Fashion students map Melbourne's Greek tailoring diasporas

19 Fashion students from RMIT University will present garments based on maps of Melbourne's Greek, Polish, Italian, British and German-Austrian tailoring diasporas in an exhibition this Saturday.

Tea for the Tailors, which will be held at the Immigration Musuem on Saturday from 10:30am until 12pm, will see second year Bachelor of Design (fashion) students showcase their creative response and research into the city's past and current tailoring diasporas.

Five out of the 19 students focused on Melbourne's Greek tailoring diaspora for the project. Student Adi Horic used a GPS device to trace back Melbourne's past and present Greek tailors in Melbourne, and then used these paths to develop seams and construction lines of a jacket he is creating for the exhibition.

"In my personal path, design lines in general were influenced by how we get around the city and the travelling aspect of the journey," he said. "Train lines, winding roads and an overall web of transportation in our city was used to create pleats and folds that resembled a layered and structural representation of the journey".

Mr Horic researched 20 Greek tailors from Melbourne, including the Alexiou family, who still run a tailoring business in Albert Park.

Fashion Lecturer for RMIT's School of Architecture and Design, Peter Allan, said the research revealed a snapshot of Melbourne's tailoring businesses and personal histories, including the influences of European post-war diasporas on the craft of tailoring in Melbourne.

The project, in its second year, has a different emphasis this time around, RMIT fashion lecturer, Sue Thomas said. "Last year the project had a geographical focus while this year the focus is cultural," Ms Thomas told Neos Kosmos.

"We feel strongly about honouring tailors in Melbourne. Students should feel proud about the industry and about Melbourne itself," she said. "Many of the pieces are still being made as we speak, in the nature of fashion it's very spontaneous."