New kid on the block

Fashion educator Penelope Leonard is on the winning side of an odyssey that has lasted more than 36 months.

In a journey that has taken her and her team from Sydney, on to Paris and then back to Australia via China, it proved something of a disappointment when her adventure drew to its logical conclusion in a pigeon-infested Surry Hills warehouse.

On March 2 the wider fashion public will finally become privy to her efforts when the local arm of international fashion college Esmod welcomes its very first student through the door.

Operated under licence by educational service Global Campus Management (GCM) the school - whose Parisian roots can be traced back 170 years - will provide more than 240 students a year the chance to gain an international qualification from what is widely recognised as one of the best tertiary institutions on offer.

Those driving the Australian project, Leonard and colleague Katrina Skinner, used wisely a 12-month delay forced upon them by bureaucratic red tape and sourced design talent to cover each area of focus. This saw them adding a world-renowned patternmaker from Paris, a leading costumier from Sydney and a rising fashion illustrator from Australia via London to the seven-strong Esmod Australia payroll.

With a deserved reputation for the technical precision of its methods and tailoring, the choice of tutors will no doubt prove a significant drawcard for students struggling to separate the wheat from the chaff among this country's strong stable of private education providers.

Students will also be afforded the opportunity to take part in Esmod's international exchange program which could see them completing a year of study in any one of the college's 21 campuses around the world including Tokyo, Paris or Berlin.

Yet despite its grand history and elite personnel, perhaps the school's greatest asset is the other educational brands located within the core GCM stable.

Having moved its International Design School and International College of Professional Photography to the same Surry Hills campus, GCM has prudently set up its program to allow its students to study across a variety of different mediums including fashion, graphic design and photography. Savvy fashion graduates will no doubt use their highly skilled alumni - or newly acquired skills - to help them produce stunning lookbooks and promotional material at cost.

Given that once complete the group's state-of-the-art Short Street campus can accommodate up to 550, Esmod will also consider adding styling and fashion marketing courses to its line up.

At $15,500 a year the fees aren't cheap. But then again the benefits students can potentially gain from having access to a one-stop-shop for all things fashion, it is surely an investment well spent.