New Directions For British Couture House Ralph & Russo

Creative director Tamara Ralph and CEO Michael Russo pictured after their debut ready-to-wear collection in London. Photograph by Elli Ioannou. Cover picture of the Stephane Rolland haute couture SS18 show in Paris.

Australians Tamara Ralph and Michael Russo are expanding their London-based couture house Ralph & Russo into a global luxury brand. Their fluid, elegant gowns are standouts on the red-carpet but their star reached an apotheosis when Meghan Markle wore a diaphanous dress for engagement portraits with Prince Harry. Another first for Ralph & Russo, was the launch of their debut prêt-à-porter range. Jeanne-Marie Cilento looks back at the highlights of the Spring/summer 2018 show. Photographed exclusively for DAM by Elli Ioannou and Kseniya Segina

 The silk organza couture gown AW16
worn by Meghan Markle.
Photo: Elli Ioannou

Tamara Ralph and Michael Russo launched their the ready-to-wear collection in London last September and it was another landmark for this remarkable Australian pair. Ralph & Russo couture dresses are worn by a roster of high-profile, international clients and are often seen on the red carpet from Los Angeles to Cannes, worn by actors such as Jennifer Lawrence, Blake Lively, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Singers Beyoncé, Rihanna and Kylie Minogue have all dazzled in their filmy, gossamer gowns too.

However, American actor Meghan Markle choosing a Ralph & Russo creation for her official engagement pictures with Prince Harry has brought a new spotlight to their work and launched them on to the world's stage beyond the fashion arena. The floor-length dress is from their autumn/winter 2016 collection shown in Paris and has a sheer bodice decorated with glimmering golden embroidered leaves with a black, silk organza skirt, hand appliqued with silk tulle ruffles. It is estimated to have cost £47k while the ready-to-wear prices start at around £2,800 and go up to £15k.

Meghan Markle choosing a Ralph & Russo creation has launched the label on to the world's stage beyond the fashion arena

White silk crêpe chiffon bodysuit,

slashed balloon sleeves & chiffon culottes.

Photo: Elli Ioannou 

Remarkably, Tamara Ralph and Michael Russo have built their couture atelier into a luxury label in less than a decade. Ralph & Russo now have several hundred skilled artisans (more than Chanel or Dior) working on their collections. All of the designs are made by hand, and can take up to 3000 hours to make and, despite the cost, are said to sell 250 couture creations a month. There is a strong team at their atelier in Hyde Park including embroiderers, tailors and designers who work in toile, chiffon, velvet and silk. The brand has now expanded to include accessories ranges and is opening boutiques around the world where the ready-to-wear collections will retail. Michael Russo has also mooted that fragrance, cosmetics and eye wear are planned for the future.

Last September, British Fashion Council CEO Caroline Rush said she was pleased to welcome Ralph & Russo to the London Fashion Week schedule: "The craftsmanship behind their couture collection is a shining example of Britain’s artisan heritage, and I’m excited to see their debut ready to wear collection." Dressing Meghan Markle for her engagement pictures is not the first time, the designers have been linked to royal occasions. Both British Fashion Council chairman Natalie Massenet and actor Angleina Jolie wore Ralph & Russo suits for their investitures at Buckingham Palace. Beyoncé has worn costumes designed by them on tour and Gwyneth Paltrow wore a slim pink, one-shouldered dress finished with a large rosette for the Oscars. Actress Hailee Steinfeld wore a silken, ruffled gown at last year's Academy Awards where she presented an Oscar and Jennifer Lopez appeared at the 2017 Grammy Awards in a pale pink Ralph & Russo confection while Kirsten Dunst has sat in the front row of their couture show in Paris.

Remarkably, Tamara Ralph and Michael Russo have built their couture atelier into a luxury label and global powerhouse in a decade

Royal blue silk chiffon evening

dress with cascading pleated frills.

Photo: Elli Ioannou 

Ralph & Russo is the only British fashion house to be elected by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture to show its collection on the official schedule at Paris Haute Couture Week. Didier Grumbarch, the Chambre Syndicale’s former president, said they have a ‘savoire faire’ which many more established couture houses have lost. It was in January 2014 that Ralph & Russo became the first British guest member in more than a century.

While designer Tamara Ralph is the creative director of the brand, Michael Russo ~ her partner in business and life ~ is CEO. Ms Ralph says she always knew that she wanted to be part of the world of fashion as she is the fourth generation in her family to work in couture and fashion design. Her mother, grandmother and great-grand mother all created gowns for society ladies in Sydney. When Ralph was 10 years old they began to teach her about sewing, two years later she was making clothes for herself and friends. By the time she was 15 years old, Tamara Ralph was selling her designs to private clients and independent boutiques in Australia. She then went on to study at the Whitehouse Institute of Design before moving to London. Tamara Ralph first met Michael Russo by chance in London in 2003 when she was on holiday and he was working as a financial consultant. They fell in love and after a long distance relationship for a year, he bought her a ticket back to London and she began designing and making clothes on a small scale in the British capital.

Metallic plissé floral print evening gown,

featuring asymmetric twist strap.

