By Sharon Green

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Have you ever wanted to know what goes on at the fashion event of the year reserved for industry and trade members? Held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, FashionExposed returned this year to showcase Autumn/Winter 2010 collections including everything from womenswear to millinery and accessories. Attracting around 600 exhibitors, the event comprised of The Shoe Fair, The Bags & Accessories Fair, as well as live fashion parades demonstrating the array of talent produced by local and national designers.

A major event this year included the Debut competition where twelve of the finest emerging garment and accessory designers were contending for winning places in their categories. The categories included Apparel, Accessories and Avant Garde, and judges from the fashion industry carefully selected which designers most deserved to be acknowledged for their collection.

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South African born designer Marion Liese won the category for Apparel and has been acknowledged for her luxurious lingerie collection “A Dark Romance”. Her fashion line is still brand new and has only been officially established for about three months. Marion admits that everything has happened very quickly and she has been overwhelmed with her recent award. “I’m still shaking. It’s such a surprise,” she said.

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With a design degree from the University of Auckland, Marion now bases herself in Melbourne and boasts over twenty years of experience in the fashion industry. Marion’s lingerie brand came about when she was made redundant last year and struggled to find work. As a result, she started designing her own garments and created a job for herself. “I have an extensive knowledge in fitting and a good eye for picking errors,” she said.

Marion draws inspiration from outerwear and underwear garments and has been known to replicate textures from old buildings to create a unique style. “The comfort factor for my designs is also very important. I put a lot of attention into whether the garment feels good and an accurate fit is also a must,” she said.

Her collection consists of a range of soft fabrics including stretch silks, mesh and wool. “I also incorporate fine lace detailing and ruched sleeves for a point of difference,” she said. Marion admits that owning her own label has been the highlight of her fashion career. “It’s nice to do things for yourself and it’s really good to get a reward at the end of it all,” she said.

Danielle Zanetti scooped the category prize of the Debut competition for Accessories, impressing the judges with her outstanding collection of hand crafted jewellery. After five years in the making, she was invited to enter the competition this year and hopes that the award will give her brand the exposure it needs.

Her love of jewellery derives from her Italian heritage and she explains that she has always been fascinated with Venetian crystals, glassblowing and bead making. So it’s safe to assume that her desire to create accessories has been in her blood for years. “I get inspiration from various ideas. It usually happens when I see something and then I just know I have to create a piece of jewellery based on that,” Danielle said.

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Her pieces stand out as antique with a touch of elegance, and most of her creations incorporate the use of delicate vintage chains combined with chunky, textured beads of varying sizes. Danielle admits that the most important aspect of putting together her designs is to ensure quality as a priority. “I hand make each piece and for that reason I wouldn’t like to resort to bulk orders. I’d like to keep my design as a boutique range,” she explained.

Danielle doesn’t like the thought of sending her designs off shore to get mass produced at the risk of her pieces becoming less personal. “A lot of my pieces are one-off designs because sometimes I’ll only have access to a few materials at a time,” she said.

Danielle often finds unique beads when she’s travelling and will make an exclusive item purely based on her vision for those materials. So the likelihood of finding a duplicate necklace or bracelet is quite rare. “I feel this makes the brand more individual,” she said.

For information about these brands or to find stockists contact:

Marion Liese: www.marionliese.com

Danielle Zanetti: danniz@optusnet.com.au

FashionExposed runs from Sunday 30 August, 2009 until Tuesday 1 September, 2009. Visit: http://www.fashionexposed.com

Image credits:

FashionExposed logo thanks to www.fashionexposed.com. All other images thanks to Sharon Green.