Craft Cartel are thrilled to present a free-for-all fashion orgy in Melbourne’s Federation Square as a key event at the Sustainable Living Festival. Common folks get a chance to try their hands at being faaaaabulous fashionistas, daaarling - giving new life to old clothes, strut their stuff on the catwalk and raise awareness about the benefits of environmentally sustainable fashion. Plus win great prizes including Crumpler bags, $100 worth of clothing from the shop with no name, Get Creative Magazine subscriptions, Horse Bazaar drinking cards and more.

The event will be hosted by the indomitable Mzzz Erin Tasmania, with special guests fashion designer Tam Hua, Ellie Mücke and Wardrobe Refashion 's Nichola Prested giving tips and demonstrations.

Sunday February 22nd 1:30 - 4pm

Birrunrung Marr (behind Fed Square, near ArtPlay see map here ) in the Play Dome - Free!

Absolutely no skill, taste or equipment required! Rock up on the day and create wild and wonderful outfits in teams or go it alone. Model your masterpiece before the judges yourself or rope in one of our on-hand-hotties to do it for you.

RSVP on Facewank  

The Fashion Jam event at the Sustainable Living Festival will be adapted from previous successful ‘Art Jam’ events held in 2008 at inner-Melbourne bar, Section 8. Hosted by Mzzz Erin Tasmania, the Art Jam events encouraged crafters, sculptors, painters, jewellers, designers, sewers, hipsters and art novices to improvise creations from the art & craft supplies that were thrown their way, with the chance to win great prizes and learn stuff.

Punters at Fashion Jam will be invited to pick the brains of our fabulous guest designers Tam Hua, Ellie Mucke & Nichola Prested while making designs of their own using materials donated by the crew from The Co-Op Shop , Brunswick.

Tam Hua - HUA
Hua is a Melbourne based label which combines strong contemporary awareness with enduring ideas of elegance. Merging fragility and strength, fluidity and severity, the ranges are reflective of both the tailored Victorian silhouette and flowing elements of Japanese drape. Working to cultivate the Hua woman’s personal style and embrace her inner spirit of experimentation is at the heart of all Hua collections.
www.tamhua.com

Ellie Mücke - MüCKE
Ellie Mücke’s search for alternative approaches to fashion design practice began during her Bachelor of Arts (Fashion) degree, completed with distinction, in 2001.  After spending a few years travelling, Mücke returned home to work in a children’s clothing company and quickly found herself unsatisfied with unsustainable practice.  In 2005 she left the company to begin exploring more holistic ways to create.  Focusing on the reconfiguration of second hand clothes and interactive design application, her label MüCKE was born in 2006. Since then, her edgy designs have slowly gained recognition amongst the design and eco savvy.
www.mucke.com.au

Nichola Prested - Wardrobe Refashion
Wardrobe Refashion is a community which has had an online presence since early 2006. Based in Melbourne, Australia, owner Nichola Prested started up the site after deciding to quit buying new manufactured clothing in a bid to do her part for the planet, save money and improve her sewing skills.
Participants of the blog pledge to abstain from the purchase of new manufactured clothing for the period of 2, 4, 6 months or LIFE. They pledge to refashion, renovate, and recycle preloved items with their own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium or make their own from scratch.
www.wardroberefashion.net
 

 1.Mucke design (photo by Rachel Taylor) 2.Hua design

FASHION JAM (and all ART JAMS) are equal parts Iron Chef, daggy reality TV talent quest & arty farty gallery opening the ‘competition’ is more tongue in cheek than cut-throat and the atmosphere is relaxed & conducive to play. Having said that, the output at previous live Art Jams has been of an impressive standard, though thankfully not without a few delightfully crappy works.

Each Art Jam event is held over several hours, culminating in a twenty minute judging session. Basically, we throw a pile of art supplies and weird and wonderful materials at punters to play with - if they want to be in the running to win prizes they must use a ‘secret ingredient’ in their masterpiece. Ingredients thus far have included condoms, novelty toothpicks, bike lights and sporks (for the uncultured that is a cross between a spoon and a fork). The ingredient can form part of the artwork, be represented in the work or actually used as a tool to help create it.

A guest artist of fame, infamy or great talent is present to empart their wisdom and give tips and a demo to contestents.
A countdown is given as time runs out, with Mzzz Tasmania building the excitement to an inflated Melbourne-Cup-like frenzy - with artists being warned to step away from the artwork when the final buzzer sounds.

Three highly esteemed and completely faultless judges (including the guest artist) peruse the completed works and select a shortlist for the big prizes from Crumpler, Get Creative Magazine, Horse Bazaar Digital Arts Bar and more.

The shortlisted artworks are presented to the audience by Mzzz Tassie and artists are grilled by the judges who award prizes. For the SLF Fashion Jam, participants will be invited to model their work on a purpose-built catwalk.

No need to book - just rock up.

RSVP on Facebook

For more info, or to sponsor Fashion Jam, contact Casey

MASSIVE thanks to Mark Burban for all his awesome graphics & photography

& to the crew at the Co-Op Shop for generous donation of old clothes (fodder for new hi-fashion) check them at 313 Victoria st Brunswick

& to Crumpler for loading us with ace bags to load you with

& to the shop with no name for the very generous gift of a $100 clothing voucher prize. Check out their recycled wares at 136 Lygon st East Brunswick

& to Miki & Cait & Brent & Anthony & Gina, our on-hand hotties