Teaching Staff

Upcoming Teaching Positions

Heather Mikkelsen

Institute Educational Manager

Fashion: Design, History, Illustration and Textiles

Heather is currently employed as the Institute Manager and teaches part-time for the AICD. She has a strong background in fashion, education and art. She first started her journey in fashion design and completed a Dress Design Certificate from East Sydney Technical College in the late 70’s, and was featured in a number of fashion magazines, the Sun newspaper and as a finalist for the Wool Awards during her student years.

From there she stepped straight into a designing job for Karo Fashions and designed for the label Emmanuelle, in Sydney’s Surry Hills. After working in the fashion industry for several years as a designer, and then in retail management for Carla Zampatti and Country Road, she decided on a direction change and to pursue her other love – education and completed a Bachelor of Education (Art).

A move from Sydney to the Gold Coast followed and several years of teaching art at Tweed River High in northern NSW and St Michael’s College on the Gold Coast followed.

Over the years she has also worked as a freelance illustrator, a jewellery manufacturer, a private tutor and has exhibited at numerous local art shows, winning the drawing prize at the Currumbin art show in 1990.

After the birth of her son in the early 90’s, the two main focuses of her life – fashion and education, joined forces and Heather started teaching fashion design, illustration and decorative textiles at the Gold Coast Institute of TAFE. After 8 years she was recruited to run the Fashion Department at KvB Institute of Technology that operated out Bond University. She continued working part-time for the Gold Coast TAFE until joining the AICD team full time in late 2007.

Heather has experience in writing a number of accredited courses, setting up and establishing registered training organisations and developing training and assessment programmes for the AICD. As well as qualifications in Dress Design and Art Education, she holds qualifications in Vocational Training as well as a Diploma of E-Learning and has introduced blended learning into the AICD.

Heather is an active member of the art and decorative textiles community and has been a member of The Australian Forum for Textile Arts for many years, and has attended many of their forums over the last 10 years, strongly believing that the learning never stops. She is an enthusiastic teacher with a passion for quality training and brings warmth and compassion to her various roles at the AICD.

Leina Broughton

Fashion: Sewing and Patternmaking

Staff information coming soon. http://www.leinabroughton.com.au/

Claire Hacon

Fashion: Design, Patternmaking, Sewing, History, Illustration and Textiles

Staff information coming soon.

Thuy Nguyen

Fashion: Sewing, Patternmaking and Production

Staff information coming soon. http://tweecouture.com/

April Prendeckij

Fashion: Sewing, Patternmaking and Textiles

Staff information coming soon.

Roberta Shaw

Fashion: Sewing and Patternmaking

Staff information coming soon.

Lorraine DiBiasio

Fashion: Textiles, Production, Sewing, Patternmaking, Business

Lorraine has worked in the Australian Fashion Industry for over 20 years for many well known companies in the capacity as head designer, design room manager, senior pattern maker and grader (both manually & on computer), senior technical adviser & trainer, production coordinator, developer garment technologist working in China and as a bridal & evening gowns draper.

Having also had her own fashion label & retail stores she has gained a great deal of knowledge in buying and developing a label to meet market needs.

Lorraine has worked for Dolina Australia in the capacity of head designer, pattern maker and design manager over a 17 year period while also working for other Australian design companies. Over the 17 years Lorraine has worked for Dolina the company grew from a total staff of 6 to a company employing 260 staff with a multi-million dollar turnover.

The company became a leader in the middle market of ladies clothing, selling to major department stores such as David Jones and Myers and becoming developers for budget range stores producing large volumes of product such as Target, Kmart, Rockmans, Katies, Noni B and Hiltons and maintaining the companies market leadership with labels such as Citi, Dusk, Kamico and Aero. In her position with Dolina Australia Lorraine travelled to the USA, Europe, England and China every 4 months sourcing and searching for inspiration.

Lorraine worked as a designer and computer-aided pattern maker on contract for Mr K, a well known evening wear label selling to retail outlets such as Harts and Myers.

Lorraine worked for Monti Australia for nearly two years as head designer for their sportswear division, working directly with factories in China and travelling to China regularly to source fabrics and accessories directly in Shanghai, Wuxi, Suzhio, Ghangzhoi and Hong Kong.

Working with Lisa Ho as the Design Manager and over seeing all the design assistants, pattern makers, computer operators, machinists and cutters Lorraine was responsible for making sure all garments were designed and made to the design specifications for the showings of the new seasons collections and photoshoots for magazines and advertising. During her time working for Lisa Ho Lorraine designed and fitted gowns for celebrities such as Kate Richie, Sophie Monk, Lara Bingle, Delta Goodrem and Danni Minogue to wear to special events and awards nights.

