A YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING
A pandemic threw three Australian creatives preparing to launch their own labels into chaos, but instead of disaster, they uncovered focus, creativity and a deep well of ingenuity that may come to define them, and us, now. By Alice Birrell.
Sophie Zamel should have been in Paris. The plan was to debut her fine jewellery label during couture week in June last year, which she’d been studiously developing with a group of artisans while she was based in Tel Aviv. It was to be a culmination of the Australian-born jeweller’s travails, getting to know the workings of Diamond Bourse, or Israel Diamond exchange, where she was drawn as a young 20-something creative while studying an International Business degree. But, after formalising her design education at Parsons School of Design and the Gemological Institute of America in New York, then readying herself for launch, she found herself in Sydney, craving the safety of home in the face of global pandemic. “I felt the need to be closer to family. I was seeking comfort, certainty and security, and that to me was Australia,” she reflects. “It was a time of so many unknowns.”
That same kind of total short circuit was also experienced by Natalie Cohen, co-founder of former label Cohen et Sabine, who launched her lounge-meets-resortwear label Soleiluna in February this year.
“The idea has been on the boil for probably two and a half years,” she says. Then the Covid derailment. “We went into lockdown and I couldn’t do anything. There was home-schooling of kids … It was just a headache. It felt like it’s probably not a good time to start in the
depths of this. Nobody’s been through it before, and we thought ‘Oh my god, how is this going to play out?’”
It was a disjunction shared by so many – but particularly jarring for those embarking on a brand-new endeavour, with no safety net and no loyal following to cushion the blow (though they acknowledge the privilege of working at all in the face of mass grief and financial strife, or both). A phantom future had to be relinquished, fast, as a record number of local retailers went into voluntary administration by late 2020 and discretionary spending plummeted, dropping 8.9 per cent year-on-year. For Cohen, that meant putting on hold plans to launch internationally, and instead build a local customer base as well as digital presence. “I had to just take a raincheck in that thought pattern and look broadly at the world,” she says.
When Amelia Mather took her just-launched swim and beach essentials label Boteh to wholesalers last year, circumstances defined her path. “There were a lot of rejections,” she recalls. “They said, ‘of course we’re not looking for new brands right now’.” Having worked for larger brands, including Tigerlily, and The Upside where she was while developing Boteh, she was often on a tight schedule, so instead used the more sedate pace for development and cemented her decision to not “blow it up into something too big too soon”. Taking on only a handful of well-suited stockists, she’s been able to hone details and focus on quality – she uses 100 per cent cellulosic plantderived fabrics including cottons and linens, and perfects prints inspired by her travels (boteh being the Persian term for paisley) designing them from scratch and placing them to reduce waste.
They are each treading a well-worn path of ingenuity, agility and enterprising spirit that has marked tough times for the fashion landscape. In fact, it was Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel who opened shop in Biarritz in 1915 in the midst of World War I, while iconic signatures have been forged in happenstance, like Hermès’s distinct orange packaging – which was the only colour available in World War II (the preference was beige).
Zamel – whose curvilinear, gestural forms are rendered in precious metal and studded in diamonds – was able to reframe her remoteness from her workshop. “Working with a team situated on all corners of the globe has brought a textured tapestry of ideas to work with and has helped form a rich, global point of view to communicate,” she says. A juggling of DHL and WhatsApp has marshalled a team between Tel Aviv, New York, Ho Chi Minh City, Los Angeles and Berlin. “I think operating a small business at a time like this is a great advantage as we are able to shift logistics and re-evaluate strategy at a necessary pace.”
That agility is one of the things setting emerging labels apart from bigger fashion houses, many of which have been encumbered by their size and profit targets, as is a personal connection to their makers. “I saw a lot of big brands were cancelling orders on these factories and not holding up their end of the deal,” says Mather of fabric suppliers, like hers in India. “I know I’m small, but I couldn’t do it to my makers. So, I was just like, ‘I’ve got to keep going.’”
“I’ve actually never physically met these people [who make the clothing],” she continues. “Which is so weird for me because I’ve had 15-year relationships with my swim-makers who I’m still working with. [But] it’s 2021. It’s just how we work now.” For Zamel, she too worked outside the usual framework. “With restrictions you are forced to be more creative,” she says. “I personally am more inclined to take risks.” Like handing her campaign to Copenhagen-based photographer Josefine Seifert, who she had never met, but which allowed the best ideas to flow freely on set. “We needed to reach a point of surrender.”
