Everything
For fifteen years Australian-made Bassike has been creating clothes that epitomise the Australian lifestyle – a blend of relaxed fits, premium fabrications and designs that blur the lines between resort, surf and luxury.
With their most recent Resort 22 collection, Pause, founders Deborah Sams and Mary-Lou Ryan encourage us to take a moment, take stock and quite literally – pause.
This may sound all high and lofty, especially when we’re talking about something as frivolous as fashion. But that dismisses the impact that fashion has on a personal level.
Today we know that the clothes we wear are more than just either a uniform for work or a barrier against environmental conditions.
We dress to feel good, to feel comfortable, to feel confident. But also on a deeper level, we dress to feel aware of ourselves.
When the country went into lockdown, what we needed from clothing changed. It was no longer enough to simply own something that looked a certain way. It had to feel good too, and make us feel good while we wore it.
It’s a philosophy that Bassike had already been espousing but it has clearly crystallised in the new collection.
Bassike Pause is the summation of several key pillars that the brand has continually refined. Quality – 75 percent of the Resort 2022 collection uses certified organic or sustainable fabrics while 95 per cent of the collection is made here in Australia. And of course comfort – relaxed fits are benefitted from premium fabrics that allow breathability and softness.
A technical third has been added to these two – aesthetic.
Sams has incorporated shibori dye techniques within a tonal colour palette. The result creates a water-like rippling effect of colour variance across the garment that also guarantees no shirt or shorts will be identical.
This flow of colour along with a construction of fit that is relaxed, allowing air to move freely across the body, encourages a more meditative mode of dressing – one that feels more like a cocooning rather than restriction.
It’s an endgame that, looking back at Bassike’s evolution as a brand, feels organic and also inevitable.
Bassike may have come a long way from their early days of casual staples inspired by streetwear, but the DNA is still there: simplicity, comfortable yet elevated via supreme fabrication and fit.
