Territory designers Denise Dunn and Ilma Ali make splash at Melbourne Fashion Festival

Two Territory designers have had their works showcased on one of the nation’s biggest stages. Read what happened.

It’s a long walk from Darwin’s Mindil Beach to the Melbourne Fashion Festival runway, particularly in a pair of flip-flops.

But that’s the route taken by Territory company Slappa’s Thongs, which featured at the fortnight long fashion extravaganza along with Darwin artist Ilma Ali, whose designs were also showcased.

Ms Dunn said she was on a road trip visiting stockists in New South Wales when she learnt that Melbourne fashion-house Alpha60 had chosen Slappa’s Thongs’ lime green and black flip-flop as footwear de jour for their festival models.

Alpha60’s Brand and Strategy Manager Kelvin Janissen contacted Slappa’s advising the fashion-house was “looking for a slim profile shoe for our e-commerce shoots”.

Slappas Thongs hit the runway.

“We discovered your thongs online and fell in love with the simple but elevated profile of your shoe,” Mr Janissen wrote. “We began using them in our e-commerce and campaign shoots then the last order was for our show at Melbourne Fashion Festival, at which all our models wore Slappas!

“Actually all the models thanked us for the shoe choice!,” he continued. “A lot of other brands had the models in extremely high heels and they were struggling so I think the Slappas were a nice break and comfort for them. The lime green looked so good on the runway!

“They are such a great look.

“I also have been doing some trend forecasting and if you look at Copenhagen fashion week it seems the whole front row at every show are in thongs! I think they are definitely on the up in high fashion trends.”

Ilma Ali’s Flowers Underwater theme caused a splash at Melbourne Fashion Festival.

Ms Dunn agrees, believing that thongs could replace white-sneakers as the latest off-brand fashion trend.

“It shows thongs aren’t just something you wear at the beach and around home,” she said. “They’re really becoming quiet stylish and because they’re comfortable, people are thinking about them in place of high-heels.”

Slappa’s Thongs were designed by Denise to provide the comfort and arch support that’s not delivered by the conventional double pluggers.

Slappa’s famous Volkswagen Kombi first opened at Mindil Beach in 2010 and now Denise’s family also work in the business.

Ilma Ali Design owner, Sri Lankan raised textile artist Ilma Ali, was also showcased at Melbourne Fashion Festival, with a show called Runway in the Reef featuring fashion inspired by sea-life.

“My last collection was called ‘Flowers Underwater’ and I always wanted to do an aquarium show, and this featured as part of the festival’s independent runway program,” Ms Ali said.
“I started painting in Darwin, inspired by what’s around me and it’s exciting to see it grow, so a Darwin textile artist is featured at Melbourne Fashion Festival. It’s incredible.”

Originally published as Territory designers Denise Dunn and Ilma Ali make splash at Melbourne Fashion Festival