Nine students at the Tuitui Fashion Academy have received their Level One Achievement Certificates after completing six months’ training at the Auckland’s school.
Siutaisa Fine Tongaonevai 
‘Alai Lelenoa Tuitui Folauhola, Director of Tuitui Fashion Academy (Left), Mele ‘Uta’atu Elenoa Vahai (Right) Konifelenisi Bansal Suitileilani Tu’utafaiva Linda Lavaki Olive Ramanlal Vullabh (Right) Ma’ata Tu’akalau (Right)
The successful women completed a number of modules, including skills such as Measurement, Academic, sewing of Women and Men’s wear Normal Dress, Pacific Wear, Off the shoulder, Suit Jacket, Evening Gowns, Shirt and Suit and Russian Collar.
In an award function last Saturday night at Three Kings, the smiling students were seen dancing and holding their certificates during the two-hour event.
“This is my dream while I was young,” Tuitui Folauhola, the Director of the Academy told guests.
“When I saw my mum’s leftover pieces of clothing, I put them into the sewing machine and sewed it.”
Folauhola, from Ha’ateiho and Pea, Tongatapu moved to New Zealand from Tonga in 1988 and worked in a number of sewing factories. She later enrolled at Sewtec, now known as the New Zealand School of Arts and Fashions in 2011 and successfully completed the requirements for the National Certificate in Clothing Manufacture(Design and Patternmaking)Level 4 and 5.
She saw some Pacific island women could not complete the courses at Sewtec due to a number of reasons and she thought she might able to assist them. As an island woman she understood their situation in the island ways, she said.
“I thought my experience would really help these women to become successful in a very simple way of teaching,” Folauhola said.
Folauhola has been supervised by Trilise Cooper, a New Zealand fashion designer whose designs have been featured in magazines such as Vogue, Marie Claire, Women’s Wear Daily, In Style and the television series Sex and the City.
The academy was launched in March this year and started with 12 women.
Nine of them received their awards while three were expected to complete their Level One certificates soon.
The academy now has 42 students, all of whom are women.
“I would like to thank all these women who started my academy,” Folauhola said.
“Without you this reef would never have become an island.”
