by SIDNEY — The Australian Fashion Foundation has unveiled its 2023 Scholarship Awards, while also unveiling plans to expand the program across the United States next year.
Now in their 14th year and the foundation’s first physical event in Australia in three years, the awards were revealed during an event at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art on Monday.
The winners for 2023 are fashion designer Kritikon Khamsawat and creative director Olivia Law, recent graduates of Melbourne’s RMIT and Sydney’s Whitehouse Institute of Design, respectively.
In partnership with the American Australian Association and The Next Generation, a new private foundation established by Afterpay co-founder and CEO Nick Molnar and his wife Gabi, Khamsawat and Law will each receive a US$20,000 grant and, pending global travel, an internship at a US-based fashion company or publisher in 2023.
The judging panel included Camilla and Marc, co-founder and creative director, Camilla Freeman-Topper; Edwina McCann, managing editor of Vogue Australia; The Next Generation director Courtney Miller; Entente Agency founder Kara Hurry and Malcolm Carfrae, co-founder of AUSFF and founder and director of New York PR agency Carfrae Consulting.
Australian Fashion Foundation 2023 Scholarship Award winners Olivia Law and Kritikon Khamsawat with AUSFF co-founder Malcolm Carfrae.
“It has been a difficult two years to learn where I come from as a creative and as a designer and now I am able to pinpoint where I am with my career and my creativity. With this award, I look forward to building the collaboration and community within my studio,” said Khamsawat, who presented an extravagant sportswear capsule that included a trench coat with a detachable umbrella crinoline skirt and a purse fashioned from a shoe.Law, meanwhile, impressed the judges with her ability to multitask on a portfolio of images.
“He has creatively directed, photographed, drawn, retouched, illustrated for, cast, [did] hair and makeup,” Carfrae said. “He could go to a brand and publish content for it, he could handle every single aspect. It’s a good example of what colleges are doing now: Students aren’t learning just one skill, they’re learning more 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 more than one instance leading to full-time design positions at those companies.
In 2023, due to additional funding received from new partner The Next Generation, the foundation plans to partner with US-based fashion colleges to bring a group of their graduate students to Australia to gain experience in the Australian industry. Parsons The New School for Design is a college that Carfrae is in discussions with and Afterpay Australian Fashion Week could be a destination for American students, she said.
