SYDNEY: A recent showcase staged by the Fashion Design Studio Tafe (Ultimo) has provided invaluable industry leads for emerging designer Seema Pun.
Pun - who graduates from Ultimo this year and showed her final collection earlier this month - said she received interest from high places during the showcase's industry night on November 19.
"Carla Zampatti looked at my collection and took an interest in it," she said, adding she hoped the meeting might lead to employment with the well-established designer.
Pun plans to seek employment with a fashion house to hone her business and fashion skills before launching her own label. The move into fashion is a dramatic career turnaround for Pun, who worked part time in her chosen field as a nurse with specialist clinical training in anaesthesia while studying fashion.
"I came to Australia [from Nepal] when I was 18 and I kind of fell into nursing. But I've always been interested in fashion, and wanted to create something beautiful, rather than just looking at it as an outsider."
Pun - whose first year designs received media attention on the 'Mornings with Kerri-Anne' TV show - said her 10-piece graduate collection was inspired by the forms of UK sculptor Andy Goldsworthy.
"I've taken traditional garments and distorted the silhouette. For example Goldsworthy's "balanced rock" sculpture is directly echoed in one of my dresses. It's made of silk taffeta that has a very sculptural quality."
Following in the footsteps of avant-garde designers Rei Kawakuba and Yohji Yamamoto, she said high fashion was her natural home.
"I like to put a lot of detail into my designs, so they're definitely best suited to that end of the market."
While some day she hoped to put nursing behind her, she felt indebted to her original career in unexpected ways.
"In nursing I learned to become a very organised person. I learned about teamwork and prioritising which is vital to fashion. I also think that because I've been in the work force for a while I have a broad, mature and realistic perspective."