An interview here with Habitus Living on the Evergreen exhibition.
And below, pictures from the opening night.
From left to right, Holly McQuillan, Julia Knupfer and Georgia McCorkill
The chiffon gown has a tiny fan behind it so it flutters!
Zero waste cutting from Holly McQuillan (left) and amazing knit textures from Julia Knupfer (right).
Tagged Dresses, Evergreen, exhibition, habitusliving, Object, Unstitched
I am looking for a couple of people (volunteers) interested in helping with “The Front Row”, my L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival Cultural Program exhibition. This would be ideal for fashion students interested in sustainability and/or eveningwear who’d like to get involved in a fashion festival event.
The things I need help with include:
Click here for a further description of the exhibition. If you’re interested and in Melbourne before and during LMFF (around 26 Feb 19 March) then please get in touch with me on georgia (at) redcarpetproject.com.au, letting me know what you can do and how much time you can spare.
My next project “The Front Row” is inspired by the similarities between the celebrities who walk the red carpet and the fashion people who occupy the front row of the fashion parade. For an event that is part of the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival Cultural Program I am creating a range of garments that will be worn by people attending various events throughout the festival. Each garment will be borrowed and I’m hoping to have the pieces worn in different ways on different days by different people. Sharing clothes is becoming increasingly popular through ideas such as swapping or renting, but I’m interested in fashion designers actively working to facilitate this kind of activity. I’ll be running and documenting the project from a studio space in the Nicholas Building that is open to the public. Special occasion dresses generally only get worn once and then sit in a wardrobe so I’m interested in a model of fashion whereby the dresses can be shared, with the designer acting as a moderator and custodian.
I made a gallery of images on flickr while I was contemplating the aesthetics of front row fashion, and how my practice can potentially fit into that. Anna Wintour of course features prominently as the ultimate front row icon, it’s not that I feel very strongly about her, she just pops up everywhere, in the same way that Karl Lagerfeld has become symbolic of the fashion designer…
Pictures from the Fair Fashion parade, part of the fair@square festival. 2 December 2011 at Federation Square. My collection was styled with Leeyong Soo’s accessory label Fourth Daughter.
These photos all by Chealse Vo.
Reviews of the show were featured by Couturing (including host Em Rusciano’s turmeric dyed silk dress that I designed and made) and by Style Melbourne;
“The Red Carpet Project showed a kind of broken-down glamour in their dreamy frocks.”
and also The Vine;
“Georgia McCorkill’s Red Carpet Project raises awareness of environmental problems faced by the fashion industry via special occasion dresses made of silk fabric sourced from Melbourne based designers’ remnants. She showed a cohesive catwalk with pales nudes providing a backdrop to her skills in hand detailing, and creating interesting silhouettes.”
While Leeyong Soo, event organiser and stylist extraordinaire’s wrap up is at The City Weekly, as well as on her own blog including styling details here. (Check out the necklaces made from empty soy sauce fishes by Mainichi!
Tagged Dresses, fair fashion, fair@square, Fourth daughter, remnants
At the end of last year I hosted a session in the fair talks series at the fair@square fair trade and ethical festival.
The topic of the session was “fashion and consumption” and on the panel was Jill Chivers of My Year Without Clothes Shopping, a program based on Jill’s own experience where participants who consider themselves to have a over-shopping problem pledge to spend a year without shopping for clothes, and instead “shop your wardrobe” learning to make better use of the clothes they already own.
Jo Cramer is a lecturer in fashion design in the School of Architecture and Design at RMIT University and she is also studying for a PhD titled “The Living Wardrobe” that addresses relationships between consumers and their clothing from the perspective of a fashion designer.
The third panel member was Kate Luckins, a founder of The Clothing Exchange who has recently completed a PhD at RMIT University on young people’s sustainable lifestyles.
As my research focuses on ethical issues within the cultural and material production of fashion, this talk was a great opportunity for me to consider fashion from a different perspective – that of the consumer and consumption.
When thinking about ethical consumption, my observation is that there are two schools of thought, one argues for consumption avoidance complimented by the development of alternative means of satisfying the desires that would otherwise trigger shopping. This has a strong non-monetary component, for example, activities such as swapping, sharing and mending satisfy desires for things such as sociability and the new but are generally undertaken in ways that don’t require as great an exchange of money as conventional shopping. The principal beneficiary in this case is the individual consumer who has saved money whilst having an enjoyable and sociable experience. The environment also benefits through the avoidance of waste creation.
The other approach to ethical consumption is through switching purchasing decisions from conventional products to products that have a considered and harm minimizing supply chain, or better still, are made in such a way as to actively benefit the people who produce them. Fair trade systems, for instance take an active role in ensuring that not only are workers fairly remunerated for their work, the financial arrangement in place ensure groups are able to self manage the production of goods to the benefit of their community. Certified organic systems are another example where both people and environment benefit from reduced or no chemical use as well as the price premium attached to such a product. Certification exists to ensure the robustness of the system and aid in its consumer adoption, but many other variations exist on this model of ethical consumption that don’t involve formal certification.
