This was published 10 months ago
Grand designs: The winner of Australia’s top fashion awards starts small
At the beginning of the year, designer Alix Higgins nervously gave up the regular income from his job at a printing company to invest more time in his eponymous fashion label.
Critical acclaim – rather than cash – has been the payoff, with Higgins receiving the emerging designer of the year award at the annual Australian Fashion Laureate ceremony in Sydney.
Designer Alix Higgins (centre) with models Emily Stenberg and Tomas Genero at The Apollo restaurant in Potts Point, Sydney. Higgins has won the emerging designer award at the Australian Fashion Laureate.Credit: Louise Kennerley
After three years of business, Higgins still occupies the opposite end of the fashion rainbow to long-running label Zimmermann and its pot of gold, after a reported billion dollar takeover deal in August.
“The first time I met Michael Lo Sordo he told me: ‘You just have to do 10 hard years, and then it’s going to get easier’,” Higgins, 29, says. “So I’ve got seven to go.”
Lo Sordo’s show at Australian Fashion Week in May was a lavish production with violinists, dirty martinis served in Waterford crystal glasses and leading model Jordan Barrett on the runway. Higgins struggled to secure sponsors until the last minute, resulting in a restrained affair with barefoot models sauntering along the raw concrete floor of Carriageworks.
“After my first show last year, I had this idea that my second show would be easier, and then it was absolute hell,” Higgins says. “Everything that could have gone wrong did.”
“It was all impossible. I feel like I willed that into existence because the collection was about this ruined person, trudging through the mud. It’s my fault as much as it is the universe’s.”
But the universe hasn’t given up on Higgins, who studied fashion in Sydney and Paris, honing his flawless fabric printing skills with French designer Marine Serre, before launching his own brand. His fashion week show was one of a handful, including Alemais, Bianca Spender and Albus Lumen, to capture the attention of international industry website Vogue Runway.
Wholesale orders are now dribbling in from LA and Adelaide, but the majority of customers continue to order pieces that subtly subvert gender norms through the Alix Higgins website.
“I had a pop-up store recently and for the first 30 minutes after opening the doors no one came,” Higgins says. “I thought we were doomed. Then people finally arrived and it went crazy.”
“That night I went out to celebrate with a friend who was joking that I made $1 million. I didn’t make $1 million.”
“Many people have this idea about fashion being a big money industry. I mean, it is, and it’s not.”
The emerging designer award, which comes with a free membership to exclusive British club Soho House rather than cash, should give Higgins greater hope.
“This award supports the pipeline of creative talent in Australia, recognising those who are at the forefront of the industry” says Natalie Xenita, vice president IMG Fashion Australia, organiser of the awards and Australian Fashion Week. “It was back in 2014 that Christopher Esber won the award. This year he made his debut in Paris.”
“Industry peers judge this award, and it demonstrates Alix’s reputation as one to watch.”
Higgins slow and steady trajectory is more closely aligned with Esber than last year’s emerging designer award winner Lesleigh Jermanus, who already sells her label Alemais in more than 200 stores globally.
“For a while I thought the only path to success was being commercial, but at the pop-up sales in Melbourne and Sydney, people were after one-off things,” Higgins says. “There’s a certain type of customer looking for the weirdest outfit possible.”
“Fashion is really all I ever wanted to do in some capacity,” Higgins says. “It’s such a privilege to be able to have this as your job.”
“That’s the motivation. I hope I make $1 million. I hope I make more, but I don’t know what that looks like, yet.”
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