Keralaeducation

Posts Tagged ‘Fashion design’

Mark Ecko, the fashion designer behind the designer brand Ecko (Mark Ecko Enterprises), may be a high school dropout himself, but he is a big supporter of education. He often says he is doing his part to educate the future fashion designers of the world. Ecko’s organization, Sweaty Equity Education (SEE), works with under-privileged children who may not otherwise have an opportunity to learn real life skills they can use in the real world. The organization puts these children in a professional business environment to teach them fashion and design skills.

The role of the organization is not really to turn all of these kids into famous fashion designers. Through hands-on learning, however the kids involved in the program are learning professional and coping skills that will get them through life. SEE teaches the children in the program about public speaking, time management skills, how to manage projects and management information. Working with other kids in the program also helps the participants to learn social skills, how to collaborate with others and problem-solving skills. On an educational level, math, reading, critical thinking and research skills are another byproduct of participating in the program.

Ecko says, “The public education system fails too many students whose passions don’t fit into traditional education fields. Giving creative students a hands-on outlet for experimentation with a craft is mostly lacking for middle- and high-school students.”

Even in a recession, where the Ecko brand retail sales have dropped from $1.5 billion and the company is struggling with $170 million of debt, Mark Ecko is still in hot pursuit of integrating his program into schools around the country. While the program goes into schools to work with the kids, the program also brings the kids to “the lab” where they are taught the fashion design business with hidden skill sets built in to the program.