I WANT TO TELL ABOUT JEWELLERY BY YUXI LIU (ZONA)

Yuxi Liu (Zona) 

Yuxi Liu (Zona) is a Chinese-born, Melbourne-based fashion designer. She has previously shown at the 2022 Melbourne Fashion Week Student Runway and 2023 Global Victoria Fashion Showcase, she was also a nominee for the 2023 State and National Graduate of the Year Award (GOTYA) by Design Insititute of Australia (DIA).  

Her work is heavily focused on the attention to design details, quality, and constructions. Through constant experiments on blending highly refined garment-making techniques with her unique design visions, she is exploring the possibilities of embedding sentimental approaches into the making process.  

I Want to Tell about Jewellery

This Master of Fashion Design collection investigates cultural and highly personal sentimental value systems surrounding items of jewellery, through worn acts of intimacy and occasional revelation. The research was based on personal jewellery-related memories and the use of both the performance design method and object design method, to re-imagine and re-capture the past while creating new fashion innovations.  

During my research and design process, I recalled memories of Jewellery - the most iconic one would be from my grandma, she used to wear her thick, gold bracelet but covered it with an old, dull scarf to protect it from thieves.

16O8 BY ABHA GUPTA

ABHA GUPTA  

Hailing from India and currently residing in Melbourne, Abha Gupta accomplished her undergraduate studies at Pearl Academy in India. Following the completion of her degree, she worked for Andamen, a prestigious Indian menswear brand. Her Masters project observes the subtle impacts of British colonisation on codes and languages in traditional men’s dress. Her approach seamlessly merges her expertise in traditional Indian handloom textiles, drape and construction techniques with her Industry experiences of western tailoring. Through her work, she aspires to challenge preconceived cultural notions, foster connections, and amplify the voices of marginalised communities.

16O8  

In a world where fashion transcends borders and heritage, 16o8, a menswear fashion collection expertly weaves the rich handlooms of India and European styles into a harmonious symphony of elegance and timelessness. The name 16o8, is a nod to the historical moment when Britishers first set foot on Indian soil, initiating a transformative journey that would forever impact the Indian fashion landscape over the course of two centuries.

16o8 is a celebration of the fusion, the crossroads of cultures, and the resulting sartorial diversity that emerged from this significant encounter. It is deeply rooted in acknowledging the past while embracing the present, ultimately paving the way for a unique and dynamic future in fashion.  

ZERO - SUM GAME BY ALEX ENTICKNAP

Alex Enticknap  

Alex’s design practice fuses craft, technology, and sustainability to create meticulously crafted fashion pieces. Each creation, whether a garment or accessory, embodies a clear, purposeful design that is centered on delineating design principles to encourage new ways of thinking through design.  

Alex adopts a practice that merges traditional craftsmanship with AI and technology through textile manipulation in combination with AI-generated patterns, drapes and digital prints. Alex is committed to reducing his ecological footprint through zero waste methods of making and leveraging 3D design software to prototype design virtually.  

 Zero - Sum Game  

Zero - Sum Game is a collection exploring the use of creative artificial intelligence for fashion purposes.  A question of AI and its purpose - what happens to clothing and the body when warped by generative algorithms? How can AI be used to create new outcomes without recycling the old?  

This project is to be seen as a representation of a more socially sustainable method of engaging with AI on a practical level.   

The aesthetic is warped, stretched, crushed and compressed. The choice to use stripe and stretch fabrics serves to link the distorted immateriality of AI to the materiality of fashion and clothing.  

I WONDER WHO’S KNITTING FOR ME BY CUITING WU (FEE)

Cuiting Wu (Fee)  

As a Chinese-born fashion designer, Cuiting Wu commenced her Master of Fashion (Design) at RMIT University after obtaining a Bachelor of Design (Graphics and Object) from the University of New South Wales.  

Within her project, Cuiting explores the possibilities of combining ceramic and knit materials, also attempting to change the impression of knitwear to showing its potential. Her aim is to achieve creative innovation by merging materials, using her training in print and graphics to further expand the visual potential of the designs.  

I Wonder Who's Knitting for Me

This project aims to develop knitwear and accessories that explore the potential of combining materials, considering factors such as comfort, sensory perception, and visual aesthetics.

My Mother taught me how to knit from a young age, where I would make scarves to give to my friends. These memories evoke a sense of warmth and softness that come from items created by loved ones. Although my initial intention was to focus solely on auditory perception, during the process of creating, I realized that memories of the soft touch of yarn kept coming back to me.  

THE MEDIAN BY JESSICA VIRK

Jessica Virk  

Jessica Virk is a Melbourne-based fashion designer who has always liked the notion of mixing and matching.  She emphasizes revisiting conventional silhouettes, experimenting with their shape and posture, and experimenting with 3D design by developing new modern items using standard formal and couture processes.  

She received the Australian Woolmark Grant during her final year. Virk was also fortunate to have her Graduate design collection included in Melbourne Fashion Week Student Runway 2023 and be one of the top five student award recipients. Further topping it off by winning the Fashion on the Field Emerging Designer Award 2023.

The Median  

The Median’ is a radical capsule collection that takes inspiration from Architect Zaha Hadid, who questions the usage of historical structural elements and formats them into radical designs based on experiences and rationality. Coherently the collection expresses an appreciation for mixing and matching, celebrating the odd juxtaposition of two entirely different pieces in one full composition.  

Through the placement of broad hips, enhanced silhouette features, and layering, the capsule demonstrates the use of structure throughout each of its forms. The collection aims to help the wearer stand out from the crowd to progress beyond their everyday essentials of generic clothing items such as pants, shirts, and jackets, and to make them feel more remarkable.  