Photo: Elli Ioannou 

Three years later, the pair created Ralph & Russo and in the following 10 years it has grown into an high fashion label with clients around the world. Today, Ralph & Russo have shown on the official Paris haute couture schedule for four years making them one of only a handful of Australians recognised as couturiers by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. Known for their dedication to true couture, Ralph & Russo are gently pushing boundaries in new design directions with innovative techniques, including a new fabric made by fusing silk and tulle. Tamara Ralph and Michael Russo have also been included in Fortune’s 40 under 40, the magazine’s annual ranking of influential young businesspeople and Ralph & Russo was the first fashion house to be on the list. While the company has showrooms in London and Paris, there are international boutiques planned to open around the world. As a designer, Tamara Ralph believes their success is due to their personal interaction with their clients alongside the house's outstandingly high level of quality and craftsmanship.

For their debut Ralph & Russo Spring/Summer 2018 prêt-à-porter collection, Ms Ralph wanted to mix both the traditional and contemporary, reinterpreting signature styles such as the little black dress and the classic tuxedo jacket. New techniques and fabric innovation include gold brocade transposed onto jet-black laminated tweed. Utilitarian jackets are juxtaposed with tightly-waisted feminine silhouettes and oversized outerwear such as the denim jacket reimagined in silk. The colour palette includes whites which contrast with dashes of red, electric metallic blues and blush while florals are offset with icy silver details.

For their debut Spring/Summer 2018 prêt-à-porter collection, Tamara Ralph mixed both the traditional and contemporary, reinterpreting signature styles



Metallic rose gold bonded silk crêpe trench coat.

Photo: Kseniya Segina

The clothes may be ready-to-wear but are beautifully made like the Ralph & Russo couture pieces. The collection of 45 looks is meant to take women from day to evening, so the range includes shimmering, metallic jackets, coats and skirts that could be dressed up or down depending on occasion. The gold trench and slim, pencil skirts in silver or laminated gold tweed add a dash of glamour to day wear along with embroidered dresses finished with ostrich feathers. However, Ralph & Russo's signature gowns came to the fore for the evening wear with flowing, sheer confections that were romantic and modern mixed with flowered, pleated cocktail outfits and ruffled dresses in celestial blues. 

Tamara Ralph and Michael Russo, chose the vast Old Billingsgate market that overlooks the Thames, as the venue for their first ready-to-wear show. The 480-foot circular runway had long perspectives created by white lampposts imprinted with their R&R logo. The set design enhanced the luxury brand's new aesthetic from the dream of couture to the more urbane ready-to-wear collection that managed to be practical but not pragmatic. At the show’s finale, models posed by the lamposts and handsome waiters took to the runway carrying trays of cocktails and delicate canapes to serve guests. This stylish and wearable debut ready-to-wear collection will be stocked in the rapidly expanding Ralph & Russo international retail network.

Tap on photographs for full-screen slideshow

The glamorous catwalk of Ralph & Russo's spring/summer 2018 ready-to-wear collection in London. Mustard satin-silk asymmetric dress, at left, and, right, blue chiffon evening dress with Swarovski details. Photograph: Elli Ioannou

Cocktails after the celebratory debut ready-to-wear show at Old Billingsgate in London. Photograph: Elli Ioannou

Flowers and tattoos: ice blue lamé shirt dress in floral print, featuring bespoke crested buttons. Photograph: Kseniya Segina

Waiters carrying cocktails on the gleaming 200 metre curving runway after Ralph & Russo's show in London. Photograph: Elli Ioannou

  Khaki double satin parachute jumpsuit with military details and tie belt. Photograph: Kseniya Segina

Detail of gold-embossed calf leather handbag with gold hardware. Photograph: Kseniya Segina

The canapes after Ralph & Russo's show were as elegant and creative as the collection. Photograph: Elli Ioannou

Metallic midnight blue plissé evening gown, featuring plunge neckline embellished with cascading frills and crystal blue denim spheres. Photograph: Elli Ioannou

Artistic canapes reflected Tamara Ralph's refined design ethos at the ready-to-wear show at Old billingsgate in London. Photograph: Elli Ioannou

Ice blue laminate silk chiffon multi frill plissé gown with printed lamé belt. Photograph: Elli Ioannou

Silk chiffon frill plissé gown with printed lamé belt on the runway in London. Photograph: Kseniya Segina

Dusky rose asymmetric cashmere blouse with draped scarf detail and metallic rose gold silk crêpe pencil skirt. Photograph: Kseniya Segina

On the runway, rose asymmetric cashmere blouse with draped scarf detail and metallic rose gold bonded silk crêpe pencil skirt. Photograph: Kseniya Segina

Oversized black double sided jacquard floral printed cocktail coat, featuring frill sleeves and worn with a black silk crêpe bra and pencil skirt. Photograph: Kseniya Segina

 Snow White embossed cotton belted trench. Photograph: Elli Ioannou

  Dusky rose silk organzino V-neck jumper and metallic rose gold silk jacquard parka coat, featuring reversible lavender silk jacquard interior. Photograph: Elli Ioannou

Metallic rose gold silk jacquard parka coat, featuring reversible lavender silk jacquard interior and marching shiny boots. Photograph: Elli Ioannou

Snow white tulle evening gown and bodysuit, featuring gold bugle chevron embroidered borders. Photograph: Kseniya Segina

Sand-coloured silk jacquard utilitarian dress, featuring crested buttons and floral designs in sunflower yellow, metallic lavender and gunmetal shades. Photograph: Kseniya Segina

Metallic silver bonded silk crêpe and white cashmere parka coat, featuring detachable sleeves and hood. Photograph: Kseniya Segina

Cornflower blue draped silk chiffon evening gown, featured layered degradé frills. Photograph: Elli Ioannou

