Month: March 2020

Welcome to this special edition of the Houndstooth Wrap, where we celebrate the students and staff who presented at VAMFF! With events presented between 4-14 March, the festival was held on the cusp of the pandemic with several events cancelled, including the National Graduate Showcase. While these students weren’t able to present as part of VAMFF, we include their efforts in this wrap-up.

Congratulations to all students and staff who were involved in the presentation of work at VAMFF! 

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National Graduate Showcase

Friday 13th March, 6pm, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne.

Cancelled mere hours before presentation, we applaud the hard work and achievements of the graduates who were chosen to present at the National Graduate Showcase. Of the twelve fashion graduates nominated, eight were from RMIT: Congratulations to Bella Redman-Brown, Icelynne Yeo, Jordyn Smith, Kim Clark, Yumi Wang, Shrinvanti Roy, Syna Chen and Jake Liu! 

While unable to present their designs on the runway, their work was recognised by the showcase partner, Fashion Journal, through editorial and interviews. To learn more, see the interviews with Kim Clark, Syna Chen, Jake Liu, Yumi Wang, Jordyn Smith, Icelynne Yeo, Bella Redman-Brown, and Shrinvanti Roy or read the full list of finalists here.

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Angel Energy

Tuesday 10th March, 6-10pm, Abbotsford Convent.

Angel Energy was a fashion and performance project that showcased the work of RMIT graduates from the Bachelor of Fashion (design) (honours) graduating class of 2019, including Georgie Allen, Madeline Assi, Matilda Comb, Bayley Eade, Gracie Forshaw, Katherine Violet Nolan, Michelle Li and Jordyn Smith. Directed and coordinated by Madeline Assi, the show was described to Astrophe magazine as: “collaborating feminine aesthetics with notions of street wear whilst playing with softer ethereal and angelic themes. Sparked by an interest in contact improvisation, the performance is an exploration of one’s body in relationship to materials. The series of instinctual and unfiltered movements provides an honest portrayal of body and dress in motion.”

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All Tee, No Shade

Saturday 7th March, 4-6pm, Hares and Hyenas, Fitzroy.

All Tee, No Shade presented the research practice of Associate Lecturer and Masters by Research candidate Sang Thai. Sang said: “The installation allowed the audience to view and interact with creative work that draws from the confluence of race and sexuality to reveal the negotiated lived experience of being Asian and queer. It forms part of an ongoing project exploring intersections of gender, masculinity, sexuality, performativity and race privilege embodied in the archetype of the t-shirt.”

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Tableaux Vivant

Saturday 7th March, 4-5pm, Angel Music Bar, Melbourne.

In Tableaux Vivant, S!X (Senior Lecturers Denise Sprynskyj and Peter Boyd) presented a series of projections of iconic French artworks on a canvas of deconstructed garments, both recut and restyled to propose different ways of seeing and thinking about fashion: its medium, its time and place, and its materials. The re-imagination of the iconic French artworks have been developed from an ongoing interest in the use of French words and images to trigger design and contribute to a playful depiction of fashion and image making.

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Less is more. More or less.

Friday 13th March, 6-8pm, Sarah Scout Presents, Collins St, Melbourne.

Designed and choreographed by PhD candidate Remie Cibis, Less is More. More or Less was a fashion performance that produced a series of looks through strategies of deletion and negation. By successively redacting more and more of the body, a space was opened up, and a series of garments emerged in its place.

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Fashion Fix

Saturday 7th & 14th March, Garden Building, RMIT

Produced by School of Fashion and Textiles lecturers Georgia McCorkill and Jo Cramer, Fashion Fix explored the role of mending and repair within the garment lifecycle. Georgia said: “We were curious to find out more about what sorts of garments our customers brought for repair, and people’s knowledge of mending techniques. We also wanted to prototype a mending service to consider how as designers we can contribute to the design of mending systems. We had small groups of participants over two days, and it was fascinating how individuals played different roles of client, teacher and student during their time with us. This was an initial exploratory project and our minds were full of ideas for ‘next steps’ and further collaborations at the conclusion of the events.”

