SYDNEY – The Australian Fashion Foundation has unveiled its 2023 Scholarship Awards, while also revealing plans to expand the program in the US next year.
Now in its 14th year and the foundation’s first physical event in Australia in three years, the awards were unveiled at an event at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney on Monday.
The 2023 winners are fashion designer Kritikon Khamsawat and creative director Olivia Law, recent graduates of Melbourne’s RMIT and The Whitehouse Institute of Design in Sydney, respectively.
In partnership with the Australian American Association and The Next Generation, a new private foundation established by Afterpay co-founder and CEO Nick Molnar and his wife Gabi, Khamsawat and Law will each receive a US$20,000 grant and, in pending global travel restrictions, an internship at a US-based fashion or publishing company in 2023.
The judging panel included Camilla and Marc, Co-Founder and Creative Director, Camilla Freeman-Topper; Vogue Australia editor-in-chief Edwina McCann; Next Generation director Courtney Miller; Entente Agency founder Kara Hurry and Malcolm Carfrae, co-founder of AUSFF and founder and director of New York PR agency Carfrae Consulting.
Olivia Law and Kritikon Khamsawat, winners of the 2023 Australian Fashion Foundation Fellowship Award, with AUSFF co-founder Malcolm Carfrae.
“It has been a difficult two years learning to understand where I am coming from as a creative and designer and now I can point to where I am with my career and creativity. With this award, I look forward to building collaboration and community within my practice,” said Khamsawat, who presented an extravagant capsule of sportswear that included a trench coat with a detachable umbrella crinoline skirt and a shoe bag. Law, meanwhile, impressed the judges with his multitasking prowess on a picture folder.
“She creatively directed, photographed, designed, retouched, illustrated for, cast, [did] hair and makeup,” Carfrae said. “I could go to a brand and run content for it, I could be running all the aspects. It’s a good example of what universities are doing now: students aren’t just learning one skill, they’re learning multiple things, and they’re becoming incredibly well-rounded.”
Established in 2008, the Australian Fashion Foundation Scholarship Awards have facilitated internships for Australian fashion graduates at brands including Calvin Klein, Louis Vuitton, Thom Browne, Proenza Schouler and Alexander McQueen, in more than one case leading to positions. full-time designer at those companies. .
In 2023, due to additional funding received from new partner The Next Generation, the foundation plans to work with US-based fashion universities to bring a group of their graduate students to Australia to gain experience within the Australian industry. . Parsons The New School for Design is a university Carfrae is in talks with and Afterpay Australian Fashion Week could be a destination for American students, she said.
Source: news.google.com