By Melinda Upton and Jessie Buchan (Sydney)
Interview with Lisa Chung, Deputy President of Trustees of the Museum of Applied Arts and Science, Chairman of The Benevolent Society and Non-Executive Director of APN Outdoor Group Limited.
The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS) is Australia’s contemporary museum for excellence and innovation in applied arts and sciences. In April 2015, the MAAS launched the Centre for Fashion (CFF), Australia’s first dedicated centre for fashion excellence. We sat down with the Deputy President of Trustees of the Museum, Lisa Chung, to garner her insights on the CFF and its pivotal role in the Australian fashion industry.
LISA, CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR ROLE AT THE MAAS?
The governance of the MAAS is shared among the Minister for the Arts, the Trust (made up of nine Trustees) and the Director. I am the Deputy President of Trustees (and also the Chair of the CFF). The Trust regularly reviews the activities and finances of the MAAS, advises on the directions of and plans for the MAAS and advocates within the public and private sectors on its behalf. As a trustee, it is my responsibility to represent the public in the management and policy formulation of the MAAS.
HOW DID THE CENTER FOR FASHION COME ABOUT?
The MAAS holds a unique place in the museum space as Australia’s only museum of applied arts and sciences. For me, fashion is the ultimate applied art and it belongs in spaces such as the Museum.
The CFF, which was conceived of by the Museum’s Director of Curatorial, Collections and Exhibitions, Dolla Merrillees, is housed within Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum, and the impetus for its creation is to provide the best possible access to the museum’s outstanding collection of fashion, textiles and costumes, and to use that as a focus for engaging with our audiences, stakeholders, industry and young designers. To give you some context, the museum’s wonderful collection comprises over thirty thousand items, from eighteenth century court dress, colonial dress, the most comprehensive shoe collection in the country and works by twentieth century and contemporary international and Australian designers such as Coco Chanel, Collette Dinnigan, Christian Dior, John Galliano, Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto.
The timing of the establishment of the CFF is fortuitous. The Australian Fashion Chamber, founded in 2013, is really hitting its stride, and this year marked twenty years of Fashion Week Australia. The Australian fashion industry is blossoming and the CFF is integral to this united vision to strengthen and further develop the Australian fashion industry.
To ensure we deliver on this promise, the CFF has an advisory committee which is governed with the task of steering its strategic direction. Each of the members of this committee bring to the table varied and invaluable knowledge and expertise. With the likes of Edwina McCann, Editor-In-Chief of Vogue Australia, who has over twenty years’ experience in the luxury fashion market and extensive media experience, Peter McNeil, Professor of Design History and Associate Dean (Research) at the University of Technology Sydney, and inaugural patron Gene Sherman, a well-known arts identity in Sydney and an avid supporter and collector of Japanese fashion, the diversity of representation will ensure that the CFF delivers on its remit and the museum’s overall vision to become the leading hub for fashion in Australia. This expertise is also extended by a number of respected fashion and textile curators within the MAAS team.
THE REMIT FOR THE CFF IS TO FOSTER CREATIVE EXCELLENCE, SCHOLARLY INQUIRY AND PUBLIC CURIOSITY. WHAT INITIATIVES IS THE CENTER UNDERTAKING TO DELIVER ON THESE OBJECTIVES?
The museum’s recent September 2015 launch of the exhibition Collette Dinnigan: Unlaced, generated a lot of interest in the industry and was a great success. Exclusive to the museum, this was the first exhibition to honor the internationally acclaimed designer and bring into focus Collette’s unique creative perspective. Following the launch of the exhibition, Suzy Menkes, one of the world’s best known fashion journalists, esteemed fashion critic and current Vogue international online editor, held an intimate on-stage conversation with Collette. The event was a hot ticket in the Australian fashion industry and, during the course of the conversation, various topics were touched upon ranging from competitiveness within the industry, Dinnigan’s work with lace, and the future of the Australian industry. Interestingly, Suzy Menkes also shared her views about how young Australian designers should shift their focus to capture resort and swimwear, and she identified this as the obvious link and means by which Australians can tap into the Asia-Pacific and US markets. Australian fashion label Zimmerman is a good example of this.
