I’ve always found the idea of mutual friends so weird, yet so interesting. You know so much about them without even ever meeting them—and then once you do, you realise you know nothing at all. I first discovered Zain Bleed and their work through our mutual friend, Angela. Angela had just finished filming the duo’s first short film, The Trunk, which had been nominated for the 2025 Melbourne Fashion Film Awards. I was amazed by the work someone my age had created, whilst still being a student. I didn’t get to meet them at this time, as they were studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and so the mystery continued.

Fast forward to 2026 and Zain’s rise to stardom has continued rapidly. In the past year, they have had two successful runways at the Melbourne Fashion Festival and Melbourne Fashion Week, graduated with a Bachelor of Fashion (Design) and once again, been nominated at the Melbourne Fashion Film Awards. Only this time, they took home the title of Best Student Fashion Film.

After the show, I sat down with Zain to discuss their recent endeavours and find out what more is to come.

All of your collections have been quite distinct from each other—how did you get the idea for Flying Sheep and how did the production process differ from your previous works?

This was my first time getting to not only conceptualise and design a collection but also bring each look to life in the construction process. The concept came together when I was in New York. We had an assignment in one of my classes to design a 12-look collection, and we had, like, 8 weeks to do it, so I really got to sit with my ideas and be critical of my designs and edit. I started designing this collection inspired by the deer that I saw in Nara on a trip to Japan.

I enjoyed the process of designing from animals so much, and I thought of what I would like to do when I returned from New York. I had the idea to do a collection inspired by ‘prey animals’ and make a commentary on how women are preyed upon or hunted for sport by society and men, but I kept wanting to draw inspiration from these cute sheep and lambs, which are less prey and more livestock. I knew I wanted the collection for my graduate semester to be deeply personal, both in a uniquely me way and also touching on themes that I really cared about and wanted to address.

I thought of my relationship to sheep and remembered my childhood stuffed sheep animal, and it was this cute little plump sheep with wings. I instantly knew I would draw on the idea of sheeple and herd mentality to tackle the social conditioning of gender and the constructs and use the wings as a symbol for breaking free.

For me the biggest difference I noticed was how minimal my palette was; I mean, the collection is all white with the exception of the ‘black sheep’ look. In the past I have not shied away from bold colours; I think generally I’m quite maximalist and enjoy big shapes and silhouettes and surreal elements or references. This wasn’t very different from that, but it was more costumey/couture than I am used to getting to design. I was less concerned with this being hypothetically commercial and more interested in having fun.

Walk me through your usual design process: Do you take a formulaic approach? Or are you dependent specific factors (e.g., materials)?

I wish I had more of a formula for designing. I start with some ideas, and even if the concept isn’t 100%, I compile other designers’ work that I’m drawn to, some literal inspirations in this case photos of sheep and animals and the countryside. I also had a mood board of all the trans women that I look up to or am inspired by. When I started sketching, I was in New York and was fortunate enough to go to all the amazing fabric stores in the garment district to get swatches. I’m talking about fabrics that are like $210 USD per yard or more for gorgeous liquid silk organza or embroidered and beaded fabrics.

I think I often start with shapes/techniques that I want to do/use. I love working with volume, so gathering lots of fabric on a sleeve or in a skirt, etc. I find myself just drawing lots of sketches and slowly drawing out my favourites and seeing how cohesive they are. But truly it’s kind of a messy process, and the idea evolves and devolves throughout.

Your collection, Flying Sheep, debuted at Melbourne Fashion Week in 2025. It returned to the Melbourne Fashion Festival with two new looks. What was it like expanding on your previous ideas?

Having the collection be selected for Melbourne Fashion Week was so exciting. We had to apply and submit our proposed collections before the semester even started, and once we found out, it was go, go, go from there. It felt like we had less than 3 months to make 3 looks, and I was so slow in deciding which 3 I would be making and what techniques I would be using. I felt so pulled in every direction trying to please other people’s ideas and take all the advice I was getting on board, but it ended up confusing me, and to top it all off, I was trying to produce and plan a fashion film for the collection that was not even fully in development.

So getting the opportunity to do the Melbourne Fashion Festival’s National Graduate Showcase, I was so excited to get to fix some of the issues I had with my collection. For Melbourne Fashion Festival, each designer was required to have a minimum of 4 looks, so I very quickly whipped up the 4th white look, which was the high-low bubble skirt and steel-boned corset with the giant veil headpiece, to submit, and then once I started talking to Karinda Mutabazi, the stylist for the show, she mentioned it would be great to have the black sheep that I had submitted in my collection lineup, and so a month before the show, I started making a 5th look.

It was nice getting back to sewing and designing after the break from uni, and I was able to enjoy the process more without all the external opinions. I would love to say these 2 looks turned out how I wanted, but I think there’s not a single piece in the collection that I have 0 issues with. But overall, the process of making these 2 new looks, whilst so stressful because of the time crunch, was thrilling because I got to explore things I didn’t previously like, such as corsetry and some resin 3D printing for the wings on the shoes, etc.

Your new looks utilised darker colours in comparison to the original set of pieces—was this intentional, and what was the design ethos behind it?

I have kind of spoiled the inspiration behind the new black look, but the collection was always going to have a ‘black sheep’. It was one of the few sheep-related idioms or metaphors that actually worked with my messaging. Early in the development, I thought it would be nice to have 1 black look, the lone black sheep, a metaphor we are all familiar with, and I think a lot of trans people feel like the black sheep in their family, and a lot of gender-queer/queer people identify with being different from the rest. I was nervous to do this look and do it justice, but it was also so fun to get to do it, and I'm so glad Karinda asked that I make it for the show because I think it was such a necessary part of the storytelling.

You are on a roll in the fashion world—you’ve just graduated with a Bachelor of Fashion (Design) at RMIT, been nominated once again for the Melbourne Fashion Film Awards, taking home the prize this time, and had another successful runway. What’s next for Zain Bleed?

Truly, I don't know. I keep saying that my flop era is incoming. I feel burnt out after all of this. I still want to sew and design and create, and I have ideas that I'm excited to one day get to explore, but I feel so tired, and the idea of compiling a portfolio to apply to a million local/Australian brands for a design internship/role somewhere in the production line is intimidating and exhausting. I was tempted to continue with study and do honours because I was so unsure and overwhelmed. But I have decided to just take what I can find/get, and if that ends up being somewhere in fashion or not, I look forward to it. I guess the dream is to one day get to work in Europe somewhere in some capacity, but we have time to get there.

Photography by Ruby Weir-Alarcon