“So serious, it’s silly”: Melbourne design student Rubee Hay on creating her award-winning collection
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BELLA LOKE
WORDS BY JACKIE ZHOU
“I’m very drawn to how the body interacts with garments, both physically and symbolically.”
The Melbourne Fashion Week Student Collections Runway is one of the program’s most popular events, showcasing technical excellence in the collections of design students across the city. RMIT Fashion Design Honours student Rubee Hay became one of this year’s two winners with her collection Broken Body, Silly Little Girl after the runway’s showcase on October 27.
Rubee’s collection featured three looks in total, with a heavy emphasis on fabric draping techniques and making garments appear intentionally ‘too big’. Her looks included a subversive black suit made of wool crepe and two chiffon tops printed with Rubee’s signature chain details.
For more fashion news, shoots, articles and features, head to our Fashion section.
The chiffon tops were accompanied by two heavily layered skirts, made using a combination of navy wool crepe and silk lining. Rubee said the collection was self-reflective and focused on the experience of fragility and protection.
View this post on Instagram
Rubee’s vision for the collection was to be “so serious, it’s silly”, making her handmade greyhound Bevan the ideal runway accessory. Bevan may be non-functional as a fashion item, but he’s there for the silly vibes and to highlight that the human experience – particularly for women – doesn’t have to revolve around being purposeful.
When asked why she’s drawn to themes of girlhood, Rubee says she’s attracted to self-portraits and how the body experiences and interacts with the world. “I’m very drawn to how the body interacts with garments, both physically and symbolically,” she said. “I wanted to communicate this feeling of fragility not only through the garment’s design but more so through [the body’s] experience… within the garment.”
Rubee’s collection was accompanied by jewellery made by local Naarm artist Picassa Barata, who handcrafted green resin marble weights for Rubee’s chiffon tops. “I think [what Rubee wanted to do] was very interesting… I wanted to see my work on something [like that],” she said. “I like to enhance people’s [creations], rather than be the main thing.”
View this post on Instagram
Rubee says collaborating with another artist was “a really great experience to figure out how to express an idea to someone else… [because I’ve] always been very introverted”. As Melbourne Fashion Week stylist Stuart Walford told Fashion Journal, this year’s design students are more focused on “making clothes that are… wearable” rather than theatrical and exaggerated.
For Broken Body, Silly Little Girl, Rubee combined tailoring techniques with unconventional stitching and hemming techniques. “The garments in the collection focus on tailoring and draping, creating a delicate balance between being slightly too small and a touch too big,” Ruby told Australian Fashion Council.
“By emphasising craftsmanship, technique and a sentimental commitment to quality, longevity and slow fashion, the collection nurtures an enduring narrative between the wearer and the garments.”
You can follow Rubee for more here.
Liked this? You’ll love these...
