ffiXXed email me with great images of their new collection and start off by telling me that they're based in Shenzen, China. Their new studio is there, they also do production there. Most Australian designers are keen to play down their association with that big pseudo-communist country to our north. Just look at what happened when Bonds shifted their production off shore.
ffiXXed is different, being housed in the manufacturing centre of the schmatte world is no shame for the pair. Kain Picken and Fiona Lau began their work together in Berlin in 2008, another manufacturing centre that's particularly affordable to live in.
The range, which is sold locally in Fat, is a gathering of twisted basics - a checked poncho instead of a jacket, woolen jumpers knitted with over-sized needles, a jumpsuit with a tucked-in business suit look. Who doesn't need a laptop cover? ffiXXED's is made of an A4-sized knitted jumper.
They hope that their work frames discussions about culture as a whole, and so they've developed the range around a digital print by artist James Deutsher from the exhibition ‘We Are Building A Civilised Space here’ shown at Y3K gallery in Melbourne. It appears on a dress in the womenswear range. A good starting point for discussion is whether in fact Australia is still a country of makers. Perhaps the only things we still make are great ideas.
ffiXXed is available from Children of Vision (Auckland), Doshaburi (Barcelona), Ka-pok (Hong Kong), Gallery de Vie (Hong
Kong) Post Party Depression (Tokyo), Line Gallery (Berlin), Temporary Showroom (Berlin), Ooga Booga (Los Angeles), Fat 4 (Melbourne), The Thousands Store (Melbourne), Monk House Design (Melbourne), Milly Sleeping (Melbourne), Coastal
Shelf (Perth) and Pour Porter (Colorado).