Meet the Australian designers who won’t wait for the Met Gala

There are only a handful of milestones beyond survival for Australian fashion designers.

“There’s being on the cover of Vogue and there’s the Met Gala,” says Sydney designer Nathaniel Youkhana. “You just want your work to be celebrated.”

Models Hanan Ibrahim in Jarrod Reid, Akosia wearing Youkhana and Manahou Mackay in Amy Lawrance.Credit: Photograph by Chris Hopkins

But rather than wait for an invitation to the Met Gala from US Vogue editor Anna Wintour, Youkhana is cultivating adulation closer to home. One of Youkhana’s signature braided, gender-fluid creations will be showcased alongside two other emerging brands on the red carpet at the National Gallery of Victoria Gala in Melbourne on Saturday.

Among the WAGs, AFL players, rent-a-models and rich list regulars celebrating the opening of the Yayoi Kusama summer blockbuster, designers Youkhana, Jarrod Reid and Amy Lawrance will add stylish substance to the media wall.

“What I make is not everyday wear,” says Youkhana who has been refining his craft-meets-club aesthetic for seven years. “This is the perfect place to demonstrate what I can do. It will definitely create more work for me as a designer.”

Melbourne designer Amy Lawrance, who made her Australian Fashion Week debut in May, shares Youkhana’s sculptural approach to design, but her pieces are grounded in a quieter femininity, designed for a curious customer rather than paparazzi cameras.

Model Manahou Mackay in an Amy Lawrance frock. “I’m always surprised when people say that my dresses would be great for a formal event,” says Lawrance. Credit: Chris Hopkins

“I’m always surprised when people say that my dresses would be great for a formal event because it’s not what I’m thinking about when I’m designing,” Lawrance says. “They’re more like wearable sculptures, but if someone wants to wear it on the red carpet, that’s just lovely.”

Melbourne-based Jarrod Reid’s exuberant dresses, melding British designer Richard Quinn’s kaleidoscopic approach to prints and volume with Sydney designer Jordan Dalah’s slippery silhouettes, completes the trio. There’s nothing quiet about Reid’s approach.

“Well, you won’t see them at Coles,” Reid says. “I just like creating a world I can escape into. My next project is in the world of Scottish fairytales.”

Reid’s upcoming highland fling would have coordinated with the gala celebrating the Alexander McQueen exhibition in 2022. Creative appropriation of Kusama’s work is more challenging.

There’s nothing quiet about Melbourne-based designer Jarrod Reid’s exuberant dresses, worn here by Hanan Ibrahim.Credit: Chris Hopkins

In the 60s, Kusama had her own clothing label, producing garments with strategic cut-outs revealing buttocks and breasts, but fashion is no longer the focus of her colourful and eclectic output.

Rather than imitate Kusama’s work and personal preference for polka dots, the three designers to watch are confident their personal approach to design will be appreciated as art at the gala.

“Fashion can most definitely be considered art,” Lawrance says. “When it’s at its best and not necessarily made with commerciality in mind, I think that it can definitely sit next to art in a gallery.”

“I consider myself an artist,” Youkhana says. “Anything that you create with your hands turns into art regardless.”

That doesn’t mean that your $2.50 fast-fashion t-shirt deserves hanging space beside a Kusama installation.

“If something’s flat, simple and basic, there’s no art to it,” Youkhana says. “When there’s detail and sacrifice, there’s art.”

Model Akosia in a Youkhana design. “When there’s detail and sacrifice, there’s art,” Youkhana says. Credit: Chris Hopkins

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