Announcements
Every result and reveal in one place — the ten selected designers, the panel and mentors, and the runway showcase.
The open call is live
Applications for cohort 01 open today. Ten places across a six-month programme.
Read the announcement27The open call is liveApplications for cohort 01 open today. Ten places across a six-month programme.
Applications for cohort 01 open today and run on Google Forms. The form asks for four things: who you are, how to reach you, your label if you have one, and a portfolio of recent work - process as well as finished garments. You will need to sign in to a Google account, because the form uploads files. Fifteen minutes is enough. There is no fee, and a registered company is not required. You must be Malaysian or based in Malaysia, East or West, and able to attend every physical workshop across the six months. Only shortlisted candidates are contacted.
—Shortlist announcedThe designers invited to a panel interview.
After the open call closes, every application is read by the selection panel. The shortlist is published here, and shortlisted designers are contacted directly to arrange an interview. Interviews are held in person in Kuala Lumpur, and are a conversation rather than a presentation - the panel wants to understand how you work and what you would do with six months, not to watch a pitch. Applicants who are not shortlisted are not contacted individually, which is why the list is published in full. Dates for the shortlist and the interviews are confirmed closer to the closing date.
—The ten designersCohort 01 named in full, with each designer's practice and city.
Cohort 01 is announced in full: ten designers, each with their practice, their city, and what they intend to build across the six months. They are published together rather than trickled out, so the cohort is read as a group - which is how they will work. Selection is not weighted towards graduates or towards self-taught makers; both are read on the same terms. What the panel looked for was a point of view already visible in the work, and the intent to keep building after the programme ends. From here the cohort begins its modules, studio time and mentorship.
—Showcase resultsAwards and outcomes from the closing runway showcase.
Results and outcomes from the closing showcase are published here: awards, the response from press and buyers, and where each designer goes next. The programme does not end at the runway. Several of the outcomes that matter most - stockists, orders, further funding - arrive in the weeks afterwards, and they are recorded here as they land. Also published: what the cohort said about the six months, and what the programme will change for the next intake. Kain is built to run in cohorts, so each showcase is both a conclusion and the brief for what follows.
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Meet the panelThe selection panel introduced one at a time, ahead of shortlisting.
The selection panel reads every application and sits the interviews that decide the ten places. It is drawn from the same network that mentors the cohort - industry leaders, educators, buyers and makers who have already built what the applicants are setting out to build. Rather than publishing a grid of names at once, the panel is introduced one at a time across the campaign, so each practice can be read properly. Introductions begin in early September, ahead of shortlisting. The panel looks for a point of view and the intent to build something lasting - not a finished collection, and not a following.
03The mentorsWho mentors what across the five areas of the programme.
Mentorship on the programme is split across five areas. Design covers collection direction, silhouette, and the discipline of editing a line down to the pieces that carry it. Craft covers pattern cutting, construction and finishing, with heritage technique treated as a working method rather than a reference. Business covers costing, pricing, sourcing and cash flow. Retail covers how buyers read a rail and what wholesale asks of a young label. Media covers writing about your own work and briefing a shoot. Each designer is paired according to where their practice needs weight, rather than being handed the same mentors as everyone else.
—Showcase datesExhibition and runway dates at the close of the programme.
The programme closes with a public exhibition and a runway showcase at Semua House. Both are open to the public, and press and buyers are invited. The exhibition runs across several days and shows process as well as finished garments - patterns, samples, and the sourcing behind each collection. The runway is a single evening. Dates, ticketing and the exhibition programme are published here once confirmed. Designers show the collections they have built across the six months, produced with technical support from the programme, and the work remains theirs to sell, show and develop afterwards.
—Collection previewsFirst looks at what the cohort has built across six months.
Ahead of the showcase, first looks at what the cohort has built. Each preview covers one designer: the direction the collection took, the pieces that carry it, and the decisions made along the way - what was cut, what was sourced differently, what changed after a mentor session. Notes on sourcing and technical support are included, because the making is as much the story as the result. Previews are published one at a time rather than as a single reveal. They are not a substitute for the showcase; they are the working record of six months, published while the work is still moving.
20Announcing KainMalaysia's first structured fashion incubator.
Kain is Malaysia's first structured fashion incubator, built to give emerging designers something the industry has never offered them here: a fixed period of time, a room to work in, and people who have already done it standing alongside them. Ten designers are selected for each cohort. Across six months they move through design, craft, business, retail and media, working with mentors drawn from across the industry. The programme closes in public, with an exhibition and a runway showcase at Semua House in Kuala Lumpur. It is supported by Think City, and applications for cohort 01 open on 27 August 2026.
—Inside Semua HouseA walkthrough of the building as renovation begins.
Semua House sits in the middle of Kuala Lumpur, and it is being renovated for the cohort. The upper floors become studio space - cutting tables, machines, and room enough to leave work out overnight. The ground floor is kept clear for the exhibition and the runway at the close of the programme. Renovation began this month and continues through to the intake. The building has been part of the city's garment trade for decades, which is part of why it was chosen: the cohort works where the industry already is, rather than in a space borrowed for the occasion.