Fashion designer Dion Lee reflects on his New York move, COVID-19 lockdowns and Australian roots
Australian fashion wunderkind Dion Lee has come a long way. Now based in the Big Apple, he’s revelling in a newfound confidence.
Fashion, like any form of art, is a reflection of the creator’s experience; of who has inspired them, what they have seen, where they have been, what they have been through. So in a year marred by a global pandemic, lockdowns, isolation, uncertainty and even boredom, it is fascinating to see how this is being expressed in ready-to-wear collections.
New York-based Australian fashion designer Dion Lee has lived through it all, being in a virus hotspot, and it shows in his most recent work. “It felt very apocalyptic being isolated in this completely urban environment,” he says of his experience since March. “I live downtown, in Tribeca, just below Canal Street, which is this bustling, energising district, and it was so odd just to see all that activity stop. Our office is on the 19th floor and you can always hear this constant barrage of sirens, horns and the hum of the city. For that to be completely silent in such a significant way was really eerie. It was very surreal and incredible.”
Lee has been living in New York since 2016, but frequently travels around the world to meet with suppliers in Europe or head back to Australia to consult with his staff and design team in Sydney. The 35 year old had never spent eight months in one spot, let alone in New York, and he was fascinated to see the city transform from spring through to autumn. “You get to see the seasonality in such a stark way that we don’t necessarily experience in Australia,” he says.
The other thing he noticed was how hot and humid and sticky New York can get in the middle of summer. In fact it was so humid this year that in June meteorologists declared the city as a subtropical environment. “That was a really interesting idea for me, to be in a place that is as urban in aesthetic as New York really colliding with its tropical classification,” Lee says. “Growing up in Sydney, I always had access to the beach and the water, and not having that environment made me really yearn for it and appreciate it.”
The best form of nature Lee could retreat to were the indoor plants in his apartment - an experience reflected in his spring 2021 collection. He kicks off with a top in the shape of a large Mostera leaf, followed by dresses. “The idea of these indoor plants felt somewhat emblematic of my experience of COVID,” he explains, “of being trapped and bored. This consciousness of breathing and plants breathing and needing to escape into nature.”
Lee presented 31 looks at a warehouse in Bushwick, Brooklyn, in late October and his fascination with nature is apparent in every element. He experimented with different textiles and camouflage fabrics, and the collection was noticeably more casual than previous ones.
“I was just drawn to what that tropical aesthetic looks like,” he says, “more tactile, earthy textile development, and working with beads and hand-finished techniques such as macramé, braiding and plaiting of roping detail. I thought it was a really interesting thing to play with ,considering the formality of my brand and how structured things are in my collections. That felt like a timely juxtaposition for me.”
This is the 15th collection Lee has presented in New York. WISH last caught up with him in 2017 when he was creating his Resort 2018 show for Australian Fashion Week. It was his final show in Sydney before he moved to Manhattan and he went out in style, under the spectacular sails of the Opera House, revisiting a location that has meant so much to him during his extraordinary career. He was the first designer to stage a runway show at the iconic building in 2010, just a year out of fashion school and after editors and buyers had showed interest in his work before he even graduated.
WISH first featured Lee that same year, naming him among the best-dressed people of 2010. He was then profiled in 2013, the headline “Boy Wonder” pointing to his impressive achievements – not to mention multiple awards – and the international buzz that surrounded him. He was just 26. “I am terrified to know what I am wearing in any picture taken back then,” he laughs when WISH tells him about that first feature. “Such a baby,” he later remarks when we send him the 2013 portrait. And he was. When most people are just starting their first entry-level jobs or travelling the world to figure out what they want to do with their lives, Lee was already running his own fashion brand.
“When I was young I approached my career trajectory very naively, and not with a lot of thought or forward planning,” he says. “It was a very reactive path. There was interest in my graduate collection by certain retailers looking to buy the product. I felt I needed to make the most of that opportunity, but I don’t think I understood the cycle I was committing to and how the fashion industry is this machine where you have to design 60 to 100 pieces every three months.”
