ELLERY

DESIGNER KYM ELLERY’S LONGSTANDING AFFAIR WITH PARIS IS FINALLY BEING CONSUMMATED. SANTÉ!

It’s cocktail o’clock in Kym Ellery’s Paris showroom. Aperol spritz? Red wine? There’s apt cause for celebration given the Perth-born designer has just shown her AW1617 collection on the Paris Fashion Week schedule and can just about now call herself a resident of the city as well. The stylish drinks trolley being rolled out? An Italian relic she picked up in January on a skiing trip to Megève in the Alps of south-eastern France while staying at Les Fermes de Marie resort (restored farmhouses, hot spa in the snow, five-star vibes). For a moment, it’s sounding like we’ve lost Ellery to a fizz of French fabulousness until she breaks off into the story of how her brother came, too.

“I’d spent Christmas in Perth and then was to fly from Perth to Paris. I was moving my first lot of stuff over and I got to the airport and I didn’t have as much luggage allowance as I thought I had. It was $3,000 to get an extra bag on, and I was like, ‘Well, that’s fucking ridiculous.’ I was about to give them my credit card when my brother’s like, ‘Do you want me to bring the bag for you?’ He got on a plane 48 hours after and he came and hung out for a week and we went skiing. It was really cool, because I never get to see my brother. It was some nice family time.”

Phew, the grounded, witty, upbeat Kym Ellery we know and love is intact. And those iconic Ellery pieces we’ve grown to cherish in our wardrobes? Still present and accounted for – only better. Her recent runway was a celebration of her signature fluted sleeves and flared trousers, updated with new silhouettes, fabrics and vivid colour – rust, gold, candy pink – which she says I can attribute to the joie de vivre that comes from moving to Paris (my words not hers), but more than likely is a response to buyers hoping for some light relief from her hallmark black.

“Corsets were a starting point,” she explains, pointing out one of her favourite looks, a longline black coat with a loosely secured corset picked out in yellow zigzag stitching around the middle. It was the look that opened her show. “I wanted to explore garments that were essential at the turn of the 19th century, I wanted to take them and make them relevant for the modern woman, deconstructing them and opening them up as somewhat of a feminist statement.”

The whole collection, in fact, feels empowering. Nothing from Ellery is ever overtly sexy, but there’s a sensuousness in high necks and long hemlines, generous volume and those gold Alexander Calderinspired mobile earrings dangling provocatively from just one earlobe.

“Oh, hi, Ludivine, comment ça va?” Ellery calls out to her model in a hammy French accent. “This is a French lurex velvet on a French model.” The beautifully fluid dress is teamed with python loafers, a pair from Ellery’s first shoe collection that also includes blue velvet ankle boots and sturdy thigh-high boots from a look already requested by Charlize Theron. This season also sees the launch of the brand’s first foray into denim, with five “of the most classic and important shapes” including those bestselling bell-bottoms.

“It just feels like the right time now for the brand,” says Ellery of the brand extensions. “We’ve got really great distribution globally with the ready-to-wear, and I wanted to expand our categories and give our girl more to put in her wardrobe, a more holistic view, so she can apply it more holistically to her life… Because our girl is quite formal, I wanted to offer her something more casual but still at a very elevated level, so the jeans are Japanese denim, made in Turkey, and we use Swiss gold hardware, which is all gold-plated.”

It’s a truly global affair now that, after more than four years of Ellery testing the waters in the French capital, the label has its beating heart in Paris. With a company restructure to allow for French staff and Italian distribution, Europe is about to fall at her feet. But a new store opening this month at Five Ways in Sydney’s Paddington, with plans for an upstairs gallery and garden cafe, proves she hasn’t forgotten her roots. We can rest easy knowing Frenchaustralian relations, for now, are safe.