To say Daniella Caputi is ambitious is an understatement. This emerging fashion designer has her sights clearly set on creating clothes, clothes that are as much conceptual as they are commercial. Or at least that’s what her StyleAID collection this year will embody.
Caputi graduated at the end of 2009 from Curtin University, her collection a stand out during the graduate fashion show. It was something to do with her fusion of layers, deft laser cutting and incorporation of balsa wood that caught people’s attention.
Her collection, 1:26 Inside Out, drew on architectural plans of Gothic cathedrals and took the shapes found within the floor plans and manipulated them into the patterns of the clothes. In effect, the interior of the cathedral became the exterior of the garment.
Since graduating – and winning an award for the use of her laser cutting – Caputi has gone from strength to strength.
‘I’ve just kind of wanted to take on every opportunity and keep it going from uni,’ Caputi told OUTinPerth, ‘like entering into the Melbourne Fashion Festival Students Showcase which was really exciting just seeing all the other students’ work.
‘Then, from there, it was really good taking every opportunity and applying for things like for StyleAID’s ABSOLUT Creative Award. It’s just happened and it’s really exciting to keep it all going.’
And to assist her along the way is her new mentor, fashion designer Timothy Godbold. Known for his evocative architectural works, Godbold has been on hand, guiding Caputi to create a collection that will best fuse her love of concept and theory and fashion’s need for commerciality.
‘It’s been amazing, actually, because he knows so much about the industry,’ Caputi said of her mentor. ‘We caught up in Melbourne (at L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Week) and had a chat about everything. He just really knows his stuff.
‘It’s good to have him along, like I’ll kind of give him my ideas and which way I’m thinking of going and he can kind of tell me if it’ll work. We’ve only just started the whole mentoring process so it’s just the beginning of it all.’
The end result will no doubt be seen in Caputi’s new collection when it debuts at StyleAID this July.
‘I’m still keeping with the signature elements, so the balsa wood and the laser cutting, but I’m really wanting to fine-tune it and I guess develop it a bit more because there’s still some technical things I could go over.
‘But there’ll be different kind of structural forms and playing with layering and just really extending that whole idea of the inside out, but still with the same concepts.’
No doubt it’ll be a collection as equally breathtaking as the first… if not more so.
StyleAID takes place on Friday July 30 at the Burswood Grand Ballroom.
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
