And what, pray tell, did I see?
A lot of white and grey and black - very Melbourne. But also some serious bursts of creativity, experimentation and my old favourite.....tartan.
I've riffed before on my appreciation for young/student designers. Their ability to reel me in with noodle print jackets and barely there leather aside, it's their willingness to experiment that I so admire. From oversized tartan and fur coats, to the fetishization of food or the rework of seventies style macrame. Even the boxy shapes, reminiscent of Phoebe Philo or the layers of black that held a whiff of Rick Owens, still held that edge of 'we have no idea what comes after this, so we're just giving it a shit hot go'.
And it's exactly that which makes the work of these RMIT students, or in fact any fashion students, so important.
Once a label is established, with that very important customer base, it becomes a little difficult for them to move outside of their illustrated history. Consider Hedi Slimane.
Hence these fashion schools are a place for those dreamers among us to cast aside notions of bottom lines and retailers and profits, and just consider the aesthetic of the design. To look at the old with a desire to create something new, and to do it without the fear of what the consumer wants, or is willing to pay for.
I'm loath to get all crazy emotive and start spouting cliches about them being the future. But it seems apt. And if the work I saw on Sunday night is any indication, the future is looking rosy, (Ugh cliche, cliche, cliche). Or perhaps black. It is Melbourne after all.
Lucy Rosenberg
xx