The National Graduate Showcase is one of Melbourne Fashion Festival’s most anticipated and divisive runways. Voxfrock rookie photographer Alexi Cordes was there to shoot and Voxfrock rookie journalist, Erin Visagie, to cherry-pick its best bits. Enjoy, and click back later for more from fashion’s future journalists and photographers on the Voxfrock Rookie crew.
Words: Erin Visagie Photographs: Alexi Cordes
No show is more impressive than the creative, futuristic National Graduate Showcase (NGS), a playful runway of fabulous, magical pieces showcasing progressive concepts, zero-waste materials, experimentation, expression and creativity.
Even the audience is rare, sporting looks from sparkly suits to colourful prints, like watching a futuristic fashion film with upbeat music.
It’s easy to see why the NGS sold out. There’s blood, sweat, tears and passion in every innovative piece, a hope-inducing force and inspiring testament to creativity.
Students hail from RMIT, Queensland University of Technology, and the University of Technology Sydney with the top 10, Michael Shin, Qinxuan Wu, Ada Fong, Amy Cottrell, Beibei Li, Jason Clark, Kritikon Qatur Khamsawat, Michael De Souza and Yiran Zhou, picked by a rigorous judging process.
It’s their big night, a chance to make their mark, show off designs that stretch fashion boundaries. And that’s precisely what they do, using exaggerated silhouettes, bioplastic materials, wearable art and structures, x-ray prints, culturally influenced garments, unusual draping and tailoring.
Most inspiring were pieces obviously handcrafted with love. But every collection was visually striking, capturing metaphorical meanings linked to each designer’s journey.
Yiran Zhou’s collection, ‘Twinning’ was particularly intriguing. She explained that her work explored her relationship with her twin sister, individuality and identity. “My twin sister inspired me,” she said. “I started observing our wardrobes, picking up our favourite styles, and then trying to combine them as a whole main silhouette.”
In her complex design processes, she included cyanography (a photographic printing technique using a near ultraviolet and blue light spectrum) and digital fashion imagery.
Yiran’s fitted black dresses (eerily similar yet vastly different) were breathtaking, in a unique mesh fabric that connected the models yet symbolically protected their identities. X-ray prints on the back of the material accentuated both the similarities and subtle contrasts inherent in Twinning.
“Twinning is not just two models wearing the same garments,” Yiran told Voxfrock. “We have one identical personality, so even if the two pieces look the same, you will find they’re different if you come closer to see the details.”
Yiran’s work, and the collections by other student designers from all over the country are evidence fashion’s future is bright. They are already making waves.
