A FAMILY tie to wool growing was the start of a creative career for fashion design graduate Lucy Virgona.
The Sydney-based designer, granddaughter of Leo and Judy Blanch of Westvale Merinos, Wollun, won the supreme award at last year’s Australian Wool Fashion Awards and now she’s set her sights on developing her own fashion line.
The 23-year-old has spent school holidays on her grandparents’ property since she was a young child.
“I’ve had a long history with wool, playing with wool in the shed and learning from my family about wool and its properties,” she said.
“I loved art, textiles and design at school, so I decided to go with the fashion side of wool and see where I could go in that direction.”
After graduating from Santa Sabina College, Miss Virgona studied fashion design at the University of Technology, Sydney.
She finished her studies last year and spent her final year exploring the use of wool as a natural fibre.
The garments created for her ‘Raw Naivete’ collection were on display at this year’s New England Merino Field Days.
“The design aspect I was looking at was how to translate naivety in fashion and also representing Australian landscapes through the fabric,” she said.
The concept became a collection featuring digital prints on wool crepe and hemp fabrics.
“I’d won a digital printing scholarship so I worked with Think Positive in Sydney to create digital artworks that were printed onto lengths of fabric that I used to create the whole collection,” Miss Virgona said.
Her AWFA win was a huge surprise, but a big reward for a designer whose work revolves around wool.
The dress, which also won the racewear section, was made from a wool charne fabric, one of three fabrics created by Albury woolgrower Leon Martin, Charmac Merinos.
“The wool fashion awards is such a great event that promotes the wool industry, so I was very honoured,” Miss Virgona said.
“A big passion of mine is to promote wool, get it out there and share my knowledge of wool with consumers and designers.
”I’m really pushing Merino wool and trying to get people to understand that knitted garments aren’t always wool, wool is its own fibre and comes with its own set of properties.
“I love the feel of it and I Iove that it’s generally easy to work with. It’s a versatile fabric that moulds to the body and it can go from summer to winter.”
Miss Virgona said the fibre was under utilised in fashion as many people didn’t understand that it could be worn for every season.
“A lot of people don’t realise what versatility there is (in wool) – from evening wear to sportswear, to a beautiful tailored suit – wool is not just the knitted itchy jumper in the cupboard,” she said.
“You don’t get the properties that wool has in any other fibre.
“Man-generated fibres might pick up one or two, but they don’t adapt to different conditions the way wool does to allow it to be worn from winter through to summer.”
Her latest fashion win was in New Zealand in March this year, when her designs won an award as part of the iD Dunedin International Emerging Designer Awards.
The awards, run as part of iD Dunedin Fashion Week, offers new designers a platform to showcase their collections.
“I had to send images of my collections and an application, and 39 finalists from around the world were chosen present their collections,” Miss Virgona said.
Her ‘Raw Naivete’ collection won the The Fabric Store Award for Excellence in Design worth $3000, which included $2000 in fabric.
“It was good exposure to get my designs shown somewhere and get different eyes on the collection,” Miss Virgona said.
“The judges at the competition included a range of industry figures from around the world so it was really great to get advice from them and hear their feedback.
“They said the colours were very beautiful and Australian, but also contemporary with very relaxed silhouettes, so they’re very easy-to-wear clothes for a number of ages.
“It was really great to showcase my work and win an award in New Zealand as well, because they do have so much wool and they’re really good at promoting their wool, but I was doing something a bit different with it, away from knitted items, as well as with the digital print.”
Miss Virgona’s goal is to start her own label, but until then she’ll gather as much knowledge as possible by working for other designers.
She started an internship this week with Sydney-based designer Akira.
“He’s such a well-known designer within the industry and highly renowned, so to be able to learn from his company and from his experience will be fantastic,” Miss Virgona said.
“I’ve always wanted to work with an Australian designer and learn from them, whether it’s through an internship or a design assistant role, or whether I work on the wool side with buyers or in consumer research.
“I’d like to get as much experience as I can in different parts of the industry. I want to explore my design skills with my passion for wool and hopefully have a career with wool.”
She hopes to help out with the frenzy of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Sydney next month.
“There’s so much organisation and work that goes into the big shows – you’re preparing for ages then a model walks up and down the catwalk and it’s just over like that.”
While she’d love international success, she plans to stay in Australia and work with Australian Merino wool.
“I think within fashion design there’s this pressure to run overseas, which I think is not helping the Australian industry,” she said.
“There’s so much potential here because we grow so much Merino wool. My long-term goal is to stay in Australia and promote our wool internationally.”