Danish Fashion Design Lecture during the Design Graduates’ Days in Riga

This week, the tenth Design Graduates’ Days opened at the Art Academy of Latvia. The programme consisted of presentations of bachelor’s and master’s projects and exhibitions, a fashion show and a seminar featuring both Latvian and foreign speakers.

On June 3rd, Danish lecturer from VIA University, Lene Pedersen, attended the public seminar “Fashion Processes” where she gave a lecture on design research methods as a tool for developing innovative design ideas. Other lecturers included architect and professor of Westerdals Oslo School of Arts, Communication and Technology, Vēsma Kontere McQuillan, who gave a lecture on predicting the social trends of fashion design.

At the fashion show, which was held the day before the seminar, the work of the students of the Fashion Design Department, selected by the committee of AAL Fashion Design Department, were presented. According to tradition, the catwalk was designed by students of the Stage Design Department, led by stage designer Viktors Jansons. The fashion show took place at the Ķīpsala Swimming Pool and the models walked on a runway in the middle of the big pool.

Lene Pedersen is a lecturer at the Design Department of Via University College in Denmark. Her master thesis from 2015 focused on critical practise in the fashion industry; design driven innovation with a “critical mindset” setting the framework for design students’ projects. Her thesis investigated how BA Fashion Students can work with design driven innovation that leads to design with radical changes in meaning.

At the Art Academy’s Faculty of Design, students are trained in functional design, environmental art, metal design and fashion design, with 40 of them graduating this year. As in previous years, the programme of Design Graduates’ Days features a range of events, taking place from May 31 to July 8.

The lecture was organized by the Fashion Design Department at the Art Academy of Latvia in collaboration with LIAA Creative Industries Incubator. With the support from Danish Cultural Institute in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.