This week, I spent a day at ECU attending the assessment for 3rd year Contemporary Fashion & Textile students. I’ve always been interested in fashion so it was a great privilege to witness students’ work (in-progress) and how their work is critiqued by their lecturers.
In case anyone you know is interested in studying fashion, each school has a different curriculum and teaching methodology so it would be worthwhile talking to graduates from each school. For anyone who is looking at ECU as an option here’s what I can tell you.
The assessment I attended was essentially a mid-way check for the graduate collection show which is scheduled to take place in December.
Students seemed to have started on basic concepts and research on their 2nd year and consolidate/refine in year 3 . A proposal and essays form part of collection’s documentation along with support materials (fabric samples, collages of photographs, their own photographic work etc).
In the context of Contemporary Fashion & Textile at ECU, garments are not just designed and constructed to be visually pleasing. It’s about communicating ideas and their intentions through body of work. Sounds simple? Well, it isn’t really. It is only by continued experiments, taking risks and further developing ideas, one can create a good collection. And that requires a lot of time and effort. Although I was quite quick to advise students about ‘not having fear’ and ‘keep trying’ I know how hard it is at times.
I saw students who literally got what it’s about and was on their way to have some fabulous work presented. Considering the amazing input and valuable suggestions offered by lecturers during the course of day I almost felt like going back to being a student again.
My plan is to select a collection/student at the end of the year to collaborate in a fashion editorial for a submission to publications. Before then, you may see some of these students’ work at Perth Fashion Festival in September.
I’m pretty excited.. could you tell? :D
