Geelong Independent

I had my moment in the spotlight on Friday July 27- a page in the Geelong Independent newspaper speaking about my experience at the Academy.

Special thanks to Samantha Ee for her photo!

Neither Here Nor There

My dear, ridiculously talented friend Siera kindly volunteered to model one of my Stardust garments. Based on Lady Una and the Romani from Assassin's Creed, The Gypsy is carefree and passionate, with a bit of sass.

'Fashion Capitals of the World' Runway

Last Friday it finally happened- the Fashion Capitals of the World runway, held at Melbourne Central. This project started last year and it was a great relief to see all our hard work in motion!

Before the garments even reached the runway, there was the hard task of transforming 2D sketches and patterns to 3D mockups.

Not everything works out the way you planned first time around!

 As you can see, the back was too small and the shoulders didn't sit properly- also the cuffs were too wide. Luckily the skirt part of the dress was perfect!
None of the fabric stores carried coloured frog closures, so being the resourceful cosplayer I am, I mixed art inks and gold fabric paint to custom dye them.

Second time around, everything worked perfectly!

Before I show the finished garment, have a few more 'behind-the-scenes' images!

My beloved spine heels arrived on the morning of the runway.

Hair by SuJin @ Just Cuts and makeup by Sara @ Napoleon Perdis

Backstage, a couple of hours before the big show

Aaannddd-

Here it is! Ana K wearing my Eastern Opera gown.

It was a wonderful runway and seeing work from the European design schools really humbled me. To have been a part of such a project well and truly hit home when my work was displayed alongside Parisian couturiers studying under Madeleine Vionnet's teachings and a graduate student's Master's collection from Milan.

It was an unforgettable night and one I'm so very proud of, not only of my work but also the work of my fellow Academy students too!

An Eastern Opera

As per my last post, I've continued to use Dame Nellie Melba for as inspiration for my Fashion Capitals of the World entry. However, I decided to incorporate another culture that has quite a long history of opera too- the Chinese.

The Chinese are intricately woven into Melbourne's history beginning from the gold rush and continuing today. With that in mind, I've designed an Eastern-Edwardian evening gown using the distinct 1900s silhouette highlighted with Chinese silks.

Dame Nellie Melba

A sneakpeak of what’s going into my submission for the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival “Fashion Capitals of the World” exhibit. Trying to tackle everything 'Melbourne' is a big ask, and one of our fashion tutors has urged us to "highlight the interplay of diverse cultures that gives rise to something uniquely Melburnian".

Being the only costume designer on the team, I've decided to highlight our Performing Arts culture using Dame Nellie Melba as the key figure. Her operas mix many cultures to portray something 'uniquely Melbournian'.

Explaining the Creed

First of all, my process of getting a Tumblr was suddenly expedited upon the creation of this particular post. It was humbling enough to have had an article written about my work, let alone to suddenly see it all over Tumblr!
My Tumblr bears the same name as this blog, so if you're the Tumbling type you can find me over at Archadian Skies.


Now that my graduate show is over, I can take the time to explain my year-long project! There's no better way to explain this than by using the boards I made as part of my submission report. Let's begin!

Gameranx on 'Amnesia Creed'

A fellow gamer-girl friend of mine writes articles for various gaming sites, including Gameranx. My graduate fashion show was held on Friday November 18th and Liz very graciously wrote up an article after interviewing me and gaining Elias' permission to use his wonderful photos.

(Click for article)

I was absolutely delighted to have been able to share my inspiration (and gaming geekery!) with Liz and through her, with other fellow gaming geeks. What I did not expect, however, was for this to happen:

 

That's right, Frictional Games got a hold of Liz's great article and shared the link with their followers! Words cannot fully express the utter elation that went through me when I saw them share the link. I feel very humbled to have them acknowledge my small nod to their amazing game.

Why I don't take photos

Bonus post! My last post showcased wonderful photography courtesy of my dear friend Elias Lopez, whom I have had the pleasure of working with for a few years now. I am lucky enough to know and work with a team of photographers, each with their own particular talents and style.

Elias has an amazing way of processing colours to richly reflect their appearance which is crucial when taking fashion photographs. This is why I chose him for my Visual Communication assignment, which required us to have our garments photographed and processed for high quality print.

As for me, I am absolutely rubbish with a camera and I am not ashamed to admit it! In fact, let me prove it to you all- this is precisely why I leave photography to photographers!

For fashion last term we had to take very simple photographs of our garments- not modelled on a person, but a mannequin. This led to a crazy regretful idea to borrow a Canon DSLR from the photography faculty and a crash course from a very indulgent, patient tutor whose lesson I forgot by the time I went into the studio and attempted to set it up.

The Star-Seeker

Finally, an actual sneakpeek at my Graduate Collection to be debuted this Friday on November 18th 2011! This has been a long time coming and to see my dress in a photoshoot seems to drive it home for me.

This is the villainess from my 'Stardusted Opera'. She's loosely based on Lamia from Stardust, crafted on the archetypal Witch who is both beautiful and terrible. My talented friend Lilly Higgs is responsible for all of my illustrations, but you only get to see this one for now!

City Weekly Magazine: The Young Moderns

I was lucky enough to be interviewed and photographed for the City Weekly Magazine, which is circulated within the heart of the Melbourne CBD.

It was a lot of fun, and an honour of course- I receive this magazine on my way to work every Thursday so it's charming to be published in it this time!

It also really drives home the fact I'm graduating very soon- and the fact the show is next week! *___*

Oops, back to the sewing machine for me!

Archadian Postal Services

As part of Graphics last Semester we had to create postal stamps. This taught us how artwork and branding had to survive enlarging and minimizing. Of course, I tied it all into my Stardust theme and after seeing this magnificent marriage of makeup and typography I knew I had to give it a go.

The font I chose was Kingthings Willow because of its Art Nouveau curls and stars. The volunteers I chose really had no idea what they were getting into!

The final stamps

The Age: Design a Career in Fashion

It is with a rather sheepish grin that I say hello to you all again. I do apologize- life swallowed me up and to be honest I'm still wallowing in its stomach feebly pawing at its insides (read as: all my assignments are due in a fortnight along with Semester exams)

In the time that passed, I was interviewed by The Age newspaper to talk about my decision to swap courses from History at The University of Melbourne to Fashion and Costume Design at The Australian Academy of Design.

It was an exciting opportunity and one I was very thankful for. It also shows that good work doesn't go unrecognized!

Do expect more updates in the following fortnight as several of my assignments tie in together for my graduate Stardust project.

Thank you for stopping by!

Starry Eyed

The first step in my graduate collection was experimenting with makeup to create a look reminiscent of Yvaine the Evening Star from Neil Gaiman's 'Stardust'.

One of our subjects required a magazine to be created, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and get one of the looks sorted out! This look was a lot of fun to create and as we shot this in the laneways of Melbourne we left glitter patches wherever we went |D

Everybody's Starry-Eyed by ~warui-chan on deviantART