RMIT ADVANCED FASHION STUDIOS 2020

BACHELOR OF FASHION
(design)(honours)
BACHELOR OF TEXTILES
(design)(honours)
& MASTER OF FASHION
(design)

GRADUATE WORKS

AFS.RMIT.FASHION PRESENTS THE WORK OF THE RMIT ADVANCED FASHION STUDIOS 2020 STUDENTS OF –

BACHELOR OF FASHION
(design)(honours)
BACHELOR OF TEXTILES
(design)(honours)
& MASTER OF FASHION
(design)

WITHIN RMIT UNIVERSITY’S SCHOOL OF FASHION & TEXTILES.

‘ADVANCED FASHION DESIGN PRACTICE-HOPE AND BUOYANCY OF DESIGN IN A PANDEMIC’

While this year has presented challenges beyond anything our community has ever experienced, it has also beckoned many shifts and new paradigms are emerging in the creative landscape. 2020 also marked the beginning of a new era for the Advanced Fashion Design Studios as we launched new and revitalised programs. Within the new programs, a new one-year Honours degree, and an updated Masters, are progressive in pushing innovative ways of designing and experiencing fashion. Designed with a focus on the responsibility we all need to have in fostering change in industry and embodying sustainable, ethical and critical practice

This global pandemic that continues to be around us, has impacted us all greatly, shifting the way we understand our activities of daily life and our sense of belonging and freedom. We acknowledge the injustices, marginalised communities and inequalities that occur as a result of global fashion industry practices. Their negative impact on all of us has become bloated and enlarged in the relationship between fashion and crisis. Whilst the global pandemic has greatly impacted the fashion industry, ‘the fissures in the system seem to get deeper each day, revealing the industry’s already broken bits’1.

Production
Consumption
Exploitation
Exclusion
Scarcity
Extinction
Depletion
Resource extraction
Recession
Depression
Inflation
Labor
Automation
Protest
Dissent
Consent
Needs
Wants
Desires
—From Iris Moon from ‘Luxury and Crisis’, 20020.

This year, fashion capitals ventured into the digital for the fashion weeks, luxury brands produced glamorous or logo laden PPE (personal protective equipment) and supermodels were forced to do photo shoots via FaceTime and Zoom.

Our students have spent most of the year learning from home, learning online and producing graduate projects with limited resources from February to November. Scarcity of materials and resources has fundamentally impacted fashion design learning and how we assess and understand student’s work.

Critical and circular thinking in fashion practice has become necessary in lockdown as students have been forced to interrogate their relationships and values of fashion and materials. Students have intervened with everyday products, presenting dynamic approaches to wearing and performing fashion from the home and through the personal wardrobe. Their work has been mediated through to us via digital screens. This cohort has worked with exceptional limitations, working with garments they had on hand, using methods of reuse, object analysis and performative strategies to interrogate fashion practice and speculate on alternatives. The pandemic makes questioning circularity of fashion products and material use a necessity and highlights the fundamental role of digital images to speculate and design fashion.

We stand by our students and forthcoming graduates and are immensely proud of their achievements this year. They have produced even more exciting and innovative fashion design projects in one of the longest and strictest lockdowns in the world.

1–Moon, I (2020). Luxury and Crisis: Redefining the British Decorative Arts. British Art Studies, 16.

[201] Dr. Ricarda Bigolin, Associate Dean, Fashion and Textiles Design

Advanced Fashion Studios Courses–

  • Advanced Fashion Materials, Techniques and Expressions
  • Fashion Image
  • Fashion Show Design
  • Fashion Practice Research Strategies
  • New Fashion Propositions
  • Critical Fashion Design Practice
  • Circular Fashion Design Thinking
  • Fashion and Textile Industry Placement Project
  • Fashion Design Honors Project
  • Fashion Design Honours Collection
  • Fashion Practice Research Communication
  • Fashion Design Honours Research
  • Fashion Design Honours Research Project
  • Contemporary Fashion Design Publications & Presentations
  • Advanced Fashion Design Project
  • Advanced Fashion Design Strategies
  • Advanced Fashion Research Methods
  • Masters Fashion Design Collection
  • Masters Fashion Design Project
  • Masters Fashion Presentation and Folio

Air Max Day 2020

RMIT Advanced Fashion Studios continues to collaborate with an evolving list of local, and international industry connections, creative partners, media and arts institutions, including–

Nike
Kevin Murphy
MPavilion
i-D Australia
National Gallery of Victoria
Phebe Schmidt
RMIT Design Hub
Left
Agnieszka Chabros
Suleyman Karaaslan
Stuart Walford
Xeneb Allen
Public Office
Kate Meakin
Reina

