2022 GRADUATES
FDS proudly presents the graduate collection of the class of 2022. The collections represent a diverse range of voices in our emerging fashion community and celebrate the skills and knowledge these talented graduates have developed over the duration of their degree. Each collection represents the designer and is a story told through their eyes, paying homage to the craft of fashion.
Monday 22 November 2022 | RUNWAY “C” | 08:00 PM
Brooke Astaire
Astaire Paradis’s first collection “Valley of the Dolls”, the designer explores the use of a variety of experimental fabrication ideas on an assortment of wool-based textiles. Including hand screen printing and the use of vinyl and metallic foils, hand embellishment to create “textural expressions” using precious cut crystal, glass, and assorted iridescent metals crafted using traditional haute couture methods, drawing on the concept of amalgamation using texture and light. The collection also explores 3D sculpture using mouldable fabrics such as felt to render 3D sculptural formations and explore the timeless art of Moulage.
Carmela Merenda
MELA is the first label of Australian fashion designer Carmela Merenda and embodies the free spirited, constantly evolving and changing human. The elevated casual, fusion resort wear - street wear style of the collection and predominately neutral colour palette is inspired by the designer’s love of the laidback, coastal Australian lifestyle that she grew up around. The pieces take casual but cool dressing to a new level, elevating wearable and comfortable staples in luxury silk, wool and cotton fabrics with fresh prints and crochet textures that can be worn day to night.
Catherine Caldis
The result of mindful work, based around respecting raw materials of the earth. Soltyslabel considers life to be a combination of rituals. The ritual of dressing has the potential to direct the presence of our human attention in a generative direction. Creating more awareness, more simplicity, and more depth within the human experience.Consciously using a variety of Ayurvedic plants and antioxidant Japanese flora in its signature print, Soltyslabel is fusing wisdom from the east and west into a wearable garment for daily ritual practice. To see more, visit soltyslabel.com.au.
Christopher Daod
“I know I’m everything yet I feel like nothing” The ethos that surrounds the graduate collection ‘Ketamine at West Ryde Station’ by Christopher Daod. focuses on the reinvention of knitwear in a contemporary manner, taking influence from concepts such as mania and dysphoria, through the eyes of the digital world. Physically manifesting through texture and the highs and lows of colour and tone within garments.
Donovan Darling
Donovan Darling is a luxury menswear brand creating a wardrobe of street-bravado for the contemporary Renaissance Boy. Designs are conceived through a subversion of masculine subcultures and traditional menswear dress codes. Premium textiles are combined with an exploration of artisanal fiber-art techniques to produce original and ornamental fabrics for garments designed to live, last, and be passed on. The core beliefs of slow fashion and divine masculinity drive Donovan Darling to create fashion that is passionate, provocative, and sophisticated, for men to invest and indulge in.
Eden Me-Tal
Eden May-Tal presents the Holylands Playground collection, which combines the designer’s experience of war, religion and club culture from the holyland of Jerusalem. This collection shows the designer’s use of innovation through the form of upcycling and the regeneration of dead stock fabrics and materials to create luxury ready-to-wear garments, that are constructed responsibly.
Emilie Tissot
BONSOIR was born with Emilie Robert-Tissot’s European heritage through her foresight we have developed “Une Journée d’été” by bringing awareness to society norms and challenging them. We explore the dispute established between the feminine and masculine wardrobe, creating garments for any gender. BONSOIR combines Tailoring and Ready-To-Wear in simplicity through European elegance.
Emily Graorovski
Emće is determined by individuality, exclusivity while showcasing modern femininity, elegance and sensuality with each alluring and unforgettable design. The brands essence of sophisticated fashion is depicted through the intricate and delicate details, combining traditional elements of haute couture with a more innovative, modern approach to design. The brand utilises a wide variety of materials from fine and delicate fabrics to highly textured, which ensure that every garment is fabricated at a slow pace with precision, love and care.
Georgia Robinson
G.Robinson is where couture meets tailoring, telling the stories of tartan, pinstripes and suiting. Created for a genderless audience the brand presents quirky and rebellious construction. Seeking to tear down traditional fashion cycles, we follow a pre order business model for both a ready to wear market and for one of a kind pieces. G.Robinson is a brand that combines the madness of art with refined classic silhouettes.
Giti Zaki
Senzela Jade brings together central Asian flare and exuberance with western sculptural sophistication in couture designs. Inspired by Danish-Afghan origins, the debut collection draws on the vibrant colour palettes, intricate hand mirror and bead embroidery, and conservative outlook of traditional Afghan garbs, re-invited into daring new silhouettes which serve as statement pieces. The collection serves to empower, to transcend societal and cultural boundaries for women, and to showcase the beauty, power and success of women through uniquely interwoven designs. Senzela Jade honours, and seeks to preserve, traditional Afghan customs and aesthetics by re-imagining them into modern, bold, vibrant constructs.