COPY, FOLD, HOLD: WHAT IS INSIDE THE SUITCASE? BY LEANNE YANSIN CHOI

Leanne Yansin Choi  

Interested in representing Asian-Australian diaspora culture, Leanne Yansin Choi, combines clothing, objects, and text as an experimental body of performative and transformative work to challenge the traditional fashion design contexts, values, and functions. Initiated from her grandma’s wardrobe, Leanne draws from her surrounding spaces and nostalgic experiences to explore the connection between Fashion and Diaspora. Previously Leanne’s work has been featured in Melbourne Fashion Week and Fashion Journal, as well as completed internships with Obus and Anna Campbell.  

Copy, Fold, Hold: What is Inside the Suitcase?

Copy, Fold, Hold: What is inside the suitcase? is a practice-based Masters’ research project exploring the performative relationship between Diaspora and Fashion. Initiated from my Honours (RMIT BA Fashion Design) project, there was interest in studying how materials and objects from domestic spaces can express my Asian-Australian identity.  

Broadly, I intend to represent Asian-Australian Diaspora culture, seeking validation. This experience is unpacked through the diffusion and appropriation of existing objects, textiles, and garments, challenging its traditional function, value, time, and purpose. It presents both individual and collective stories, sharing nostalgic moments in Australia and Hong Kong gathered from my grandma and mother’s wardrobe.

KIT MOON COLLECTION BY KIT MOON

Kit Moon  

By choosing useful techniques and consciously exploring their latent potential, Kit Moon’s practice comes from the synthesis of tradition recognition and unpredictability of making. The build-up and acknowledgment of social and historical precedence’s laid down by practitioners of the past, present and future create frameworks of preconception and expectation which form as basis of familiarity.  

Kit Moon Collection 

The concept of quality is redefined, interrogating traditional conventions of handcraft specific to domains of tailoring and drape. This self-titled debut collection, Kit Moon seeks to experiment with the multifaceted dimensions of fashion design, challenging its evolving value and the relationship between the designer and consumer.  

Through the making of a collection, there is error, and it is the quality of the decisions and adaptability of the maker which defines the quality of their practice. Should we reconsider what is error, that liberation itself may provide potential for innovation. Finesse in traditional craftsmanship whilst valuable, subjects design to limitations of irrational fear.  

MUSEUM OBJECTS BY LINA YU

Lina Yu  

Lina Yu is an emerging fashion designer with a playful approach in creating fashion artefacts focusing on interactivity and discursivity. This year she has specialised in knitwear, particularly in the nuanced exploration of machine knit, pushing the possibilities of texture, colour, tension and the many other affordances of this medium.  

Drawing from an artistic framework, Lina’s work recontextualises non-fashion objects and playfully challenges conventional fashion paradigms. With a focus on creating a tactile and visual experience, her textile language is enhanced through voluminous scale and silhouettes that extend beyond the body. Her current trajectory points towards a design philosophy that has sensory wearer experience strongly embedded in the design process and outcomes.  

Museum Objects  

Museum Objects is an immersive sensory collection that interrogates the confines of conventional observation of fashion in the museum. This collection aims to realign spectator disposition and take you on an immersive sensory journey that invites individuals to interact with fashion artefacts in intimate and novel ways. With a focus on compression, stretch, movement, sound, comfort and playfulness, Museum Objects is a dissolution of museum apathy  

The advanced knitwear techniques and digital print processes create lenticular textiles that demand to be experienced rather than passively observed. Through the experimentation of tension and blending fibres, the knitwear enhances the overall sensory engagement, transforming each garment into a dynamic and interactive piece. 

MEMENTO MORI BY SAMUEL DE RAADT

Samuel de Raadt  

Samuel’s creativity and perception is influenced by his birthplace, Venezuela, and upbringing in both Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Samuel is a creative and dedicated designer who applies critical design thinking to explore unique and theatrical collections and accessories.  

One aspect that captivates Samuel's imagination is the potential of masks. The way that masks can shape-shift the wearer, challenge perceptions and bring characters to life, inspires him. By integrating masks into his designs, Samuel plays with identity, performance, and personal expression. Through his work, he aims to create awe-inspiring moments that transport viewers into realms of imagination and wonder.  

Memento Mori  

For my collection Memento Mori, I aim to capture and infuse my perceptions of death with a series of three looks. These looks will be tailored towards ready-to-wear. Everything in death is juxtaposed and I want to reflect this feeling through contrasting uses of heaviness and lightness, soft and hard, bright and dark, smooth and rugged, curves and angles. The complexity of humans, life and death and all their positives and negatives. Using motifs that are woven together, this collection captures different experiences of death, providing a thoughtful and cohesive reflection on this daunting and powerful force.

WILLIAM TJONG SPRING 2023 GRADUATE COLLECTION BY WILLIAM TJONG

William Tjong   

Originally from Indonesia and now based in Melbourne, William is a menswear designer. William’s work is inspired by performance and dress, using his designs as a way of embedding choreography and movement. His Masters project takes inspiration from the contrast of daily routine acts of dress, with highly performed acts of dressing such as military ceremonies.  

William Tjong Spring 2023 Graduate Collection  

My Master project was developed from my interest in rethinking the daily act of getting dressed. Observing the gestures made in the process of wearing garments and the role it has in creating choreographic forms of expressions.  

I was also fascinated with the idea of wit in fashion, through incorporating objects into garments. The project aims to explore the interaction between the body and materialities of clothing through the playful and performative act of wearing.  

This project investigates different stages of dressing which include putting garments onto the body, fastening garments, taking garments off the body, and storing them back into the closet at