Target supports emerging Australian fashion designers
Rachael Zheng is a conceptual womenswear designer and a recent graduate and winner of the National Australian Graduate Showcase. Zheng is at the forefront of creating a strong aesthetic brand. Assisting her with this is the retail giant and supporter of affordable designer fashion, Target.
Zheng’s creative practice and aesthetic focuses on shape, form and intelligent patternmaking. Drawing inspiration from specific periods in art, photography and film, Rachael Zheng has recently been awarded one of Australia’s most lucrative student fashion accolades.
A young and emerging talent reaps the benefits
As the winner of the 2015 National Graduate Showcase, Zheng has taken home not only a $25,000 grant but also the opportunity to design a capsule collection with Target.
A graduate of Fashion Design/Textiles at the University of Technology Sydney, Zhang presented her collection “LILT” at the graduate showcase which resulted in winning the spot above 129 other young designers.
L I L T is a minimal, understated and wearable collection with a focus on hand dyed textiles and bold, colourful shapes. Drawing inspiration from photography; particularly artists that convey the mood of the new frontier of American creativity and modernity, Zheng is looking to infuse that same focus into her Target range.
The LILT collection is developed in part to prompt the wearer to embrace a basic but sophisticated approach towards dressing that allows you to embrace the layering of colour and shape.
In her own words, Rachael says “My collection is firstly all about the colour and people have such a positive reaction to the colour and the shapes,” she said.
What to expect at Target
Based on LILT, customers can expect strong geometrical shapes, bright colours and an individual approach to fashion delivered through shape and colour.
Target has a long history of investing in emerging, established and new designers like Zheng. In the tradition of Dion Lee and Missoni, Zheng will stand among esteemed company and Target can feel a degree of pride from their arguably wise choice to invest in a young and talented designer who will no doubt appear in greater prevalence in the Australian fashion landscape.
Target support young emerging talent
Target has thrown its support behind Zheng’s capsule collection that is launching in-store now and kicks off the retailers’ “Australian Stars” program with a limited range of 16 pieces: she is also next in line in for Target’s support focus that formally recognises and demonstrates their commitment to home-grown talent.
Zheng’s rise to prevalence is an exciting development in the fashion world that solidifies for other young designers that they can make a mark straight off the rank; particularly for young start-up designers who are working on their aesthetic, streamlining their range and building their brands.
Working through the challenges and barriers to entering the market, young designers have access to new methods previous generations went without – whether it be crowd funding, peer to peer lending or on-line collaborations. Despite these new advancements the challenge to get a new brand launched and the product sold remain as strong.
How Image Label Systems assist emerging talent
As a supporter and collaborator with young designers, Image label systems operate in a way that positively assists young designers with their branding, labelling and supply chain needs.
There are aspects to our production process like no MOQ (minimum order quantity) which suits this market as they can produce as many or as little as they need. This helps those new to the market to manage their garment production process with a higher degree of flexibility that allows them to get the best from their brand.
We have assisted many new-to-market businesses and watched them grow into very successful and profitable small businesses.
Some of the start-ups often arrive with rough sketches or photographs showing an idea or example of what they want to create and we work with them in a collaborative way to take these often partially developed plans through to production.
In the way that Target supports young designers, we work in a similar way to support their development at the operational end.
If you are in the throws of developing your own brand and need a partner to help you get it off the ground then we can assist.
Specialists in the field of supply chain and labelling we can help you develop your brand and bring consistency along your garment production process.