They’re talented. They’re ambitious. And they’re ready to spread their wings worldwide with an exclusive event unveiling QUT’s graduating fashion students to a global audience at The Cube.
Top travel and fashion writers from across the world visited QUT Thursday September 6, 2018 to see what’s new and next, in a partnership with the city’s latest five-star hotel W Brisbane and QUT’s Creative Industries faculty.
The interactive fashion-tech exhibition has been described as an “immersion like no other” with a final show in front of an invited audience at one of the largest interactive learning and display spaces in the world.
QUT's The Cube, for a day, was transformed into the Fashion Design Studio of the Future.
A showcase of the work leading up to the event can be viewed below.
The event was attended by luxury publications including Harper’s Bazaar, CNN Travel, Conde Nast, Vogue Japan and Marie Claire to name a few.
For design student Mel Hocking (pictured below) it’s a dream fast becoming reality. The young mother studied biomedical science and had a career as a psychologist but gave it up to pursue fashion design.
“I’ve travelled to New York City and interned at an independent fashion magazine TWELV gaining experience in fashion retail, journalism and design,” Ms Hocking said.
Her collection titled Gentlewoman is inspired by her own mother who raised her as a single parent.
“My mother is the inspiration behind my ideas of what it means to be an authentic woman – someone who is unashamedly themselves but who is both feminine and strong.
“I use bold denims with luxurious silks and feathers to convey the duality of hard and soft within women.”
Theatrical children’s creatures, crafted from repurposed waste including a blue IKEA bag and fashion off-cuts, showcase a ‘waste-age collection’ from Bethany Cordwell (pictured below), who is pursuing a career in costuming.
“I have these voluminous crazy silhouettes that transform a human into a creature created from our waste,” she said.
A faux fur jacket (top feature image) with a "caution warning label" was the hero piece for student Eily Shaddock (pictured below) who said her influences included pop art, colour, graphic design, digital culture and addiction.
“The jacket represents the morphed identity we possess in the 24/7 online era,” Ms Shaddock said.
Fashion lecturer Icaro Ibanez Arricivita said while the project involved many late working nights it represented a real opportunity to share the students’ unique intellectual concepts with the assistance of the latest technology.
“By combining their one-of-a-kind experimental fabric manipulations and tech such as virtual reality, large scale projections and 3D animations they can explore their creativity for a constantly changing world,” he said.
The demonstration featured touch screens whereby the fashion students presented their creative process.
The Fashion Design Studio of the Future included a performance by Masters of Music graduate Andy Ward who combines music with motion-tracking technology.
Throughout the design process the students were mentored by QUT lecturer and well-known fashion identity Lydia Pearson.
"The opportunity to show on the world stage like this is an immersion like no other, I can't think of another institution where this has happened and doing something that is uniquely for Brisbane," she said.
Media contacts:
Debra Nowland, QUT Media, 07 3138 1150 (Mon/Wed/Thurs) or media@qut.edu.au
After hours: Rose Trapnell, 0407 585 901
