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