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Felt Stitches

Monday 9th March – Friday 13th March, 11am-6pm, Abbotsford Convent.

Felt Stitches was a participatory installation by PhD candidate Ritika Skand Vohra, exploring the sense of touch through fostering an interplay between hand as feeler and hand as maker. The installation considered touch as a thread that binds the body and materials together during the process of making. One participant visiting the installation gave Ritika this feedback: “Beautiful art work, touch is often a neglected part of art these days, coming here and being able to interact with your pieces has been grounding for me. Touching pieces with your eyes closed brings back memories of past adventures.”

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Hartnell Of Melbourne Retrospective

Sunday 8th March, 11-4pm. Como House, South Yarra.

Masters by Research candidate Tom McEvoy presented the Hartnell of Melbourne Retrospective, displaying the largest collection of garments for the once prestigious and innovative Melbourne fashion house. Hosted in collaboration with the National Trust and Como House, the event consisted of a salon show and discussion between the head designer Brian Samuel and Tom McEvoy, giving insight into the highs and lows of the fashion house, and an exhibition throughout Como House.

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Nocturnal x Fashion

Friday 6th March, Melbourne Museum.

PhD candidate Nirma Madhoo presented her VR fashion film, Azimuth, at Nocturnal x Fashion, a celebration of the best of music and fashion at the Melbourne Museum. Nirma said: Azimuth is a short fashion VR film that explores Brutalist architectures and environments as elemental triptychs in a 360 degree space. Fashion performances are imaged for each of these states to an immersive ambisonics original score.

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The Future of Trend Forecasting

Thursday 5th March, 5.30-6.30pm, Siteworks Brunswick.

Drawing from her PhD research, Clarice Garcia presented a seminar called The Future of Trend Forecasting to discuss the role of fashion trend forecasting in a scenario where sustainability and new consumption behaviours may challenge the practices and systems currently in place within the field of fashion forecasting.

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Big Questions and Big Ideas

Friday 6th March, 6-8pm. RMIT Design Archives, Carlton.

Presented by PhD and Masters candidates from the RMIT School of Fashion and Textiles, Big Questions and Big Ideas was a panel discussion that showcased the variety of issues being addressed by research within the school. With topics varying from the ethical, cultural, sensory, and environmental aspects of fashion, to reclaiming the past and speculating about the future, the panel encouraged a lively discussion about fashion.

Moderated by Senior Lecturer Sean Ryan, the panel members included Anna Anisimova, Rashmita Bardalai, Rute Chaves, Remie Cibis, Clarice Garcia, Rachel Lamarche, Tom McEvoy, Fernanda Quilici Mola, Ritika Skand Vohra, and Yassie Samie.

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Australian Fashion Summit

Friday 13th March, Deakins Edge, Federation Sqaure

A key event of the festival, the Australian Fashion Summit provides an opportunity to discuss the critical themes affecting the fashion industry. CEO and President of the Global Fashion Agenda (GFA) and founder of the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, Eva Kruse, delivered the keynote presentation, calling on the industry to change to more sustainable ways to prosperity, considering social and environmental factors.

Alongside sustainability, other issues discussed at the summit included managing financial risk, the need for diverse representation in fashion media, and the importance of cultural awareness and sensitivity, whether in the contexts of global trade or valuing indigenous fashion design.

As the education partner, RMIT invited some students to attend the summit and participate in a speed networking event, meeting people like Laura Brown, Editor in Chief at Instyle USA, Margie Woods, Creative Director of Viktoria & Woods, and Marnie Goding, Creative Director of Elk. The closing statement for the summit was delivered by two RMIT students, Fiona Wilshin and Julie Macindoe, who responded to themes of the summit and presented their hopes for the industry. ​

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Fashion Film Awards 2020

Thursday 5th March, The Capitol, RMIT Melbourne.

