High Risk Dressing / Critical Fashion
16.02.2017 – 12.04.2017

High Risk Dressing / Critical Fashion looked at the ideas and community coalescing within contemporary fashion practice today through the lens of the Fashion Design Council (FDC). The FDC (1983–1993) was a membership-based organisation established to support, promote and provoke avant-garde Australian fashion, founded by Robert Buckingham, Kate Durham and Robert Pearce.

By using the FDC materials housed within the RMIT Design Archives as a leaping off point, the exhibition opened up and queried ideas promoted by the FDC while looking at the relevance of the Council to contemporary practice today.

Rather than looking back with nostalgia at this rich period of fashion practice, Design Hub Gallery was transformed into a ‘set’ for a month-long program of fashion provocations, cross-disciplinary exchange and contemporary venturous practice.

A new ‘collective’ of contemporary fashion practitioners activated the space through a program of fashion presentations, performances, films, publications and residencies.

Three local architecture practices - Sibling Architecture, Studiobird and WOWOWA - were commissioned to produce scenography that referenced the creative, social and promotional spaces central to FDC activities - the Office, the Bar and the Shop. Each studio was asked to design a set that captured the shift outlined in our title: from an emerging, provocative, collaborative creative culture to today’s world of internationally-networked, conceptually-driven contemporary fashion practice.

The FDC collection - including printed matter, video footage and photographs - was unpacked, discussed and catalogued in a new archive space designed by Ziga Testen. In this zone, we drew on critical reflections from original members of the FDC, as well as other designers, musicians and writers associated with the organisation.

Curatorium: Professor Robyn Healy, Dr Fleur Watson, Kate Rhodes, Nella Themelios

Research assistant: Laura Gardner

Fashion Practitioners: Adele Varcoe, Alexandra Deam, Annie Wu, Chorus, D&K, Laura Gardner, Martha Poggioli, Matthew Linde, PAGEANT, S!X, Winnie Ha Mitford

Scenography designers: Sibling Architecture, Studiobird and Caitlyn Parry, WOWOWA and Andre Bonnice

Graphic design: Ziga Testen

Photography: Tobias Titz

RMIT Design Hub Gallery team: Kate Rhodes, Fleur Watson, Nella Themelios, Erik North, Tim McLeod, Gavin Bell, Sam Fagan, Robert Jordan, Chloë Powell, Layla Cluer

Thank you:
Robert Buckingham, Kate Durham, Harriet Edquist, Alasdair MacKinnon, Rickie-Lee Robbie, Michael Trudgeon, RMIT Design Archives, RMIT School of Fashion and Textiles, and all of the FDC practitioners, designers and participants, past and present.

Disclaimer: RMIT Design Hub Gallery has endeavoured to contact the copyright holder of this material. In the event you are the copyright holder of material contained within this exhibition, RMIT is seeking to hear from you in the use of this work. Please contact RMIT immediately to discuss permission release and consent. Contact: copyright@rmit.edu.au

High Risk Dressing / Critical Fashion: opening night, images courtesy of Tobias Titz

Public Program

FDC ‘live’ cataloguing »
Tuesdays – Fridays throughout the exhibition
2 – 3pm

Throughout the exhibition curators discussed the material in the FDC archive and drew on the critical reflections of original FDC members and others associated with the organisation. Visitors were invited to take part in the process by contributing their recollections of the FDC.

Laura Gardner in residence »
Fridays throughout the exhibition
2 – 5pm

Laura Gardner and Ziga Testen used the model of the FDC newsletter to produce a take-away, free publication in four editions for the duration of the exhibition. This rapid, finite periodical functioned in extension with the events and practices of High Risk Dressing / Critical Fashion. Laura Gardner worked in the space on Fridays throughout the exhibition

A Modular Program »
Martha Poggioli
Saturday 18 February
Saturday 4 March
Saturday 18 March
3pm

Today our fashion desires are enabled through the purchase of bite-sized portions of the brand; affordable facets of luxury, re-constructed onto our own sense of self. These diffusions can be add-ons, up-sizes, or hacks. Presented as a series of cloth objects available for observation and invited interaction, A Modular Program speculated on these ideas.

