|
In the early 80's Virginia began to study sciences but soon crossed over to an arts course at RMIT majoring in fashion and obtaining a BA in Design. By day she waitressed and by night she designed and printed swimwear at her studio in the Stalbridge Chambers building (Kate Durham, Fashion Design Council and Gavin Brown also had studio spaces there) in Melbourne before heading to the U.K. in the mid 80's. Her first job was at The Victoria and Albert Museum in the textile and dress department, where she would occasionally escort John Galliano to the stores to view the Dior collection. After work and into the early hours of the morning she worked on the door of Soho night club 'Bill Stickers' frequented by the (late) incredible performance artist Leigh Bowery, dancer and choreographer, Michael Clarke, musician, Boy George...... From the museum she went on to work at the PR. Company Lynne Franks PR, who at the time, had the account for London Fashion Week.......it was also the company on which the series 'Absolutely Fabulous' was based. During her short time there (as with all staff) she met many times with (the late) Isabella Blow who referred to her as 'That Australian!', worked on London Fashion week and with independent designers such as Nick Coleman, John Richmond, Katherine Hamnett, Vivienne Westwood....... Returning to Melbourne after a stint at National Magazine House, styling fashion pages, engaging Russian photographers, shooting in swan sanctuaries and taking readers on badger watches, to have her son Max who is now 16. In Melbourne and for the past 16 years she has worked as an advertising, editorial, fashion show, forecasting, band and music, coffee table book and exhibition stylist, predominately in the areas of fashion and food. Photographer Bronywn Kidd and Virginia Dowzer have been collaborating for the past three years and have recently formed an art partnership to produce works. Their first series together, STRIP JACK NAKED, was launched in March 08 as part of the Loreal Melbourne Fashion Festival cultural program and has recently been short listed for the 2008 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize. In March 2009 ’59.5’ their second series was launched and received much press and interest from museums and galleries involved in collecting fashion ephemerae. Virginia Dowzer works predominately on campaigns in fashion advertising for companies such as Myer, David Jones, Country Road, Perri Cutten, Sussan, Sportscraft and Target. And on shows for LMFF, MSFW and the spring racing carnival. Her fashion forecasting and knowledge of traditional clothing and presentation of, has seen her present to companies such as Toyota, The Sussan Group, The Intercontinental Hotel, various banking corporations, business men and women’s groups and Sportscraft. |
