Australian accessories brand dog&boy has teamed up with The School of Fashion and Textiles at RMIT University for a six-week project.
Providing the next generation of designers with the opportunity to feature in the latest AW19 collection, dog&boy’s founder and principal designer, Sonya Michele, mentored a group of 16 students, helping them to bridge the gap between fashion and business, by putting theory into practice.
Run like a real commercial project, the students were presented with a brief and deadline to create three designs that not only worked harmoniously together to tell a story, but would also be a product that dog&boy’s customers would fall in love with. Following the initial briefing Michele provided the students with feedback on their preliminary concept, allowing them to further develop their designs to reflect dog&boy’s aesthetic.
“Theory is a vital part of fashion design and students need to learn how to apply it in the market,” she explains. “This project taught the students how to design items that tick all the boxes – it looks amazing, it’s marketable and it’s successful in the market.”
The winning student, Samantha Seary’s three designs – Looking Back, Ripple and Souvenir – responded to the brief perfectly. Themed around her reminiscent childhood holidays in rural Victoria, the designs incorporate colours and patterns that create the sense of relaxation that she experienced during these memorable trips.
“This project really did give me a more in-depth understanding of the process undertaken to transform rough ideas and sketches into finished products,” says Seary. “Working with dog&boy has definitely made me feel more prepared for what lies ahead in the industry as a designer.”
dog&boy’s AW19 collection featuring Seary’s signed designs launched internationally at NY NOW earlier this month and will debut in the Australian market at Life Instyle Sydney, which starts this Thursday 21 to 24 February.
