Flora Bellemo’s journey to New York Fashion Week: bringing visibility and awareness to HIV

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Flora Bellemo’s journey to New York Fashion Week: bringing visibility and awareness to HIV

Second-year fashion design student Flora Bellemo’s lab coat design, developed through a collaboration with HIV researchers, has been exhibited at New York Fashion Week as part of the HIV Unwrapped project.

RMIT fashion and textiles student Flora Bellemo has had her work exhibited at New York Fashion Week as part of the HIV Unwrapped initiative – a project that pairs fashion students with HIV researchers to creatively reimagine the lab coat as couture.

Flora was paired with Associate Professor Edwina Wright, an infectious diseases physician and clinical researcher at the Alfred Hospital and the Burnet Institute. With a strong interest in HIV-associated neurological disorders, Wright’s work examines different strategies to treat HIV brain infection.

Over six weeks in 2024 Flora designed What Could Have Happened, exploring ideas around the decrease and increase in HIV infections. The work highlights the importance of care cascade, PrEP and ART, through the symbolic use of colour, beading, adjustable fabric and stitching.

It was amongst 13 original works of wearable art launched at RMIT’s Brunswick campus, before being displayed at the Australasian HIV&AIDS Conference in Sydney (16–20 September 2024), Melbourne Fashion Week (21–27 October) and RMIT City campus on World AIDS Day 2024.

Model wearing Flora Bellemo’s lab coat-inspired creation, developed through a collaboration with HIV researchers for New York Fashion Week.

Since its inception at RMIT, HIV Unwrapped has expanded internationally, with similar collaborations between fashion students and HIV researchers taking place in Rwanda, London and New York. These global iterations have been coordinated by HIV advocate Brent Allan and other partners, building on the original concept developed in Melbourne.

The curriculum-embedded partnered project was developed by RMIT fashion design lecturer Sang Thai, who commented:

“HIV Unwrapped has activated the power of fashion to bring visibility and awareness of the ongoing HIV epidemic globally, translating important research through a meaningful fusion of science and fashion to de-stigmatise and spark conversation.”

Model wearing Flora Bellemo'sFlora Bellemo’s lab coat-inspired creation, developed through a collaboration with HIV researchers at New York City Fashion Week.

Photo credit: Sam Guttel

Flora said the opportunity to exhibit her work internationally was a meaningful experience.

“It’s pretty exciting to be exhibited in New York. People completely outside of where I live will be able to see my work and have their own interpretation of it.”

Regarding her motivation to be involved in the project, Flora said:

“I really wanted to learn more, because I didn’t initially know a lot about HIV. And understand how it’s making a big impact on the LGBTQ+ community. I’m part of that community, so it’s important to me to support my fellow community and stand up for them.”

The project was supported by RMIT’s Health Innovation Enabling Impact Platform. Tom Angelovic from the RMIT School of Health and Biomedical Sciences is co-chair of the mHIVE and facilitated the engagement with the scientists.

03 October 2025

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