Last week I had the distinct pleasure of helping judge the Australian Fashion Graduate of The Year Award. Apart from being the most fun I've ever had with a pen in my hand; for newly-minted graduates, hot damn, did they turn out some gold! Rewind a couple of years and my university thesis project involved hot glue gunning pieces of velcro to bits of inside-out neoprene at 3am and hoping for the best - so it's fair to say a lot has changed in the last couple of years.

Held as part of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival Brisbane every year, the national award brings together graduates from the six leading fashion institutions in the land. You can see each of their enviable collections here - and honestly, these PYTs could almost give Karl a run for his money. But along with fashion editor of Brisbane's Sunday Mail Kellie Alderman and fashion designer Paul Hunt, we had to pick a winner proved tougher than a $5 steak. We met with all twelve finalists and perused their collections, chatting to them about inspirations and techniques. And holy schmoley were there some epic collections on the racks. In the end, we agreed on a top three and after much discussion one finally came out on top - Carlie Waterman. The Sydney TAFE graduate managed to edge out highly commended collections by Anna Langdon and Adrian Bressanutti (who incidentally, are also ones to watch) thanks to her incredibly cohesive collection and the sheer marketability of her range. Carlie's already scored a job with Josh Goot in Sydney so she's probably squirreling away design acumen as we speak.

Her collection was absolutely retail ready and could definitely compete on an international scale, which for the judges, helped us make the final decision. Take a gander at her lookbook images below and head to carlierwaterman.com for more.













Do you love it? Would you wear it? I'm slightly obsessed with the digital print jacket with citrus bead trim. Event that sentence is hot.