Eight Future Australian Fashion Icons You Should Have On Your Radar

I would describe my style as soft (yet) abstract, feminine, organic and free. A huge achievement for me has been completing my Bachelor of Design (Fashion) with Honours.You commit yourself so heavily for 4 years knowing where I was to where I have developed in my graduate year has been a personal achievement to myself. I created a collection that was true to me. I’m currently working as part of the Zimmermann design team. You will have to stay tuned!

I was once told the harder you work, the luckier you are – the greatest hurdle is losing that persistence and faith within yourself. On a typical work day during my graduate year, I would wake up, walk into the next room and sew, draw, research, trial and reflect. It would be a continuous cycle and the day would end the next morning. I would then wake up and do it all again. The greatest thing about fashion is the learning never ends and your dreams keep evolving. 

I would describe my designs’ style as energetic, dynamic and expressive. A definite career highlight for me was when one of my favourite musicians, Chela, wore a piece I made for her at the Sugar Mountain festival in Melbourne. I think my biggest hurdle has been self doubt. The fashion industry is so saturated and the talent pool is so huge… it can be hard to believe that you are doing something different. It takes a certain bravery. 

I think inspiration can come from anywhere I feel a strong, personal connection with. A recent trip back to Singapore has definitely inspired me for my next project. I’m currently working at an iconic Australian brand to gain insight into the business side of fashion. So at the start of a typical day, I wake up and try to put together a decent outfit before rushing out the door to get a coffee and get to work! The three things I can’t live without would have to be my mobile phone, coffee and the internet. 

We would describe our style as spontaneous, fluffy, eye-catching. We are currently working on all things fluffay – our brains just don’t sleep. We are currently in the production process of our DYSLEXICOLA collection and beginning to source inspiration for our next collection! Our trip to Paris last year was the catalyst of our past collection. We hope to be working for ourselves full time by the end of the year, living in our studio and opening up a boutique in Sydney in the near future. If New York fashion week falls somewhere in that timeline than we will be hi-fiving!

Our career highlights have been MBFWA 14 Group show, MBFWA 15 solo show, Paris Showroom and stocking at Nastygal. Our design idol is Alexander McQueen – hands down. 

A typical work day includes answering e-mails in the morning, coffee, fabric sourcing throughout the day, brainstorming new crop ideas, organising loan drop offs, pulling our hair out, planning instagrams, troughs of wine. 

We would describe our style as intelligent, functional, fashionable menswear. Our career highlights would include winning the 2013 VAMFF National Designer Award presented by Tiffany & Co, and being chosen as one of 6 labels from around the world by Vogue Italia to present a runway showcase in Milan – with Milano Unica and Woolmark.

We are currently working on our SS16 collection, which we’ll be showing in Milan and Paris in June, and our IWP collection to be presented in July. We’re also cooking up something new as part of the brand expansion, so stay tuned for that one! You’d be hard pressed finding a designer with a typical day. But for me, it’s the coffee on the way to the studio with my girlfriend Sasha. Then I’m on the computer at the start – emails, etc. Someone is often picking up zips, more thread, more buttons from the supplier because we’ve forgotten something.

The biggest hurdles for any young brand is that nothing happens overnight, and what sometimes seems that it has, the reality is years and years of hard work, failures and fresh starts until you get something right. Some of our inspiration comes from office appliances and stationary – practical, considered and adhere to tight constraints, they are designed purely to perform a function. 

I would describe my style as fun, cheeky and adventurous. Some of my biggest achievements have been being selected as one of the Fashion Design Studios Innovators showing at MBFW 2015 and showcasing my designs at the Powerhouse as part of Student Fashion 2015, also getting an 3 month representation by Bespoke PR! Im currently studying a Bachelors Degree in fashion design and working on my Spring/ Summer collection for 2016.

One of my biggest challenges was making it to Fashion Week and showing the industry what i have to offer. The Fashion Design Studio is such an iconic fashion school in Australia – people are so talented that you really need a strong aesthetics to stand out. The biggest hurdle for me now is finding stockists in Australia to stock my designs. Although my designs may look crazy on the runway, they are quite wearable when dissected and can be styled in numerous ways.

I like to make collections based on things that people think are ugly and I try to make them beautiful. A typical work day for me includes school, assignments, working my brand on the side and eating at Macca’s.

I would describe my style as sportswear not designed for sports. I usually find my inspiration on the streets, in and around trash bins particularly. Supermarkets are great, too. I’m obsessed with product packaging and branding, so anywhere that has that. Times Square in New York is like #1. My career highlights include showing my graduate collection at MSFW and VAMFF and dressing heaps of producers and musicians that I really admire. In the future, I really want to end up in art/creative direction, but right now, I’m focusing on my own individual practice (ALCH) and seeing where that leads me.

My typical work day is more of a ‘work night’. I do most of my work between the hours of 3pm and 3am – I find that there’s less distractions at night. But, basically, it consists of answering emails, sewing custom orders and toiles, generating content for my instagram, working on digital designs on Illustrator/Indesign, writing lists, making patterns, budgeting spending, placing orders, and coffee breaks (naturally). My biggest hurdle to date has basically been trying to juggle all of my projects, considering I do everything myself. There’s so much I don’t know about the industry just yet, stuff that you have to learn through experience, trial and error. Getting more than 5 hours sleep a night is definitely a challenge with the workload I have.