Ragtrader is an official media partner of the forthcoming Higher Learning conference for aspiring fashion designers, to be held on June 17 and 18 at the Ivy Sunroom in Sydney. Event co-organiser Justin Levy reveals the story behind the event and what participants will gain.
Higher Learning is a fashion-orientated two-day seminar, which was developed to nurture Australia’s “bedroom bangers,” a term we developed, that basically applies to the underground creative’s who have all the right ideas and the motivation to do them but simply can’t get them into the public eye. It is these people that Dialogue PR aims to support with all its initiatives, be it artists, musicians or designers.
One of our first initiatives was the Fringe Bar markets in Paddington, which has been a weekly attraction for the style set of Sydney for the last three years. Every Saturday it is a thriving hub of stalls packed with garments and accessories across both the commercial and boutique markets and the regular stall holders were constantly bombarding us with questions about marketing, PR and sales. They were thirsty to reach the top but had no idea how to take their label to the next level.
We realized there was a huge gap in the industry that was preventing designers and individuals striving to succeed in other areas of the industry, from making the transition from “emerging” into “established” and that gap was practical knowledge.
So we got to thinking, who better to provide the next generation of the industry with this cardinal knowledge than the people who are presently at the top.
We went through several people before we emerged with our final speaker line-up but we are thrilled with the people who have been able to come on board and we have managed to tick off every area we felt needed to covered. We’ve got Luke Sale’s from Romance was Born and Ben Pollitt of Friedrich Gray, who will each be talking about their own labels and their journeys, which have allowed them both to reach the forefront of the industry but at two entirely different spectrums of design. We also have Tash Sefton from General Pants who is responsible for the development of General Pants extensive in-house lines so she will come at design from a whole different perspective again, with a strong focus on commercial and large scale production.
Roxy Jacenko from Sweaty Betty PR and Barry Mowszowski from Ogilvy will share their expertise in successful PR and marketing campaigns and Emma Reid will tell the story from the opposite side, the inside of one of Australia’s top fashion magazines, Russh.
Michaela Griffiths-Leese who has worked on Australia’s largest industry fashion events of Fashion week and Fashion Festival will talk about presenting a label and building strong industry relationships. Design Crowd’s Alec Lynch will talk about successfully positioning your business to gain funding and Kath Purkis of Le Black Book will reveal the ingredients to online success. While Justin Hemmes; the CEO of Merivale and Lisa McGuigan; the founder of Tempus Two will each share their success stories from the trails to the triumph.
We wanted Higher Learning to be an event about the entire industry for the next generation of the industry and we wanted to provide as many people as possible with the opportunity to actually have their careers kick started during those two days, which is why we decided to limit the ticket sales to only one hundred people and incorporate the Dead Space Living Artists Competition, which allows every ticket holder the opportunity to submit a brief on how they would transform an empty shell in a General Pants store into their living dream and one lucky person will actually get the chance do it. The competition provides a once in a lifetime opportunity not only for the winner of the space but for every single person to get their work in front of the ten speakers and who knows what doors that could open for them.
We didn’t simply want to supply the attendee’s with information we wanted to assist them in establishing the means to implement it. The intimate nature of the environment will be primed for networking and will offer access to industry resources, which cater to assisting emerging designers and the whole thing will be topped off by an exhibition from the Darnell Collection of significant garments and designers from throughout history
We really wanted the two days to generate an electric atmosphere of united creativity and productivity that with the right founding knowledge behind it becomes unstoppable.
We have been really pleased with the overall response to the event especially from other industry members including tertiary teachers who have expressed their support for the quality of the speakers and the concept as a whole. Donna Sgro from UTS said, “For students, having access to an event like Higher Learning will help to bridge gaps between what they learn through fashion design education and the professional world of day-to-day fashion; having access to a large variety of speakers will assist students with valuable insights they may not have necessarily experienced first hand.”
We truly believe in the potential of the Australian industry, as do all our speakers, which is why they are offering their expertise. At $250 a ticket it really is cheaper than the pair of designer jeans that people won’t hesitate to hand over their money for and Higher Learning will certainly put more back in your pocket in the long run.
The inaugural event in two weeks time will be the beginning of what we envision becoming a valuable and much needed implementer of growth in the industry.
For a complete overview of the event and to get more detail on our speakers and buy tickets go to www.ahigherlearning.com.au