Calcoup and UTS
At Calcoup Knitwear, we are committed to using the latest technology and keeping in step with the most recent advancements in knitwear production and manufacturing. So while we focus on today, we also have our sights fixed on the future. As students are our future, we believe that offering them an opportunity to see behind the scenes and gain mentorship from within the knitwear industry is invaluable.
As a result, Calcoup have nurtured a partnership with the University of Technology, Sydney for many years. This partnership allows final year Fashion and Textiles design students the opportunity to visit our manufacturing facilities and get up close and personal with industrial knitwear technology. We are able to offer each student wishing to produce knitted garments, mentorship and guidance in completing their projects. We are able to take their designs and transform them into finished pieces, ready for their fashion show. We also support their student works financially – we hope they will think of us when they become rich, famous designers!
This partnership also allows Calcoup to stay in touch with the textile community. It gives us an invaluable insight into the latest styles and trends in knitwear. We enjoy a challenge, and every year, students present us with complicated and challenging ideas that push our machinery and ourselves to the limit! This allows us to discover new techniques and ideas that ultimately help us to develop our own production skills.
See some of the latest Calcoup-sponsored student showcases below:
Works By: Ellie McFadden, 2022
Ellie McFadden x Sustainability x Skate Culture’ adopts the skate culture aesthetic and attitude to push streetwear into the sustainable fashion realm. Adopting the skate cultures subversive and rebellious attitude exemplifies an openness to the future and challenges traditionalist views and behaviours whilst creating a space to confront global issues through an activism lens. The skateboard style orients this collection to prioritise sustainability at the centre of the collection without compromising on aesthetic value.
Works By: Mei Zhang, 2019
Photographer: Tim Lo
Talent: Cathy Wolf
Mei’s collection is a curated tribute to women who strip:
An alternate, more intimate point of view around agency in performing female sexuality, over disempowering presumptions of what it means to be naked in the presence of strangers. Evoking a challenge to renew ideas about the female experience of sexualising our bodies. Knitted pieces that articulate the body are sensitive at core but provoke a certain mindset.
Works By: Isabella Snelson, 2018
Photographer: Sam Shepherd
Unconscious
Isabella’s collection explores the ways in which the conscious and unconscious psyche interact. The conscious mind often holds censorship over the unconscious, as people fall into a mindless rhythm and pattern of day-to-day life. Amplifying the possibilities of the subconscious, the collection explores floral motifs through a variety of woven and knitted fabrications. Familiar garments such as sleepwear, underwear and workwear are combined and draped to go beyond structured expectations, evolving everyday garments into something free of conscious censorship. The collection considers the potential of unconscious ideas. How can we harness our dreams? How can we prevent the extraordinary from being reduced to the mundane?
Works By: Alexandra Lane, 2015
Photographer: Sam Shepherd
Stacks / 01
This collection is centred on the fundamental theory of functional design existing to facilitate life, where iconic classics form the foundation.
The garments challenge the fast-paced paradigm of the fashion industry by allowing user customisation and garment multi-functionality through detachable layers. Architectural urban structure is reflected through bonded jersey and sculptural ribbed knitwear.
Works By: Simone Yow, 2015
Photographer: Rachel Dray
Model: Karina (Work Agency)
Haptic - Capsule Collection
An exploration of an individual’s sense of child-like curiosity through the embodied sense of touch and the tactile. HAPTIC aims to push the construction of knitwear, enhancing the sensations experienced by the wearer.
Works By: Alison Hope Murray, 2014
None of Your Beeswax
The contrast in the desire to change with the nostalgia of dreams past is never clearer than in rural Australia. In dealing with small town mentality, this collection reflects rural Australia and the feeling of loneliness found in isolation but also the way that fantasy can transport you.
Works By: Zoe Champion, 2014
Dispersion
Dispersion explores the relationship between humans and their environment, illustrating nature overtaking and consuming the body. The collection draws on the patterns and textures of six different elements found in nature and expresses those through original knitwear textiles that embody the mood and feel of natural forces surrounding us.
Works By: Bonnie Luong, 2013
Photographer: Eddie New
Model: Alex Kelly @ EMG models
Student Update: Since graduating from a Bachelor of Fashion and Textiles design at UTS, Bonnie has been working to further develop her skills and knowledge in fashion houses in Australia and Internationally. She was a runner up in the Australian Business Chambers Awards and has decided to work towards creating her own label and business.
She has been working for both Carla Zampatti and Bianca Spender in cutting, design and production, and has been creating some exciting knitwear ideas with Bianca for her upcoming collections.
Graduate collection info: Cryptic Creatures is a knit-based Womenswear collection combining drape and tailoring techniques to create sculptural garments that both reveal and conceal the body. This collection emerged as an investigation into the psychological framework of female criminals, especially the femme fatales of the 1940's to 50's film noir age. Through research of the representation and demeaning portrayals of women associated with crime, a sense of loss of identity was established. This range aims to portray the misrepresentation of these women by undercutting vulnerabilities of their realities through a sense of darkness and shadowing.