As the longest-running and leading Australian platform for the fashion film genre, the 2020 Fashion Film Awards screened an official selection of shortlisted films alongside the best of RMIT student fashion films. The screening was followed by a panel discussion hosted by Victoria Pearson, Content Director at RUSSH Magazine in conversation with directors Gracie Otto, Luci Schroder and Victoria Thompson, exploring the borders between content and art within the fashion film medium.

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Waa Weelum Growings

It’s the start of Waring (wombat) Season. The days begin to cool and wombats appear to bask in the sun. The hearts of the soft tree ferns are eaten.

For now, we have left our beautiful Brunswick campus, Waa Weelum, in the care of the crows.

The Reflective Wrap: Thinking, Making and Printing In these uncertain times, celebrating the achievements of our community is a welcome respite! We congratulate those from the School of Fashion & Textiles who presented at the Graduate Research Symposium and the Critical Fashion Studies conference in February, and Dr Jenny Underwood and Dr Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran (in collaboration with Jake Nakashima-Edwards, recent Bachelor of Fashion(Design)(Honours) graduate) who presented work at the Future Prototyping Exhibition in March. With so many staff and students presenting at VAMFF, we will be issuing a special wrap-up in the next few weeks.

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Graduate Research Symposium (GRS)

12th-14th, 24th-25th February & 2 March, Brunswick.

The Graduate Research Symposium took place over three weeks and commenced with a keynote presentation by Professor Steve Michielson, aka Dr Blood, who highlighted the potential for material surface properties to contribute to the comfort and performance of garments, including the timely example of antiviral protection, and the forensic application of blood stains in clothing.

From the masters cohort, Thomas McEvoy explained how a miniature garment, enlivened through QR codes, can rescue Australian fashion history, Sang Thai examined masculinity and diasporic Asian queer experience through the use and making of a t-shirt, and Rohani Osman discussed the social echo and collaborative practices of nail art and adornment.

Rohani Osman described her research: “I decided to undertake my research because I wanted to learn more about the practice of fingernail adornment, an industry that I currently also work in, but was unable to find any writing about it other than standard industry information or articles in fashion magazines. Centring the research around my own practice has given me valuable insight into the way i work, as an artist, and how I navigate my relationships with my clients.

Studying masters part time has given me great flexibility to fit in alongside full time work. I have also been very fortunate to have a great supervisory team that spans across the School of Fashion & Textiles and the School of Art who have been very generous with their time and provide me with rich feedback during meetings.”

Confirming their doctoral candidature, Rachel Lamarche presented her framework for investigating  consumer behaviour related to veganism and fashion, Clarice Garcia speculated on trend forecasting methods of the future, and Gareth Kershaw drew from his art background to create a sculptural practice of dress. Reporting on her research to date, Yassie Samie discussed the complexities of the textile and clothing waste ecosystem, using metropolitan Melbourne as a test case, while Mac Fergusson reviewed the history of textile manufacture in Australia, from 1788 -2020.

Taking a sensory approach, Caroline McMillan discussed her design practice of multisensorial wearables in an Internet of Worn Things. Giving attention to material comfort and performance, Lize Niemczyk evaluated the performance and design of bras worn under body armour, Chalisa Apiwathnasorn presented on developing mosquito repellent textile from Zanthoxylum Limonella essential oil coating, Olga Gavrilenko explored nanofibrous coating on cotton fabric, and Abdur Bhuiyan investigated chemical protection and improved thermophysiological wear through textiles.

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Critical Fashion Studies conference

Thursday 27th- Saturday 29th February, University of Melbourne

Congratulations to the School of Fashion staff and postgraduate students who presented research at the Critical Fashion Studies conference held at University of Melbourne. A special mention goes to Harriette Richards, former compiler of the Houndstooth Wrap and organiser of the conference!

Reflecting the deep engagement of the school with sustainability efforts, Kate Sala spoke on transforming sustainable fashion education, Georgia McCorkill, considered poetic processes for designing from waste, Emma Pollock looked at consumer behaviour through clothing swaps and Rachel Lamarche investigated values-based labelling and vegan fashion.

