interesting competition.
When you talk about studies in Sri-lanka and Singapore it was a whole new experience for me, you get a chance to learn about other countries and their cultural backgrounds and the fashion industry is totally different and very much advanced!
Even though you get the degree in Sri Lanka you can never get that experience!
Today Shalini is a successful designer who plays many roles in the industry.
Working part time as a freelance designer for some top brands and handling individual customers is just a part of her career while she shares her talents and experience in fashion education by sharing her knowledge with students at LIFT.
Lanka Institute of Fashion Technology
112, New Bullers Road, Colombo -04
Ph: 2592186 / 2507291
Web: www.lift.lk |
E-mail