Innovation is definitely the name of the game in the midst of a global pandemic and tiny island #papuanewguinea is no exception. For a developing country that already has challenges with stable internet connection at reasonable prices for the regular user, the strong shift from physical to virtual focused platforms has really brought out innovation and pushed people to think outside the standard square box.
One entity is the #pngfashionanddesignweek which is essentially a platform for the fashion and design industry. Since its inception in 2016, the platform has delivered training workshops in:
– Textile design & printing;
– Pattern making;
– Garment construction;
– Business skills;
– Branding & Marketing;
and staged runways showcasing fashion and design inspired from rich and diverse #png culture.
Over the past three years, the platform has through it’s partnership programs, trained 822 emerging fashion designers, out of which 110 were persons living with disabilities. How amazing is that?
With the global pandemic, and the fashion runway being a traditionally physical platform, the team had to think fast on how to deliver a runway that is still a runway whilst being “covid-mindful”.
As necessity is the mother of innovation and as the show must go on, thus came the birth of the PNG Fashion & Design Week VIRTUAL RUNWAY.
So what is “virtual runway”?
It’s basically the fashion runway brought to the comfort of your home at the flick of your television switch tuned straight to #digicel #TVWAN through a strategic partnership .
As Janet Sios, Director of PNG Fashion & Design Week said “COVID-19 was the catalyst for a virtual runway. We were forced to be innovative in order for this platform to continue during this challenging time.”
Coming from a space “pre covid” where not much digital technology was integrated in to the production of the runway and entering into a space that would be heavily relying on digital technology to produce the virtual runway, the platform has really showcased the flip side of COVID-19 in pushing people to be innovative in order to continue.
The virtual runway will be aired for public viewing on Digicel’s TVWAN and also across Digicel’s other locations outside of PNG.
In terms of the potential of audience reach that virtual runway will have compared to what it was like pre COVID, it’s a mammoth wave that PNG Fashion & Design Week is riding on and it won’t stop. Not so soon.
Ripple effects? PNG #tourism being introduced and marketed to a wider audience from a different angle; through fabric, through design, through fashion. In addition to that, is the enormous exposure that emerging designers will gain through the show being aired on TV.
So really, despite being a global pandemic, it has provided the much needed push for innovation, and for that we can say COVID-19 on the “flip side” has been somewhat of a not so bad thing.
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