Cloudy blue silk knitwear crop top and high-waisted skirt, featuring tiered frills and crystal embellishment. Photograph: Kseniya Segina

Black hexagon lace tiered mini dress embroidered with black, rose gold and gunmetal degradé crystals. Photograph: Elli Ioannou

Black embroidered mini dress with laminated tweed edging, double organza square cut-out embroidery on a glitter base, vinyl belt and asymmetric neckline. Photograph: Elli Ioannou

Detail of black leather bag with rose gold feather design. Photograph: Kseniya Segina

Black monogrammed silk crisp faille parka with detachable hood and sleeves, adorned with organza cut maitte lasse and chain embroidery. Photograph: Elli Ioannou

Black laminated tweed aviator jacket with laminate edging and double organza square cut-out embroidery on a glitter base. Paired with black, bonded lace and vinyl crosshatch embroidery crop top and pencil skirt. Photograph: Elli Ioannou

New Christian Lacroix Capsule Collection by Artist Brian Kenny

Christian Lacroix Creative Director Sacha Walckhoff with New York artist Brian Kenny strike a pose in Paris wearing pieces from the new BK x CL collection.Picture (above) by Gregoire Alexandre. Cover image by Kseniya Segina

The House of Christian Lacroix celebrates its 30th anniversary with a limited edition capsule collection by New York multimedia artist Brian Kenny. Along with the latest collection, the company has a new digital commerce platform, with collections available online for the first time. Jeanne-Marie Cilento talks to Christian Lacroix Creative Director Sacha Walckhoff about the French brand's new directions

Artist Brian Kenny with Christian Lacroix
CEO Nicolas Topiol in Paris, launching the
 new collection. Photo: Elli Ioannou 

In the thirty years since the French luxury house Christian Lacroix was founded in 1987, the fashion world has been through several revolutions and the storied label has had to sail through choppy waters. Yet creative director Sacha Walckhoff has managed to steer the Parisian maison with a steady hand and a clear vision for the future. The designer had worked closely with Christian Lacroix at the Paris atelier for 17 years before the couturier left the company in 2009 and Mr Walckhoff took the helm.
With a strong background in interior design and working as a designer himself with different companies, Mr Walckhoff has been able to broaden the Christian Lacroix range.

For inspiration, he draws on his deep and extensive knowledge of the history of fashion and his private collection of antique textiles and contemporary art to create new accessories and interior design products that combine the original, vivid Lacroix aesthetic with a real feeling for the zeitgeist. Under Mr Walckhoff's creative direction the brand has grown to include designs for men's fashion, accessories and interiors.

 Sacha Walckhoff's creative direction combines the vivid Christian Lacroix aesthetic with a strong feeling for the zeitgeist

 BK x CL Lacroix Sweetie Scarf,
part of the new capsule collection.
 Photo: Gregoire Alexandre

Designer Christian Lacroix originally launched his young fashion house from an atelier in Paris to worldwide acclaim with Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. The concept was to start with haute couture, at the apex of the luxury pyramid, and develop from it a range of ready-to-wear apparel, accessories and fragrances. Christian Lacroix became known for collections full of vibrant colours, mixing lively patterns and experimenting with fabrics. Mr. Arnault sold Lacroix in 2005 to the Falic Group who sought to refocus the luxury brand.

Today, Sacha Walckhoff has utilised the rich Lacroix archive to build the maison's expansion into interior design, women's accessories and menswear fashion collections. The latest capsule collection is another new direction for the brand with Mr Walckhoff bringing in New York City based artist Brian Kenny. The flamboyant American multimedia artist has been able to play with the evocative Christian Lacroix designs to create a unique, limited edition collection with a Pop abstraction leitmotif that still reflects the spirit of the French label. Called simply BK x CL, Mr Walckhoff says the collection aims to celebrate diversity and freedom, still drawing inspiration from the past but looking to the future. He had been aware of Brian Kenny's work for more than a decade but they only got together in person at his studio in New York last year.

 

Artist Brian Kenny with his new cushion designs
for Maison Christian Lacroix.
Photo: Gregoire Alexandre

"I knew of his work from a few years ago, he was a kind of "muse" for underground artist Slava Mogutin back in the early 2000s," Mr Walckhoff says from his atelier in Paris. "Brian went on to develop his own style during those years and I had the chance to visit his studio last year in Long Island and was impressed by his work ~ its richness and also the way he expresses strong opinions in a positive way, colourfully and also with humour.

"I thought it would be quite a challenge to ask a man of his generation to work on the celebration of a brand which was created when he was a child, but the result was beyond expectations. Brian really injected his energy and spirit into this lovely project and by doing so has introduced a new generation to the Lacroix experience."

Mr Walckhoff says Brian Kenny is able to blend genres and transcend artistic contradictions to create work that is at once joyful and expansive but also with an edge of the subversive. As an artist Brian Kenny worked closely with the label, reinterpreting classic Lacroix designs and patterns through his own kaleidoscopic vision.

Brian Kenny blends genres and transcends artistic contradictions to create joyful work with a subversive edge


The surreal Helping Hand men's tote bag by
Brian Kenny for Christian Lacroix
Photo: Gregoire Alexandre

There is a long history of strong cultural and artistic dialogue between the cities of Paris and New York. And this is reflected in the BK x CL collection that retains the Lacroix colour palette but has new figures that relate more to grittier Street Art and Pop than the original floral Lacroix eclecticism. "Paris and New York have always been strongly bound by the arts and cultures of each city," explains Mr Walckhoff. "While Paris is into tradition, New York is much more into novelty. It was the American collectors, at the beginning of the 20th century ,who bought Renoir, Degas, Manet or Picasso paintings long before they were recognised by the French.