Cryptic Creatures is about projecting this unprotected female. It is about drawing all the elements that construct what we understand of female criminals. It is about showcasing their hidden inner masculine identity. The aim is to embody a visual representation of this 'Invisible Woman'.
Works By: Anna-Marie Gruber, 2013
Student Update: Since graduating from UTS, Anna-Marie Gruber has been selected as a finalist for the National Graduate Showcase at Virgin Australia's Melbourne Fashion Festival as well as the 2014 iD International Emerging Designer Awards where she was the winner of The Fabric Store Award for Excellence in Design.
Anna-Marie is currently in New York undertaking the Masters of Fine Arts in Fashion Design and Society program at Parsons, where she was offered a scholarship in recognition of her design talent.
Works By: Alexandra Lawrie, 2012
Student Update: Since graduating, Alexandra Lawrie had her Graduate Collection on display at the Sydney Royal Easter Show. She was also invited to work on a new project for the Australian Wool Innovations, which will be exhibited in 2013.
Alexandra hopes to head to New York to pursue a career in Fashion Design.
Works By: Katherine Mavridis, 2012
Student Update: Having completed a Bachelor of Design in Fashion and Textiles at UTS, Katherine Mavridis is now applying for various prestigious masters courses around the world.
She recently received the Australian Wool Innovation award for 'Craftsmanship & Innovation' for her Graduate Collection. In addition to this, she is currently working on a woolen outfit that will tour nationally in 2013 as part of their annual exhibition.
Katherine was selected as a finalist in the ID International Emerging Designer Awards for 2013.
As a knitwear designer, Katherine is most interested in exploring the textural qualities of knitwear. She explores these ideas from a 'rhythmic' perspective, creating dynamic textural and sculptural knitted structures that 'pulsate' around the body.
Graduate Collection Information: 'Metempsychosis' is a conceptually motivated collection that investigates an abstract exploration into the embodiment of the soul. The collection is driven by the integral creation of a muse; knitted and leather sculptural forms engulf and protrude from a dark, mysterious, unknown figure-reborn after death into a new external form. She wallows in the shallows of the water, trying to reconnect with her new skin. She is reborn.
Works By: Alana Clifton-Cunningham, 2011
Photographer: Jennifer Chua
Model: Adele Thiel
Alana Clifton-Cunningham is a fashion and textile design lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney. As part of her teaching and research, Alana specialises in knitwear design that examines the perceptions of knitting within a fashion context.
In 2011 Alana approached Calcoup Knitwear to develop a series of industrially knitted pieces that explored the notion of illusion or what is known in art as 'Trompe l'oeil' (trick of the eye).
Her work incorporated textural knitted pieces, which were then referenced through photography and jacquard knitted as two-dimensional forms giving the illusion of three-dimensional qualities. Work from this series titled 'Second Glance' will be exhibited nationally until 2013 as part of Sensorial Loop: Tamworth Textile Triennial.
Works By: Courtney White, 2011
Student Update: Courtney White was recently one of 12 students selected nationally to be part of the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival Graduate Showcase, which will be held in March 2012.
Courtney is now pursuing a future career in design and production.
Works By: Caitlin Murray, 2011
Photographer: Lucien Aplerstein
Student Update: After graduating in 2011, Caitlin was selected to take her Calcoup sponsored graduate fashion collection to the 2012 New Zealand ID International Emerging Designer Awards. She will be competing with graduates from around the world for prize money of up to $5000.
Works By: Bronwyn O'Brien, 2010
Student Update: After working with Calcoup, Bronwyn went on to win second prize in the Australian Wool Emerging Designer Awards, which were held at the Royal Easter Show.
She also won the award for Best Research and Development at the Mittelmoda International Fashion Competition, held annually in Gorizia, Italy.
She is also now working for Ginger and Smart.
Works By: Matilda Pamment
Student Update: Matilda received a Highly Commended for her collection at the Brisbane Mercedes Benz Fashion Festival.
The competition is held in support of young Australian talent. She was one of two students from UTS to be put forward to be part of this event.
Works By: Alexandra Kenworthy
Student Update: Alexandra was a finalist in the ID International Emerging Designer Awards, held in Dunedin, New Zealand. She was selected from over 120 applicants from 20 countries.
Alexandra was the runner up in the NSW Business Chambers Award, and is now currently working for Kylie Hawkes as well as producing bags and clothing under her own label, selling at Glebe and Bondi markets.
Works By: Jana Comino
Student Update: Jana has now started her own label and is selling at Bondi and Glebe markets.
Works By: Bianca Reis
Student Update: Bianca is currently working as an assistant designer in New York.
Works By: Talia Shuvalov
Photographer: Nik Sykes
Student Update: Talia is currently undertaking a Masters in Design at Parsons, The New School in New York.
She was also a finalist in the Australians in New York Fashion Fund competition for 2011.
