Download PDF - The University of Sydney

up close
the
big
time
Davina Reichman Schuck has made it in New York and wants to help
emerging designers do the same.
WORDS
bec crew
Often it’s not what you learn at
university that ends up shaping
your career, but how you learn it.
Davina Reichman Schuck’s entrepreneurial
mettle began to show during her
undergraduate years at Sydney, when she
served as president of the Information
Technologies Society, implementing
a ‘Paid Work Experience Program’ for
students, and co-managed a budget of
over $170,000 for the Clubs and Societies
Committee of the University of Sydney
Union, organising events for its 120 clubs
and societies.
“That’s when I found my passion,” says
Davina, 29, who completed a Bachelor
of Computer Studies in 2004. “It wasn’t
in computers, it was in events planning
and directing.” Since completing her
degree in 2004, she has founded and run
three companies, and is now focusing her
attention on helping emerging fashion
designers make it in New York City,
through a new monthly fashion event, the
NYC Fashion Runway.
It takes a certain type of personality to
become a successful entrepreneur. Fellow
Sydney alumnus, Matt Barrie, CEO of
Freelancer.com, was quoted in a recent
Good Weekend Magazine as “fizzing with
energy”. It’s a quality you could easily
apply to Reichman Schuck – even her hair,
which frames her porcelain skin in a thick,
gravity-defying crop of pitch-black coils,
appears to be making plans to break free
and take over the world.
Today it’s the fashion runway, two years
ago she designed the world’s first iPadfriendly
clothing, spearheading a company
called iClothing, which in 2010 released
the world’s first iPad-compatible garments.
The iTee and little black iDress featured
reinforced, padded ‘kangaroo’ pouches for
iPads, and caught the attention of press
around the world, including CNN and the
Wall Street Journal; Steve Jobs shot them
a quick email for good measure.
She also founded Being Born Again
Couture, an initiative that paired both
established and emerging designers with
artists to create couture garments, and it
prompted a new career focus for Reichman
Schuck and relocation to New York.
“What inspires me is the amount of talent
designers have,” she says. “I want to assist
designers to be the gifted creators that
they are and help push them to the next
level and into the spotlight.”
Having made the move, Davina soon
realised that she would need to ramp up
the intensity. “One thing I learned quickly
is to not downplay your accomplishments.
New York City is a rapid-paced metropolis
and they don’t have the time or the
patience to just chill out and have a beer
like we Aussies do.”
Having spent a year as the PR and
events director of Couture Fashion Week,
she founded NYC Fashion Runway in
January 2012. It’s a monthly fashion show
in New York that gives young designers
the chance to showcase their works in
venues such as the Empire State Building
and the Waldorf Astoria.
“Many designers can’t afford the tents
of NYC Fashion Week, so this is a fantastic
alternative. There’s nothing like the rush a
fashion designer gets when cameras start
clicking, newspapers and magazines are
clamouring to interview you and buyers
start fighting over you. I know I’ve done
my job!” says Davina.
“Why should famous designers have
all the media attention?” After all, says
the Engineering and IT graduate’s email
signature, “someone has to be the next
Armani … ”.
38 mar 2013 SAM