Other recent events include a lunch with members of our Designers Circle at Gene Sherman’s gallery where we hosted British milliner, Stephen Jones, and the CFF recently hosted a morning of fashion conversation with iconic Australian designer, Carla Zampatti, and Fashion Editor of The Australian, Glynis Traill-Nash. Carla encompasses what the museum and the CFF is about – showcasing creativity but pushing through to ensure you create a commercially successful product. This is an incredibly important learning for young Australian designers, and the objective of sessions such as these is to ensure students understand how the industry works, how they can obtain business contacts and take the next step.
In March of this year, the museum also revealed its exhibition Undressed: 350 years of underwear in fashion, featuring more than eighty garments from the London Victoria and Albert Museum’s extensive collection of underwear, a collection spanning three hundred and fifty years of fashion history. Collaborations with other institutions is of utmost importance to the museum and our curators are overseas several times a year building these relationships and gaining insight into what other museums are doing in the fashion space. Leveraging these relationships is key. In May this year, four items from our collection featured in the Costume Institute’s China: Through the Looking Glass exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
THE CENTER HAS ATTRACTED THE INTEREST OF DESIGNERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD, INCLUDING AUSTRALIAN DESIGNERS SUCH AS COLLETTE DINNIGAN, ZIMMERMAN AND DION LEE. IT ALSO HOUSES KEY PIECES FROM THE ARCHIVES OF PIONEERING INTERNATIONAL DESIGNERS. GIVEN THE RECENT INFLUX OF INTERNATIONAL RETAILERS IN THE AUSTRALIAN MARKET, HOW IMPORTANT IS IT THAT INITIATIVES SUCH AS THE CFF SHOWCASE OUR HOME-GROWN TALENT?
Making sure we continue to foster the next generation of Australian fashion designers is a key aspect of the CFF’s mandate. The CFF’s remit is to foster fashion excellence. Ensuring we provide support to local designers is a key focal point to ensuring we deliver on this remit. With Australian designers now very much on the world stage and retailing right up there with the top international brands, the idea is to continue to support young designers who are coming into the industry so that they can reach their full potential – both creatively and commercially. The Australian Fashion Chamber is working hard to instil business and commercial discipline in young designers and we want to complement that. By working in collaboration with students and teachers from design schools such as White House, and the University of Technology, we hope to contribute to the field of students’ fashion studies, curation and conversation, and act as a tangible access point for these discussions.
WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE NEXT BIG THING IN FASHION AND RETAIL?
Sustainability in fashion and the retail industry’s role in that is currently receiving a lot of attention. How and from where garments are sourced, the conditions under which workers produce garments, as well as the environmental sustainability of the industry are hot topics. Consumers are increasingly interested to know about every stage in a garment’s life and want more visibility and transparency in how these garments are made. I think this issue will continue to gain traction in the coming years.
YOU RECENTLY RETIRED FROM PARTNERSHIP IN THE REAL ESTATE GROUP AT MADDOCKS AND HAVE NOW ASSUMED A NUMBER OF NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR POSITIONS. HOW HAS YOUR EXPERIENCE IN THE LAW ASSISTED YOU IN YOUR CURRENT NON-EXECUTIVE ROLES?
Experience as a lawyer develops professionalism, and provides excellent training in analytical thinking and commerciality. The practice of property law, in particular, is very commercially focused, and the skills I developed during my time as a lawyer in this field are easily translatable into my current roles on boards, such as my position at the museum now. However, it is important to remember that, as a director on a board, you are fulfilling a very different role to being a legal adviser and it is a matter of combining the skills you have developed as a lawyer with other skills, such as sector and commercial knowledge, and applying them in a new context.
FINALLY, CAN YOU SHARE WITH US WHAT YOU ARE WEARING TODAY?
I am wearing Dries van Noten, a Belgian fashion designer, and EK Thongprasert, a designer of Thai heritage based in Antwerp. I am also very fond of these culottes by Stella McCartney. My usual rule in fashion is that if I have worn it in a previous fashion cycle, I can’t wear it again… culottes are the exception!