The Australian Connection: Fashion Designers in Paris

In Paris, Australian business director Luka Maich with fashion designer Lui Hon. Their label's runway show was the second time they have presented a new collection in the French capital. Cover picture of Kym Ellery's Paris show, designer portraits and fashion photographs all by Elli Ioannou

Paris draws designers from all over the world for its ready-to-wear and haute couture fashion weeks. Our special correspondent Elli Ioannou writes that if Australian designers want to show their work on an international stage Paris is the best place to be

The poetry of fashion at Lui Hon  

AUSTRALIAN fashion designers in Paris during this season's autumn/winter 2016 fashion week included Lui Hon, Kym Ellery, Akira Isogawa and jeweller Will Hanigan. Showing in Paris for a second time, designer Lui Hon and business partner Luka Maich both agree it is important to be in the French capital. They say Europe is often more reflective of the label's aesthetic than Australia. For Lui Hon, the poetry of fashion is a key element inspiring his work. Hon's current collection's theme is inspired by water, a metaphor for the fluid and adaptable designs that are integral to his oeuvre. Many of the key pieces can be worn in different of ways: reversed, worn upside down and even back to front.

Lui Hon's fluid & adaptable design

Some pieces have inbuilt ties which enable the wearer to style and wear the same garment differently each time. Founded in Melbourne seven years ago with Luka Maich, the brand manufactures its garments locally. Lui Hon, an RMIT design graduate, got his big break creatively after being a finalist on the television series Project Runway. He says working on designs for the show was a catalyst for discovering his own design ethos which continues to sustain his approach today. Asked about their unique symbiotic relationship working together as designer and business director, Luka Maich says: “We are open and transparent about everything that happens in the both the business and creative areas. Of course Lui is the designer, but each step is overseen by both of us. We are hands on with all aspects of the label, we want to make it work." How did they meet? “Where many great relationships begin,” says Maich. “At a party!”

Akira Isogawa shows his new collection in Paris

Akira Isogawa is one of Australia’s most well-established fashion designers, with great success not only locally but also in Paris. Isogawa has been coming to France since 1998, exhibiting as well as selling his clothing by liaising directly with his buyers. The designer's preference to not show via a traditional runway has meant he can sustain and control his own vision, and continue to produce the high level of quality he aimed for since the brand’s inception. The designer describes his autumn/winter 2016 collection as being about beautifying our world with a suggestion of ancient Japan. The garments have an allure created by layers, subtle details, patch-working, and contrasting elements of dark and light.


Isogawa's rich colour & drapery

Isogawa likes to use traditional Japanese designs and techniques using natural fabrics to create these stratified, intricate ensembles. He devotes a lot of time to textile design, using techniques such as dying, folding, embroidery, printing and hand painting. His clothes use rich colour but have draped, androgynous shapes. The designer originally moved to Australia from Japan to study fashion at the Sydney Institute of Technology. He opened his boutique in Sydney's Woollahra in 1993 and was showing during Australian Fashion Week three years later before taking his collections to international buyers in Paris. The designer has collaborated on dance productions, won awards and been the subject of exhibitions at the National Gallery of Victoria as well as the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. Today, Isogawa has boutiques in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Will Hanigan & Iskra Galic in Paris

Will Hanigan describes himself as a Yawuru man, a designer and fifth generation pearl diver from Broome. Hanigan began his design journey at nineteen with a six month stint in Japan in the pearl trade. One of his first designs was a piece of crocodile leather, originally with teeth adorning it, that Hanigan replaced by pearls. Initially, diving himself  the designer also bought from his father, a major international wholesaler of pearls. Asked about how his Aboriginal identity influences his work today, Hanigan says: “It’s important to understand there is spirituality involved in being Aboriginal, understanding the properties of the stones and metals from this perspective is integral for me and akin to the Indian Ayurveda philosophy. I see the crocodile as one of my totems and often the shapes of my earring pendants are tiny shells I find when I’m on the beach in Broome where I grew up.” Talking about his dream for his designs and brand, he describes how he would like to bring pearls into haute couture fashion. “I'd like to bridge the gap between what is high fashion and fine quality jewellery, with an aesthetic that is fashionable and desirable. No one is really doing that using South Sea pearls.” Today, Will Hanigan is based in New York, with his partner Iskra Galic (pictured) and would like to expand his brand in Europe.

