All eyes should be on the newest designers at Australian Fashion Week
Vogue Australia selects the five emerging fashion designers to know from this year’s fashion week.
May is a sartorialist’s Christmas. There’s the Met Gala which occupies the first Monday of the month; last week, the stars flocked to the Metropolitan Museum of Art dressed as flora and fauna, as demanded by the year’s dress code, “The Garden of Time”. The frenzy then moves from New York to the heart of Sydney, with the coming of Australian Fashion Week (AFW) and the start of the resort season.
One of the most exciting aspects of AFW is the designer debuts – the emerging talents putting on a Carriageworks show, solo, for the very first time. It’s an event that’s kicked off the careers for the likes of Dion Lee and Christopher Esber – homegrown visionaries who’ve since acquired an international fanbase. Sitting front row for a presentation, and watching the lights dim, hearing that collective intake of breath before the first look comes down the catwalk, you can’t help but wonder: is this the next big thing?
Here, Vogue Australia profiles five designers making their solo debut at 2024 Australian Fashion Week.
Emily Watson
It was the winter of 2018. Emily Watson was on exchange in New York City, and she felt her mind drifting to memories of the Australian summer: buttery sands, the taste of saltwater, rainbow Paddlepops dripping onto the pavement.
“I think that started to be reflected in my work,” the now-Melbourne-based Watson says.
“I was drawn to the idea of re-constructed swimwear and saturated colours. That being said, I didn’t have the thought of starting my own label until 2020 during Covid, the year after I graduated.
“At that time it was uncommon to start a business as a fresh graduate. I had a lot of self doubt but a lot of time to realise and develop my ideas into what the brand is today. Upon reflection, I am very grateful to have had that time without distraction.”
Watson has since made more than a name for herself. Her rave-ready, pool-to-club designs have been endorsed by industry cool girls like model Bella Hadid and internet personality Emma Chamberlain. And once you’re au fait with the Watson touch, you can spot a design of hers from a mile away, whether that’s a tankini nylon skirt or ruffled, drawstring-everywhere halter neck top.
“My first order with Ssense has been the most impactful moment in my career thus far,” shares Watson. “It gave me the financial support to continue the business full-time. I have also grown so much as a business owner and a designer since then. It forced me to learn how to plan far in advance.”
It is an honour to show at Australian Fashion Week, she continues, but it’s not without caveats.
“As a small emerging designer, it can be a huge financial risk putting on a show.” Nevertheless, Watson’s on the edge of her seat – a milestone is a milestone.
“It has been a really nice breath of fresh air pouring all my time into a creative showcase,” she says. “The last time was in my graduate year in 2019. I also feel very grateful and privileged to have been given this opportunity. While I feel content about the direction the brand has headed in, I am currently experimenting with different textiles and categories which I hope to explore further for future collections.”
– Gladys Lai, digital fashion features writer
Amy Lawrance
If they weren’t anchored to Earth by the models wearing them, one might think emerging designer Amy Lawrance’s clothes would start to levitate.
The Bendigo-raised designer, whose Australian fashion week debut is part of the Next Gen presentation, is becoming known for her celestial dresses – often in white or soft grey and incorporating silk – which evoke a hand-spun craft of a different time.
“When I first started studying, I really didn’t have any kind of technical skills, and found the process of pattern making and constructing a garment painful,” Lawrance says of her time at TAFE in Melbourne before studying fashion at RMIT. “Towards the end of my studies, it became the thing I loved most.”
Visually, Lawrance’s clothes are informed by “retro-futuristic” references; she cites Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis, and the sleek aesthetics of the 1960s space age, as fuel for inspiration.
“When I started, I liked the idea of being a designer who’d handball the production [side] to a maker, and that would be it for me,” she says. “But now I don’t think I could ever see myself designing a garment and not being 100 per cent a part of it.”
That intuitive love of craft has led Lawrance to her position as an emerging Australian designer to watch.
“I work three days a week as a design assistant, and I teach one day a week at RMIT, so it’s been a full-on few weeks,” she says. “You sort of wonder, ‘Am I spreading myself too thin?’… but I know I wouldn’t be happy if I wasn’t pursuing this.”
– Jonah Waterhouse, assistant fashion features and news editor
Madre Natura
Jackie Galleghan is all about purpose-driven fashion. Since graduating from The Fashion Design Studio in 2011, she’s lent her eye to brands including Romance Was Born, Karla Spetic and Shona Joy – but throughout her experiences, her interest in sustainable reform within the industry has grown.
