The Innovators: The Future of Australian Fashion

Each year the brightest fashion grads showcase their collections at what has come to be one of the most highly anticipated runway shows of Australia Fashion Week. With alumni including Akira Isogawa and, more recently, Emma Mulholland, all eyes are on this next wave of innovators.

Carlie Waterman

TAFE grad Carlie Waterman studied architecture at the University of Sydney before turning her attention to fashion design, and if knowing about buildings is the reason her clothes are so striking, they should make all fashion kids sketch blueprints before illustrations. “Structural” is a word lobbed around like a Hacky Sack in local fashion spheres, though many designers it gets attached to could take a cue from Waterman’s unique awareness of space and proportion. The hefty weave top and matching pants are particularly remarkable.

Image: Harper's Bazaar

Stephanie Goerlach

There’s nothing like a good cozy piece of knitwear, and there’s definitely nothing like this jumper created by Stephanie Goerlach. The former NSW country girl has a lifelong passion for art to thank for her intrinsic understanding of the human form, evident in her Alice in Wonderland meets Big Bird meets après-ski grad collection. The rest of the collection continues in a similar vein with short, gathered, and illustrated dresses an example of her love for hand designed prints and quality natural fabrics. But our eyes just keep going back to that jumper…

Image: Harper's Bazaar

Cynthia Thai

Bold colours and laborious handcrafting are the hallmarks of Cynthia Thai’s grad collection. At only 20 years old, she’s probably the youngest designer (ever?) to show at MBFWA, though that’s not the only thing she’s done that’ll make you feel old and lazy. She achieved a 10th NSW HSC State Rank for Textiles and Design and juggled two full time university courses simultaneously, supplementing her Fashion Design degree at the prestigious TAFE Ultimo with a Commerce one at Macquarie. And somehow she still managed to find time to spend endless hours hand-threading beads to create the structure that runs throughout her collection.

Image: Harper's Bazaar

Yuliy Gershinksy

Waving the flag for menswear is Yuliy Gershinksy. His collection ‘AlephBet’ combines his futuristic, at times even sinister, design aesthetic with a modern-day wearability. Softer sweats play off against robust zip-up jackets (and a series of above-the-knee shorts reserved only for the bravest of Aussie blokes), with each piece fusing together unique fabrics to create something incorporating the properties of each. Inspired by art, technology, and the architecture, ‘AlephBet’ reflects the rapid growth and development of technologies and the new capabilities they give to humanity.

Image: Harper's Bazaar

Christopher Baldwin

Christopher Baldwin’s collection started with a series of fabric manipulations and textures inspired by reptilian skins and furs. These he recreated using materials more often found in a kindergarten arts and crafts session, including cellophane and cable ties. Rather than looking juvenile, the resulting scale-adorned pieces are both ambitious and slightly bizarre, much like the avant-garde film works of Alejandro Jodorowsky that Baldwin is inspired by.

Image: Harper's Bazaar

Kaylene Milner

Contrast is key in Kaylene Milner’s luxurious collection, where lush earthy furs lie on top of shiny bright colours. The choice of fabrics point to Milner’s emphasis on luxury, a word she takes a step further by combining high quality tailoring, knitwear, and leatherwork with highly personal and emotive detailing. Oh, and she did all this after flipping through a 2007 Vogue during a university lecture, deciding to ditch her musicology degree and submitting a portfolio to the prestigious TAFE. That’s commitment.

Image: Harper's Bazaar