Ellery's '70s inspired runway show in Paris

Kym Ellery is only the second Australia-based designer (after Collette Dinnigan) to be invited by France's Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode to show her collection during the official Paris Fashion Week schedule. This season her runway show at the uber contemporary Palais des Tokyo, presented metallic gold and bronze dresses, dress shirts, leather and velevet frocks, fur coats and tweed ankle length coats tied with long straps. Diaphanous, white shirt dresses with billowing Laura Ashley styled sleeves and leather ankle boots, combined a breezy Australian style with a soignee Parisian silhouette that seemed to capture the essence of Antipodean success in the French capital. Raised in Perth, Kym Ellery first created her brand Ellery in Sydney in 2007. Today, she works with mills in Switzerland and Italy to develop innovative new textiles while keeping the production of the clothes in Sydney. Initially, she did a university fashion design and production degree, followed by a summer course at London’s Central St Martins plus four years working at Australian RUSSH magazine, before she got her break via a Vogue shoot.

The Creative Universe of Japanese Design House Issey Miyake

Rehearsals in Paris for Issey Miyake's AW16 runway show with models wearing the design house's finely-pleated sculptural creations. Cover picture and all photographs by Elli Ioannou

In Paris, our special correspondent and photographer Elli Ioannou went backstage to shoot the elaborate preparations for the Issey Miyake AW16 show and attended the launch of a comprehensive new book about the Japanese designer's life and work by Taschen

Homage to Issey Miyake's signature style

ONE of the many traits which separates Issey Miyake from other haute couture creative directors is his approach to nurturing young designers. The Japanese designer gives them a platform from which they can develop their skills and talent and offers a five year tenure. Yoshiyuki Miyamae is Issey Miyake's current womens' wear designer since 2010 but has been a member of the design team since 2006, under Dai Fujiwara. The AW16 womens’ range in Paris is a visual homage to the origins of the Issey Miyake signature style including traditional shapes, colours and textures and using his innovative fusion of technology, art and fashion. Called Beyond, the collection drew its inspiration from the vastness of the universe and beauty born from a piece of cloth using Miyake's “baked stretch” and “3D steam stretch” techniques.

The fabric's 'memory' holds the pleats

It was during the late 1980s when Miyake began to experiment with new methods of pleating that would allow flexibility of movement for the wearer as well as ease of care and production. The garments are cut and sewn first, then sandwiched between layers of paper and fed into a heat press, where they are pleated. The fabric's 'memory' holds the pleats, when it is liberated from the paper cocoon, it is ready to wear.

Backstage the special make-up is created

Leading up to the fashion house's latest show, preparations by the Miyake production teams happen simultaneously and very calmly. At times
it appears more like a theatre rehearsal: testing the lighting, runway, choreography, model positions and last minute alterations to the clothes. The electronic sounds of experimental duo Ei Wada and Haruka Yoshida from the Open Reel Ensemble play ecstatically, oblivious to all the activity around them. Gathering before the show are invited guests, an array of VIP’s, buyers, shop managers and press from the Issey Miyake global team. They are all wearing complete Issey Miyake ensembles and carrying a version of the must-have Bao Bao bag. By the final rehearsal, it feels like a full house with at least 150 people sitting in the audience.

On the runway, working on the show's rehearsal

The rehearsals before fashion shows offer a special time also for photographers to capture something different. Without an audience there is an unusual intimacy between the photographer and the models. Then the show finally opens in almost complete darkness, the intricate sounds of the Open Reel Ensemble set the atmosphere for the collections’ theme of Beyond. The ensemble, who appear more like scientists than musicians, immerse the audience in an all-encompassing experience of sound amid the blackness, apart from some light coming from the sound stage and mist rising from below.

