By Benjamen Judd

AFW: Alix Higgins Proves Forgiveness Is Truly A Thing Of Joy And Beauty

He said, let's turn that frown upside down

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – MAY 15: A model walks the runway during the Alix Higgins show during Australian Fashion Week Presented By Pandora 2024 at Carriageworks on May 15, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Stefan Gosatti/Getty Images for AFW)

Just like the title of his new collection says, Alix Higgins is ready to forgive. Not just god, but everything and everyone and anyone who might even feel they need to be forgiven. Even the bad weather. “I wasn’t raised religious, but I am kind of obsessed with the universality of these ideas and the kind of weight and strength of them.

“I had a pretty intense personal year and I’m pretty intense year personally I should say. And I think I was very angry, angry about a lot of things. And I think a lot of people in my generation that I speak to feel quite despondent and nihilistic about the state of things. And this anger kind of fed into the collection.”

AFW, Australian Fashion Week, Alix Higgins — SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – MAY 15: A model walks the runway during the Alix Higgins show during Australian Fashion Week Presented By Pandora 2024 at Carriageworks on May 15, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Stefan Gosatti/Getty Images for AFW)

If only more people channelled their anger in a similar way because this latest was nothing short of a moment of pure joy. Its energy, uplifted and buoyed by the familiar graphics and slogans, was reflected in the faces of everyone who attended. If Australian Fashion Week, presented by Pandora, needed a benchmark for how fashion can be functionally fun Higgins remains unbeaten. “I mean, it’s ridiculous that I’m having a conversation with God, but it’s kind of just trying to be okay with how things are, if that makes sense.”

But deeper to the theme, forgiveness is a powerful tool of release. And this collection, in many ways, releases Higgins from the presumptions of an audience (read: us, the editors, writers, stylists who grapple with fashion in both textual and textural ways) that attempts to define and put into words his work.

Ironic, really, since he has been putting his work into his own words all along. Princess. God. Baby. The infamous, and personal favourite, I was late to the party but still I drank the most. These are now joined by the equally covetous “Good Boy” (by the way the phones jumped up to grab pictures of this one look, we can assume will sell plenty and fast) and “Obliterate Myself”. Higgins clearly knows how to create a linguistic hook.

I Forgive You God also continues a conversation that Higgins began last year, where clothing is upcycled, recycled and inverted. T-shirts became skirts, polo shirts have been flipped and doubled over to create layering. This subversion never feels gimmicky, though, a testament to Higgins’ ability to edit back just enough without losing the frenetic energy that underpins his designs.

topics: AFW, Australian Fashion Week, Alix Higgins, trending