First time VoxFrocker Imogen Betros writes from Melbourne Fashion Week‘s most prophetic event, the Student Collections Runway styled by Stuart Walford. Scroll down to meet Imogen and photographer Joy Zhang and click back here and here for more daily updates from fashion’s future journalists and photographers.
Words: Imogen Betros Photos: Joy Zhang
If this generation of designers represents the future of fashion then I am a convert, perhaps one of few not facing forward with a bleak, almost apocalyptic sense of dread.
From the moment lights dimmed and audience quietened in the exposed brick and concrete floors of former Edwardian wool store, Younghusband in Kensington, I felt this was not simply a heartwarming celebration of the students’ hard work, but a glimpse into their lives to come.
Thirty students from tertiary fashion courses at Boxhill, Holmesglen, LCI, RMIT and Whitehouse Institute of Design displayed three complete looks each. So many, so varied, it felt futile to compare them. But, somehow a judging panel had narrowed the field to five finalists and an overall winner.
Helen Manuell (RMIT) took home the MFW Student Award award, announced at the runway’s end. Her hand-crafted collection, A Slow Mindset was a magnificent encapsulation of her skill, innovation, commitment to sustainability and, undoubtedly, her professional experience at the helm of her own bridal couture business.
Jessica Micheline Pangestu’s Threads of Identity collection was also impossible not to commend. The RMIT graduate received a surprise runner-up award. Jessica’s collection was both sophisticated, and showed adaptability to commercial practice and distribution. I am excited to see how she will develop under a second mentorship program.
Caroline Caroline‘s She Lives in a Dollhouse was a standout, the first look’s billowing white sails suspended from a wooden chest piece that both encased and framed.
Maybe it was the show’s score; piano and pizzicato throughout, concluding with none other than Björk’s iconic vocals. Or maybe it was the pride of the designers’ friends and family radiating from the first few rows, but the show left me with such a sense of hope. Each tertiary institution’s design program has obviously nurtured and fostered their students exceptionally well, culminating in a truly unforgettable runway.
Meet the VoxFrockers
Imogen Bertros, journalist
Imogen is an emerging writer, journalist and, she says, “a questionably competent harpist”. After leaving Brisbane in a cloud of smoke, she says she aims to write about art, fashion, and culture in a way only somebody with five pairs of the same Mary-Janes can. For a day job, she “sharpens her journalism skills by helping pull teeth as a dental assistant”. This is Imogen’s first tour on the VoxFrock Rookie Crew.
Joy Zhang, photographer/journalist
