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Student designers in a class of their own

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JOYCE Taylor had her doubts when Haidee Ng explained what she wanted to do.

''Do you have the time?'' said the head of the fashion department at the Sha Tin Technical Institute.

''I'll find it,'' said the determined 21-year-old who proceeded to transform her main fabric by easing it apart, thread by painstaking thread.

''It started out as ordinary woven cloth,'' an admiring Ms Taylor explained after the Coexist Fashion Show.

By the time it arrived on the catwalk at the Regent Hotel ballroom this week, it was unrecognisable: a lacy, light-as-thistledown confection that worked perfectly for Haidee Ng's evening-wear.

Coexist, minus the hyphen, proved a fitting title for the 28 capsule collections - four outfits in each - presented by the 1993 graduates of the Sha Tin Technical Institute's two-year diploma course in fashion design.

It may have lacked the drama and clout of the prestigious Swire School's annual graduation show, but there was tremendous camaraderie. And the array of themes - from Grand Guignol to grunge, from Ancient Egypt to '30s Shanghai - emphasised the key one: the more fresh, creative ideas, the better.

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