He had me at hello (almost)

I was recently afforded the opportunity to stand in judgement of some of the country's best and brightest fashion student graduates. And what a daunting task it proved to be.

The awards, staged as part of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival in Brisbane, see the heads of six of the best Australian fashion colleges nominate their top two 2007 graduate students to compete not only for the title but also for a handy $5000 cash prize pool that accompanies it.

As with the inaugural awards, staged last year, the colleges involved included Victoria's RMIT, New South Wales' UTS and Fashion Design Studio Sydney Institute of Technology, and Whitehouse Institute whose new Melbourne campus means it now has a foot in each camp. MSIT and QUT represented the host state.

Set up to reward and promote students who "consistently create exceptional designs", award organisers asked us to judge the students on four key criteria roughly broken down as innovation, aesthetic, resolution and relevance.
Had we selected on aesthetic alone then I am sure my fellow panellists and I would still be locked in a room slugging it out over whose designs were kindest on the eye.

However the panel - which included David Jones womenswear buying general manager David Bush, Brisbane Couture designer Paul Hunt and Amber Long, owner of the Jean Brown Group - was unanimous in our selection of TAFE NSW fashion design student Dion Lee.

Lee, was part of tutor Nicholas Huxley's "fab four" male students given the opportunity to show at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week in April.

With his first collection clearly inspired by three-dimensional shaping, Lee's talent for tailoring and innovation was immediately seized upon by several buyers moments after his public debut. Sydney-based retailer Belinda Seper eventually won the race to be the first to stock the graduate, with the range delivered to Seper's Corner Stores late last month.

While Lee's early success - almost unheard of for a graduate - clearly gave him an advantage of some of his competitors, what really sold me was Lee himself.

Having never met Lee personally what I expected was brass and attitude. What I got was pure class.
At just 22 years of age, this shy and unassuming designer was in stark contrast to some of his fellow competitors, many of whom were more concerned about talking up themselves and hogging the media spotlight than they were in generating commercial interest in their collections.

Despite rather intimidating circumstances, Lee remained composed calmly talked each judge through his individual collection pieces and speaking of his love of mixing contrasting elements to create something unique.
Admitting he fielded several offers from buyers from all around the country eager to flog his wares, Lee said he had deliberately settled with just one account to ensure he would not be forced to compromise on quality in an effort to get his first order out on time.

If only all labels had such a grounded designer behind them. Asked where he sees himself in five years, Lee replied: "I see myself in a business that maintains the balance of commercial and creative and working with people I respect. I [aim to] establish the business in the international market while maintaining the stability of the Australian market."
If Lee is truly representative of the next generation of emerging design, then I for one believe the future of Australian fashion is in very good hands.

By Tracey Porter