少年创客科技时装秀

James Simpson

steamheadsz@outlook.com

Twenty high-tech fashion projects by students were presented at MakeFashion EDU’s inaugural STEAM Runway event on May 27 in Shekou. Held at Sea World Culture and Arts Center, the STEAM Runway featured fantastic, futuristic and playful designs created by students with access to technology and the MakeFashion community.

At the show, the audience saw the dreams of these students made into fashion. What would kids really like to wear if they made their own clothing? Gears, feathers, shadows, veins — things you would have never thought of to be the focus of shirts and dresses. Nobody argued over patterned versus plain textiles, or the color of the season. Everyone hungrily expressed what they love in the digital media and stories of today’s world. Fashionistas, take note! If we are lucky, these people will be setting trends in just a few years.

Over 50 students in 20 teams had their design applications accepted by MakeFashion EDU’s team. Each team sent a representative to SteamHead for training several times a month, and the representatives brought back methods, materials and vision to their home team spaces. They hail from 13 schools and organizations in Nanshan District. Over 200 parents, teachers and education community members volunteered time to help this program succeed.

MakeFashion EDU began when MakeFashion founders Shannon and Maria Hoover reached out to Carrie Leung, founder at SteamHead Makerspace and makerspace director at Shenzhen American International School (SAIS). Having established the MakeFashion brand in the international fashion world, the Hoovers recognized Leung as an educator empowered by Shenzhen’s progressive learning culture and technology enthusiasm. SteamHead’s continual maker education presence in Shenzhen’s community and SAIS’s leadership in sharing and coordinating high-tech educational community events led to the beginning of a combined initiative, MakeFashion EDU.

MakeFashion EDU builds communities by merging fashion and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics) learning. Students participate in a three-month program culminating in an annual show. The experience exuberantly displays their ideas, records their mark on the maker world, connects them to a multinational group of designers, and gives them further opportunities to pursue the combination of technology and art in a supportive community.

Compared to traditional maker education programs, MakeFashion EDU focuses on the application of technology rather than its deep study. Engineers and artists alike were welcomed onto each team, with their goal being to turn a meaningful story into a physical product.

The SAIS will host another STEAM Runway show next year and additionally will host the Nanshan School Makerfaire in November 2018 where MakeFashion projects and more from schools in Nanshan can be seen by the public.

(The author is a maker educator and founder of SteamHead.)