Racks of gorgeous garments, a gourmet feast, and a quartet of emerging young designers on their way to fashion stardom gathered for the first buyers' breakfast at the Fashion Incubator at QUT Creative Enterprise Australia last week.
Fashion Incubator manager Cynthia Macnee said the industry event was a great way to strengthen connections between emerging designers and buyers.
"It is a great opportunity for our emerging designers to explain their designs and network with buyers, showcasing their 2013 collections," Ms Macnee said.
"Our role is to support the designers by facilitating connections with industry," she said.
On show were the latest collections from Sharka Bosakova, Casey Tanswell, Skye Kerr and Erin Lightfoot who have spent time in the incubator honing their technical expertise and business skills with the Incubators experts and mentors.
Brisbane fashion's movers and shakers who came to the breakfast to see new talent to stock their stores and boutiques.
QUT fashion graduate Erin Lightfoot found a fascination for designing fabrics with geometric patterns and luscious colour combinations while a student and she has literally transferred that passion to delicate jewellery and homewares via decals baked onto porcelain.
Erin's work is already sold in major art gallery stores around the country and she is looking to take it to an international audience. Her next collection centres on the richly coloured and intricate tiles of the Edwardian era and will include neckpieces.
"The Incubator has given me help with business strategy and things like grant applications for young artists," she said.
"It is good to be involved in this space where other designers are launching their label. It's a good motivating force to have other people going through the same thing."
Casey Tanswell's winter 2013 collection has already been chosen for photoshoots for top fashion magazines Madison, Harpers Bazaar and In Style.
Casey uses beaded Chantilly lace sourced from France and fine silk printed with digital manipulations of an image of a waft of smoke to produce fluid, elegant clothes.
For her, the time in the Fashion Incubator has been invaluable both as a confidence builder and for technical help.
"I wouldn't have got this collection together without help from the Incubator. I have found my voice as a designer here. I had gone as far as I could on my own. I needed help with everything from the designing to the pattern making and manufacture."
Skye Kerr is about to graduate from QUT's fashion degree. Her skyekerr the label already has clients in the Middle East who snap up her designs.
Skye lived in Dubai for 10 years as a flight attendant for Dubai's royal family. When she won the Swarovski Young Designer of the Year award for a crystal-encrusted garment, members of the family asked her to design abaya (women's all-over dress) and she obliged with brightly coloured ones with crystals.
Her latest collection targets the United Arab Emirates expatriate and Emirati population with abayas and ready-to-wear clothes in Skye's specialty - digitally designed prints in silk.
Skye has been working in the Incubator all year while studying and benefited from her design and business mentors Jane Morley and Kay McMahon, from QUT's Creative Industries Faculty.
Sharka established her own fashion label, Sharka, last year, building on her experiences in fashion and theatre and the friendships she formed there which led her to produce bespoke fabric designs and prints with photographic artist Renata Buziak.
"I am interested in texture and craftsmanship of fabrics and tend to use mainly natural materials as silks and cotton blends in my collections. I look for clean, elegant lines that are comfortable and feminine," Sharka said.
"I find being with other designers in the Incubator has been great support. Fashion is a tough industry with a fast commercial cycle and seeing each other go through the same things and sharing experiences is invaluable."
Sharka has been selected as a finalist in the Debut Fashion Exposed in Melbourne last year with her first collection 'Shadows of your Garden' and her clothes have been showcased at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Festival in Brisbane.
The CEA Fashion Incubator in the Creative Industries Precinct of QUT Kelvin Grove is dedicated to supporting designers to take their businesses to the next level by giving them access to specialised business and design mentoring, workspaces and high-quality technical services.
Media contact: Niki Widdowson, 07 3138 2999 or n.widdowson@qut.edu.au
