PAGEANT: A retrospective (2010 to 2025) public program talk

PAGEANT: A retrospective (2010-2025) is a reflective exhibition featuring installation-based fashion, design, visual art and film, exploring future fashion directions.

PAGEANT is a Melbourne/Naarm–based collaborative fashion practice founded by designers Amanda Cumming and Kate Reynolds. Surveying PAGEANT’s central themes and vision, the exhibition draws on 15 years of friendship to offer behind-the-scenes insight into their creative partnership and process. Through a comprehensive exploration of the PAGEANT archive, the exhibition presents garments, accessories, photographs, films, studio objects, drawings, sketches, mood boards, textiles, and inspirational ephemera. The exhibition and panel discussion explore modes of dress and fashion culture, opening critical dialogue on how community, cultural perspectives, and collaborative multidisciplinary approaches shape the future of contemporary fashion design.

The PAGEANT: A retrospective (2010-2025) public program talk features the following guest panel speakers, chaired by PAGEANT fashion designers Amanda Cumming and Kate Reynolds:

Nicholas Currie

Nicholas Currie is an artist and curator working with painting, sculpture and performance. Currie is from the Mununjali clan of the Yugambeh language group, with connection to Kuku Yalanji, and currently lives on Wurundjeri Country in Naarm/Melbourne. Humour and kindness are undercurrents to the major themes addressed in his works: contemporary Indigenous perspectives, hauntology and exploration of identity within current Australia.

Instagram: @nicholascurrie 

Antuong Nguyen

Antuong Nguyen is a Vietnamese-Australian filmmaker and visual artist living on unceded Wurundjeri land. He also operates a commercial film practice, Silky Jazz Films, that services the commercial, cultural, and not-for-profit sectors.

Antuong’s creative approach is informed by an interest in improvisation (hence, the name ‘Silky Jazz’ in honour to his favourite jazz player, Pharoah Sanders), verité, and speculative modes of visual communication. Antuong’s artistic and filmmaking practice is engaged in a non-hierarchical method of collaboration; his growth from visual artist to filmmaker born from a desire to work within a more collective model of artmaking and storytelling. 

Antuong has had his artworks exhibited at ICA (London), ACMI, NGV, Gertrude Contemporary, Westspace, and Bus Projects. He has lectured fimmaking at RMIT University and has been a guest speaker at MIFF, REMIX Summit, and City of Melbourne.  His Silky Jazz clients include Google, Nike, Adidas, Royal College of the Arts (London), RISING, State Library Victoria, University of Melbourne, Melbourne International Film Festival, MTC, and Melbourne Fashion Week. 

Instagram: @silky_jazz_films

Dr Denise Sprynskyj and Dr Peter Boyd

Dr Denise Sprynskyj and Dr Peter Boyd (School of Fashion & Textiles, RMIT University) present under their collaborative design practice, S!X. Through S!X, they investigate the deconstruction of found garments and the transformation of surfaces, foregrounding process and material experimentation. Their work has been exhibited internationally across Paris, Oaxaca, Borås, Utsonomiya and Athens, and is held in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, the National Gallery of Australia and the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. They have won the Premier's Design Award, commercial category for upcycling, recipients of the New Designer Award at The Melbourne Fashion Festival and are currently re designing deadstock for the design practice PAM. 

Instagram: @sixlachambre

Image: PAGEANT x Maximum Rim (Antuong Nguyen and Warran Wright) SIGNALS film still, 2017. Image by PAGEANT x Maximum Rim.