Premier's Design Award winning fashion house Material By Product crammed eager guests into their tiny Gore Street studio last night for an intimate fashion show. It was so intimate, in fact, that it involved dressing, making-up and hairdressing the single, naked model right there in front of the crowd.
Most catwalk shows involve slick, superficial productions set to thumping house music. Material By Product set out to create the exact opposite. They aimed, and succeeded in, exposing the process behind a fashion show. And expose they did, though the partially dressed model must have been well-briefed on her required role and the crowd whilst initially tittering, showed no signs of leering lasciviousness.
Giggles were even kept to a minimum when the waif-ish ginger model was adorned with a moustache of her own hair, suggesting the Melbourne fashion-loving audience is more than ready for high end concept shows like this. With the model having to parade out on to the street to an overflowing crowd, it also suggests that someone with a larger venue might like to step forward to support such a venture for next year's State of Design festival.
The event featured the label's Spring Summer 2009 range, and included a remarkable garden-print dress draped out of a single piece of cloth. The length of fabric was marked up with the Material By Product template, a unique sizing and cutting system of dots that the designers Susan Dimasi and Chantal McDonald created to replace the traditional, temporary tailor's chalk marks.
The label is noted for their innovation, and as such won two Premier’s Design Awards for Cultural Fashion Design and Commercial Fashion Design.
Orders are being taken now for the Spring Summer 09 collection Monday 21 July - Saturday 9 August from 10.00am – 6.00pm Monday to Saturday.
Photos by
Nicole Reed