The thing about Martin Grant, says Katie Somerville, is that he is constantly working in two lanes. “He has an innate, remarkable sense of the sculptural,” says the senior curator of fashion and textiles at the National Gallery of Victoria. “But within that, it’s very subtle and refined. He is a student of fashion but not trends. He’s never been interested in being part of the it crowd. And there is this exacting patience to his designs – but it’s all still highly creative.”
Such a designer, of course, deserves the NGV treatment. Over the past two decades, the Melbourne institution has taken up the mantle as Australia’s leading fashion exhibitor, showcasing designers from Alexander McQueen to Christian Dior to Chanel at its annual summer blockbuster shows. Grant himself was the subject of an NGV exhibition some 20 years ago; Martin Grant: Paris, which focused on just two of his collections.
