The National Graduate Showcase was one of the events at the LMFF which is often overlooked. This is where the 12 talented fashion design students from across Australia, who made it as finalists for the LMFF National Graduate Runway show, presents their design to the media. Not only that, the designers are also there for you to interview them about their design.

I had a great time talking to some of the designers and I am just blown away with their creativity. They thought about every single detail of their design and a lot of the design you see here are of hard work and dedication.

The event was sponsored by Sportsgirl and they had really cute pencil looking USBs for the guests who attended the showcase.

The first designer I talked to was Amelia Agosta from RMIT University here in Melbourne. Her collection is called Engineered Distortion which is a fusion of craft and technology. Her pieces are very 3 Dimensional and tailored.

This next designer I didn't get to talk to but I love her structural floral designs on her pieces. Natalia Grzybowski's collection is called Hybrid which combines nature and technology to redefine the interpretation of the female cyber-organism. Using only simple silhouettes, she focuses on the textile designs of her collection. She also has another collection of the similar silhouettes, except that it was all white.

Moving on, we have Courtney White who is from the University of Technology, Sydney with her Utopian Regime collection. It's a menswear collection inspired by the Russian Revolution back in the 1917-1920s. She was particularly inspired by an artist named Aleksandr Rodcherko. She used warm earthy brown and red tones for her collection which is the colour for the Autumn season.

I was instantly captured by the next designer's, Rica Hardian, neon green and electric blue pieces. Rica Hardian is originally from Indonesia and studies at RMIT University. Her designs are based on the Japanese origami folding technic.

I spoke briefly to Anisha Bhoyro, also a student from RMIT University, about her Precious Threads collection. Her inspiration was not to succumb to the disposable nature of the fast fashion industry. The technic that she used was cutting and deconstructing pieces of cloth to produce precious and intricate clothing. One of the interesting technics she used was the pulling of threads, which created a unique texture on her designs.

The next designer, Chris Ran Lin is a knitting genius. His Autumn/Winter collection consists of pieces which are tailored with laser cut textures and also knitting texture over woven fabrics. Also a student from RMIT University, Chris has caused quite a stir in the fashion scene even before he was at the LMFF National Graduate Runway show. I absolutely love the pants with the knitting texture which I have included in this post.

JuYoung Seo, originally from South Korea is also a student from RMIT University. This designer has an impression on me, not because of her designs, but her accent. As a Malaysian myself, I can tell if someone has the Malaysian accent and this Korean designer has it! She told me she has lots of close Malaysian friends, that's why she talks that way. When asked what was her inspiration for her collection, she said she loves flowers and was very interested in the texture of an xray-ed flower petal.

If you look closely at her designs, you can tell that for each and every petal she has on her design resembles an x-rayed petal. Some even has those flower stains you find on real flower petals.

The last designer whom I spoke to was the bubbly Sally Edwards from Queensland University of Technology. This designer, even after all the talking she did before I approached her, was all smiles and a happy soul to be around. Her latest and first collection, Boys & Girls Are Choice, is made to fit both boys and girls. Sally was inspired by traditional menswear, punk ecstatic and knits.

Here are some other pictures of the other talented designers whom I didn't get a chance speak to.

This is an amazing group of very talented and creative designers from Australia. I hope to see them be established and well known in the fashion industry in the near future.

I hope you've enjoyed this really LONG post. I sure did enjoy my time at the showcase together with Calvin from Vanity-Press.