Hanna MacKey
Miyo Toku seeks to anchor the importance of fusing nature and fashion within the developing fashion world’. Our brand focuses on fusing traditional Japanese elements with contemporary Australian fashion, juxtaposing sharp, geometric contours with organic shapes and silhouettes to define a sense of balance. Focusing on ethics and sustainability has become a core value of the brand through exploring methods such as eco-dyeing and eco-printing to create unique fabrications.
The colour palettes represent the deep sentimental connection and appreciation of Miyo Toku’s life.
Ingrid Pelagio
PELAYA strives to celebrate femininity and inspire confidence in young women. The label personifies the blend of expressive resort wear and signature couture elements, by providing timeless and beautiful essentials for your holiday abroad. PELAYA captures the reconnection and intersection of my Philippine heritage and contemporary Australian lifestyle. Sparking a powerful and empowering dialogue amongst each piece, through passionate colours, textures, and prints. We want to provide a destination for women to embrace their eccentric self and beauty.
‘The PELAYA woman is radiant, powerful and spontaneous.’
Isabelle Morley
We are the future face of female.
We seek to keep exploring the idea of statement staples. Multifunctional garments that transcend seasonal fashion and feel exciting to wear for the first time and in future wearing. Each design melds the perfect balance of curated and considered pieces. Every piece a celebration of feminism, modernism and fusion. Clothing that embodies our lives today and tomorrow.
We are the future face of female.
Jeong Baldwin
Jeong Soo Baldwin is a brand about telling a story through fashion. It is focusing on the persons story and how they tell it though what they wear. The brand focuses on being inclusive of body sizes, genders and races which allows a safe space for people to express their story without prejudice. It allows others to be fully emersed in the world around them and gaining a renewed perspective of others, Changing the way people view others and illuminating the positivity in diversity.
Jocelyn Ng
Jocelyn is a womenswear brand that specialises in demi couture evening wear. Jocelyn is a curated mix of elegant essentials and statement pieces. The Jocelyn aesthetic is defined by a balance of a certain softness and boldness, and an otherworldly elegance. Jocelyn’s design philosophy is upheld in her spiritual believes and love for the arts. At Jocelyn, every garment is infused with love, passion, and integrity, and she aims to bring a spiritual consciousness into fashion.
Kiara Carpinato
Be.my.muse the label believes fashion is about making a statement. It breaks the rules and goes against traditional fashion norms. It is extra, over the top, exaggerated and rebellious.Helping portray one's best and most confident self. Every design has the woman in mind, from highlighting and exposing aspects of the female figure and form, to using the body asa muse. The first collection takes inspiration from three muses from the past, JosephineBaker, Marilyn Monroe and Cher. Their daring attitude championed feminism and challenged societal standards of how women should dress and act.
Matthew Smith
TAVA: Encoded is a brand that caters to adapting the clients aesthetic as a second skin, merging the digital space within video games and the ever-evolving fashion world. The brand is a streetwear label that focuses on realising and expressing individuality without being influenced by trends; to develop a customised wardrobe to suit the client.
Exploring the world of Astrology and an Apocalyptic future, TAVA: Encoded is not just a fashion label but also a story, portrayed through the start-up collection launch of DECODED.
Monique Menezes
Fashion Humanitarianism…
That is the core of our devotion at MnQ Elizabeth. We create lifelong bespoke pieces that are infused with deep and intimate personal connection through the universal visual language of couture hand detailing. We create cherished pieces that fuse a connection between the individual and their clothing, whilst collaborating with humanitarian causes. This first collection partnering with The Leukaemia Foundation - The World’s Greatest Shave - to honour Monique’s late grandmother Margaret, whom passed away to AML 28/11/2021.
Natalya Zappia
A luxury couture aesthetic, with elements of sophisticated technical construction. Considering quality, attention to detail, texture with a timeless intent, is at the heart of the brand design vision. We believe that great design has the ability to empower women, to feel confident and beautiful within their own skin. Designed to embrace the effortless feminine beauty of all women. Natalya Zappia prides itself on high-end design, cut and construction, creating ever-lasting heirloom pieces that stand the test of time. Precision to detail ensures each and every garment is as equally breathtaking as the next with the ability to captivate the attention of those around them.
Natasha Rutherford
Natasha Rutherford Tazia is built on an expressive community of like-minded individuals, those who are confident in their voice and diverse in their appearance. As a brand Tazia prides itself on diversity and inclusivity with a wide size range and signature ‘Size-less Fashion Philosophy’. Tazia explores the idea of adjustability and comfort in all garments, creating unique pieces that embrace a naturally changing body. The brand has a loud, playful personality that is expressed through signature in-house print designs, vibrant colours and the use of volume and texture.
