RMIT graduate Talisa Trantino will launch her design career on the world stage after being awarded Australia’s top fashion scholarship.

Ms Trantino is the joint winner of the 2013-14 Australian Fashion Foundation scholarship, receiving $20,000 and a six-month internship in the United States or Europe.

She is the fourth RMIT Bachelor of Design (Fashion) graduate to win the AUSFF scholarship, following in the footsteps of Natasha Fagg (2012), Laura Wade (2011) and Georgia Lazzaro (2010).

Ms Trantino shared the prestigious award with Sydney-based creative director Amie Jones.

“Having just graduated from RMIT and now as an emerging designer, this opportunity to choose where I would like to intern is truly incredible,” she said.

“I have been interested in the foundation since my first year at RMIT, so to have been awarded this opportunity is such an honour.”

Driven by the duality of the traditional and the contemporary, Ms Trantino’s work merges technology and artisanal technique with a design practice heavily influenced by art direction.

Talisa talks about the Bachelor of Design (Fashion) program

She said studying fashion at RMIT surpassed her expectations, offering myriad opportunities to flex her creativity and experiment with new technologies.

“The fashion program is phenomenally creative, intellectual and business savvy with such dimension that at no point do you ever feel fashion is a glamorous industry, which is perhaps a misperception too often attached to the industry,” Ms Trantino said.

“RMIT encourages a strong interface with both local and global industry, but more importantly they drive us as the next generation of designers with forward thinking and advanced technology.

“In my final year, for example, I was able to experiment with a vacuum form machine – which is typically used by industrial design students to form plastic over objects – to create textural impressions on cloth.

“Fashion at RMIT is undeniably a very demanding course but when you love what you do, you thrive in that environment.”

Ms Trantino spent a semester of her degree overseas after being chosen for a prestigious study exchange to Parsons The New School for Design in New York.

“It came at a good time for me, as I’d reached a point where I felt burnt out and questioned how I would regain my creative spark,” she said.

“I yearned for an experience that would open my eyes to design abroad but also give me the opportunity to grow as a person and designer.

“New York ignited that energy back into my thinking and also gave me a deeper appreciation of what I had at RMIT.

“The experience was such a defining and memorable moment for me, particularly catapulting me into what was a challenging but exciting fourth and final year.”

http://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2014/february/fashion-scholarship-launches-design-career/

For more information on RMIT and the School of Design, contact KOM Consultants, the Canadian Application Centre for RMIT.  

RMIT is based in Melbourne, Australia and is considered a global university of technology and design .  It is  Australia’s largest tertiary institution. The University enjoys an international reputation for excellence in practical education and outcome-oriented research.