Fashion’s future is emerging…
Voxfrockians thrill to the feel of excellent quality self-expressive clothes. For this reason, we also sense fashion’s future will be small and bright. Couturiers will rule. Craftsmanship will out. The plethora of clever young fashion artisans releasing labor-intensive small-run ranges and one-off garments for their rellies, friends and tiny niche markets will continue to swell. They will evolve into a teaming market to rival their few-but-huge global mass-made-cheap-frock megabrand competitors such as Top Shop, H&M, Uniqlo, Zara, et. al. And, amen to that.
“Couturiers will rule. Craftsmanship will out…”
Bright Young Things, however, need other bright young things or learned veterans, to nurture and buoy them and – thank the Frocky Goddess – this is precisely what is happening. Mentors, agents, exclusive competitions and retail outlets specialising in emergent fashion, are popping up like daisies. It’s their time.
Photo: Meagan Harding
In Melbourne, for example, stores including One Thousand Cranes and editorial forums such as Fjorde magazine, both founded and run by professional mentor and consultant Patrick Price (pictured above) give crops of fresh, cherry-picked new fashion a leg-up with vital commercial advice, targeted marketing and a dedicated retail outlet. Mr. Price racks and pumps dozens of emergent brands including Leonard Street, Tuk Tuk, Lisa Taranto, Sirius Grafik, Coelho, Mr. Carter and Fontaine Designs.
CHARLOTTE sequin bolero jacket by Lisa Taranto
In Sydney, entrepreneurs Carolina Lopes-Souto and Michelle Raic also established their online shop, LoVu, 12 months ago with a similar raison d’etre. Misses Lopes-Souto and Raic (pictured below, left and right respectively) mentor a clutch of clever emerging brands you may or not have heard of: Ann and Albert, Casa Kuma, Joyce and Jade, Kristi Rose, Lauren Cass, Pasduchas, Sarah Jane Knapp, Rebecca Vallance, Sarah James, Philippa Galasso.
Their advice is precise; design tweaking for commerciality, best price points, production, publicity, plumbed from their own industry experience. And so far, so brilliant. Philippa Galasso has shown in New York during its Fashion Week (main picture,top, from her spring/summer 2014 New York runway), Sarah James and Ann & Albert were among five finalists in the Launch Your Label competition and Rebecca Vallance, one of the better known emergers, has been recognised by a raft of fashion editors for her potential.
La Belle Jacket by Rebecca Vallance
“Our own success is dependent on the success of our emerging designers,” says Miss Lopes-Souto, “We hope to build a network that young talent can leverage and build upon so Australia can establish a globally competitive fashion community.”
Needless to add, both One Thousand Cranes and LoVu are in a perpetual quest to track the cream of emerging design talent: the next Dion Lee, the future Toni Maticevski, another Yeojin Bae-in-the-bud.
Janice Breen Burns, jbb@voxfrock.com.au
