Jordyn Smith is an Australia based fashion designer who graduated from the Royal Melbourne Institute of technology in 2019. At RMIT she studied an Associate Degree in Fashion & Textile Merchandising and most recently Fashion Design in which she achieved a First Class Honours. Jordyn has a unique style to her work which would be best described as vintage, nostalgic and quirky. She has even come up with her own technique for creating garments out of used materials named ‘frankensteining’. This involves collecting dead stock or vintage fabrics to recreate garments in her own design and style. This method is born out of her passion for sustainable fashion and making use of local resources. We heard from Jordyn as she tells us all about her quirky concepts and fashion fanatics.

Why did you aspire to a career within the fashion industry?

I grew up around industrial sewing machines and local manufacturing. My Mama (grandma) had her own business a long time before I was born, and I spent a large portion of my time with her as a child. I always enjoyed ‘making’ things, and using the machines once I was allowed to! However, I originally studied psychology for a semester in 2012 and quickly realised that I needed to be working with my hands. One gap year of full-time work and overseas travel later, I finally realised that my younger self was right in thinking that working within the fashion industry is where I would like to be. An associate degree, a bachelor degree and now honours, here I am.

You have recently graduated from your second fashion based degree at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology - how has RMIT aided and shaped your practice?

I spent six years at RMIT, starting out as a perfectionist but learnt to appreciate just being. It’s really interesting to think back about how I learnt to just go with what is happening, instead of trying to control the things I can’t, and how much that has helped me. I think the support from my fantastically talented peers, and encouraging tutors I met along the way helped me find out that there’s always going to be someone I can relate to, work with and someone who would believe in me. I still have a letter of support for a scholarship application written by a lecturer about me stuck to my wall. RMIT made sure that we weren’t just skilled designers, but that we were skilled researchers, pattern-makers, and machinists.

Tell us about your own technique named ‘frankensteining’?

It started as a way to toile with found garments and create new ones. Rather than spend copious amounts of time and wasting calico trying to get things right, I could ‘Frankenstein’ existing objects together to make it easier to then think about volume, scale and size when I recreated my own pieces. The first garment I ever made using this method is my favourite thus far, and the best part is that you end up with a usable garment from the beginning. Like a two-for-one deal! I combined this hilarious ruffled wedding jacket with a bodice from a wedding dress and created an adjustable corset; I then remade the final in dead stock velvet and vintage houndstooth fabric. As I have developed this idea, I realise it encompasses essentially how my design process works fully. I’ll use dead stock or vintage fabric, or repurpose things like curtains, use imagery from found photographs, build silhouettes from existing garments, add in an element that’s been collaborated on with another creative, use antique laundry pins as fasteners, tear images from magazines and combine it all together to create a final piece. I used to call my work ‘a mess’, now I call it frankensteining.

What is the concept behind your graduate collection?

Fashion’s Prometheus is a collection based on the assemblage of a range of found objects and imagery. Beginning with an exploration of ephemera and lost, forgotten photographs I purchased via antique stores and op shops in Ballarat. I chose to explore the images’ narratives in order to embed them into the garments. This purposeful collecting and curation is used as a way to creatively engage and repurpose once forgotten memories and items. Living in Ballarat and commuting to Melbourne for university has meant for a need to make creative connections more accessible, and I am very fortunate to have been able to collaborate with a variety of manufacturers and suppliers within my hometown. I believe the addition of working with local creatives adds further narrative to these garments, adding value and longevity to the ownership of such an item.

You have collaborated to create two editorial pieces using pieces from your graduate collection; ‘Class of 1989’ and ‘Gold Rush Town’ - can you talk us though the two editorials?

I really loved bringing these to life. I shot Gold Rush Town first - being that a large portion of how I work is based around the community in my hometown, it’s named after the gold rush that is a huge part of the history of Ballarat. I think the best part about this shoot, is that the house we shot it in. It’s my favourite in the whole city - it was designed by architect Robin Boyd in the 1960s, is one of the only mid-century modern homes that’s heritage listed in town. I clearly don’t own the home, and I honestly had no idea who did, but through some investigative work online, a few posts in some Facebook groups later - I found out I used to work with a relative of the current owners and waited on baited breath to see if they would be willing to let this young fashion designer and her friends inside to shoot. The current owners graciously let myself, photographer Ellen Eustice and model Mitzi Radford into their home for the day, and allowed us the freedom to create what we wanted. I’m so grateful that they were keen to encourage local creativity!

Class of 1989 was shot in a day, and is quite literally a piss-take/emulation of those cheesy high school photos everyone has hiding away. As I’d put my mum’s high school photo onto a jumper, I needed to make this shoot happen - and it almost didn’t. I had make-up artists pull out left right and centre, I wanted a variety of models and I had half go AWOL a few days before the shoot, it was a nightmare! However, my fabulous photographer Rebecca-Marian Irene was incredible and found as many wonderful people who wanted to be on the shoot within a day. I also managed to find two make-up artists who switched shifts throughout the day - Amelia Mills & Kate McWilliam. Another fun fact is that I ended up enlisting my mum to style hair to really make sure we had that authentic 80s vibe. I bought the hilarious backdrop online to keep it focussed on the main portrait idea, and minimally styled each ‘student’ with various vintage glasses frames, jewellery from my collection (a collaboration with GM Jewellery) and let them pull whatever face they wanted! We actually ended the day with a ‘Prom Scene’ with several more models, a balloon arch, and some vintage outfits mixed in with my own collection. I think my favourite prop was some dental head-gear I found on eBay.

Who and what is your biggest inspiration?

Is this the part where I get to say Harry Styles? Ha! It’s usually whatever I’ve decided to fixate on at that time with particular elements that have always crept in (nostalgia, narrative, music). When I was designing my graduate collection I was having a Motley Crüe moment, and that helped me decide I wanted to go with a mash of an 80s vibe, topped off with my mum’s high school portrait. I’m continually inspired by so many different things. It’s such a cliche to be like evERythInG iS inSPiRING but my aquarian self bounces from one interest to another, absorbing the most mundane information that I may very well use as the basis of my work one day.

How do wish to develop your practice now as a post graduate?

Things have definitely changed since I graduated at the end of last year, I’ve had to put any travel plans on hold indefinitely, and reevaluate where I want my practice to go. I think in a way having to ground myself a bit longer has really brought to my attention the things I’m really passionate about - sustainable design, local production, and community practice. I’m really looking forward to continue building a creative network in my regional community, and working with local manufactures to try and to help keep what is remaining of a small textile industry alive and continuing. I always say that my ultimate goal would be to help those who’ve supported me along the way in the same way - because I don’t think this process is about just myself as a designer, it’s about a community of creatives being able to produce something together. I’m actually almost at a loss on how to progress, so I’m just making it all up as I go!