School of Fashion lecturer, Georgia McCorkill said: “The Critical Fashion Studies conference was really interesting for me in the sheer number of predominantly Australian researchers exploring sustainable and ethical questions from a wide range of perspectives. This is a marked difference from a few years ago where discussions were very much focused solely at the material sourcing and supply chain areas. I think the input from a large number of cultural studies based researchers made for interesting contributions to the emerging field of wardrobe studies and also a much needed critical perspective on emerging frameworks such as the circular economy.”

Another cluster of research interests focused around the relationship between fashion and the senses. Caroline McMillan presented on the development of an olfactory fashion wearable, Ritika Skand Vohra shared her sensorial creative practice that privileges touch, and Julie Macindoe explored how blind women navigate gendered, ocularcentric dress practices.

Showcasing the diversity of research projects, other presentations included Daphne Mohajer Va Pesaran reporting on the practices of paper clothing in Japan, as part of the Endangered Material Knowledge Programme, and Tarryn Handcock on designing urban site-responsive fashion, using examples of live performance events with the Bachelor of Fashion (Design)(Honours) third year students: Urban Flâneur: Fashion Reimagines the City (2018) and Situation Brunswick (2019).

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Future Prototyping Exhibition

24th February- 27th of March, Melbourne School of Design

Creating design provocations with the  future in mind, Dr Jenny Underwood (in collaboration with Leanne Zilka) and Dr Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran (in collaboration with recent Bachelor of Fashion (Design) (Honours) graduate Jake Nakashima-Edwards) were part of the Future Prototyping Exhibition.

The work by Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran and Jake Nakashima-Edwards proposes a speculative system for garment design based on a thought experiment by Greek philosopher Heraclitus around 400-500 b.c, which when applied to the context of fashion design, generates questions like: What stays the same in a coat that has been repaired so many times that it no longer retains any of its original fabric or thread? Can we design a garment for a hundred years?

Lecturer Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran said: “This prototype series could open lines of enquiry into authenticity, identity, value and time, enabling fashion consumers to disrupt the regeneration of garments—not only aesthetically, but materially”.

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Mutoh Printer

A brand new Mutoh ValueJet 1938TX direct-to-textile pigment printer has replaced the old Roland, that found its new home in Sydney at Blueprint Digital last Friday.

Danielle Andree said: “Thanks to a joint effort between the Schools of F&T and VDSC, we were able to replace an important piece of equipment. The intention being that a more reliable and capable printer would allow us to offer large format digital textile pigment printing more readily to students as part of their studies. This particular print process is suitable for a range of white or light coloured woven cellulose and protein fibre fabrics – we are also looking forward to testing whether we can successfully print onto such fabrics with knitted constructions. 

After 3 days of installation, the printer ran its first batch of prints and the results have simply blown the print staff away. The deep blacks, vivid colours and print clarity that we’ve just not been able to produce previously has got us all very excited!

Like any piece of equipment, the Mutoh will require love and care to stay in tip top condition. I’m in the process of developing some training for print staff in the maintenance and use of the printer.”

If you would like any more information or to see the printer, please contact Dani: danielle.andree@rmit.edu.au

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Waa Weelum Community

It’s the start of Waring (wombat) Season. The days begin to be cool and wombats appear to bask in the sun. The hearts of the soft tree ferns are eaten.

As the seasons change, the plants and wildlife of Waa Weelum prepare for the cooler months ahead. The rainbow lorikeets are noisy in the trees, while the crows strut around below. The leaves begin to fall.

This week, students from Fashion Textile Place and Story participated in a weaving activity using grasses and foliage found around the campus; a wonderful way to learn about the plants of Waa Weelum and be outside in the sunshine, particularly in these stressful times.

 

The next issue of the Houndstooth will be a special wrap-up of VAMFF! In the meantime, please share any projects or achievements so that we can remain connected during this time of social distancing.