 

"Paris is fascinated by the new ideas and the young spirit of the New York scene. While New York is always honoured when Paris recognises the talents of the Big Apple: Paris represents the universal "art city" for the entire world." Mr Walckhoff says he also shares a similar world view and philosophy with Brian Kenny that they wanted to express in the new collection for Christian Lacroix.

"We have the same values as Brian, we believe in an open minded society where everyone has the same rights and where each person should respect the liberty of others … which is still something the world has to work on!" One of the key pieces in the capsule collection is a reimagined design by Christian Lacroix. "Brian revisited the famous scarf "le Défilé" that Christian himself designed a long time ago, sketching a new version of it, full of humour. Each couture silhouette which wwas once the "cat walking" designs on the scarf are now guys or animals wearing Couture, echoing the "love who you want " notebook I did a few years ago too."

 "Paris is fascinated by the new ideas and young spirit of the New York scene. While New York is always honoured when Paris recognises the talents of the Big Apple"

The launch party for the BK x CL collection
at L'Exception, with DJs Doppelgänger Paris

 Photo: Elli Ioannou

Maison Christian Lacroix's celebratory capsule collection with Brian Kenny is made up of 35 different pieces ranging from tote bags, scarves, sweatshirts to notebooks, t-shirts, cushions, pins and patches. The designs have an appealing vibrancy created by both the pop of brilliant colour and Brian Kenny's startling figural compositions of colourful giraffes in pink and green with a yellow ruff and black and white corsets and stubbly men in A-line skirts.

Asked if he has a favourite piece in the new capsule collection, Sacha Walckhoff replies: "I love the sweat shirts and the big tote bag …I'm using them all the time!" Last month, set designer Hervé Sauvage created a special pop-up shop window at L'Exception flagship store in Paris which showed the BK x CL collection for the first time from the ready-to-wear pieces to lifestyle accessories. A lively party was held at L'Exception to celebrate the launch of the collaboration with Brian Kenny and Maison Christian Lacroix and sold out immediately.

A digital transformation of the company and the launch of the Christian Lacroix online platform is also part of the new direction for the brand. The BK x CL collection is available in limited editions for the first time along with the menswear, woman’s accessories, and the lifestyle collection and the full range of luxury products. Nicolas Topiol, the CEO of Maison Christian Lacroix, says it is a new, more direct way to connect with customers of the House: "With the launch of our digital commerce platform, we are looking to expand our distribution and be in contact with our customers. Christian Lacroix is an iconic luxury brand famous for its initial disruption of the Eighties fashion scene bringing vibrant colors and mix and match of fabrics, patterns and inspirations to a then monochrome fashion world."

Mr Walckhoff hopes the launch of the e-commerce site will bring new people to the label. "We want to be able to reach a bigger audience and to be able to reach our customers directly all around the world. This is surely something positive which was missing from the Christian Lacroix brand. It is a bit early to see how it will impact our brand but I hope it will be for the best!"

Tap photographs for full-screen slide-show

 Lacroix Sweetie! tote bag with its designs of fantastical figures and silhouettes that is part of the BK x CL capsule collection that Brian Kenny designed for Christian Lacroix. Photo: Gregoire Alexandre

 

 Large limited-edition Liberty Parade scarf designed by New York based artist Brian Kenny in linen and silk with a mix of genres and pop abstraction. Photograph: Gregoire Alexandre

New t-shirt with the colourful giraffe in pink and green drawn by Brian Kenny. Called Lacroix, Sweetie!, it has an oversized fit with short sleeves and a round collar. Photograph: Gregoire Alexandre

The new Lacroix Sweetie scarf with its anthropomorphic characters wearing couture created by Brian Kenny.

The artist has designed this square, printed silk twill scarf with bright colours and playful graphics. Photograph by Gregoire Alexandre



Multimedia artist Brian Kenny Strikes a Dadaist pose in Paris with the new BK x CL collection. Photograph: Gregoire Alexandre

 The surreal new earrings enamelled in pink, white and black designed for the BK x CL capsule collection that celebrates Christian Lacroix's 30th anniversary. Photograph: Gregoire Alexandre



The vividly-hued new Jardin Secret Notebooks with a lively mix of drawings and designs by Brian Kenny, part of the limited edition collection. Photograph by Gregoire Alexandre



Together Wristlet, this zip-up clutch is part of  the Brian Kenny x Christian Lacroix capsule collection and features a black and white chevron strap and printed "Bosquet" interior lining. Photograph: Gregoire Alexandre

The tooth motif on this iron-on embroidered patch is multimedia artist Brian Kenny’s favourite theme. This limited edition piece is part of the collection that celebrates the French House’s 30th anniversary. Photograph by Gregoire Alexandre

Yuima Nakazato in Paris: Digital Couture Revolutionizes Fashion



The mystical haute couture presentation in Paris created by Yuima Nakazato, showing his vision for the future of a couture for all. Cover picture and all photographs by Elli Ioannou

Japanese fashion designer Yuima Nakazato is part of a new generation of avant-garde couturiers showing on Paris' official haute couture schedule. This season, he presented a collection made entirely with his new technology creating digital couture that allows custom-designed clothes to be accessible to everybody, Jeanne-Marie Cilento writes. Reporting and photographs by Elli Ioannou

