Like most students, Sydneysider Bradley McLennan has high hopes for a dazzling future in fashion design. His point of difference, however, is that he’s got a firm plan and a pragmatic outlook, as Kate McDonald reports.
It was Peter Morrissey who was the inspiration behind Bradley McLennan’s move from a potential career in music to that of a future star in fashion design.
McLennan attended a performing arts high school and had spent his formative years as a singer, but while on work experience in year 10, he had the great good fortune to land a stint at Morrissey.
It was the legendary Australian designer who encouraged not only an interest in fashion but in where he should do his further study. In this case, it was Raffles College of Design and Commerce in North Sydney, formerly known as the KvB Institute of Technology.
More good fortune – and a bulging, 400-page portfolio – saw the young McLennan grab a scarce scholarship to the private college, which offers a fully accredited degree program in fashion design.
McLennan is due to graduate this December and is currently in the entirely stressful throes of completing his major project for the graduation fashion show.
As a student, McLennan has already picked up a few prizes, including as state finalist in the Jeans for Genes ‘Do it with Denim’ competition and first prize in fabric retailer Spotlight’s formal wear competition. Not only has this experience not given the 20-year-old a big head, it has firmed up his plans on how exactly to go about pragmatically achieving his dream.
His plan is to work initially as a product developer in retail fashion to get a grounding in the industry, move on to working as a part of a design team and then, by the time he is 30, have his own label launched.
“I think it’s a good plan,” he says. “A lot of students have these high hopes and dreams about starting a label straight away, but you’ve got to have grounding and you’ve got to know what you are doing. I might have confident skills in designing, but not in running a business.”
The Spotlight competition provided not only exposure – his beautifully constructed dark bronze evening gown is currently gracing Spotlight’s promotional material for this year’s competition, as is his mug-shot, much to his embarrassment – but it also gave him perhaps the best highlight of his student years besides meeting Morrissey. That was a day spent with Jacob Luppino and Anthony Pittorino of J’Aton Couture in Melbourne as part of his Spotlight prize.
“It was amazing,” he says. “Looking back, I’ve had some good experiences, but that was the highlight. They really set me where I wanted to go direction-wise. That’s where I’ll be heading, in the J’Aton direction but at a more affordable pricepoint.”
McLennan does have his own label, called Oscar Brennan, but his concentration at the moment is on completing his major project. And for someone who managed to add a bit of Taicho chic to 25 pairs of denim jeans to make a cocktail dress for the Jeans for Genes competition, creativity shouldn’t be a problem.
“Our head of fashion has chosen Japan as the overall theme, so we’ve had to fit our ideas in with that. Mine is based on modern Japanese architecture, so there are a lot of structural elements and a lot of binding around the shoulders. The colour palette is black and red with a bit of white, and there are screen-prints, lots of natural fabrics and bias cut dresses.”
Architecture is obviously an influence – it was the architectural lines of the buildings across the street from his college that inspired his flowing formal gown for the Spotlight competition – and fittingly for a show with a theme emphasising Japanese aesthetics and trends, the prize for the best major studio project will be presented by Akira Isogawa. A two-month internship at Isogawa’s studio in Sydney is the grand prize.
So, by the time he is 30 he wants to be the next Isogawa or the new J’Aton boys?
“I don’t want to be the new ones but I want to be up there with them,” he says. “In 10 years, hopefully I’ll be there. It’s a good plan but now I just have to put it in motion.”