Arts & Design students craft hotel’s uniforms |24 April 2018

Students from the Seychelles Institute of Arts and Design (SIAD) have -  for the first time in the school’s history - been contracted to design a company’s staff uniforms.

Employees of the AVANI Barbarons Resort & Spa, the company in question, unveiled the student’s final designs during a ceremony held at the resort yesterday.

Around a dozen designs were unveiled by the staff of each of the departments represented which included housekeeping, restaurant and bar, front office, finance, engineering, spa and kitchen.

The project took flight in October last year and, since then, has seen various exchanges between the school and the employees at AVANI that have led to the final products.

Each of the uniform’s design is unique to the resort’s specific departments and has been designed to cater for the needs and characteristics of those departments.

In her opening speech the director of human resources at AVANI, Sharon Vidot, stated that the initiative was the brain child of the resort’s general director who had opted to invest in the vast potential of SIAD instead of contracting the designs to a foreign company.

“Here at AVANI, we choose to do things differently. Our company, MINOR Internationals, is founded on values such as sharing and helping out our communities […] It is in this spirit that we decided to give SIAD this project, because we knew it would benefit the school and the students.”

The director of SIAD, Christine Payet, expressed her gratitude to AVANI for involving her students and staff in “this creative adventure”.

“When we were first approached for this project, we were a bit hesitant. We were wondering how to start and whether we have the capacity in terms of resources and infrastructure to proceed with the project,” Ms Payet revealed.

“But I am glad we embarked on the project because it enabled us to put our school’s potential to the test,” she later told the Seychelles NATION.

Fina Zialor, Annabelle Payet, Angelique Adrienne, Hellenie Lin, Stani Belle and Fabianna Bertin were the six students who were heavily involved in the project. They have been rewarded with a dinner for two and free entrance at the resort’s music lounge.

Hellenie Lin, a year 3 student on the diploma fashion course, explained that designing the uniforms came fluently to her and her colleagues.

“It was exciting and definitely a new experience. It gives you an additional advantage over others on the job market because you can proudly say that you have designed uniforms for a hotel like AVANI.”

SIAD is expected to tailor and complete the uniforms in the next three months.