Crossing the void – negotiating the space between fashion industry and education.

One particular course within the Bachelor of Design (Fashion) has been teaching students about the business of fashion for nearly ten years, and a group of enterprising students is about to see their work appear on local shelves.

Fashion graduates need knowledge and skills in a variety of areas, explains Senior Lecturer Tracy Kennedy. This includes small business and entrepreneurial skills, a good overview of the fashion industry and supply chain and the ability to work within a team and liaise successfully with industry members.

Fashion Design Studio Four, completed in Year Two of the degree, challenges students to work within a design team to form a small fashion label. Each team, over the course of four weeks, will design and make a range for a local retailer and develop a range of samples for manufacture. They will also develop supporting sales and merchandising material including labels, swing tags, packaging and merchandising materials and sales aids such as "look-books". They are responsible for their own imagery, graphic designs and photography.

The course involves a large degree of self-directed learning, however students do undertake a one week intensive block that includes an overview of small business marketing, product development from a business perspective and market research. Teams are evaluated on a successful sale to the retailer at the three-week mark, retailer feedback, suitability of the products for the intended market, quality of the product and marketing materials and the final assessment handed in with samples for manufacture.

Tracy explains that the key to success with the project is collaboration with the retailer; getting their buy-in from the outset. “We do try not to interfere too much in the process” she adds “part of learning is getting it wrong.”

In 2008, a group of five students worked with local fashion store Void. Their work was so highly regarded that the range of garments, sold under the name ‘is is’ will soon be stocked in the shop for sale. With the final garments being produced by three of the five students: Tessa McCone, Lucinda (Lulu) Hills and Brigid (Bidi) Steeper as a Year Three elective,  the collection is described as being ‘well-conceived, very well-constructed and displaying good detail’ by Void owner Neil Gaudin.