The gritty countercultural designers taking on the Australian fashion industry
When the future of Australian Fashion Week was thrown into limbo late last year, Alvi Chung, the Sydney-based designer behind Speed, made a decision.
As IMG abandoned the event and the Australian Fashion Council took over, Chung and her partner, cultural strategist Daniel Neeson, came up with the idea for WINGS.
Billed as “Australia’s Inaugural Fashion Festival”, WINGS is a direct response to fashion week’s slimmed down schedule – a guerrilla, countercultural romp of a show that has set its sights beyond the traditional catwalk.
Designer Alvi Chung of Speed with model Elliot Cowan wearing one of her designs. Chung is the co-founder of WINGS Independent Fashion Festival.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers
“With IMG leaving Fashion Week and the AFC taking over, they have expressed that they’ve gone more wholesale, and we did see a cut in a few conceptual designers that took more risks,” says Chung, who presented her designs at AFW in 2023 and 2024.
“It’s a very pointed message to send someone ... that the industry doesn’t support you. So we wanted to create a space emerging designers can look forward to,” says Neeson.
Five designers – Catholic Guilt, Speed, Joteo, Amiss and Jody Just – will present their collections this week at Sydney’s Plaza Hotel, in an immersive environment including live music, large-scale installations and performance art across three levels.
Designer Gail Sorronda has been left off the AFW schedule, while TAFE Fashion Design Studio will not show for the first time in 25 years.
Neeson, who spent two decades working in London’s music industry, sees the hybrid event as a way to revitalise Sydney’s nightlife scene.
He was inspired by Blitz, a London club night in the 1970s and ’80s that became a testbed for student designers (like milliner Stephen Jones and Max Mara creative director Ian Griffiths) who mingled with artists, musicians and writers.
WINGS co-founder Daniel Neeson.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers
While the inclusion of avant-garde and couture designs is important to Chung, commerciality is also front of mind.
The two-day festival will be followed by a two-week pop-up store at the Plaza Hotel. WINGS is a ticketed event, the revenue from which Chung is also hoping will support its designers and help them recoup production costs.
Ella Jackson, the Melbourne-based designer behind Catholic Guilt, has shown at Paris Fashion Week, and was invited to design a custom piece for American actor and model Julia Fox for the NGV Gala last year.
Jackson would like to see more support in the form of business management, financing options and mentorship programs.
“A lot of us are learning on the fly. It can be scary being put in situations like fashion week where you have to be managing so many people and laying down so much of your money.”
Her presentation is dedicated to the women lost to domestic violence.
Chung and Neeson were fortunate to have The Plaza Hotel come on board as a sponsor, but say finding support from the private and public sectors was extremely difficult.
More government support is something Chung says local designers are crying out for.
WINGS Fashion Festival is on until May 9, with a pop-up store running from May 10 to 25.
Make the most of your health, relationships, fitness and nutrition with our Live Well newsletter. Get it in your inbox every Monday.