Musicians Ei Wada & Haruka Rashida in Paris

Ei Wada and Haruka Roshida also created an instrument, the Kankisenthizer which they use during the show. It’s purpose being to explore light being transformed into sound. A machine using photosensitive sensors create the light the audience sees transmitted via the blades of exhaust fans. A burst of white light, reveals models coming down a metallic runway wearing colours of royal red, fuchsia pink and aqua blue with strong textures and origami-like shapes. Welcome to the deep and atmopsheric universe of Issey Miyake.

Dickenson at the book launch

To coincide with the AW16 Paris show, the fashion house  also launched the simply-titled Issey Miyake published by Taschen at the Paris flagship store. An international and cosmopolitan crowd of guests gathered for the book launch and had the opportunity to preview the large coffee-table book that draws on more than 40 years of collaborative work with Miyake. A comprehensive and encyclopedic reference, the book covers all of the designer's fabric and technical innovations through his designs. There are also privileged behind-the-scenes, including stories from one of Issey Miyake’s early models from the Eighties, Debbie Dickinson.

Backstage in Paris for Issey Miyake's AW16 runway show with models wearing the design house's finely-pleated sculptural creations. Cover picture and all photographs by Elli Ioannou

Growing organically like a fern frond, a detail of the decoration integral to one of Issey Miyake's new pieces shown on the AW16 runway in Paris

Models wait to walk on to the runway at Issey Miyake's AW16 show in Paris

Enveloped by flowing, pleated long jackets, models strut the runway during rehearsals

Long, black leather boots contrast with the airy lightness of Miyake's creations

 Mist rises during the atmospheric show set to the intricate sounds of the Open Reel Ensemble

 A model has her make-up created before the runway show

Alterations are made to the clothes during the rehearsals in Paris

Models are instructed about the choreography of the Parisian show 

A cylindrical dress in red with pleats that seem to wrap around the body

Brilliant colour was mixed with strong, asymmetrical shapes to create the new Issey Miyake show

 Photographer Elli Ioannou captures the subtle movement of the Miyake clothes on the runway

Architectural in its conception, this long coat was one of the stand out pieces in the new collection

A graphic piece of designer Issey Miyake's work on show at the launch of the book about his life and work in Paris

A guest at the Taschen book launch wears a stylish, pleated hat that captures the Miyake aesthetic

The new book launched in Paris about the designer's work and his avant-garde techniques using different fabrics

The New Theatre of Fashion: Street Style in Paris at Valentino

 Photographers on the white carpet outside the Valentino AW16 ready-to-wear show in the Jardin des Tuilieries in Paris. Cover picture and photograph (above) by Elli Ioannou

What people are wearing outside fashion shows has become almost as important as what models are wearing inside on designers' runways. Our correspondent in Paris Elli Ioannou captures in words and pictures the theatrical scene outside the balletic Valentino show at the Jardin des Tuileries

 Wearing top-to-toe Valentino

STREET style photography is now an integral part of fashion weeks in Paris, London, Milan and New York, alongside magazine and newspaper reports about what is shown on designer runways. A whole industry has sprung up devoted to capturing looks outside the shows from the outrageous to the pert and pretty. Press photographers, bloggers and fashonistas all vie for shots that will be sent around the world via online publications and social media to reach a fashion hungry audience. The army of fashionistas, guests and posers that gather outside designers' shows attracts photographers from the around the world and is made even more ubiquitous thanks to digital cameras and the onslaught of the fashion blog.

Fashionable duo outside Valentino 

However, because of the Paris attacks last November, security was heightened at this March's Autumn/Winter 2016 womenswear shows and the French chamber of commerce stated that the location of venues was not to be released publicly. Yet swarms of photographers still appeared outside shows, including the beautifully balletic Valentino ready-to-wear collection. Clearly the street style photographers have become more resourceful and information spreads like wildfire among the blogger pack. On day eight of a mostly wet and grey Paris Fashion Week, the sun finally shone for the new Valentino collection created by the brilliant Italian design duo Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli. The fashion house thoughtfully laid out a long, white winding carpet from the street to its show at Espace Éphémère Tuileries in the Jardin Des Tuileries.

