NEWS
Future fashion leaders showcased at MSFW
Capsule collections by RMIT fashion students have hit the Melbourne Spring Fashion Week runway, offering a glimpse of the future leaders in design.
Final year Bachelor of Fashion (Design) (Honours) students presented their designs on the weekend at the MSFW: Emerging Runway 1.
Fourth Year Coordinator Ricarda Bigolin said 25 students had the opportunity to showcase their honours projects, highlighting the diverse and unique ways of thinking and producing fashion developed through the program.
“The MSFW emerging runway gives RMIT students the experience of taking part in a highly anticipated and publicised professional catwalk event,” Bigolin said.
“Students dream of this night as the ultimate achievement after four years of rigorous and dedicated study.
“The runway is part of RMIT fashion’s ongoing relationship with the City of Melbourne, where the program is showcased and celebrated for the originality and excitement it offers in nurturing future directions and leaders in fashion design.”
Student MeiMei Xu presented her “Wrappage” collection on the runway, with her work examining hidden meanings behind production packaging and the connections between the act of unwrapping and the act of undressing.
In her project synopsis, Xu described the aim of the collection as unpicking the “artificial layers of fashion by exploring the ways in which wrapping and packaging complete a product’s gift of experiences, feelings and assumed identities”.
“Both garments and wrappings protect, cover and conceal and, naturally, the act of unwrapping both garments and wrappings invoke feelings of curiousness and excitement.”
Bigolin said: “MeiMei has been a standout student throughout the program, always of incredibly high technical detail, but now with this project has extended herself to offer a really interesting concept about fashion.”
The Bachelor of Fashion (Design) (Honours) is a globally recognised degree and creative incubator that challenges students to create original fashion ideas and innovative concepts.
RMIT fashion alumni include Toni Maticevski, Stephanie Downey (DRESS UP), Jade Sarita Arnott (Arnsdorf NYC), Susan Dimasi (MATERIALBYPRODUCT).
Graduates have also gone on to work in design roles with top fashion houses such as Alexander McQueen, Calvin Klein International, Dior, Louis Vuitton, and Vivienne Westwood.
RMIT is the only Australian institute to make the top 10 in the Business of Fashion’s (BoF) 2015 Global Fashion School Rankings.
The postgraduate programs were ranked sixth and the undergraduate programs were ranked ninth, helping RMIT cement its position as a global leader in the fashion industry.