Chorus in residence »
Tuesdays and Wednesdays throughout the exhibition
11am – 4pm

Chorus adopted a collaborative approach to design, developing an outfit a month, known as The Monthly Edition. For High Risk Dressing / Critical Fashion Chorus was ‘in residence’ in the ‘office’, conceptualising the next Monthly Edition in direct response to FDC archival material. Working with collaborator and graphic designer Maria Montes, Chorus developed print-based graphic and exploratory garments forming the next edition. Chorus was in residence in the office every Tuesday and Wednesday throughout the exhibition.

Live Reading »
Being at the afterparty without an invitation
Winnie Ha Mitford
Tuesday 21 February
12 – 12:30pm

What’s more important than being in fashion? Being at the after party.

Winnie Ha Mitford led readings of her work that used the idea of getting into the after party (the mythical belly of the fashion world) as a way of teasing out the social anxieties and identity crises of being in a collective.

Fake it till you make it »
Panel Discussion
Robert Buckingham, Kate Durham and Matthew Linde
Thursday 23 February
12:30 – 1:30pm

FDC founder Robert Buckingham and Centre for Style’s Matthew Linde led a discussion on entrepreneurship and brand building in contemporary fashion practice.

Nothing Remains Static »
Panel Discussion
Thursday 23 February
6 – 8pm

Melbourne’s experimental music worlds of the early 1980s were networked into the scene surrounding the Fashion Design Council (FDC). Lisa Dethridge brought together a panel to discuss the continued influence of such speculative approaches on the critical fashion practices in focus at Design Hub Gallery in High Risk Dressing / Critical Fashion.

No Fire Escape from Fashion »
A discussion with FDC practitioners on high risk dressing
Saturday 25 February
3 – 4pm

Professor Robyn Healy (Head of School of Fashion and Textiles and co-curator of High Risk Dressing / Critical Fashion) hosted an informal discussion on high risk fashion and the ways in which the FDC, and the many designers, artists, photographers and choreographers involved, innovated and expanded the conventions of fashion at the time.

Fashion-able »
A discussion with FDC practitioners on high risk dressing
Friday 3 March
3 – 4pm

Speakers include: Rosslynd Piggott, Victoria Triantafyllou

The Design Plot »
Shelly Lasica
Friday 3 March
4 – 5pm

The Design Plot was a dance performance project brought together by Shelley Lasica and featured artists Timothy Harvey, Jo White, Louella Hogan, Daniel Newell and Ellen Davies. The work combined choreography that explored the various ways in which spaces are occupied, aim to understand systems of sensory awareness, explore the ideas of construction as scenography, and delves into the problematic nature of decision making.

Le Tapis Noir »
S!X
Saturday 4 March
4 pm

Le Tapis Noir (The Black Carpet) is a collection of garments, objects and films, culminating in a performance event. The work draws inspiration from the soggy, spongy, threadbare carpets and well-worn, scuffed floorboards and parquetry of the St. Kilda nightclubs used by the FDC as venues, as well as other dark haunts of the 1980s.

The X-Hibitionists »
Panel Discussion
Thursday 9 March
12:30 – 1:30pm

The X-Hibitionists discussion focused and reflected upon the Fashion Design Council’s inherently cross-disciplinary spirit and non-fashion practitioners whom contributed to the FDC from the edges or the fringe. The discussion also explored contemporary modes of collaboration and, in this way, investigated ideas of ‘authorship’ and creative porosity within current creative practice.

Nomadic Archive »
Archive Discussion
Friday 10 March
12 – 1 pm

The anti-establishment spirit of the FDC that manifested in their graphic identity and language was in many ways influenced by alternative style magazines like i-D and The Face emerging in the 1980s from London and New York. Air freight copies of i-D were worshipped from windows of local stores and had a profound influence on a local creative community like Melbourne and the culture of the FDC.

All Or Nothing »
D&K Performance
Thursday 16 March
6 – 8pm

The FDC was well known for staging large-scale, highly produced catwalk parades, which were documented extensively through photography and film. The parades were significant undertakings, showcasing the work of multiple designers, in a stage show consumed live, as a collective spectacle.