Designer Yuima Nakazato with his
digital couture clothes

NUMINOUS and otherworldly it may have been, but Japanese designer Yuima Nakazato's show in Paris, presented a revolutionary new technique that could make couture clothes available to all. The couturier has created a digital technology which could change fashion with made-to-measure clothes for people around the world. An informative film like a 1950s British documentary explained the concept and then showed 21st century holographic forms with runway models wearing the clothes appearing in a darkened space with mystical music, enhancing the sense of the dawn of a futuristic age. He purposely altered the format of the traditional runway show, that usually takes only a few minutes, to a longer presentation that included film, music, models and mannequins. Nakazato wanted guests to have a more intimate connection to the designs and ideas behind the collection. "I used to do a lot of costume design and I still do a lot of design for the stage and recording artists," Nakazato explains. "Working and communicating with them directly and designing a piece just for them. When these artists wear my designs they are always very happy. It is quite different to designing something for mass production. I wanted to give this experience of having a uniquely designed piece to everyone." But the designer says the big question was "how" to do this.

"I wanted to give this experience of having a uniquely designed piece to everyone"

"Obviously haute couture is very expensive and mass production is very cheap. And the customer cannot communicate to the designer. So I thought technology could provide a solution and help realise my idea. So that was the staring point. When I design clothes I want to see people happy wearing them and enjoying life. Haute couture is the best design but as that is not possible for everyone, it is my aim to find a solution." Nakazato says his new technique is a breakthrough discovery in fashion technology. He uses a digital technique that creates a system where clothes are adaptable and grow with you ~ upwards or outwards ~ and that can incorporate wearable devices, be easily fixed and even be passed down to and adapted to your children. It sounds like the ultimate in sustainable dressing.

Riveted squares of digitally cut fabrics
 that make up Nakazato's new designs

"I feel couture is the future of fashion," Nakazato says. "This technology is sustainable, so if your body changes you can customise the clothes or if you damage some part of it you can just change it ~ so you don't just throw it away. The clothes become like another skin and you can even give it to your daughter, just changing the design and size." This digital haute couture uses 3D techniques to produce garments for every type and shape of body. The nine different designs shown by Nakazato in Paris, were all created with digitally cut squares of fabric. Instead of a traditional fitting where the body is measured, the wearer is scanned through a device before numbered squares of digitally cut fabrics are riveted together to form a perfectly fitting piece. His new 1950s-inspired collection includes evening dresses and a version of Dior's classic Bar suit as well as jeans and a leather jacket ~ all created with digitally-cut squares of fabric. Nakazato said the major breakthrough was finding a way to use everyday fabrics like cotton, nylons and wool which are difficult to control using digital fabrication.

 "That was the most difficult part," he says. "But in the end we succeeded. We can design every type and shape of garment to be a precise fit to the wearer's figure. Digital fabrication is very useful mainly for PVC, rubber or plastic. But I wanted to use traditional fabrics and although these are hard to control using digital tools we found a way of doing it."

"Mass customisation is possible because my team have removed the major constraint of using needles and thread"

Custom-made clothes, particularly haute couture, are out of reach for most people. But Nakazato argues his technology would change that: “We want to create a world where everyone can have tailor-made garments. Mass customisation is possible because my team have removed the major constraint of using needles and thread." The designer has developed the technique in Japan with engineers, 3D designers and sculptors so clothes can be adjusted to be a precise fit to the wearer's figure.

"With this system we are now able to build all silhouettes imaginable," Nakazato says. "It is like creating a garment from a dress pattern but with even more flexibility." The designer has been working for six months on the new 3D clothes-making technique using natural materials like cotton and wool plus nylons. While the designer admitted that his work was very much at the experimental stage, he insisted that "future mass customisation" is possible. "There is still a lot of work by hand in putting the clothes together," Nakazato explains. "It is like technology and craftsmanship put together." The designer says that aesthetically his digital creations still had a long way to go to reach the perfection of classic haute couture which must be made by hand.

For his latest collection, Nakazato wanted to combine his new way of constructing textiles with the past so that they melded together. "We have a long term vision for the future as we develop and show the evolution each season," Nakazato says. "For this collection I chose the 1950s as the theme, which is an interesting era for me, because it is a very strong period for haute couture after the second world war. Couture gave a lot of energy to people with its elegance and drama. At the same time, the post-war era was also the starting point of mass production for jeans and bomber jackets. It is interesting that these things that are totally different but happened at the same time. "

"We have a long term vision for the future and we develop and show the evolution each season"



Yuima Nakazato with a bomber jacket
 and fitted coat using his new technology

The designer began to be interested in fashion as a student because at his high school in Japan they could choose to wear whatever they wanted, unlike most Japanese schools where a uniform is de rigueur. "I liked looking at fashion magazines ~ there was no Internet then ~ so we were reading magazines and seeing the "street snaps," a very typically Japanese part of culture with pictures of people standing on the street which I really liked." But he decided that fashion would be his career after seeing the first Japanese designers graduating from the Royal Academy Antwerp in 2002. "I saw their graduate collections in the newspaper and they looked so colourful and interesting I was shocked. Seeing these designs changed me dramatically and inspired me to go into the fashion world more deeply and immediately I decided to do Antwerp's fashion degree as well."