He concedes he made a lot of mistakes in his first five years of business, and looking back it may have been easier – and more strategic – for him to work for someone else for a few years to learn how to run a fashion business before plunging in himself. “If I knew then what I know now, it would be very challenging to convince me to do what I did,” he laughs. “But having said that, without that level of naivety that comes with being young I don’t think I would have taken the risks or followed through with the incredible experiences I have had.”
The designer says the mistakes and the tough times have led him to where he is today – an internationally renowned designer stocked at more than 80 luxury retailers worldwide. “Over the past four years or so I have been really loving what I am doing, and I am extremely grateful for the position I am in and for the people I work with and the fantastic support I have around me,” he says.
That gratitude – and confidence – is apparent in his work. New York has been good for him; his brand is getting bigger, with his sheer corset tops and cutaway dresses in particular taking off, worn by celebrities from Michelle Pfeiffer to Bella Hadid and Gwyneth Paltrow. “Dion Lee has been on a sexy streak since 2018 or so, finding ways to fuse his architecturally minded clothing with a provocative body consciousness,” wrote US Vogue.
Lee says that thankfully his brand is in a good position despite a global pandemic, lockdowns and recessions. The label – in which Cue took a stake in 2013 – took a hit in the first few months of lockdowns and store closures in Australia (there are eight stores in NSW, Queensland and Victoria) but has seen significant growth in online sales. And not only on his own website; luxury online retailers such as Farfetch say he is one of their best sellers locally. He is now looking forward to growing the brand further internationally and even opening his first US store.
“New York has been fantastic for furthering my understanding of the international market, but also continuing to evolve my aesthetic as a designer and really mature in terms of my experience,” he says. “And it is an exciting time to have a fashion business; the industry is in a complete state of flux and there is a very changing world to design for. I enjoy that challenge, and I enjoy that experience of constantly adapting to what is happening in the world. We are working on a store in New York at the moment and it feels like a really interesting time to do that.”
Interesting is one way to describe opening a bricks and mortar store in the middle of a global pandemic; crazy is another. But Lee maintains that because of the huge increase in online activity we are craving more physical experiences. “What this year has demonstrated is the strength of a digital experience, but there is always going to be the more human side of the brand, and just discovering a product, touching a textile, being able to try something on,” he says, “being drawn into a sensory experience of a brand, from the architecture through to visual merchandising to the collaborations instore. I think it is really important for me to have a space to communicate the brand, especially considering we are still relatively unknown in this enormous market [the US].”
Lee says he was negotiating a retail space back in February but put that on ice as soon as COVID-19 hit. Now he has many more opportunities coming his way, given the state of the retail and real estate markets in Manhattan and the rest of the US. He is looking at a premises in Soho, and it will be a retail space, an online distribution centre for North America, a showroom and an event space. “I am really excited about being able to create a new experience and it is also a new chapter for my retail business,” he says. “When the first of my Australian stores opened – I couldn’t even tell you what year that was – the amount of experience I have had since opening that store and the things I have learnt since, it will be really nice to have an opportunity to apply that.”
Lee is also focusing on expanding his ranges; he was recently in Milan working on a leather goods capsule as well as other accessory elements in the works.
He is talking to WISH on the phone from his hotel in Puerto Escondido, Mexico. It is the first break he has had since March and he has to quarantine in another country before re-entering the US. “Considering I was so used to travelling so regularly, it is a different life now, so this trip in particular has been a really nice experience to get out of my New York bubble,” he says. “I am super appreciative to be able to travel again and explore new places. Being a designer, you also realise how much that external stimulation is idea generating and inspiring visually.”
As our conversation comes to an end, Lee is watching the sun set on the beach from his villa. He sends a photo so we don’t have to imagine this scene from our office in Sydney. It is glorious and we are green with envy. “Not to torture you,” he says, laughing. “I am working too, but it is just the most fab work from home space that I have had over the past six months!”