Stylishly rugged up before the show

As guests exited the elegant and romantic collection, they themselves offered a visual feast for all of the press waiting outside. After the show, they provided a dash of colour and flair against the leafless trees and cumulus clouds silhouetted against the gardens. Some wore eccentric concoctions that bore no relation to fashion trends and others were encased in head-to-toe Valentino ~ mostly worn with white Adidas sneakers. Journalists, photographers and fans alike lined up along the white ‘catwalk’ outside the entrance to the show, in what felt like the Oscars of the fashion world. The guests expect to be photographed and most are obliging and happy to stop and a pose. But as a photographer, you still need to be fast , and assertive to set up a shot that is slightly different from all of the rest jostling to get a great image.



A model is photographed after the runway show 

When all of the guests are gone, the fresh-faced, young models exit after their job on the runway is over and they stop to pose for the waiting crowds. The Valentino models came out with their hair in sleek ballerina buns and pale, softly made-up faces. There is a whole subculture dedicated to photographing the models after the shows. The new paparazzi, are not mean, invasive or rude but they are avid photography and fashion enthusiasts and it offers many a chance to get a professional start in Paris, as the shows are notoriously difficult to get an official invite to. Social media and digital technology have made what used to be strictly industry-only events for top magazines, serious buyers and celebrities accessible to a much wider audience.

Kristina Bazan outside Valentino

Now fashion pictures appear in real time on Instagram, blogs and Facebook posts. No longer is it ‘street style’ where people are captured going about their business in cities but the fashionista outside the shows offers a carefully calibrated look and performance. It is an act in which both the subject and the photographer are willing participants. Artistic self expression, beauty and fantasy are all part of what makes up fashion street style that seemingly provides an endless source of fascination to the waiting photographers and fans. In Paris, if what was happening inside at the shows was exciting, outside the theatre of fashion was providing another, more egalitarian source of inspiration and entertainment.

Braving the wintry weather, a fashionista in brilliant red captures the attention of waiting photographers

 A stylishly eclectic mother and daughter walk the white carpet at Valentino in Paris

A Nehru-collared suit covered in hand-printed drawings and a dramatically fringed shawl made this this couple one of the most photographed in the Jardin des Tuileries 

An emerald green silk trench coat worn by a Valentino guest stood out against the grey Parisian day

Dressed for maximum theatrical attention, this fashionista was one of the most photographed people outside the Valentino show

An elaborately embroidered overcoat was mixed up with white Adidas trainers captured the fashion mood in Paris for Autumn/Winter 2016

Time After Time: Paris Fashion Week's Seventies Zeitgeist

 Ziggy Stardust and all things David Bowie were some of the key inspirations in Paris this season. The 1970s ruled many catwalks with thigh high boots, glitter, tartan and flares. Pictured is a shimmering mini-cape from Barbara Bui's collection. Cover picture & photograph above by Elli Ioannou 

Our correspondent in Paris looks behind the scenes at what it takes to get a collection onto the runway at fashion week in the French capital for Autumn/Winter 2016 and discovers that the 1970s vibe is still the key direction, with David Bowie and the Sex Pistols all important influences along with short hair, thigh high boots and tartan. Story & photographs by Elli Ioannou


5am emblazoned on models at Lea Peckre 

TIME is an important factor when it comes to creating a fashion show, at least five months of preproduction are needed for the designer and their team to put a collection on to the catwalk. And on the day of the show, there are at least seven hours of work and preparation behind the scenes leading up to the models appearing on the runway. This includes briefing the models on the choreography, practise runs for hair and make up, final fittings, garment adjustments and testing the lighting and music.