Nankazato's show included film, music, models
and mannequins 

Today, when Nakazato is designing a new collection he begins with with key words and a story as a starting point, afterwards he begins the research. "For this collection, I spoke to many different people including sculptors, architects and engineers to get inspiration and knowledge," He says."Afterwards, I shared it with the rest of the team and we started the research together, studying materials and textiles. But the vision and story is the most important part and then finding solutions with digital fabrication, 3D printers and stories from history." But ultimately the designer is looking for a way of creating fashion design that makes people feel happier. "That is why I would like the clothes of the future to all be unique and different as I think that makes everyone feel good. Right now we have to wear mass produced clothes because of the cost. But that is all changing with this new technology and it makes for a very interesting moment in fashion."

Tap on photographs for full-screen slideshow

Japanese designer Yuima Nakazato with his new creations in Paris

A model wearing Nakazato's digital couture dress

Guests at the Yuima Nakazato show take a closer look at his revolutionary new system of making unique garments

After Nakazato's haute couture show, guests examine the clothes on mannequins

A striking denim and pink gown made using Nakazato's technique of digitally-cut squares of fabric that fit the body

Leather riveted ensemble of trousers and jacket created with Nakazato's new technology

Elegant, fitted dress that seems both contemporary and related to Dior's New Look all made with Nakazato's digital technology

Fitted jacket and trousers created using designer Yuima Nakazato's riveted technique: "When I design clothes I want to see people happy wearing them and enjoying life."

Bomber jacket and longer tops on mannequins after the runway show. Today, when Nakazato is designing a new collection he begins with with key words and a story as a starting point, afterwards he begins the research. 

Detail of the riveted jeans and pink squares showing Nakazato's technique

 "I feel couture is the future of fashion," Nakazato says. "This technology is sustainable, so if your body changes you can customise the clothes or if you damage some part of it you can just change it ~ so you don't just throw it away."

 

TRAVEL: A River Runs Through It: Echuca Dreaming on the Mighty Murray

Alfred Maslen's paddle steamer the PS Adelaide is still plowing through the waters of the Murray River today, after more than 150 years of service on Australia's greatest waterway. Cover picture of the Port of Echuca. See historic images below

Victoria's port town of Echuca on the Murray River has a rich history with its paddle steamers and riverboat men who travelled through vast inland areas of Australia. For a century, they transported wheat and wool and brought news, groceries and cloth to the people living in distant river country. Australia's Mississippi, the mighty Murray winds its way for thousands of kilometres from the soaring Mount Kosciuszko ranges down to the South Australian coast. Writer Geoffrey Maslen recalls his childhood days riding the river with his father, a steamboat engineer on the PS Adelaide

 

Morning mist rising from the Murray River
as a paddle steamer chuffs along

IN early winter the Murray River is low. Daily the mud-banks on each side appear to move together as if trying to staunch the river’s flow. The water is still fast-moving but without the broad, graceful sweep it has in spring and summer. Its colour, too, is different – a sombre grey, unlike the cheerful brown-green of the warmer months. As the morning sun drives back the shadows of the gum trees lining the banks, a white mist hovers over the waters. Seen from the top of a clay cliff bank, the mist winds away before me, slowly melting in the faint warmth. Below, at the water’s edge, a white egret perches on one leg eyeing its image – a long, pale question mark – in the water’s sheen. A flock of sulphur-crested cockatoos screeches like winged lunatics in the trees on the opposite bank. They suddenly take to the air and in an instant are gone. The brief silence is broken when a fat yellow-belly leaps out of the water and plops loudly back beneath the swirling waters – one of the many fish species that draw thousands of fishermen each year. A carolling magpie calls melodiously and a black-winged currawong sings a reply. Life is abundant around and in the river. For the creatures that rely on it, the river is life...

  

The Murray once echoed to the shrill whistles of a hundred trading paddle steamers, puffing thousands of kilometres with passengers and cargo ~ long before railways and motor cars and aeroplanes ~ through country Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. The men on the steamers opened up a vast area of inland Australia, feeding and clothing the people living in the river country and carrying away their produce. They were also the floating mailmen and newsboys, spreading friendly gossip and even at times the word of the Lord. The overlanders who travelled by horse and dray, the steamboat men and the pioneer settlers regarded the river in different ways: for some the water was for crops and stock; for others, it was a great transport highway. The gums they saw as fence posts, firewood, boats or railway sleepers, the cliffs as quarries.

 

The steamboat men opened up vast areas of inland Australia, bringing food and clothing to the people living in the river country and carrying away their produce

 

Built in 1866, the PS Adelaide is still plying
 the river today, carrying passengers

In my childhood, my father Alfred Maslen was the engineer on the oldest paddle steamer then left on the Murray, the PS Adelaide whose age has now passed the century and a half mark. She is a sturdy old tub, no beauty to be sure with her squat lines and snub nose. But she has a certain rakish grace, sailing the river like some outsize, mechanical duck. As with most of the riverboats, the Adelaide was built to last in 1866. She was originally fitted out to accommodate passengers on the run from Echuca to Albury but in 1873 she was refitted as logging steamer and for nearly 100 years she pulled barges of cargo – red gum logs in her later years – up and down the river to Echuca. I can see her now, chuffing her way upstream towing a string of barges behind to collect logs from the Barmah forest. The barges were outriggers with a number of logs lashed crosswise and from these the red gum logs, too heavy to float, were suspended by chains on the surface of the water, parallel to the barge.