Nicole Darmanin
This collection entitled ‘Nuance’ works to challenge modern conventions within fashion, embodying romanticism and purity, whilst distorting contemporary portrayal of feminine dress. Exploring the perception of the female form in a modern society, this collection entails a poetic search into unraveling the boundaries of appropriate dress and reforming the outlook of women within society. Honours Entity relies on the deconstruction of lingerie to challenge the pure essence of femininity.
Orlando Flores-Parry
“Fashion is an inherently personal means of communicating oneself through the projection of presentation”
The Flores label places the intrinsic concerns we evade at the forefront of the label and uses the power of fashion to provoke crucial conversation. Utilising sculptural and technical forms derived from classicism, architecture and minimalism the label unifies masculinity and femininity within bold silhouettes. With the belief that fashion is adaptable the label provides the wearer with multi-functional and versatile garments, and invigorates the wearers ability to formulate their own fierce individual and independent impression.
Rachel Rodrigues
Rachel Amber aims to explore ideas of being sensitive and conscious as well as being confidant to express who you are. It is all about self-awareness; surrounding yourself with nature and becoming free within yourself.
Out signature is soft tailoring with avant garde designs infused with artisan couture that is globally sources. Custom hand painted print designs with artistry techniques that enhance textiles and provide original feminine designs.
Rachel Amber is often inspired by culture, architecture and art. We strive for high quality timeless design that have been made with thought and care that combine the fashion and art worlds.
Samantha Campbell
Sammie Sue strives in creating sensuality and sophistication through her designs. She aims in finding one’s true self through her garments, creating pieces that have a story to tell. Using couture elements to create minimalistic garments with a touch of spontaneity, this brand embraces the feminine figure, working against social trends and creating an abyss where all women figures are feminine and desirable.
Sienna Smyth
Sienna Smyth, a luxury women’s Ready- to- wear label encapsulating an essence and spirit of the female form. An effortless style with an engaging aesthetic. Sienna Smyth represents an understated and refined vision of how masculinity and femininity collide creating a balance of strong lines and fluid shapes expressing an artistic flair within the luxury of fashion ultimately producing high quality garments which are elegant and sophisticated. It is through the delicacy of intrinsic design detailing which defines each look or garment.Sienna Smyth depicts a story where the woman reminisces on her travels and family heritage through Europe underlying nuances of aesthetics, colour and architecture which develop and inspire the delicacy of timeless beauty.
Stef Asquith
This collection is a self titled project challenging conventional fashion, distorting and discussing the perceptions surrounding it.Focusing on the exploration of the boundaries between jewelry and clothing and looking at metal as a textile.Producing clothing over a range of levels of wearability that question what is appropriate and for where.
Tara McLoughlin
Punch-Drunk Opera is a womenswear concept-brand by Tara McLoughlin distinguished by the authentic approach we take to all facets of art and design. Through reinterpretation of classic silhouettes and delicate androgyny, Punch-Drunk Opera encourages introspection into identity and confidence in the authentic self. We guarantee uncompromising quality and a long-lasting approach to design. Fashion is the most personal and intimate medium, filled with social and cultural ques for people to interpret. Ours brains are hardwired for context and the clothing we design is larger than any individual, it’s a contribution to a community and time-period.
Tiahn Harris
Olivia Drake is a non-conformist uniform. Unveiling the layers to our most authentic selves. We aim to introduce a new perspective through unconventional design. Genderless fashion is key to our mission: to create a world where fashion isn’t so binary in its design. The creator was inspired by her childhood - growing up a tomboy who despised all things feminine. This experience led to her perception that masculine and feminine are not two distinct entities. “Grey Area” presents eight bodies stripped back to black and white to contest the visual references of our reality and embody the relevance of complexity and duality. To go forward we must go back to our purest form and remember where we came from.
Yasmin Fraser
The YJF Graduate Collection is the physical recreation of a childhood molded by cross cultural influence. This lived experience is blended together with the values of sustainability and androgyny to represent minorities and majorities alike. Timeless, structured silhouettes finessed with unexpected detailing create the perfect hardcover to the story that is the individual wearing YJF.
Zoë Rose-Hill
The label Milktoast is an expression of joy, excitement and fun that will transport the wearer to a whimsical world of make-believe and pleasure. Milktoast’s signature aesthetic is achieved through its use of saturated colour, surreal prints and clashing textures, which bring moments of magic to the wearer and those around them. Milktoast holds core values of sustainability and slow fashion. These are embodied in the unique, ready-to-wear designs centred on merino wool knits and repurposed fabrics. Milktoast creates beautiful and cheerful designs to be enjoyed by everyone.
