SYDNEY — The Australian Fashion Foundation has unveiled its 2023 Scholarship Awards, at the identical time unveiling plans to expand this system Stateside next 12 months. 

Now of their 14th 12 months and the muse’s first physical event in Australia in three years, the awards were revealed at an event at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art on Monday. 

The winners for 2023 are designer Kritikon Khamsawat and inventive director Olivia Law, recent graduates of Melbourne’s RMIT and The Whitehouse Institute of Design in Sydney, respectively. 

In partnership with the American Australian Association and The Next Generation — a latest private foundation established by Afterpay cofounder and chief executive officer Nick Molnar and his wife Gabi — Khamsawat and Law will each receive a 20,000 U.S. dollar grant and, pending global travel restrictions, an internship with a U.S.-based fashion company or publisher in 2023.

The judging panel comprised Camilla and Marc cofounder and inventive director Camilla Freeman-Topper; Vogue Australia editor in chief Edwina McCann; The Next Generation director Courtney Miller; Entente Agency founder Kara Hurry, and Malcolm Carfrae, the cofounder of AUSFF and the founder and principal of Recent York PR agency Carfrae Consulting. 

“It has been a tough two years learning to know where I got here from as a creative and as a designer and now I’m in a position to pinpoint where I’m at with my profession and creativity. With this award I’m looking forward to developing collaboration and community inside my practice,” said Khamsawat, who presented a whimsical sportswear capsule that included a trench coat with a detachable umbrella crinoline skirt and a handbag produced from a shoe. Law, meanwhile, impressed judges together with her multitasking prowess on a portfolio of images. 

“She creatively directed, photographed, styled, retouched, did illustrations for, forged, [did] hair and makeup,” said Carfrae. “She could go to a brand and run content for it, she may very well be running each aspect. It’s a great example of what the universities are doing now — the scholars are usually not just learning one skill, they’re learning multiple things and becoming incredibly well-rounded.”

Established in 2008, the Australian Fashion Foundation Scholarship Awards have facilitated internships for Australian fashion graduates at brands including Calvin Klein, Louis Vuitton, Thom Browne, Proenza Schouler and Alexander McQueen, in a couple of case resulting in full-time design positions at those corporations.

In 2023, on account of additional funding received from latest partner The Next Generation, the muse plans to work with U.S.-based fashion colleges to bring a gaggle of their graduating students right down to Australia to realize experience throughout the Australian industry. Parsons The Recent School for Design is one college with which Carfrae is in discussions and Afterpay Australian Fashion Week may very well be one destination for the American students, he said.