Fashion School Head Slams Female Designers

I was flabbergasted to wake this morning to news that the head of one of this country's most reputable fashion schools had slammed Australia's current crop of female fashion designers for designing ''cheap and nasty'' fashion for their female customers.

The comments came in the wake of the release last week of the official schedule for Rosemount Australian Fashion Week which kicks off on April 28.

The schedule revealed that the annual fashion show by Sydney Institute's Fashion Design Studio would showcase designs by four male student designers.

The school's head, Nicholas Huxley, said he had chosen only men to represent the school for the first time at RAFW because he believed they were creating more "stylish" designs for women as opposed to the "cheap and nasty" clothing being created by female designers.

I was flabbergasted mostly by the fact that on the same day that Kevin Rudd announced the appointment of Australia's first female Governor-General, someone in such a position as Huxley's would come out with such a sweeping, unfounded, prehistoric and sexist comment.

Before I go any further, I'd hope that Huxley's comments to the Daily Telegraph weren't taken out of context. Though it appears most of his comments were pretty clear and difficult to misintepret, such as:

"Girls are designing more for themselves and their girlfriends... it is for the way that women are dressing today. They are dressing to go out shopping for men. It's cheap and nasty.''

C'mon Nicholas, what century are you living in to think that women dress for the approval and attention of the opposite sex? And secondly, what evidence do you have to suggest that male designers are creating any less provocative garments than their female counterparts?

Female fashion stalwarts, Lisa Ho, Collette Dinnigan and Easton Pearson are renowned for their feminine, demure designs not too mention up-and-comers Yeojin Bae, Anna Thomas, Ginger & Smart, Michelle Jank and Thurley (pictured above).

On the other hand, former Fashion Design Studio student, Wayne Cooper (pictured below), is hardly known for his modest designs...

It will be interesting to see the garments of Fashion Design Studio students Christopher Eber, Dion Lee, Guy Hastie and Spencer Webb when they showcase their designs at RAFW in a couple of weeks... I wonder if they will come with built-in chastity belts?

What do you think? Do you agree with Nicholas Huxley? Are women today dressing "cheap and nasty" and are female designers responsible?

Source: The Age Company Ltd