Usually considered to be each other's opposite, craft and technology are combined in Fashion Craft: Fashion Technology hosted at the University of Technology, Sydney. Coinciding with the Rosemount Australian Fashion Week, the event showcases two exhibitions that consider the relationship between craft and technology in future fashion and textile design. Fashion Craft: Drawn Threads exhibits contemporary, collaborative works between UTS fashion and textile designers Alison Gwilt, Cecilia Heffer and Todd Robinson and members of the Embroiderers Guild of NSW. Each designer has worked with the Guild to produce a series of contemporary embroidery samples reflecting a selected theme. Alison Gwilt: The sustainability + couture embroidery samples created for this project explore the sustainable strategy of upcycling. Through this technique recovered textile waste, that was sourced from a local recycling centre on a singular visit, was reconfigured and reworked in order to create new concepts that could be applied within the luxury high fashion market. The intention of the samples is to show how ornamented textiles can be achieved and applied both uniquely and sustainably. Cecilia Heffer: Hyperbolic Lace explores geometric structural surfaces as a means to investigate future lace possibilities. The concept emerged from an artist in residency on the Masters Textiles Future Programme at Central Saint Martins, London in 2008 where Heffer was introduced to the workshops of Belgium Design Lab FoAM who explore hyperbolic space as a physical model in textiles. Todd Robinson: The 'Hanky' series explores the realm of men’s accessories and contemporary masculine identity with the use of hand embroidery techniques. Embroidery as a practice has traditionally been gendered feminine while the monogrammed men’s handkerchief once served an essential place in a gentleman’s wardrobe. In the series of handkerchiefs’ Robinson examines notions of success, certitude and accomplishment celebrated within the competitive cultural domains of sporting and business worlds. Also in Fashion Craft: Drawn Threads- as part of the curriculum for 2nd year Fashion & Textile's subject Couture Techniques, students were introduced to the fundamentals of designing and draping on the mannequin. Working in conjunction with NSW Embroiderers’ Guild member Mary Brown and Fashion and Textiles staff, the students experimented with embroidery techniques for couture and created a bodice, which encapsulated contemporary ‘high fashion’. Three themes were offered to the students – eclectic, industrial or illusion as the catalyst for their design outcomes, which is evident in the work present in Fashion Craft: Fashion Technology. Also to feature at Fashion Craft: Fashion Technology is Fashion Technology: The Rip Curl Project. When Rip Curl recently launched their sustainability program Project Resurrection it made sense that Fashion & Textiles students from the University of Technology, Sydney work with the iconic Australian brand for their similarly sustainable-thinking advanced textiles subject. Using the off-cuts of old Rip Curl wetsuits, sixty third-year students used to working with rolls of fabric, created the unlikely re-production of jackets – 17 to be exhibited in the exhibition.