Geelong designer flying high after fashion win

MEET the talented Geelong designer who has been crowned a rising star of the fashion industry.

Ali Raif wowed judges of the Myer Fashions on Your Front Lawn competition with his beautiful, bold entry in the emerging designer award.

Now the Bell Park creative is preparing to feature in Vogue Magazine’s February issue which was part of his prize package.

The co-founder of fashion house Bird Skin admitted to being over the moon when his name was called out as the winner on Melbourne Cup Day.

“It has always been a dream of mine to win this prestigious competition,” Raif said.

“When they announced the winner it was quite unbelievable – I had no idea that they had picked my entry and it was truly surprising.”

It was the fourth time Raif has been a finalist in the award which this year went digital due to the pandemic.

His winning design was a striking sculptural piece featuring bright spring colours, colour blocking and vertical pleating.

Raif, a trained embroiderer who studied at Cambridge University and Deakin University, said he was inspired to use pleats after undertaking a workshop at a Speciality Pleaters in Williamstown which is the only remaining couture pleater in the Southern Hemisphere.

His winning design was a striking sculptural piece featuring bright spring colours, colour blocking and vertical pleating.

Raif, who learned his sewing skills from his mother, said the design was challenging to make as it left little room for error.

“When you are doing something with pleating you have to go simple with the graphic so you don’t distort it,” he explained.

“So I knew I had to go with bold colours, colour blocking and keep it simple so it had that impact.”

Raif said it was also important to him to produce a sustainable design using a no waste pattern he engineered and create a dress that was versatile in terms of who could wear it.

“One of the aims was to create something that would suit all bodies shapes and proportions,” he said

“The idea was to do a free style that would mould to different bodies.”

Raif and fellow creative, Luke Perkins, started Bird Skin as passion project born out of a desire to create beautiful clothing for photo shoots.

It has since evolved into an exclusive design house specialising in memorable, one-off statement pieces including extravagant couture garments, head-turning millinery and culturally-flavoured jewellery pieces.

While still coming down from the high of his win, a humble Raif said it was wonderful to have years of hard work and perserverance pay off.

“The win also belongs to the many people who have helped us along the way and to our loyal supporters – we can’t thank them all enough for everything they’ve done.”

Find Bird Skin on Instagram @birdskinau or visit the Etsy store www.etsy.com/au/shop/BIRDSKINAU