Technology Domain

The Krystyna Campbell-Pretty Fashion Gift

In July, Year 10 student Saara Vongue entered an application for a fashion intensive student program grant at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Through the support of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty and the Campbell-Pretty family, a limited number of fully subsidised positions were available, by application, for senior students with an interest in fashion and design, to participate in the Fashion Intensive student program.

The inspiring two-day program included an exhibition introduction and viewing, behind-the-scenes insights into the fashion industry and explored sources of inspiration and practical design processes and skills for developing folio work.

Students produced their own folio of fashion illustrations from which to develop original designs. Presenters included NGV curators, educators and fashion industry experts.

The program provided participating students with a unique and immersive learning opportunity that will

• Support school-based studies in technology, visual arts and design;
• Introduce students to pathways and career options in fashion and design.

Saara’s application was successful; this is what she had to say about her experience.

During the school holidays, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to participate in a Fashion Intensive Program at the National Gallery Victoria (NGV).  This program consisted of activities such as: hands on workshops, a curator-guided walk through the Krystyna Campbell-Pretty fashion exhibition and an artist talk with Estelle Michaelides. This was all in a span of two extraordinary days, and to say the least it has to be one of the highlights of my holidays.

I was introduced to the other students who participated.  Getting familiar with new faces, which I must note was quite nerve racking for myself.   After all the awkward first encounters with one another, we had our curator-guided walk through the exhibition. We explored the Krystyna Campbell-Pretty Fashion Gift, which is an exhibition that consisted of Parisian fashion to haute couture from the late nineteenth century to the twenty-first century.  Krystyna Campbell-Pretty is a Melbourne-based philanthropist who donated the collection in the exhibition and who also funded the Fashion Intensive Course.

We learnt about the history of each garment, but we also learnt about the labour and hard work that is put into presenting, preserving and maintaining the quality of these garments.

We had a couple of workshops; one with a fashion designer named Estelle Michaelides in which we focused on mainly folio work, creating our own designs with the challenge of working with specific materials.  It was a fun to challenge our artistic skills. For the second workshop, we had the opportunity to learn and create our own textile design by gathering  inspiration from the NGV collection of artwork.

Overall it was a fascinating and insightful experience that broaden my knowledge of what goes on behind the scenes at the NGV.

Saara Vongue