You Are What
You Wear
By Vivien Whyte (she/her)
I sat down with AUT fashion students Celia Thomson and Shereen Chia to talk about their grad collections, style, sustainable fashion and consumerism. How has fashion school changed how you see the industry? Shereen: Since entering fashion school, I’ve realised that the industry isn’t for me. I want to create on my own terms but there are a lot of things in the industry that don’t allow me to follow my values. It’s shown me there are so many gaps and just how difficult it is to achieve sustainability. It’s hard knowing you’re producing things and they’re probably going to end up wasted. But it’s just the reality of clothing and how fast the industry is - things lose their value so quickly. We live in a society where people don’t value their clothing anymore. Celia: I chose fashion because I hated going shopping and all the options that were available. It was hard finding clothes that I really liked.
There are bad things about the industry, but I’ve always known I’ve wanted to be here. There are so many avenues you can take and so many jobs that you wouldn’t even know about. Through fashion school, I just realised how hard it is [to be sustainable]. But, there’s a lot of opportunity here too. Part of the reason I chose it is because there’s so much to change and I don’t want to avoid that. I want to be involved in it. Tell us about your grad collections… Celia: I think I’m going to do a capsule wardrobe where everything inside is multi-functional, styleable [with everything else], inclusive and unisex. My whole thing is about comfort, durability and function. I think that if you have those three elements you create pieces that actually do what they’re supposed to. And I want to make comfortable clothing that also looks good and stylish. 17
