Australian Fashion Awards Julie Anne Quay
A feeling of closeness, or intimacy, is as much a character trait in the collections of Protagonist, the ready-to-habiliment label that debuted in 2013 under the stewardship of Vanessa Traina's multi-faceted retail concept, The Line, as precision of cut and exacting fabrications. A striking proposition for a wardrobe of elevated staples posited on the premise that the wearer is, and ever will exist, the central character in their own story, Protagonist is today helmed by New York-based Australian pattern director Georgia Lazzaro, whose ain story pivots as much effectually feelings of closeness as it does the intense subtleties of her arts and crafts.
"Working in blueprint studios of that nature can [be] very emotionally challenging and fortifying every bit everybody holds the work very close to their hearts," Lazzaro says of time spent cutting her teeth under the tutelage of Francisco Costa at Calvin Klein and so under Narciso Rodriguez at his eponymous characterization.
"I indirectly bring this feeling and closeness with me to whatever work I do," she tells GRAZIA. "In fact, I don't know how to do information technology whatsoever other way."
Lazzaro arrived in New York from Melbourne seven years ago after seven years of university; three spent studying fine arts at Monash, and 4 devoted to the study of fashion design at RMIT. Hungry, she says, for international experience, Lazzaro, then 25, intended to earn a identify interning overseas upon graduating along with many of her contemporaries both at home and abroad. That she should have landed on her feet at both Calvin Klein and Narciso Rodriguez sounds both serendipitous and implausible at best, and in many means, it probable is for many. After all, get-go hand exposure to 2 of the industry's greats doesn't come easily. Lazzaro, notwithstanding, arrived in the Midtown'due south Garment District equipped with the countdown Australian Fashion Foundation scholarship, and with it, connections to a calibre of talent within an already rarefied world that otherwise would have never been feasible, in more ways than one.
"Winning the scholarship has been utterly crucial in my trajectory," says Lazzaro, who avant-garde to earn a place in the celebrity/special projects arm of the fix-to-article of clothing division of what was then deemed Calvin Klein Collection, an arm of Costa's studio dedicated to producing the then-designer'southward directional track collections, too as those 1-off garments produced for the high-contour events of the label's glory clientele. A part as senior ready-to-habiliment designer at Rodriguez'south label would soon follow after. "I cannot stress this plenty every bit the manufacture is terribly competitive, and tricky to navigate as a young designer. Firstly, for the fact that any application sent by myself may very well have been overlooked – even just viii years agone Australia felt a lot further away! To accept incredibly renowned and highly esteemed industry individuals – Malcolm Carfrae and [stylist] Brana Wolf – recommending you lot is an incredibly unique and special opportunity."
The importance of those introductions – the right word whispered in the correct ear; an indelible and invaluable piece of advice – is primal to the mission of the foundation and its co-founder, Carfrae. A mentor for the Quango of Style Designers of America's Incubator plan and a board member of the Australian Style Chamber, Carfrae and founder of VFILES and president of Colac Pictures, Julie Anne Quay, launched the Australian Fashion Foundation in 2008 with a view to propelling Australian grown talent outward into the global fashion industry. The endeavour hinges on the belief that with globe class experiences, Australians can return abode with globally recognised training and all-important contacts that benefit not just a new generation of talent but, in render, the wellbeing of the Australian fashion industry. The recipient of the fund not only receives invaluable vi-month placement at some of the world's nearly lauded fashion houses – past recipients have embedded at Proenza Schouler, Alexander McQueen, Thom Browne, LVMH and DVF – but the all-important financial back up that makes the prospect of undertaking an unpaid internship in some of the world's near financially taxing cities a possibility.
"To have had the financial capacity to brand oneself available 24 hours a solar day, 7 days a week to both Francisco Costa and Narciso Rodriguez (and non have to work a job on the side to afford to swallow) enabled me to not just progress quickly in terms of the skills and knowledge I was acquiring, merely too gave me the opportunity to make myself as indispensable as I could," says Lazzaro, who adds that information technology was but past gaining a great deal of trust through availability to each creative director and their respective pattern teams that she was able to gain eligibility as a candidate for full-time employment.
