Photo Diary: How Par Moi designer Ashiya Omundsen prepares for Melbourne Fashion Week

Behind the scenes.

To the outside observer or attendee, Fashion Weeks look incredibly glamorous. There’s champagne, goodie bags, beautiful people and, of course, the clothing. But to anyone who works in the industry, behind the scenes can be a rather different affair.

For a designer, showing a new collection at Melbourne Fashion Week (M/FW) involves several months jam-packed with decisions and moving parts. Pulling it off is a challenge for any fashion house, but when you’re a one-woman show like Ashiya Omundsen, designer and founder of Melbourne label Par Moi, the lead-up is particularly intense.

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With her new collection debuting on the Volvo Electric Runway tonight (we’ll be there, as an official M/FW media partner and big fans of Ashiya’s work), we were curious to get a glimpse into her process.

Fabric sourcing

My first step in the design process is always looking at fabric. I don’t really sketch, so I usually keep a bunch of ideas in my head while I’m hunting for fabrics or I’ll see a certain fabric that will give me an idea. I only work with deadstock materials, so it’s good to approach it with mostly loose ideas because I never know what will be available, which is kind of exciting.

Drafting patterns

The next step is where what’s in my head starts transferring onto paper, in the form of a pattern. I do this in my home studio with cardboard, pencil and scissors… serious tools 😉

Toiling

Next, I make a first toile (an early version of a finished garment, usually made up in calico fabric so the design can be tested). I usually use studio remnants that are similar to the final fabric for this, so the fall and look of the toile will be as similar as possible to the final piece. I then check the fit and make any necessary adjustments to the pattern. Sometimes multiple toiles are made before the pattern is ready for the final sample.

Sample making

Once the final toile is looking good, it’s time to cut the design in the final fabric and sew it into the final sample. Once this is done, it’s back to making patterns, toiles and samples for the next ideas until I have my 10 looks ready for the show. I do all of this myself from my home studio in Brunswick.

Fitting

Now everything is ready, it’s time to fit and shoot all the new pieces with a model to use for the online store. This also lets me put the looks together as I would style them, so I can share ideas with my show stylist, Karinda – although she will likely put the looks together differently.

Accessories

After shooting, I had some accessories I wanted to try to add to my looks. I’m doing a bit with hardware in this collection, so decided to work some of the same ideas into a few accessory pieces. Lastly, I grade and make the sizes required for the different models in the show.

Hand in

Time to hand over all my pieces to the M/FW collections team! Now it’s in the trusty hands of Karinda, the show stylist, to put the final touches on each look and fit everything with the models.

Get your tickets to see Par Moi at the Volvo Electric Runway, here.