A KANGAROO, a frill-necked lizard, gumleaves dangling against a baked brick-red backdrop. How hard could it be to frame Aussie fashion in ways that say, ''We are unique in the world''? Well, bloody hard if you ask artist and photographer Vincent Fantauzzo. Kitsch cliches don't fit and, if an Australian fashion aesthetic exists, it's devilishly difficult to winkle out precisely what it is. ''You've got to get away from the cliches but how do we say 'we're Australian' without the wildlife?'' Fantauzzo says. ''That's just not what we're about any more, is it?''
No. In fact, Australian fashion is sometimes sophisticated beyond imagining. Since design pioneers such as Linda Jackson and Jenny Kee took the first experimental steps into an ''Australian aesthetic'' in the 1970s and '80s (Linda Jackson Bush Couture is on at the NGV's Ian Potter Centre until September) a stream of fashion creatives - Toni Maticevski, Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales (Romance Was Born), Dion Lee, Scanlan & Theodore, Sarah-Jane Clarke and Heidi Middleton (sass & bide) and Christopher Esber among the most recent - tapped deeply into global themes and the Zeitgeist.
''It's international now,'' Fantauzzo says of Aussie fashion. ''There's no national style.''
Yet, Aussie fashion still has ''something'' that, for example, made three fashionably dressed Melbourne girls I know of recognisable as just that - Australian - on the streets of San Francisco, Tokyo and Paris in recent years. ''Maybe it's that fine line [Aussie designers] walk,'' Fantauzzo says. ''They create something that's quite elaborate but, depending on how you put it on, it can look really out there or it can be quite wearable. It's your choice.'' Maybe that's it: unique, chameleon concepts that fit the wearer's mood and, in a subtle way, say ''Australian'' to the beholder.
Fantauzzo was plunged into speculation about an Aussie fashion aesthetic by the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival. Fantauzzo is one of several ''faces'' representing the event (March 8-15) and although it's not usually a gig that requires more than turning up and looking cool, Fantauzzo's reputation as an artist was, apparently, too good not to exploit. Festival organisers commissioned him to photograph five carefully chosen local fashion brands in a way that would make them stand out in the world. Fantauzzo's subsequent short film and stills, titled The New Antipodeans, feature garments from ground-breaking fashion brands Song for the Mute (designers Lyna Ty and Melvin Tanaya won last year's LMFF Designer Award), Christopher Esber, Above, Dress Up and Limedrop.
It's Australia's submission to the British Fashion Council's inaugural International Fashion Showcase for emerging talent, a rare chance for one country's cutting-edge designers to rocket-fuel their careers and possibly be lauded as a source of future trends. On Monday night (Tuesday, Australian time), festival chief executive Graeme Lewsey and chairman Laura Anderson will present the film, stills and an installation of garments to a room full of movers and shakers at a cocktail party at Australia House, London, as part of London Fashion Week.
Fantauzzo's vision is realised in a moody, soft-lit clip with a breathy, original backtrack and suggestive narrative; ''The idea that getting dressed into these clothes is as sexy as undressing,'' he says. ''That these clothes actually make you feel as sexy and sensual as getting undressed.'' There's not a kangaroo or gumleaf within cooee, of course; instead, he trusted that something uniquely Australian might fizz up of its own accord from the efforts of his team of Aussie creatives, including film director Barney Howells, producer Luke Coulson with music by the 1200 Techniques crew. Whether it did, or not, you can judge on blog.lmff.com.au and by comparing the submission with others from countries just as intent on asserting an identity, at britishfashioncouncil.com/interna tionalfashionshowcase.
More than 80 designers from 19 nations including Botswana, Estonia, Croatia, the Caribbean, Italy, Japan and the US are competing in the award, to be decided by judges from the British Fashion Council, Victoria & Albert Museum, Vogue US, Royal College of Art and The Guardian. The winner will be announced on March 30 before the award's heavy promotion via social media and the installations and events at the entrants' respective London embassies. ''It's a significant opportunity for us to be scrutinised by major players in the international fashion circuit,'' says the project manager for the Australian submission, Yolanda Finch. ''Our designers have more than enough integrity to stack up on that stage.''
She says the designs are diverse but fuse harmoniously in Fantauzzo's vision and plug into a ''global visual language''. ''It's a mixed bag, just as Australia is a really mixed bag: Christopher Esber's keen understanding of high end; Above's more intellectual, subtle approach to basics; Limedrop's quirky styles and playfulness …'' Finch is particularly impressed by Esber, the young Sydney designer whose collection triggered a shock-and-awe response at his first Australian Fashion Week.
''We'll be hearing a lot about him in the coming years,'' she says but adds that any one of the five ''New Antipodeans'' has global star potential. ''Future fashion could be driven [by] an Australian designer having a significant voice internationally,'' she says. ''There's no barrier.'' And, no kangaroos or gumleaves required.
¦To view more work by ''the New Antipodeans'':
abovelabel.comchristopheres ber.com.aulimedrop.com.audressup. net.ausongforthemute.com
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