If I had just one word to describe the students working away in the RMIT fashion studios, it would be industrious. In every room that Karen Webster, the head of the Fashion program, takes me to, students are concentrating with deadly intensity as they pin, sew and sketch.
It’s a testament to the program that takes just 50 students each year out of some 1300 applicants, and can be mentioned in the same breath as leading fashion institutes such as St Martins College of Art in London and The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.
For Karen Webster, being back at the RMIT fashion school is something like the return of the prodigal fashion leader. After a five-year stint as festival director of the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, Webster has taken back her office and filled it with fabulousness as the head of the RMIT Fashion School.
“I’m loving it. More than I thought I would, because I was here for 14 years before the festival, you have preconceived ideas,” says Webster.
“I’m so inspired being back in the class room… I’m on a high.”
Webster has returned in a period of reassessment and renewal for the program. Something that Webster believes is particularly important if Australia is to influence and drive the direction of design, rather than merely follow.
“We have a vital role of leading the direction of design. Especially in Australia where within industry there exists a culture of simply adapting concepts from overseas… It is not giving credit to the creative talent - and the talent we do have is exceptional. Here we are building Melbourne up as a creative hub, and I believe that it is, but innovation and creativity is so important,” says Webster.
That RMIT has been ranked by Wallpaper magazine, among others, as being in the top ten fashion institutes around the world is important to Webster.
“We are in a position where we bench mark against these groups, and are seen as the leaders’ in design thinking and conceptual and innovative design,” she says.
Perhaps even more important to Webster, is that RMIT maintains its commitment to developing a designers’ “unique handwriting.” For graduates starting out in this industry, a specialisation, or focus, is now seen as having more worth than a toolbox of ‘able to do any job’ skills.
“The industry so diverse now, with off shore production and so forth, and we have found it better to specialise rather than be so diverse. If you try to be something to everyone, you fragment the offer and don’t necessarily build on a designers true skills,” says Webster.
It might be the stereotype of Generation Y, but Webster doesn’t recommend that her students start up their own label straight from fashion school either.
“We do recommend that no-one goes out and starts their own label straight away. You can’t teach everything in classroom and [graduates] do need industry experience,” says Webster.
Even still, for up and coming designers, it is an exciting time to be in fashion. For Webster, one of the most exciting factors is that more than ever, “branding” has lost some of its hold on the consumer. Leaving room for edgy and creative independent design to flourish.
“A few years ago there were key trends around the value of the brand. People were buying into the image of a brand. That’s becoming less important. It’s probably seen as even a little frivolous. It’s great if you’re buying into value in the quality and design. But the independent labels couldn’t compete with those big brands that have the budgets to market and advertise. I think we’re seeing a shift back to quality, and quality at each end of the market.”
The other key issue affecting the way young designers work is sustainability in fashion, as well as the (hopeful) demise of throwaway and homogenised fashion.
“In the recent economic environment, people did re-asses how they spent their money,” says Webster.
“Mid-market brands suffered because there wasn’t a point of difference. The independent market has become relatively buoyant. We have seen the growth of labels like Dhini, Romance was born, Ellery, Arnsdorf, Gary Bigeni who are doing really interesting things. Their strong design ethos is creating a cultural shift there.”
For Webster, her personal goals for RMIT include building on the networks and contacts that she established in her role as the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival and utilising them for valuable collaborations with business and industry, and driving and maintaining a leadership position within the design industry. Most of all, Webster wants to utilise her little black book to help her students find work. Her belief in fashion, and in her students, is both infectious and uplifting.
“People see fashion as being superficial and frivolous and fluffy, I think people say ‘I’m just not into fashion’ as if being into fashion doesn’t have depth. Fashion in its true form is around your true identity; it’s about how you express ourselves to the world. Because of that, it’s such an interesting arena to be analysing. You have to understand who’s going to wear it, how they’re going to wear it, and also inspire them,” she says.