Students and Alumni showcase garments to audience of hundreds

LCI Melbourne’s new campus was transformed into a fashion destination last night for an incredible runway show featuring garments that fused fashion and art.   

Hybrid Entities: Wearable Art Forms showcased garments by 14 students and alumni, as part of the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival (VAMFF). Over 300 people attended, including VAMFF VIPs, renowned Australian fashion designers, industry insiders, families, staff and students.

The designers showing their works in Hybrid Entities were inspired by three themes: Atlantis, Viral Vintage and Electric Dreams. Using innovative fabric manipulation and cutting, they produced unique silhouettes and shapes in vibrant colours with boning, decorative hardware, futuristic layered fabric and even lighting.

Creative Director Adryan Scicluna described the fantastical garments as standing “at the crossroad where costume-meets-couture and boundaries have no relevance”.

The show was opened by Shiva Singam, a well-known figure on the Australian fashion scene. The runway was spread over three levels of the new campus, with models walking up and down stairs and between guests to create a sense of dynamism.

Set to a light and sound installation by award winning projection installation artist, Yandell Walton, in the darkened campus, the otherworldly costumes, eerie light effects and haunting soundtrack created an atmosphere of tension and expectation.

Hybrid Entities marks the sixth year in a row that LCI Melbourne has staged an independent runway for VAMFF.

Congratulations to the young and emerging designers who showed their garments, including: Phoebe Barbour, Mark Blake (Alumni), Celest Chidichimo, Jenna Louise Connor (Alumni), Becc Edwards, Nipunika Fernanado, Piper-Lily Golias, Stacey Jane, Olivia Jones, Lou Kenton, Ralph Noman, Chloe Ritchie (Alumni), Luella Standfield and Stephanie Wickham.

Thank you to our generous event sponsors who helped make the evening memorable: Leconfield Wines, Sample Brew, and Project Forty Nine.

Our thanks are also extended to Adryan Scicluna, Creative Director and Coordinator of Fashion & Costume, fashion staff Kim Shoesmith and Belle Stewart, event organisers Terese McAleese, Lee Bolan, Jeanette Reed, Zoi Cameron and Michelle Newell, choreographer Laura Sheedy, manager Zowie Minchin of Zowie Projects, and our team of student volunteers.

LCI Melbourne’s Bachelor of Design Arts offers a Major or Submajor in Fashion & Costume Design. Enrolments are now open for Trimester 2 (June) and Trimester 3 (September) 2018. 

Download a copy of the event program, with designer statements.

Image by: Melissa Ann Kulinski 2017