“Each place I worked, I learnt more and more about the true effects of the fashion industry on our environment,” she tells us, “so being obsessed with fashion, I knew then that I had to make a difference.”
For a time, Galleghan collected deadstock fabrics from local fashion houses, but eventually put her personal projects on pause.
“It wasn’t until 2020, when I lost my job and my grandmother passed away, that I knew it was the time to put everything I had into the business,” she shares. “While everyone was cooking and going for walks during Covid, I was working seven days a week studying and setting up my brand to launch in 2020.”
Enter Madre Natura: a slow fashion brand with big ambitions. Here, Galleghan spins clothes that are clean, minimal, retro. Her signature Eucalyptus Tie Front Top comes in a white and sheer polka dot; you’ll also find dark wash denim, striped polo shirts and ringer tees in her arsenal.
“Everyone talks about sustainability,” Galleghan continues, “but even though we are a boutique, we are doing something about it, with a focus on zero-waste.”
As she prepares for her Australian Fashion Week debut on Thursday, Galleghan says that she’s “pinching [herself] every minute [she] works on it”.
“I’ve been dreaming about being a fashion designer for so long,” she muses. “My mind, of course, drifted into dreaming about creating a spectacle at AFW. Now, my dreams are coming true. I’m both scared and excited at the same time. Butterflies and pride.”
– Gladys Lai
Liandra
Yolngu designer Liandra Gaykamangu is no stranger to the runway. After several years of presenting her Darwin-based label Liandra at Australian Fashion Week on the Indigenous Fashion Projects Runway and the Next Gen show, no one can say Gaykamangu isn’t a seasoned hand.
But this year marks an important evolution for the designer and her brand. She’s moving away from a swimwear-only collection and into the lifestyle side of ready-to-wear – and 2024 will also mark Liandra’s first solo fashion week show.
“I’m actually really calm,” Gaykamangu says. “I really see this show as a bit of a rebirth of the brand. It’s definitely a very natural progression of who we are, but also where we’re trying to be. Next Gen was a really beautiful step for us to take last year. It was a natural kind of growth for me as a designer. It was sort of like having my hand held and gently being released into the wild.”
Gaykamangu’s collection for this year. “Essence”, uses the symbol of the native honeybees in Eastern Arnhem Land to blend the personal with stories of her culture and clan.
“There’s my personal, contemporary take on my culture and who I am, but the brand is also built to connect people. It’s not just about one experience; it’s about creating an opportunity for multiple experiences.”
As well as incorporating the brand’s signature vibrant hand-drawn prints, Gaykamangu used this collection to introduce some new designs.
“It’s my version of minimalist … it’s maximalist-minimalist,” she laughs. Having secured a wholesale agent, Gaykamangu is excited to continue to grow Liandra’s presence here in Australia, and internationally.
“That’s definitely where the focus is, looking to follow those before me like the incredible Dion Lees and Christopher Esbers. They’ve paved the way in showing Australian designers that it really is possible. So now I’m focused on carving out my lane, and finding my home in that space.”
– Nina Miyashita, content editor
Mastani
Fashion is as much a learning experience as it is a visual one. The beauty of garments, and their design, often come with learnings about tradition, manufacture, and materiality, something Mastani founder and creative director, Kudrat Makkar, is hoping to share with Australians, and then the world.
Makkar’s Melbourne-based label Mastani began six years ago, but 2024 marks the brand’s solo debut show at Australian Fashion Week.
“I wanted to meld tradition with a modern aesthetic.” she says, “and introduce Indian textiles to the Australian – and global – customer in a way they hadn’t seen before.”
Across the collections, Mastini presents itself as an ode to the traditional artisans of India, where centuries-old traditions are reimagined in a contemporary lens.
Mastani upcycles a large portion of its material, while also incorporating hand-loomed silks, lavish embroidery, and handpainted detailing.
Across the free-flowing and grandiose silhouettes, Makkar aims to embolden her wearer, just as she does to the person who made the garment.
Imbued within the ethos of the brand and Makkar’s own cultural heritage is the support she offers to the partner artisans and local communities in India.
She works with all the moving parts, or, what she dubs the “actors in the ecosystem” (the spinners, weavers, dyers, tailors, and more) – helping those far from the runway adapt to new developments in technology. Whichever way you look, there have been lots of conversations regarding the ways in which value is determined in clothing. The takeaway at Mastani?
“We spend time educating our clients about the inherent value of our textiles and the way we produce them.”
– Will Lennox, content producer
This piece was originally published on vogue.com.au
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