Nobody is born FashionWise, but grown, taught, studied to become it. They study to get better and more sustainable. They study shapes, materials and quality. They study to sense consumer’s emotions. They study to assess the market and its needs, they learn international scope.

In order to bring Estonian high quality products and design to the wider audiences, Virus Keskus as the fashion centre with the greatest visitor numbers will start to contribute to support the Estonian fashion education by signing a partnership agreement with the Estonian Art Academy at the beginning of the new knowledge and study season. Together they will create VIRUxEKA Young Design Export Program aimed at creating and strengthening a design export capacity study program for the design faculty. VIRUxEKA Young Design Export Program involves lecturers and experts with international experience in the study process and includes an international contact network to create a development platform for Estonian design students.

VIRUxEKA Young Design Export Program begins in the autumn of 2020 and the first collections created in the framework of this programme can be viewed in spring 2021. The programme is led by Sissi Silván, visiting lecturer of the Estonian Art Academy and business mentor with long-term export experience.

In addition to supporting the study programme, an individual scholarship of 1 000 Euros is awarded in cooperation with the Estonian Art Academy. The main criteria for awarding the scholarship are above all the contribution of the project or creative work to establishing and increasing export potential, following sustainability principles and environmentally friendly visions.

“The design students of the Estonian Art Academy have been looking forward to international studies and now Viru Keskus will support the sustainability of the programme! Thanks to that the Estonian design scene will definitely start to take more international dimensions in the next few years, thus increasing also the export potentials of our sustainable fashion design,” comments the the head of the fashion design department of the Estonian Art Academy Piret Puppart.

This year’s winner Annika Kiidron-Roomets has completed the programme and values the process highly: “The course helped me significantly to position myself as a creative entrepreneur and consider the development aims of my – as yet small – business. I should note that the most important thing was that I learned to value my creations and set a fair price to them.”

“Viru Keskus as the leading fashion centre in Estonia values high quality both in the shopping environment, selection of fashion brands and customer services. The sustainability of Estonian fashion design is also important and therefore it is a logical step to establish a scholarship to increase the export capacity of the fashion design department of the Estonian Art Academy,” states Kristel Sooaru, the marketing and Communication Manager of Viru Keskus.