Romance Was Born is renowned for making a theatrical scene at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week (RAFW). In 2009, the independent Australian brand put on a show that reportedly reduced fashion editors to tears due to its sheer beauty and originality.
Designers Anna Plunkett and Luke Smiles again raised the bar in 2010, this time with a texture, fabric and colour-rich collection sporting the quirky theme, 'Renaissance Dinosaur'.
However, the elaborate offer cannot be credited to the pair alone. It stemmed from a collaboration with Melbourne-based artist Kate Rohde, who is known for bringing fantasy to life in the form of creative taxidermy-like models.
The move reflects an emerging trend which is seeing artists and designers work together in a bid to push creative boundaries and reach out to new audiences. Fashion designers Nicola Finetti, Marnie Skillings and Akira Isogawa are among others that are forging this path.
“They [Plunkett and Smiles] asked if I would make some dinosaurs in the general style of the work that I do, that they could turn into a print,” Rohde says. “They also asked me to give them some images of other work that I had made, so that they could turn that into the 'Renaissance Garden' print.”
Rohde explains that her small sculptures of colourful dinosaurs were photographed and then digitally transferred onto silks, lycra, georgette, denim and crepe for use throughout the range.
“I had a three-month lead time for this, which was fairly short, but they got me when I had a bit of a gap in my schedule,” she says.
Rohde also worked with the pair on their forthcoming autumn/winter 2011 fabrics, admitting she finds the process fascinating.
“Loosely, the print that I worked on had a tropical Asian theme. I don’t know what the actual title of the collection is – it is very anti-winter.”
A key benefit of associating with the brand has been the major boost in public exposure.
“The sort of response that came out of doing the RAFW show was incredible,” she says. “The interest that people had was quite extraordinary. It did bring a new crowd into the [Karen Woodbury] gallery which displays my work.”
She recommends that any fashion designers wishing to approach an artist for a collaboration be a true admirer of their work.
“They have to love what the artist does already. When I worked with Romance, the key was that they briefed me, but they let me do whatever I felt was right. They had trust that they could work with what I gave them.”
Emerging designer Michael Lo Sordo also stepped down the artisan path for his summer 2010 collection, which he unveiled on the catwalk at RAFW in May. His collaboration with abstract expressionist painter Christopher Horder resulted in a range of delicate dresses, pleated long skirts and tailored boyfriend jackets made with silk fabric bearing the artist's signature prints.
“We worked together on a project prior to this and the work that he does got stuck in my head,” Lo Sordo says. “I approached the Liverpool Street Gallery [which represents Horder] and had a couple of meetings with Christopher. We spoke about where I wanted to take the collection.”
Horder creates images with handmade watercolours, Indian inks and acrylics, which are painted onto soaked sheets of canvas, so the mediums blend naturally into unique formations. Lo Sordo says once the paintings were selected, they were photographed in high resolution and then crafted into a repetitious format by a graphic designer. They were then transferred onto silk fabric samples before Le Sordo created the clothing range.
“He [Horder] was putting his name to this and we both needed to get a lot out of it. The level of integrity needed to be high in my designs, as his art works can sell for $40,000 or $50,000.”
Horder says that in any collaboration of this kind, there is a point at which the artist will have to relinquish control to the fashion designer.
“Michael showed me his final sketches and I liked his vision so we proceeded,” he says. “You have to have faith that you are dealing with someone who knows what they are doing and has a clear vision, so to avoid any surprises.”
Both Lo Sordo and Horder advise that clear terms and conditions must be set. These should determine who owns the copyright to the artwork, how it will be used in the collection and what financial agreement will be satisfactory for both parties.
“One must understand the intellectual property and copyright issues and be respectful of that,” Horder says.
“The artist and designer must be credited, as it is the artist’s image or print on the fabric, and equally the designer’s collection or garment.”
Lo Sordo is thrilled with the outcome of the range, which was picked up by a number of Australian stockists and appeared broadly in the media. He feels the prints lifted the value of his designs to a more prestigious level. Horder says he too has benefitted from the additional exposure resulting from the project.
“I am living and painting in Berlin at the moment and it has helped keep alive an interest in my work in Sydney,” he says. “It has been a wonderful opportunity to engage with a new, wider audience that would otherwise not necessarily see my work.”