It is this framework that the fair@square festival exists within. It is a fair trade and ethical festival that aims to demonstrate that business can be profitable without compromising social issues. Held in the lead-up to Christmas time, it targets consumers at a time when shopping is at its peak and suggests that some of that Christmas spending might be done on fair trade or ethically produced products.
Posted in Thoughts
Tagged ethical consumption, fair@square, Jill Chivers, Jo Cramer, Kate Luckins
Back to work for 2012, just a little bit refreshed from the Christmas break! I have an upcoming project that is more gallery than strictly red carpet, and I’m very excited about it.
I’ve been invited to take part in an exhibition at Object titled EVERGREEN: fresh sustainable fashion, alongside designers Julia Knupfer of Germany and Holly McQuillan of New Zealand. Three of my dresses will be included, employing the use of silk remnants, plant dyes and principles of design for disassembly. The above picture is of designs I sent the gallery so they could choose the best colour palette and designs for the space. I like that even though it’s for an exhibition as opposed to a person there’s still aspects of the “made to measure” process involved.
January 27 – March 6 2012 Object: Australian Centre for Design St. Margarets, 417 Bourke StHere’s the video of a talk I was part of as part of the TFIA and Sustainable Fashion Australia’s [Eco]logical evolution seminar series at Fashion Exposed in Melbourne back in August. Also speaking was Alex Trimmer of Sosume, Ellie Mucke of Mucke and the talk was facilitated by Karen Webster, Associate Professor and Program Director of Fashion in the School of Architecture and Design at RMIT University.
I’m really excited to be taking part in the Fair Fashion Show on Friday 2 December 2011 as part of the Fair@Square fair trade and ethical festival at BMW Edge, Federation Square, Melbourne alongside a host of very beautiful labels who all prioritize fair trade or ethical principles in their fashion practice. The collection I’ve designed uses silk remnants but I’ve focused this time on using the remnants as they come in their mostly triangular forms, and essentially collaging them into dresses. Each dress is designed for disassembly and reuse, and will lead into a project I’m planning for next year as part of the 2012 L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival Cultural Program.
More information about the fashion parade – including tickets can be found here.
Fair@Square runs over the weekend, December 3 and 4, with a range of stalls and events at Federation Square. I will also be the mc for one of the Fair Talks on the Sunday – discussing questions of fashion and consumption with Kate Luckins of The Clothing Exchange, Jill Chivers of My Year Without Clothes Shopping and Jo Cramer of RMIT University.
Below are some snaps of the collection-in-progress, from top to bottom; bundles of chiffon ready for dyeing, a eucalyptus branch found in North Carlton – I really have to get better at this plant identification thing, dyed organza drying in the bathroom, a “collage” of organza.
The Marriage Act 1961 (Australia) was amended in 2004 to include a more precise definition of marriage; “Marriage, means the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.” Just so there’s no confusion, right? Not only is this offensive in that it expressly limits legal marriage to heterosexual unions, to add insult to injury, in non-religious ceremonies performed in Australia the celebrant must by law reiterate these words. In religious ceremonies, there’s no specific requirement to say anything.
That’s why I loved Jacquie and Max’s approach last Sunday. Rather than skimming over these words, the wonderful celebrant prefaced them with words to the effect of “according to an amendment to the marriage act, I am required to say certain statements, however Jacquie and Max would like it known that they believe marriage is between two people who love each other” I thought this was a great way around the problem! Congratulations to a beautiful couple.
…and thanks Jacquie for wearing The Red Carpet Project xx
I’m currently working on a wedding dress for Jacquie for her marriage to Max. Below is Jacquie with her friend Lou, they’re sewing together the toile for her dress prior to our first fitting. First question, what does this have to do with Frocktober? Jacquie and a team from the Melbourne Zoo are taking part in this fundraising event for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation. Participants pledge to wear a dress every day during October (and the wedding dress we are working on will be one of them). You can sponsor their efforts here: www.everydayhero.com.au/frock_
Secondly, why are Jacquie and Lou sewing the dress that I am supposedly making? I’m trialling a participative made-to-measure concept, where recipients of my special occasion designs are involved in the sewing and construction of their own gown. Our fittings have involved: food (on different occasions, baklava, sushi, spinach tart and roasted vegies), cups of tea or glasses of wine, shoe admiration (again from Melissa, a theme is developing on this blog I feel!), dress fitting and pinning, and finally some hand sewing. Last night’s fitting also involved Jacquie’s mum who accomplished about twice as much as the rest of us. What do you think? Have you been involved in the creation of an important dress for your own red carpet moment? What did it mean to you? Oh, and here’s that link again to sponsor Jacquie!
