DOHA: New York-based fashion designer Melanie McLintock will be the guest designer for the 10th annual fashion show of the Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, which is to open to the public tomorrow at 7pm.

Melanie McLintock’s design work combines art with environmental consciousness. Whether it is a moralistic attitude to reduce and reuse or sheer economics, it always starts with necessity. The necessity presents itself and a good designer meets the need, she says

Most of McLintock’s designs are one-of-a-kind or a very small production. She designs what she wants, when she wants and then takes the creations to shops for approval or puts them on her website, www.aiaigasa.com. “The collection I am showing at the 10th Annual Fashion Show is really about art, education and pushing my limits,” she said.

Fashion design has been her calling since McLintock was 11 years old. She had a sketchbook full of designs, including several layouts of her dream shop.

McLintock graduated from VCU Richmond in 1996, with a BFA in Fashion Design. She then spent a year studying textiles and design in Northern Ireland at the University of Ulster. She is currently in Qatar as Assistant Professor of Fashion Design, teaching a term at VCUQatar. “I have always hoped I would teach fashion design some day and especially give back to VCU for giving me such a great breath of knowledge. I felt it was important to get out there first and do something, so I could confidently say to my students, ‘All is possible. Dream a big dream.’ It didn’t hurt that my favourite professors from VCU Richmond were here, the opportunity knocked, and I feel honoured to be teaching alongside them,”

she concluded.

THE PENINSULA