With L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion festival just around the corner, I took some time out to chat with the week's stars- our very own Student Showcase participants. From Danielle van Camp's harlequin romance to Georgia Lazzaro's dark futurism redux, the showcase is set to explode like never before with youthful imagination and arrestingly unique beauty. I spoke to the designers about the complex thought processes behind their creations, their dreams for the future, and grilled them for some great style advice for LMFF...
Georgia Lazzaro
What inspired your collection?
This collection was inspired by a US Vogue cover from 1952, by photographer Erwin Blumenfeld entitled “for the woman who wants to change her looks......This face, wearing the mask of Vogue - who is it? It might belong to any American woman for lipstick is her signature…” The photograph depicts an anonymous model, cropped from just above the lips to her exposed décolletage and neck. It is classic yet surrealistic in style, elegant and vaguely sinister, a kind of “ultimate” fashion image.
It is unclear as to whether the photograph depicts an actual woman or a mannequin, exploring the notion of the fashion model and her body as a symbol of fashion, as well as the fashion garments she wears. It depicts the fetishisation of the body in fashion, through the cropping in of the elongated neck, (the neck being synonymous with grace and elegance and therefore fashion) and subverts the body into the realm of abstraction.
I tried to take all these elements and build them into a collection: exploring the tensions between the body and the garment, the garment as a kind of framing device for the body and destabilising classical templates and signifiers in order to present clothing that is equally elegant as it is unsettling. This was achieved largely through my love of exploring silhouettes and the use of the neck as an emphasis point and area to harness the clothing from.
What's the most important thing you've learned as a fashion student?
To have faith in your self - an ongoing struggle for me!
What does being part of the student showcase mean to you?
To show alongside my peers, whose work I respect and find so inspiring is a real honour. We all share a common bond having just graduated, and are on the cusp of coming into our own, so to be a part of this is so exciting. It is also so very flattering to be considered as a part of this collective group of fresh minds and ideas. I can’t wait to see some of the interstate students work and to see where our similarities and differences lie.
What's the essential item of clothing or accessory for this year's LMFF?
For me it would be a moleskin to jot down little thoughts and things, not very fashionable, but very functional!
What are your plans/dreams for the future?
Following LMFF I will be going to New York to intern with Narciso Rodriguez, so to New York and (hopefully) beyond.
Danielle Van Camp
What inspired your collection?
'If I Were You' is an evolving dialogue on the complex hybrid of identities within Paris fashion houses. It relates to notions of cultural rhetoric, myth-making and re-invention as translated through surface manipulation and digital print. I was also, and continue to be, inspired by the tension of something being both raw and refined, diaphanous but imposing.
What's the most important thing you've learned as a fashion student?
Having depth behind you collection; a strong, researched concept adds integrity and a constant flow of inspiration to build from. It's also important to get an outside perspective every so often and, the ability to be infallible even when you're functioning on very little sleep.
What does being part of the student showcase mean to you?
I'm profoundly grateful to LMFF for having been selected. To be part of such a professional festival is a really wonderful and inspiring opportunity.
What's the essential item of clothing or accessory for this year's LMFF?
I think flame orange hair is pretty cool at the moment but for those of us that don't have that luxury, sheer layers, strong shoulders and embellishment, and, would it be too naff to say a Danielle van Camp piece! ... really, it's important just to be natural.
What are your plans/dreams for the future?
In time I'd like to work on building my own label, but if I could train under Alber Elbaz that would make me a very happy woman.