Mayamode is a game-changer for young Malaysian fashion designers today—come take a tour of this exciting new space and meet the people who made it happen
Overlooking the greenery and serene lake that Taylor's Lakeside Campus is named after, is Mayamode, Malaysia's first co-working studio. As you walk into this new space, the most recent sustainability-themed collection by the university's fashion graduates are on full display.
Through the double doors, you will find a studio with an open layout of different stations, each offering the latest garment-making machines—from industrial-level sewing machines for all types of materials to waste-reducing pattern digitisers.
A collaboration between Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week (KLFW) and Taylor's University's newly introduced Bachelor in Fashion Design Technology programme, Mayamode will be used to impart integral, industry-level skills for young fashion students, while also offering the wider fashion community in Malaysia, such as designers and entrepreneurs, access to high-end equipment to kickstart their projects.
We sit down with the co-directors of the undergraduate programme, Maria Sandra Wijaya and Andrew Tan, who is also the founder and CEO of KLFW, to discuss how Mayamode will help Malaysian fashion designers unlock their potential and reinvigorate the country's pandemic-struck fashion industry.
See also: The Collab Store At Four Seasons Place Showcases The Best In Malaysian Fashion
Nurturing young talents
For Wijaya, Mayamode is as an extension of the Fashion Design Technology Bachelor's programme and serves as a conduit for young designers to achieve commercial success.
"Fashion is a tough, fast-paced industry and we want our students to be prepared for the real world," she says. "We don't just want them to read about the latest fashion technology—we want them to know how to use it!
With a background in all things fashion, from design to marketing and management, Wijaya has seen firsthand how quickly the fashion scene has evolved. She uses the global rise of sustainable fashion as an example.
"Right now, we all understand how important it is for fashion to be sustainable but it can be near impossible for fashion students and young designers to implement it in their practices," she says. "But if they had access to our pattern plotters, digitisers and drafting facilities, they would be able to calculate their fabric consumption and use the technology to reduce wastage."
See also: Disney's Raya And The Last Dragon Inspired A Modest Fashion Collection By Homegrown Brand, CalaQisya