In December 2015, Lazzaro was appointed design manager at Protagonist, a fitting culmination of her exposure to and experience working alongside two of the manufacture'due south peachy minimalists for whom a purity of form is paramount. Information technology's an ethos readily discerned in her work for Protagonist, a label that takes a pragmatic approach to luxury that eschews seasonal ephemerality in favour of a wardrobe of discerning and rigorously studied classics. Lazzaro now finds herself in an enviable position, having made the leap from being dependent on patronage to pursuing her life's work in earnest. Can she foresee a time when she returns to Commonwealth of australia?
"I think perhaps the location of where you blueprint and work is becoming somewhat redundant as the manufacture evolves," says Lazzaro. "I recall it's more almost the particularities of how a brand looks and feels and connects with you emotionally, equally opposed to where it is based. And then and even more important discussion to be had is really about the location in which you chose to produce the wear. Not necessarily where you design information technology. That said, being in a customs or environment where y'all tin feel motivated to make work is paramount.
"I do think it is a neat shame that Commonwealth of australia loses many great talents to the allure of international experience and this happens across all industries. All the same, I also feel that that great curiosity and open up-mindedness is intrinsic and unique to the Australian psyche and something nosotros should feel proud of. That adaptability is what gives us a unique kind of currency assuasive us to situate ourselves and build successful careers in completely strange contexts. [The Australian Fashion Foundation] does a beautiful job of recognising this and creating tangible outcomes and opportunity for this groovy marvel and ambition nosotros take. It situates united states of america on a global level, which is utterly crucial for designers to gain a competitive border in the electric current market and make relevant work to reverberate this."
It's a sentiment shared by some other recipient of the fund, Alexander Oscar Kelvy, who was awarded the scholarship in 2014 and received placement with luxury conglomerate LVMH. For Kelvy, the Australian Fashion Foundation award was forepart of mind from the time he also commenced studying fashion at RMIT, making the experience of realising that dream all the more poignant. Kelvy, a menswear designer by trade whose past piece of work experience included determinative time spent at Pageant, Calvin Klein and Wootten, landed in the leather goods section at Louis Vuitton courtesy of the fund.
"It was a total upheaval", he tells GRAZIA. "The offset six months and for quite a while after were massive learning curves in nigh aspects of my life: routines, language, how people interact, weather, how I spent my days at piece of work and outside of piece of work." Kelvy has since been employed equally a men'south footwear designer at Vuitton, exposing him to a whole new world of product, and with it, a new world of considerations to have into account given the enormity of product included within the telescopic of the division across mainline, pre-drove and runway. "Whilst I have worked very hard, the scholarship has been critical to my success so far," says Kelvy. "I really don't know how I would take got here without it."
Every bit for the chances of stemming the cultural crisis of Australia's cultural brain bleed, Kelvy also remains optimistic that a time will come where developments bring Australia's fashion industry even closer in alignment with patterns of the global market. "I recall it's difficult to compete with the corporeality of learning [and] experiences that come with loftier density cities and countries with large civilisation related industries," says Kelvy, "Merely I do also feel the landscape, specially supply bondage and systems of production, are going to modify considerably in the near hereafter. I think this will present opportunities that will be easier for Commonwealth of australia to take advantage of." Until then, Kelvy – and Lazzaro alike – implore those hoping to follow a similar trajectory but embrace an ethos that is quintessentially Commonwealth of australia: give information technology a become.
"Work hard, exist kind to yourself and exist authentic," says Kelvy. "Sit down downwardly, call back almost what you desire and talk to people about what you want, and and so work towards putting yourself in situations where in that location are opportunities for learning things yous demand to get yous there."
"[Exercise not] doubt oneself for a minute and go for it," says Lazzaro. "Every application is studied in depth, and by multiple figures in the industry. To take that degree of exposure to the judging panel alone is a neat matter. Information technology's a wonderful opportunity for exposure of one'southward work, irrespective of winning.
"Information technology is that uncertainty and unknown that makes the experience so formative and so heady."
Applications for the 2017/xviii Australian Manner Fund Scholarship Awards close November 30, 2017. Two recipients will each receive a $20,000 grant and a 6 month internship with a global fashion powerhouse in New York City or Europe. More information is available here.
Tile and encompass epitome: Courtesy of Protagonist
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