There’s kismet involved as well – both Mather and Cohen’s are laidback, versatile lines with a beachside ease and comfort, and fit the rhythms of life in a pandemic in Australia. It helped solidify Cohen’s direction: a hybrid between beachwear and sleepwear with a 1960s and 70s inflection, like her silk A-line slip in a sun-bleached version of a Liberty-esque print, that could go from bed to beach. She uses Global Organic Textile Standard-certified cotton, so as not to hold heat against the skin when you’re “sitting on the couch watching a film”. The fit of Mather’s pieces, in flowing prairie blouses and patchwork smock dresses, are made to fit a wide range of body types. “It’s the wearable design that I think has had the amazing response.”
All agree their visions were reinforced because of the pandemic. Each hold a thoughtfulness and focus in their designs. Zamel distilled her collection to seven styles only, while Mather is releasing two collections annually to tackle a throwaway culture that rankled – “which is not a proven business model, but I’m going to give it a good go.” When she was moving from collection to collection she felt “like I was kind of half designing [them] and then moving on and then never really actually understanding how it was received or learning and evolving”.
What they represent is a new guard of labels, shaking off traditional thinking and starting out afresh. “I think we have been given a window of opportunity,” says Zamel. “We are living in a time when we have been forced to rethink everything, and therefore what can sometimes be a guarded industry has become more inclusive and open to new ideas.” Like slowing down, taking the time to figure out what clothing the world really needs more of.
“In normal day-to-day life pre-Covid it was easy to be become lost in the speed of life and forget … how little control we have; that circumstance can change so drastically in an instant. In light of this I feel it is of the highest importance to be engaged with what you do,” says Cohen. As Zamel sees it, it’s time for a new approach, a new spirit in fashion that goes back to a sustainable pace and innovation. “It has become clear that drastic changes need to be made and I think it is smaller, independent labels that will be able to lead this way.”
“We have been forced to rethink everything, and therefore what can sometimes be a guarded industry has become more inclusive and open to new ideas”
MEET THE SLOW knitters: a body of labels making small-batch, handknitted jumpers and cardigans. With either a small selection on offer, or pieces made to order taking up to several weeks to craft, they draw on a hankering for pastoral purity. Take New Zealand label Frisson Knits, made with ethically sourced local mohair, or The Knitter, another Kiwi outfit eschewing machines in favour of hand-making bouncy knits for bundling up in. Or the newest venture, Nodi, from Adriana Giuffrida, founder of accessories label Poms, who has turned a love of slow craft into a line of bags and bandanas among others. Italian for ‘knots’, Nodi was created in loving memory of her grandmother, who taught Giuffrida how to crochet.
Add to that Kamala Harris’s step-daughter Ella Emhoff’s recently launched (and completely sold out) micro collection of knits and they all speak to what’s compelling us right now: artisanal, unique and sustainably produced pieces, with natural fibres and a homespun heft.
A new leaf
The latest in leather? Plants. While searches for ‘vegan leather’ are on the up, according to a report from Lyst, many vegan leathers remain chemical-based, cast from polyurethane or PVC coatings. Read: non-biodegradable. Enter plant-based materials. At the forefront is the French house of Hermès, which, in a groundbreaking move, embraces mushroom ‘leather’, made from the root-like structure of fungi’s mycelium in a material called Sylvania, developed with Californian biotech company MycoWorks. Stella McCartney is close behind with the first-ever mycelium leather garments. Enter also exotic leaves, as cult French accessories label Amélie Pichard has utilised, crafting a leather-feel material from the tropical foliage of the elephant ear. Similarly, cactus leather, also known as Desserto, is a material used by sustainable brand Deadwood and Australian bag label A_C Official, which also uses mycelium. Now there’s no excuse not to wear your greens.
First Nations Fashion + Design (FNFD) guest spotlight on:
“FNFD would like to announce our partnership with IMG to support Indigenous Australian designers and talent as part of Afterpay Australian Fashion Week (AAFW). AAFW will take place May 31 to June 4, 2021, live at Carriageworks in Sydney. The partnership will support FNFD in various capacities including: Welcome To Country, The Suites, May 31 to June 2, and FNFD Runway, June 2 at 9.30am. The runway showcase will feature nine independent First Nations designers and brands.”