Paris beckons for top graduate Alexandra

21 year-old designer Alexandra Apostolidis is heading to the fashion capital of the world this month, after being chosen in a global search for the next big thing in fashion design.
Alexandra has been given the chance to present her work at a major fashion trade show in Paris after being named Design Graduate of 2011 by the Whitehouse Institute of Design in Melbourne where she studied.
As one of only ten finalists picked by an international jury she will attend the prestigious Who's Next/Pret-a-Porter Paris fashion expo which begins on June 30.
In the past, designers invited to the four-day event have received job offers, orders from around the world and made vital industry contacts, giving them a unique chance to fast-forward their career.
"It' a bit of shock to hear I'd been accepted," Alexandra told Neos Kosmos, who only learned she had been chosen last week.
Alexandra's interest in fashion design began in Year 12 at Camberwell Girls Grammar School.
"I've always been conscious of my look and why people wear what they wear, but it was at school when I was tossing up between being a photographer or a fashion designer that I decided to commit to it."
The youngest daughter of award-winning commercial photographer George Apostolidis, she says her father's journey to international success has been a major influence on her own path.
"He's always pushed me to never do anything less than 120 per cent. He's been a massive inspiration."
After three years of study for her Bachelor in Fashion Design, Alexandra graduated in 2011 and has worked since as an intern for a number of leading labels in Melbourne.
Her invitation to the Who's Next trade fair was the result of contacting Arts Thread, a UK based networking website that bridges the gap between education and the creative industries. Through the website graduates and colleges can network with those industries worldwide.
In Paris Alexandra will present her graduate collection A Comfortable Silence - dress designs that use hand-dyed fabrics to convey a visual, physical and emotional representation of silence.
"I like to create shapes rather than designing clothes. I'm very experimental in how I look at fashion design," says Alexandra, who admits that she's still coming to terms with finding employment as well and recognition in such a creative field.
"I feel I'm almost cheating in that I'm working but in something that I love doing."
After Paris, Alexandra's plans are to develop her career step-by-step back in Australia.
"I want to focus on my own label and become internationally successful, not famous, just successful. I just want to tick the boxes that I really want to tick."