"30 collections since I turned 30. An ever-evolving tribute to my upbringing in the world of fashion.
Designing clothes has long been a type of cathartic therapy for me as I find my own voice in an industry in which my mother was so dominant. Of late I am more experimental and optimistic than ever. Confident that my clothes make people feel inspired, courageous, and happy.
This season began with a conversation around softness. That sense of deep relaxed comfort that we all crave in a world full of tensions. I looked to my first reference – the Australian landscape and immersed myself in the dusty colours of the earth, the warm sun, the vivid skies, and the blackest nights.
I used this feeling as a chance to play with shapes, contrasting my anchor of traditional tailoring with organic forms of airy volumes and negative spaces. I bravely chose to bare skin in my designs as I healed from a skin cancer surgery.
Kinetic Energy is essential to my vision. Clothes in motion. Enhancing the movement and form of the wearer. This constant energetic exchange helps fuel my imagination; how to bring life to textiles. Revisiting and reworking some of my designs from the last 15 years, I sought to challenge myself to elevate separates into occasion wear and to downplay dresses.
Drapes fall softly around the body, twisting and contorting bare sensual skin. Silks and satins fold and unfold in complex constructions. There is an insouciant sense of hope in the nonchalant way styles are wrapped and tied around the waist.
A refreshing symmetry is apparent, and accentuated through drawstrings which encircle waists and hems. Shoulder lines feature strongly, both sharp and broad, or softly billowing. This gives way to pared-back bias sheaths falling toward the floor.
The polarity of dressing for day vs. occasion is confronted head-on – new proposals throw out the rule book. Tailoring is deconstructed and re-interpreted for modern times. What constitutes a suit? Coordinate pieces that can be layered for maximum power and effect.
I re-kindled my love for patternmaking and hand-worked most of the drapery and patterns in my own hand.
Somewhere on this journey, I found I was no longer second-guessing myself. This is the unbearable lightness of being."
