Emma Mulholland is our pick from the TAFE parade next week at RAFW. This particular show has launched the career of more than a few well known designers – Dion Lee and Christopher Esber are both showing independently this year, having participated in the group show in 2008. And how far they have both come. So now we are looking forward to seeing Four Girls, with the top four students to graduate last year. We interviewed Emma recently to hear all about her collection and plans for the future. It will be featured in the next issue of pages, out next Thursday. Other exciting Emma news is the preview of her fashion film which will run alongside the presentation. Queen Aurelia, directed by Byron Spencer, stars model of the moment and longtime pages girl Rachel Rutt.

The film is “a compilation of many of the themes we will be seeing in Mulholland’s collection. With elements of the ocean, marine life, tribal cultures and bright colour.” Well there is definitely a lot of colour! In fact, the combination of UV lights and fluoro makeup is rather spectacular. The soundtrack by Nicky Van She was created especially for the film, and completely takes it to the next level. Check out the film above, and see a sneak peek of our interview with Emma below. Don’t forget to check back this time next week to see the whole thing!

“Mullholland has decided to run with a similar theme to her graduate collection, but you can expect to see a lot more development on the runway at RAFW, “I have developed my digital print further, created some unusual tie-dye fabrics and done some fine tuning on the fit and styling of the garments.”
Inspired by Australian surf culture, Mullholland has recently taken her designs on the road, visiting “all the places a surfer might go.” This included a beneficial trip to Bali, rich in surfing history and as colourful as Mulholland’s collection. Colour is part of Mulholland’s design identity, and all the fabrics have been developed by hand, “Almost all of the fabric I used for this range started out white, like a blank canvas, then pieces were digitally printed, tie dyed and embellished further.” Macramé and knitwear have also recently been added to her repertoire, rounding off the textural explosion that is an Emma Mulholland collection.”