| Sonya & Tracy Saywell - Australian Institute of Creative Design |
| Articles - Entrepreneurial Inspiration |
| Written by Krista |
| Thursday, 02 July 2009 17:46 |
 Entrepreneurial Inspiration with Sonya & Tracy Saywell from the Australian Institute of Creative Design1. Can you sum up what the Australian Institute of Creative Design is all about? The Australian Institute of Creative Design is a school offering study in fashion design, fashion business, styling, makeup, beauty therapy and interior design. We have worked on making the school a very hands on, creative environment for students, where students learn the practical skills required to work in industry, as so many students that we had dealt with in the past did not have the level of skills required. We started out offering fashion courses under the name ‘Australian Institute of Fashion Design’ but as we grew we started to expand into other areas and the name no longer applied to everything we offered. We then started offering short courses in fashion styling and this lead us into makeup and then beauty. The coupling of beauty with styling together is unique to our school and as so many females love beauty and fashion this is a fantastic way to combine the two. Interior Design has been a fairly recent addition, but it is something we planned on offering from the start. 2. It is such an amazing idea, can you describe what inspired you to start it? When I was in high school I suggested to my mother that she should run some fashion design courses (along with her sewing classes) as I knew a number of girls at my school were interested in fashion, but there really wasn’t anywhere offering fashion courses on the Gold Coast. At first she didn’t think there would be any interest in a fashion course, but eventually I convinced her to do it. The (Fast Track Fashion Design) course proved to be very popular and our students were asking us if they could go on to learn more with us. We started looking into becoming a registered training organisation so that we could offer nationally recognised qualifications but it wasn’t until a few years later that we decided to do this and we ran our first qualification course in fashion design in 2007. 3. What are the most popular courses? Our ‘Fast Track Fashion Design Course’ is our most popular short course. The course runs over 10 weeks on Saturday’s and teaches students what is involved in a career as a fashion designer as well as covering beginner sewing. The Advanced Diploma of Applied Fashion Design & Technology is our most popular full time qualification and is the ultimate for someone wanting to start their career as a fashion designer. Our Fashion Styling courses have become increasingly popular and our Diploma of Styling (Fashion, Image and Media) starting next year is a popular choice. This course covers personal styling, editorial styling, commercial styling, makeup and a lot more. 4. What are you and your Mum’s main roles in the business? We work on developing new courses, overseeing, updating and improving the current courses, handling student enquiries and overseeing students in all courses. I also design and maintain the school’s website and write the course outlines. There is a lot of management involved in running the school, with 20 teachers, approximately 80 students in full time and part time courses, plus short course students as well. We no longer have time to teach (the fashion) students ourselves but we are still involved in their course and giving feedback on their design ideas. 5. What is your (and her) backgrounds in design & fashion? We have both worked in the fashion industry our whole lives and it is something that we are both very passionate about. My mother (Tracy Saywell) opened her first store when she was 16, selling top Australian designer labels, along with her own label and by the time she was 21 she had 5 stores. After she married my father she sold her shops and had me! She continued to sell her label to stores around Australia and also overseas. When my parents split, my mother and I moved to the Gold Coast and she started teaching sewing from home. In 1999 my mother opened a store at Robina Town Centre, where she ran sewing classes for over 100 students per week, sold fabrics, her designs off the rack and also made one off bridal, evening and race wear outfits for clients. When I finished school I moved to Sydney and studied music business management, as I always had an interest in business and the creative industries. I missed my friends and family on the Gold Coast so I moved back home after my course finished. I started working with my mother as she was extremely busy with not only the classes and retail shop, but also with hundreds of orders for formal dresses and bridal dresses. As I worked with my mother I started to help her design new styles and consulting clients on individual designs. I found that I really enjoyed designing and decided to start a fashion label to wholesale to other retailers as we could not keep up with the demand. I was invited to exhibit the label at Australian Fashion Week in Sydney in 2005 and then later that year won the Rising Star Award at the Australian Fashion Design Awards and was also a finalist in the ‘Couture’, ‘Lifestyle Collections’ and ‘Fashions on the Field’ categories. As we could no longer keep up with the quantities manufacturing in house, I started researching manufacturers within Australia who could produce the range. Due to quality level and the large amount of hand draping in my work I could not find anyone in Australia willing to take on that level of work. I then went to Hong Kong Fashion Week to source manufacturers and suppliers and went into China to visit a factory that I had already been dealing with. By this stage we were going through our approval to become a registered training organisation and after assessing the capital investment I would need to start manufacturing larger quantities overseas, I decided to put my label on hold and focus on building the school with my mother. We both miss designing, but helping the student’s with their designs is very rewarding. 6. Are there any particular student success stories that have trained at your school? Many of our fashion students have gone on to start their own label’s and work in the industry. Look out for some up and coming designer labels in the future like ‘Begitta’, ‘Diamond Camel’, ‘Larlette’, ‘Jaymes Swimwear’, ‘Ashes’, ‘Katari’ and ‘Alice Nightingale’.Our first beauty students graduated late last year and a number of them were accepted to work in the Steiner spas on luxury cruise ships. Many of our styling students have started their own styling businesses and have been involved in a number of large fashion events and have worked with fashion magazines and modelling agencies. 7. Do you have plans to expand the business to other areas? We have lots of plans in the works for the school, and there are some exciting things in the works. We will be offering full time qualifications in Interior Design in the near future and have recently started offering a short course and correspondence course in interior design as well. We have run a few courses in Brisbane and we have plans to run more courses in Brisbane in the future as well. We will be releasing a correspondence course in Styling later this year and we are also working on offering Beauty Therapy by online/distance as well. As for some of the other exciting things, they are currently under wraps, but stay tunned! 8. Anything else you would like to share.... If you are interested in a career in fashion, beauty, makeup, styling or interior design, visit our website: www.aicdedu.com.au for more information on our courses. |
| Last Updated on Thursday, 23 July 2009 10:28 |