 

 Curled up in the paddle steamer's bunk house I could look up into the sky, stars glittering like tiny crystals while meteoric sparks from the boat's belching tunnel flamed momentarily beneath them

 

A small boy with the Riverboat Captain,
 at the big wheel of his paddle steamer

On special occasions I was allowed to go too ~ a week on the high road! Bliss for a small boy was the marvel of the two great thrusting pistons, the hiss of steam, the steady, hypnotic chunka-plunk-chunk of the paddles. During the day there was ever-changing scenery ~ red gum forests, high cliffs, sand bars ~ with occasional stops at the wood piles to load up with firewood. And there was wildlife galore: ducks of every kind, huge flocks of swans, innumerable species of other birds and sometimes a long tiger snake, its head up like a periscope, swimming like mad to escape the whack of the paddles. At night the great eyes of the headlamps would sweep the bends and stare along the reaches into the weird and silent darkness of the bush. Yellow water curled at the bow and the trees grew out of the darkness, flashed greenly for a moment, then sank back into the shadow. Curled up in the bunk house with the door open I could look out and up into the infinite depths of sky, stars glittering like tiny crystals while meteoric sparks from the belching tunnel flamed momentarily beneath them. As I was lulled to sleep by the steady throb of the engine I could hear the sound of the firebox doors being clanged open, the rattle of the long poker as it was wielded to rearrange the burning logs. As a new log was thrust in, the glow from the furnace would light up the trees along the bank. Then the firebox doors would clang shut and I would hear the sound of laughter and soft talk from some of the crew keeping the captain company in the wheelhouse.

From the barge behind a song would sometimes drift across the water. One was sung to the tune of The Dying Stockman: Wrap me up in my tow-line and check-line And scuttle me deep down below, Where the cod and the snags won’t molest me, Where the Murray’s clear waters do flow... But usually it was yarns that were spun; oft-repeated tales of the great days on the river and the mighty mud pirates who sailed her. There was Captain Tommy Freeman who, as a young man was inspired by the feats of Blondin and walked across the Murray high on a tightrope stretched between trees on opposite banks. When he reached the middle of the river, the Echuca Riverine Herald reported, he lay down on his back and `kicked his legs about in the most astonishing manner’.

As I was lulled to sleep by the steady throb of the engine I could hear the sound of the firebox doors being clanged open, the rattle of the long poker as it was wielded to rearrange the burning logs
 

Paddle steamers leaving the wharves
at the Port of Echuca

Tommy was one of the best swimmers among the river men. One of his favourite pastimes was to dive in ahead of one of the paddle wheels of his steamer, let the thrashing blades pass over his head and then surface and swim to the rudder where he would climb on board again. His enemies called him `Tear-arse Tommy’ because he was always trying to get the maximum speed out of boats. Once, when sailing full-steam up the Darling, Tommy pointed to a camp high on the bank to his son Buck, who was the mate.

The camper was sitting outside his tent eating breakfast. `Watch this,” Tommy said and steered the steamer straight at the bank. At the last moment, he veered away but a great wave swept up the bank and over the unsuspecting breakfaster. The furious victim, however, was waiting at the next bend with a shotgun and peppered the wheelhouse with buck-shot. The captain and mate lay on the floor arguing about who should take the wheel while the steamer rounded the bend with no-one in command until she was out of range.

The firebox doors would clang shut and I would hear the sound of laughter and soft talk from the crew keeping the captain company in the wheelhouse

Then there was Wildman Bailey, another river captain from Echuca who acted for years as if the river was his private domain. Once, sailing in the Success with a barge called Croupier, Bailey met another steamer and was supposed to but refused to give way. The two boats steamed straight at each other and missed narrowly. Bailey managed to swing away from the other boat but a collision between it and the Croupier seemed inevitable. Bailey watched helplessly as the other steamer and his barge rushed head-on at each other. `Goodbye Croupier old girl,’ he called sadly.



The PS Adelaide docked in the rising sun at Echuca

But instead, the steamer crawled up on the Croupier on one paddle wheel, waddled the full length of her deck and then slid into the river again, leaving the barge barely damaged. On another occasion, Bailey was caught up the Darling on a falling river. Flying downstream on the last of the water, he passed a sheep station just before dawn and was hailed by an anxious squatter in his pyjamas. `Hey Bailey!’ the squatter yelled, `will you take my wool? It might be another year before the river rises again.’ Bailey leaned out of the wheelhouse and stared up at the squatter. `She’s so damn near sliding on the bottom,’ he yelled back, `that I wouldn’t even take a loaf of bread – and by hell am I hungry!’

 

Today, a dozen large and small home-built boats still chuff along the river, including the Alexander Arbuthnot ~ one of the last steamers built on the Murray River during the riverboat trade. She was constructed at Koondrook in 1923 to tow barges carrying logs from the forest to the Arbuthnot Sawmills for some years until the 1940s. Then she was sold to charcoal producers in the Barmah Forest and, during World War II, she lay idle. In 1947, however, she sank at her mooring and it was not until 1972, that the boat was raised by a group of Shepparton volunteers and was then bought by the City of Echuca in 1989 for restoration at the Port. The Alexander Arbuthnot is one of the 10 or more steamers that can still be seen on the river around Echuca.