The Limits of the Page »
Panel Discussion
Friday 17 March
5 – 6pm

This discussion brought together independent fashion publishers, contributors and distributors since the 1980s, who addressed fashion and the conceptual potential of the printed page. Exploring image and text as creative material through alternative modes of dissemination to engage with specific audiences, and the shifting role of technology since the days of the FDC. This discussion explored the limits of fashion publishing, as well as publishing practice at large, opening up the possibility of fashion as publication

En Masse: Writing About Design »
Panel Discussion
Thursday 23 March
11am – 12pm

Professor Naomi Stead, Design Hub Gallery Curator Dr Fleur Watson and students discussed writing about design and architecture around the High Risk Dressing / Critical Fashion bar. Critical writing and spoken word performance are key elements that were addressed in relationship to key works within the exhibition.

The Bar Sessions: Exhibition Walk-Through »
Kate Rhodes
Tuesday 28 March
3.30 – 4.30pm

Design Hub Gallery Curator Kate Rhodes discussed the ideas, themes and works within High Risk Dressing / Critical Fashion at the exhibition Bar.

The Bar Sessions: A Conversation With Simon Burton »
Panel Discussion
Thursday 30 March
1.30 – 2.15pm

Design Hub Gallery Curator Dr Fleur Watson led a conversation with producer Simon Burton to discuss his work on the FDC fashion films on show within the exhibition.

The Bar Sessions: Critical Design Practice »
Panel Discussion
Thursday 6 April
11.30am – 12.30pm

Andrea Eckersley, Sean Ryan, Tarryn Handcock, Annie Wu (Articles of Clothing) and Kate Hannaford (Moth Design) met to discuss the nature of criticality, what is a critical design practice and the changing nature of fashion retail. Each of the panellists offered different perspectives from their own fashion and design practices.

Living Proof That Today’s Look Will Stock The Op-Shops Of Tomorrow »
Archive Discussion
Thursday 6 April
3 – 4pm

As part of the FDC collection housed in the RMIT Design Archives, the FDC scrapbooks collate the press – the good and the bad – on their activities and performances. Amassing an archive of clippings, the FDC created a series of scrapbooks that date back from the early 1980s and include Henry Maas’s article from Weekender (29 March, 1985) mischievously entitled, ‘Living Proof that Today’s Look Will Stock the Op-shops of Tomorrow’. Professor Robyn Healy hosted a talk to flip through the pages of these scrapbooks and reflect on the FDC’s reception by the culture of Melbourne, and Australia, at the time.

The Bar Sessions: A Conversation With S!X »
Panel Discussion
Tuesday 11 April
12.30 – 1.30pm

Design Hub Gallery Curator Kate Rhodes sat in conversation with Denise Sprynskyj and Peter Boyd from S!X. This session around the exhibition Bar offered the opportunity to view garments from The Black Carpet (2017) collection up close and learn more about their creation.

The Bar Sessions: It’s Hard To Imagine A World Without Fashion »
Panel Discussion
Wednesday 12 April
12.30 – 1.30pm

The exhibition curatorium – Professor Robyn Healy, Kate Rhodes, Nella Themelios and Dr Fleur Watson sat around the bar for a final discussion on High Risk Dressing / Critical Fashion, they reflected on the ideas, themes and works within the exhibition.

The Bar Sessions: Fashion Drawing »
Dr Adele Varcoe
Thursday 13 April
12.30 – 1.30pm

Adele Varcoe hosted a drawing session to bid farewell to the show around the High Risk Dressing / Critical Fashion bar.

Fashion Performance »
Dr Adele Varcoe & Dr Ricarda Bigolin
Thursday 13 April
5 – 6pm

RMIT School of Fashion and Textiles Master of Fashion (Design) final year students and Dr Adele Varcoe and Dr Ricarda Bigolin presented a performance response that questioned the presence of materials and their function and impact in the performance of the body within the exhibition ‘sets’.

Wheelchair access available.
Please contact hello@designhub.com if you would like to request any of these events to be AUSLAN interpreted.