The National Graduate Showcase features the top ten designers hand-picked from Australia’s leading fashion design institutions as a result of a nationwide selection process.

I wanted to attend this show because students often showcase out-of-box thinking. I wanted to see the themes and play on ideas along with the dresses. “True creativity unleashed,” as it says on Melbourne Fashion Festival’s website.

All featured designers have been selected by a highly esteemed judging panel consisting of some of Australia’s most well-regarded fashion industry icons, including Giulia Brugliera (Fashion Journal), Mary Poulakis (Harrolds), Joseph Leone (Stylist), Kacy Heywood (KAHE and Error404store), and Mario-Luca Carlucci and Peter Strateas (Strateas Carlucci).

The show featured 10 designers. 70% of the talent came from RMIT University. Here’s the lineup for this year:

1. Yiwei Ju - RMIT University
2. Yiran Zhou - RMIT University
3. Michael Shin - Queensland University of Technology
4. Qinxuan Wu - RMIT University
5. Michael De Souza - RMIT University
6. Kritikon Khamsawat - RMIT University
7. Jason Clark - University of Technology Sydney
8. Beibei Li - RMIT University
9. Amy Cottrell - Whitehouse Institute of Design
10. Ada Fong - RMIT University

It was a truly playful and whimsical runway. This was exactly what I was expecting. My only problem was that it lasted only 30 minutes, which wasn’t enough time to admire the creations. However, having a front-row seat exactly where the models stopped and posed, I got a few extra seconds to admire the details.

Each designer came up with concepts different from the others. Even if they were to not pause between sets, you could still tell that they were by different designers.

Runway Show - The Good, The Bad, The Everything in Between

Picture this: the lights are dimmed, soothing music takes over, there’s a beat drop, and a name starts flashing on the screen–the designer’s name.

You look up in anticipation, craning your neck to see the model walking toward you, the model stops right in front of you, poses, turns, looks-at-you-but-not-quite, and walks back to make way for the next model.

For each designer, five to six models took the ramp. Once the show-stopper for that segment walked out, there was a pause, followed by a few seconds of music, beat drop, name flash, and out walked another group of models one after the other.

The idea was there, but some work was still needed in the execution. From the show starting 15 minutes late and ending 15 minutes early to models missing their cues, there were a few things that went wrong.

Clothes, Creativity and Panache…

Watching a designer’s early-career work is an absolute privilege, which is exactly what this show was. From reimagining materials to re-envisioning household items, the designs were marvellous. We had picture frames, umbrellas and tents, among other things, serving as a focal point for the dresses and somehow everything translated well in the designs.

While every designer had artistic statements in their pieces, the latex pieces stood out for me. They were simplistic in imagination, but the execution was a big statement. It stood out against all the other designs because of the solid colours and loud shapes. Fun fact: I could smell the latex when the model passed by me in the final line-up at a touching distance.

Here you can see some of the highlights of the show.

The tents and umbrellas were incorporated as part of the design. While the tents stood out because of their size, the umbrellas were somewhat lost under the garment, with the handle barely poking out. The picture frame has been done countless times, and so have some of the designs in the show, but as a group, every designer had something unique to offer.

Watching the designs served as a reminder of the creative projects I used to make as a child and got me thinking about where all my creativity was hiding. I made a dress out of book pages a few months ago and started envisioning my designs being modelled on a runway. It was a good feeling to end the show on.

Now let’s talk about what diluted the experience of watching amazing artistic pieces come to life.

The pause between each designer’s name being flashed on the screen as introductions were not the same length, so the wait was sometimes very obvious; you could feel impatience more than anticipation when that happened. Some model groups walked out so fast, one after the other, that that particular designer got just a few minutes for their designs to be on the runway.

Little things didn’t matter like a model’s earring fell off, another twisted her ankle, and I had to stop myself from instinctively reaching out to help them.

The final line-up, when all the models walked out, was the highlight for me. I couldn’t believe the show was already done, but it was a good refresher on all the designs. It was creatively stimulating to watch all the designs being presented together. One model walked really slow compared to the others, and that left out a big gap in the line-up.

I think the wait for the show to start and the irregular pauses between designers made me notice little hiccups more.

All that said, I loved watching new designers embark on their design journey with this show. It was a big platform for them after competing against talented designers like themselves. All the designers deserved the stage with their creative themes and amazingly put-together pieces.