Passion and Skills
Learning and Practising Fashion

AS WE CELEBRATE the 92nd anniversary of Salvacion Lim Higgins, one of the most revolutionary figures in Philippine fashion, we also mark the 50th year of Slim’s Fashion and Arts School, which she founded with her sister, Purificacion Lim. The memory of Slim’s exquisitely beaded ternos and modernized Maria Clara costumes, part of the cultural tapestry of the postwar years and Marcos era, may trick the reader into a false sense of nostalgia — a yearning for some lost golden age of national fashion. Yet as Slim’s own daughter Sandy Higgins is quick to point out, carrying on her mother’s work together with her brother Mark has less to do with nostalgia, which “suggests something from the past that is missed,” but is “more about a continuing legacy and a track record that is unparalleled in this country.”
        Indeed, fashion education is necessarily progressive, as fashion itself is always evolving. Slim’s Fashion and Arts School is not fixated on the past, but on the “modern Filipino,”    who is always young and always open to reinvention. Any focus on traditional techniques and styles may only be complemented by the latest innovations, and the school offers to teach both.  Its two foundation courses of Fashion Design and Dressmaking/Patternmaking may be taken individually, depending on the area
each student wants to focus on. Yet Higgins recommends that aspiring fashion designers take both because: “A designer should know how to execute his designs . . . A wonderful design that no one knows how to execute is just a nice idea on paper.” The school also offers specialized workshops ranging from the technical (construction of basic knitwear) to the practical (business basics).
        Another misconception, which Higgins is quick to clear up, is that fashion is an elitist profession for the exceptionally gifted, rather than a legitimate occupation open to anyone willing to learn and to work hard. The school’s alumni range from top designers like Joe Salazar, Oskar Peralta, and Cesar Gaupo   (among many others) to housewives who hope to start small businesses out of their own homes and augment the family income. Anyone with a high school degree, fluency in English or Filipino, and a genuine willingness to complete the courses is welcome to enroll, regardless of his existing level of skill. To emphasize this, Higgins reveals that “ninety percent of Slim’s enrollees don’t know how to sew or draw.” But this only underlines the effectiveness  of the school’s hands-on teaching methods, which she describes as “akin to one-on-one training.”
       Even students who must begin with the most basic lessons soon notice dramatic improvement in their skills. Halfway through their foundation courses, Higgins notes, “Students surprise even themselves with what they can do . . . By the end of the course, they are able to make a wedding gown and a terno singlehandedly. Some advanced students start catering to clients before they even finish the course!”
       It takes an average of 12 months (and a maximum of 15) to complete the program, after which a student will receive a TESDA-certified diploma and some real job opportunities. Garment and retail companies with openings often call the school directly, as do fashion designers themselves. Yet the most common career path among graduates is one that they carve out themselves, with their own start-up businesses — something Higgins sees as part of the “making pagawa” culture of the Philippines.  She compares these technically proficient graduates to “one-man bands” who need little more than a sewing machine to play entire sartorial symphonies.
       Higgins has only positive things to say about the Philippine fashion industry and the ways in which students with a passion for fashion can make their own mark on it. “Young designers are not shying away
from being Filipino. They’re injecting elements, inspiration, or materials from our heritage, but they’re not producing conventional clothes. Their work reflects the modern Filipino — which is what Filipino fashion
should be about.” - Cristina C. Espina

Slim’s Fashion and Arts School is located at 2nd Floor, 2310 Chino Roces Avenue (formerly Pasong Tamo, across Makati Cinema Square), Makati City. Call 8873390 to 92, email inquiries@slimsfashion.com, or log on to www.slimsfashion.com