Neo-Goth meets New Romantic at Lea Peckre



Putting on a fashion show is all about timing and this is a key theme for award-winning French designer Léa Peckre's AW16 collection 5.00am, Dragon arum vulgaris. As guests begin to arrive for the designer's show, the lights are dimmed and the sound designer Erwan Sene sets the mood for the collection with dark, loud and mysterious sounds.  

The models wear square nose rings and tattooed numbers of  5:00 am around their necks reflecting the theme of the collection, while the pre-dawn hour is repeated in more cryptic motifs on the clothes. We sit waiting by the empty runway which finally gets underway half an hour late (like most of the shows), and the sense of time speeds faster as the music cranks up and the models hit the catwalk.

Andy Warhol's "fifteen minutes of fame" matches the length of the shows which are all over too soon for another season.

Big hair and a '70s aesthetic at Barbara Bui

The architectural space where the shows are held also reflect the direction of each fashion house. While more established designers like Barbara Bui showed at the prestigious Grand Palais, emerging designers such as Léa Peckre and Ellery put on their runway collections at the contemporary and more edgy Palais de Tokyo. The place where a show is held not only creates the atmosphere but offers photo opportunities inside and out for the scrum of jostling photographers.

Tartan, leather & velvet at Barbara Bui 

The directions for this season unmistakably embody the zeitgeist of the 1970s, where disco, Studio 54, David Bowie and the Sex Pistols were all important influences. The innovative fashion of the time directed this season's collections with fabrics such as tartan, leather, fringing, tweed, velvet and metallics. The models at Barbara Bui looked like a young Biana Jagger, Iman or Blondie partying at Studio 54 and captured the '70s aesthetic with short hair and thigh high boots, that any Bond girl would have proudly worn.

Green, purple & mini dresses at Barbara Bui

The designer's collection included bright green and purple leather coats, mini dresses, along with Scottish sexy tartan fitted tunics. The Paris-born Barbara Bui has been showing her designs since 1987 and in 1998 BB was launched as a high fashion brand with stores around the world including Paris, Milan and New York. Whereas young French designer Léa Peckre’s “time” collection moved into the 1980s with a New Romantic meets Neo-Goth direction with ruffles, petal-shaped skirts, rippling shirts, fitted mesh tops and leather and white maxi stretch mesh dresses. 

Sheer maxi-dresses & shirts at Lea Peckre 

The colour palette was in white, black and grey. Models also wore another version of the classic billowy white shirt with hanging industrial style strings, sheer fitted dresses in white and black. Before launching her own label in the autumn/winter 2013 season, Lea Peckre worked at Givenchy, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Isabel Marant and today is one of Paris most interesting young designers.

Australian Kym Ellery showed her collection at the Palais de Tokyo and created metallic gold and bronze dresses with floaty Laura Ashley sleeves, white shirt dresses with tan leather thigh boots, gold mesh, deep velvet and even leather dresses. The collection included over sized tweed, ankle-length coats with hanging strings, outfits adorned with pink swan neck style fur finishes, bell-bottom, tulip-cut jeans and leather ankle and gold velvet boots which could have come directly out of London’s Soho in the 1970s
 

Ellery's sleek & tailored take on the Seventies

Ellery is based in Sydney and began her label in 2007 after being a fashion stylist for magazines. Known initially inside the fashion world, today the designer has a high profile following who wear her designs including Rihanna, Solange Knowles, Cate Blanchett, and Elle Fanning.
David Bowie has been one of Ellery's greatest muses and inspirations for the label's tailored 1970s looks. Ellery as a label made it's official, on-schedule debut in Paris last season and fulfilled another of the young designer's aims to show on the international fashion stage and with a touch of French elan too.


 Bell-bottom flairs & leather boots at Ellery

The designer has described her aesthetic as understated, monochromatic and often androgynous and she takes great care working with fabrics she has made in Italy and Switzerland which are then made locally in Sydney.

Like London fashion week, these shows in Paris indicated an original take on an iconic period in fashion making it relevant to 2016.