 

Today, a dozen boats still chuff along the river, including the Alexander Arbuthnot ~ one of the last steamers built on the Murray River during the riverboat trade

 

The great sweep of the Murray River runs
through four Australian states

As it snakes its way across the countryside, the Murray drains an enormous area of land. The Murray-Darling Basin occupies more than a million square kilometres ~ about a seventh of the total area of Australia. With tributaries like the Darling, the Murrumbidgee, the Goulburn and the Campaspe, the Murray River takes in half of Victoria, three-quarters of New South Wales and part of South Australia, and an area of Queensland greater than the whole of Victoria. Maybe the Murray isn't as famous as other great rivers such as the Mississippi or the Amazon but, from its watershed in the Mount Kosciusko ranges more than 2000 metres above sea level, the Murray has wound its way for 20 million years ~ far longer than any other river on Earth ~ down to the South Australian coast 3000 kilometres away.

Humans have known and lived by the Murray for more than 40,000 years: the first people had it to themselves for almost all that time, up until 1830 when Captain Charles Sturt rowed down to its mouth: “At 3 pm, Hopkinson called out that we were approaching a junction and in less than a minute afterwards we were hurried into a broad and noble river,” was how the soldier-navigator-explorer described his discovery. “We had got on the high road and it was either to the south coast or to some important outlet but I will call it the Murray River.”

River trade endured for a century along the Murray River. By 1863, Echuca had been built to take the loads of wool, wheat and meat from the steam boats because it was the closest river port to Melbourne.

 The wharves at Echuca where wool and wheat
were unloaded for Melbourne

Some 20 years later, William Randall steamed from Mannum in South Australia nearly 1600 kilometres past Swan Hill ~ downstream from Echuca ~ in a home-made boat with a home-made steam engine whose boiler `swelled in defiance of bolts changes and wedges’, breathing, say the old-timers, like a concertina. Sturt’s `high road’ soon became a reality. River trade endured for a century and stretched across three colonies and 6000 kilometres of waterway. In 1860, 17 steam boats were trading and operating along the Murray River and by1863 the new town of Echuca had been built to take the loads of wool and wheat and meat from the steam boats because it was the closest river port to Melbourne. By then, it had a population of 300 but, in less than 10 years, there were 1,600 inhabitants and Echuca was Victoria's second largest port with 240 boats annually trading in all types of goods, particularly wool.

The PS Emmylou, one of the fine 19th Century
paddle steamers travelling the river

Just before the turn of the 20th century, however, railway lines began linking river towns with the larger cities and the steamboat era was already nearing its end. Eventually, boats were tied up all along the Murray River waiting for work that never came. Some sank or were broken up, a few ran halfway into the new century as fishing boats, logging steamers and passenger craft but they, too, eventually disappeared. But then interest spread among locals and historians and some of the old steamboats were restored and began operating trips up and down the river for tourists.

The Aborigines had looked at the river and saw fish and game; at the gums and saw canoes and shields; at the cliffs and saw caves for shelter, clay and ochre for dancing bodies. But there was a difference. To the Aboriginal tribes ~ the Baraba Baraba, Wemba Wemba, Yorta Yorta and Ngurraiilam ~ the river was sacred. It was not theirs; it did not belong to them. They belonged to it for the river was the source of their legends; for them the Murray valley had been carved out in the Dreamtime when a giant Murray cod went swimming down the piccaninny Murray, his waving tail so huge it created the great broad sweeps seen today.

To the Aboriginal tribes ~ the Baraba Baraba, Wemba Wemba, Yorta Yorta and Ngurraiilam ~ the river was sacred. It was not theirs; it did not belong to them. They belonged to it, for the Murray was the source of their legends

A white Egret on the Murray, one of the many native
Australian birds that make the river home

In their 40,000 or more years as custodians, the Aborigines left few scars around the river: sacred burial grounds, gum trees with bark cut out for canoes, smoke stains on the yellow cliffs where they camped; glittering kitchen middens of cockles and mussel shells. The marks of the European invaders, though, are more easily seen. Locks and dams have drowned the swamplands and the red gum forests, arresting the rhythm of the river which replenished the swamps and mud-flats and generated the breeding cycles for fish, and for crops and cattle, the river polluted with runoffs and drains. There are other changes: When I first learned to swim in the Murray’s warm brown water, paddle-wheelers still swished back and forth. Swimming like fish, we could easily dodge them and we chased their wash to catch the waves, bobbing like corks.

Today, though, swimming in the river is like playing hop-scotch on a busy freeway. High-powered speedboats roar down the river, trailing skiers for tails, scattering swimmers daring enough to try to compete or just to cross the river from one bank to the other. A screaming fibreglass rocket with a 60 horsepower outboard at the stern and a nut at the wheel has none of the charm, the serenity or even the style of the old river boats.

The memories flood back as I stand on the cliff looking down on the river, the white mist almost gone. Life along the river has experienced a vast change in the past 150 or more years. The indigenous people who roamed its banks for millennia have almost all disappeared. The inland sailors, too, have gone ~ Alf Maslen among them ~ and little of what they brought to the river remains. They have stepped out of the great river of history.

Geoffrey Maslen’s new books are An Uncertain Future: Australian birdlife in danger and Too late: How we lost the battle with climate change, are published by HardieGrant and available at all good bookshops.

An early picture of the Adelaide steaming up the Murray River, towing a barge carrying red-gum logs. Photograph: Courtesy of the Echuca Historical Society



In 1869, wool being unloaded at the Punt in Echuca. Photograph: Courtesy of the Echuca Historical Society.

Bullock trains in Leslie Street in Echuca, carrying the wool brought by the paddles steamers to be taken to Melbourne. Photograph: Courtesy of the Echuca Historical Society 

 

 An 1876 etching of Echuca's Main Street and the Bridge Hotel at left, both still key features of the town. Image: Courtesy of the Echuca Historical Society