Lorraine was also responsible for working directly with knitting mills in China, creating all true knit wear garment specifications for production.

Her most resent position was as a design & product developer and off-shore garment technologist working for the Webster Holdings group whom owned the Retail stores such as Jigsaw, David Lawrence, Marcs and Peter Morrissy. Her duties were to work directly with their factories in Shanghai, creating garments designs and specifications for samples and production to be completed in China to supply 154 stores throughout Australia.

Lorraine’s extensive experience in the industry allows her to provide students with valuable insights into working in the Australian fashion industry and dealing with off-shore production.

Luda Hoffman

Fashion: Sewing

Staff information coming soon.

Gillian Marriage

Fashion: Swimwear and Stretchwear Sewing and Patternmaking

Staff information coming soon. http://www.riotswimwear.com.au/

Nadine Toussaint-Hayes

Visual Merchandising

Staff information coming soon.

Kathryn Edmonds

Fashion Sourcing, Merchandising and Styling

Staff information coming soon.

Kirsty Norton

Makeup, Fashion Business and Styling

Staff information coming soon.

Tanja Mrnjaus

Styling

Tanja Mrnjaus is a fun and vibrant stylist. With a Diploma in Styling and years of industry experience, Tanja's easy and approachable manner and strong work ethic makes her a popular choice amongst clients. As the Director of Styling Consultancy 'id couture' she and her style team are committed to creating magical visual solutions across all fields and ensure all briefs are styled to their full potential. Tanja's fashion expertise is regularly featured in the Australian media such as Channel 7, Channel 9, The Courier Mail, The Sunday Mail, Style Magazines, 4BC Brisbane News, Brisbane Times, Style Hunter, Fashionising, 2Threads, Art of Man and FASHIONTREND. Tanja lives and breathes the wonderful world of fashion and could not imagine a more wonderful way to be. As a teacher she hopes to ignite the same passion in all of her student aspiring stylists.

http://www.idcouture.com/

 

Susie McWatt-Forbes

Styling

Staff information coming soon. http://susiethestylist.com.au/

Tara Castellan

Styling

Staff information coming soon.

David Shields

Graphic Design

Staff information coming soon.

Carla McKeever

Makeup

Staff information coming soon.

Michelle Hargreaves

Makeup

http://www.mishmashmakeup.com.au/

Michelle Hargreaves is a Gold Coast based Hair & Makeup Artist, and the proud owner of Mish Mash Makeup. Professionally, Michelle achieved a Diploma of Cinemagraphic Makeup at the Frampton Institute of Cinemagraphic Makeup under the tuition of BAFTA & Oscar Award Winning Makeup Artist, Mr. Peter Frampton. Michelle also carries a Certificate II in Hairdressing, and completed a professional development workshop in hairstyling for the film and television industry, conducted by reputable hair and makeup artist, Gail Kane. More recently Michelle has also attended the reputable "introduction to long hair styling" workshop with Sharon Blain, and the acclaimed “Wolfe Brothers Face & Body Art Workshop”, which came to Australia for the first time in 2009.

During her career Michelle has worked extensively in all areas of the industry, including film, television, theatre, print, live shows and numerous special occasion and specialty makeup applications.
Michelle has worked on international projects (such as "Nim's Island with Jodie Foster & Gerard Butler) and with emerging national talent, including Emma Caminiti (Winner of Beauty & The Geek Australia) and Ellie Gonsalves (upcoming Victoria's Secret model). Michelle also has vast teaching experience, having conducted beauty classes and special effects workshops at numerous schools, talent agencies and training institutes.

Michelle is excited to work with the Australian Institute of Creative Design and looks forward to bringing her passion, experience, and skill into her training of the next generation of great makeup artists.

Cassandra Johns

Makeup

Staff information coming soon.

Erin Gallienne

Makeup

Staff information coming soon.

Melissa Harding

Makeup

Staff information coming soon.

Maree Rissman

Beauty: Anatomy & Physiology, Massage, Spa Treatments

Staff information coming soon.

Kady Versteegh

Beauty: Facials, Waxing & Tinting, Nails, Makeup

Staff information coming soon.

Ladine Mills

Beauty: Nails. Styling: Body Language

Staff information coming soon.

Danielle Fredericks

Beauty: Facials, Waxing & Tinting, Massage, Makeup

Staff information coming soon.

Ellie-Mae Cahill

Beauty: Spray Tanning

Staff information coming soon.

Anna White

Interior Design

Staff information coming soon. www.shineinteriors.com.au

Marilyn Reeman

Interior Design

Staff information coming soon.