Lara Karamian Get Your Break! Fashion Designers Interview

Lara Karamian Get Your Break! Fashion Designers Interview

Get Your Break: Exclusive Interviews with Young Australian Fashion Designers
What is the fashion calendar? What do you need to run your own fashion business? What is the right way to pitch a boutique or department store buyer?

Get Your Break! Fashion Designers - the first of three titles launching Red Hill Press' Get Your Break! series in affiliation with the Reach Foundation (www.reach.org.au) that gives you access to twelve of the biggest young names in Australian fashion.

In conversational Q&A interviews, this diverse collection of designers tell how they have built their fashion businesses from the ground-up - from boutique labels: Marnie Skillings,Therese Rawsthorne, Jessie Hill, to brands: Bec & Bridge, Alpha 60, Zanerobe.

In their own words they talk openly about their inspiration and training, their creative process, their big break and the challenges and obstacles they faced getting their first collection onto shop floors.

Every aspect of the fashion business is explored - from garment design and construction, to pitching boutique and department store buyers; from production issues and late deliveries, to branding, publicity, and participation in Australian Fashion Week.

Get Your Break! Fashion Designers
Red Hill Press
www.getyourbreak.com.au
ISBN: 9780980829112
Price: $29.95

Interview with Lara Karmaian

Question: Why did you choose to participate in the Get Your Break book series?

Lara Karmaian: I was approached by Sam, the Senior Publisher and after realising it was an educational book I felt it was important to educate people on exactly what the fashion events business involves! There is a misconception that is it glamorous however there is a lot of hard work that goes into an event or show before you even get to the fun part. Also I have always been a supporter of students wanting to get experience in the industry so "get Your break" seemed like the perfect fit!


Question: Can you talk about the experience of producing catwalk shows for Australian Fashion Week?

Lara Karmaian: Producing shows for Fashion Week is like condensing 6 months worth of shows into 5 days! It is very fast paced, consists of extremely long days, very demanding and requires a serious amount of attention to detail as you are dealing with a number of suppliers, designers, their teams and talent! A typical day for LARA INC. involves up to 6 shows which means, x6 rehearsals, hair + make up trials, programming of the shows technical elements such as sound, lighting and audio visual, meetings with the designers, set up of the collections backstage and preparing the following days shows.....in summary a 20hr day.


Question: Can you talk about your biggest challenge and how you overcome it?

Lara Karmaian: Juggling our hectic schedule would have to be the biggest challenge! LARA INC. are the most demanded show producers which means we need to fine tune a pretty serious logistical schedule between our team of producers to ensure every show receives 100% attention. The way we manage this is by ensuring that we have thorough planning meetings prior to each day where our senior producers and myself go through our planning document to ensure all elements are covered and taken care of. With 10 years of experience we now know how to manage a busy schedule.


Question: What advice would you give a teenager who hopes to one day run their own fashion business?

Lara Karmaian: Work experience and volunteering is the key to getting into the fashion events business. It is such a competitive market as so many young girls want to get into the industry that you must stand out from the rest by proving you are willing to put the time and effort in to get the experience before applying for a job. Furthermore by volunteering in effect you are networking and potentially setting yourself up to be offered a position at the end of your work experience project.


Interview by Brooke Hunter