As summer wanes much of the Australian pastoral landscape becomes dry and harsh, far removed from the lush promise of spring. It’s a scene of parched earth, sun bleached grass and washed out blue skies that is not immediately beautiful until the wind ruffles the grass and the sun hangs low.
Sydney duo Susien Chong and Nic Briand have captured the beauty of this landscape in their latest Lover collection The Harvest. The pieces in soft bluish greys, bleached beige, white and blue match the austerity of the land at harvest time and have been captured in a gorgeous video directed by Alice Wesley-Smith and Kasia Werstak, written by Sophie Ward and scored by Kim Moyes.
Inspired by Terrence Mallicks’ 1978 film Days of Heaven, which tells the story of transient labourers who travel to harvest crops on a Texan farm, The Harvest is a collection that’s sure to please. Susien and Nic talk rabid Lover fans, the beauty of simplicity and their love of quilting.
The term ‘cult following’ gets thrown around a lot, but it's justified for Lover - are you ever surprised by the fervour of your fans?
“We are constantly surprised, and never take it for granted… it’s a very gratifying experience when you hear the stories about the lengths people will go to to have a piece of Lover. And I believe it’s a testament to the way we built the label. We have stuck to our ideals from day one, we haven’t swayed from trend to trend. Each collection is another chapter in the story. And we have always maintained that Lover is about the people who wear it, who make it a part of their lives.”
Who have you been happiest to see wearing your clothing?
“It blew our minds when we were standing in the audience and Joanna Newsom walked out on stage wearing a Lover dress. And last year we were waiting to use an ATM machine in downtown Manhattan and the girl in front of us had one of our jackets on.”
The Harvest is quite an austere collection - why do you think fashion is moving to more classic, minimal pieces?
“Fashion in general feels so cluttered and disposable right now, everyone is a designer, everyone is putting out a collaboration, things are being embellished and taken to the extreme, live streaming shows, blogging etc. We just felt like simplifying, returning to basics, but retaining the essence of Lover. We had no idea that fashion would begin to move in that direction.”
What music did you listen to while creating this collection?
“We listened to very stripped back organic stuff like Karen Dalton, The Band and Neil Young.”
What else was The Harvest influenced by?
“Once we started talking about stripping things back, we discussed that there is no where more natural and pure than being out in the country, which led us to the farm, which led us to pull out Terrence Mallicks’ masterpiece Days Of Heaven. From the colours to the characters it was just so inspiring to watch on so many levels. It wasn’t naïve, the characters weren’t weak, they had a dark side, the clothing was beautiful but it had a purpose. The tension between the workers and the land owners and the difference in their possessions and surroundings was something we wanted to work into the collection.
“We were watching so many different trailers for Days Of Heaven and watching bits in the office on Youtube, that we thought it would be perfect to make a film trailer for the collection in anticipation of it going in store.”
Have you been investigating quilting? Some of the jackets have that kind of sensibility.
“We have. Like everything we do, we play around with something for a couple of seasons, until we either feel like we have gotten it to a point where we are happy, or we’ve explored all possibilities. The quilting is part of that process, its always nice to have the contrast of something being quite homespun, against something quite structured, which is what we wanted to achieve with the quilted jackets this season.”
You're come a long way from the market stall - do you have any plans for something big to celebrate 10 years coming up?
“We do have a long list of things we want to do next year to celebrate. We’ll see which ones come out in the mix. Were very proud of what Lover has achieved in the last nine years, we have maintained local production, only worked with independent boutiques, and achieved what we set out to create - which was a boutique label of international standard.”
The collections seem to include more tailored pieces as time goes by - is that due to your own learning about tailoring and form increasing and improving, about Lover clients growing up, or something else entirely?
“You always hope your skills will evolve and so do the areas you want to explore. We have always injected a sense of masculine/feminine into the collections, and our tailoring has been a part of that even from the first collection we sent down the runway. As we’ve spent time perfecting the tailoring and getting it to a level we were happy with, the tailored pieces have started to become just as covetable.”
Finally, what's your favourite piece from the collection?
“The overcoats - in a time when so much emphasis is on visual stimulation the feel of being wrapped in soft folds of cashmere and wool in winter are a simple and comforting sensation.”