Graduates and alumni from AFS have taken up internships, work and founding roles at brands and companies including–

Louis Vuitton
Crumpler
Verner
RM Williams
Country Road
Centre for Style
Vetements
Cotton On
PAGEANT
Thom Browne
D&K
Mode and Mode
Gorman
Dress Up
Calibre
Scanlan & Theodore
Dion Lee
Toni Maticevski
Chris Ran Lin
Molly Younger
Arnsdorf
Balenciaga
Isabel Marant
Marc Jacobs
Maroske Peech
Vacquera
PAM
Acne Studios
Totokaelo
HB Peace
Rick Owens
Calvin Klein
The Line
Acne
Richard Malone
Nike
Discount Universe
Forever New
WARDROBE.NYC

PROGRAM TEAM

The Bachelor of Fashion (Design)(Honours) and
Master of Fashion (Design) programs are supported by a team of staff including...

Dean of School, Professor Robyn Healy
Associate Dean, Fashion and Textiles Design, Dr Ricarda Bigolin
Program Manager Bachelor of Fashion (Design)(Honours) and Master of Fashion (Design), Chantal Kirby
Program Manager Bachelor of Fashion (Design), Dr Denise Sprynskyj

ADVANCED FASHION STUDIOS STAFF

Amanda Cumming
Andrea Eckersley
Blake Barns
Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran
Jenny Underwood
Kate Reynolds
Kate Sala
Laura Gardner
Peter Boyd
Scott Mayson
Sean Ryan

TECHNICIANS

George Chan
Clementine Day
Holly Simpson

MASTERCLASS LEADERS AND INDUSTRY GUESTS

Eva Kruse (CEO, Global Fashion Agenda)
Caroline Macmillan
Sandya Lang (Nudie Jeans)
Clarice Garcia
Anika Kozlowski
Helena Dong
Will Robinson
Alice Payne (UTS)
Kerry Murphy (The Fabricant)
Julian Gatto
Leah Heiss
Shoichi Aoki (FRUiTS magazine)
Adele Varcoe
Arabella Kilmartin
Hugh Egan Westland (BALENCIAGA)
Luke Mayes (Rick Owens)
Stephen McGlashan (Eastern Market)
Marli Atterton (Slow Waves)
Xeneb Allen
Hali Christou
Amanda Nichols
PZ Opassuksatit
Remie Cibis
Syna Chen
Shahan Assadourian (Archivings)
Karina Soraya
Fleur Watson (Open House Melbourne)
Amelia Borg (SIBLING)
Phebe Schmidt
Ziga Testen (Studio Ziga Testen; Public Office)
Alice Matthieu (RMIT First Site Gallery)
Kate Meakin
Stuart Walford
Xeneb Allen
Rowan McNaught
Matthew Linde

WEBSITE CREDITS

Design by Public Office and
Studio Ziga Testen

'First Look' - RMIT Master of Fashion (Design) graduates film presented by RMIT School of Fashion and Textiles and supported by MPavilion. Directed by Ricarda Bigolin in collaboration with editor and videographer Kate Meakin, cinematographer Brett Harrison, stylist Blake Barns, production by Chantal Kirby, sound design Andrew Wilson, photography Myles Pedlar, HMU Xeneb Allen, final colour grade Peter Hatzipavlis and in collaboration with Master of Fashion (Design) graduates Chaoying Han, Chloe Dong, Clare He, Genie Sun, Mark Blake, Miki Huang, Nora Yin, Peter Sanders, Peiyue Qin, Rosanna Lii, Tiantian Zhang, Tun Huang and Wei Pi.

Bachelor of Fashion (Design)(Honours), Bachelor of Textiles (Design)(Honours) and Master of Fashion (Design) Year 1 work shot by students.

Master of Fashion (Design) portraits shot by Kate Meakin.

Master of Fashion (Design) work shot by Myles Pedlar.

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nations on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.

Wei Pi
Masters of Fashion (Design)
Wei Pi
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Wei Pi, Master of Fashion (Design), Speculative Formalwear Designer

Wei Pi is a Chinese-born designer, currently completing a Master of Fashion (Design) degree at RMIT University. Wei’s Masters project speculates the future of formalwear in the context of genderless fashion. Subverting both silhouette and fabric, she deconstructs and reimagines the traditional formal structure and language of this category of dress.


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Wei Pi, Master of Fashion (Design), Speculative Formalwear Designer, Photography: Kate Meakin
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