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For those unfamiliar with the inner workings of the industry, specifically, how it pertains to the particulars of understanding a fashion show, allow us to illuminate something for you. When a new range debuts on the runway, the pieces can be pulled apart and consumed in two different ways. The first is to examine the practicality of the garments—how they’ll adhere to everyday life and seamlessly amalgamate into your existing wardrobe as you project yourself, needs and desires onto what’s being modelled. The second is to take it at face value as the fashion spectacle it is—immerse yourself in the few minutes you’re invited into the designer’s universe and glimpse the pageantry and talent we’re only privy to once a season.
When watching an Iordanes Spyridon Gogos show at Australian Fashion Week, this year presented by Pandora, one must practise the latter. Though this mode is somewhat informed by the lack of ready-to-wear readily available—limited capsule collections are dropped sporadically throughout the year, making those who wear his candy-coloured and hand-stitched pieces off the runway an exclusive set—there’s an overwhelming sense of jubilation discerned when interfacing Jordan Gogos’ weird and wonderful world. He is the Mad Hatter. Or, Willy Wonka, with the catwalk his Chocolate Factory of fever dreams. In lieu of psychedelic river rides, we have choreographed walks that interact with audience members and cameos featuring the breadth of Australian pop culture. (Real Housewives of Sydney breakout star, Caroline Gaultier, was just one of the many surprising yet delightful faces campily stomping down the runway in Gogos’ hyper-vivid designs)
It was a hard task to top last year’s collection, which was made in tandem with esteemed yet ‘IYKYK’ Japanese-Australian designer Akira Isogawa, yet somehow the 20-something Sydneysider achieved it. To evolve his brand identity further, Gogos went back to his core; his Greek-Australian identity and the mythology around his creation story. With ‘The Woven Trojan Horse’, the name of his Resort ‘25 runway, Gogos enacted his own Greek tragedy. (The biggest loss is that his world is only within reach once a year!)
The days of Gogos crayoning kaleidoscope hues directly onto canvas fabric and patchworking sartorial collages aren’t yet behind him, but this season brought a new material to the forefront. Weaving, as the name suggests, was prominent across the hand-tufted designs seen on the runway—both in the collection and on the rugs that dominated the show space.
“Rugs, like all art, start on a blank canvas and are woven, tufted, pushed and pulled through the canvas to create something so tactile and packed with fibre that it withstands the human body,” explained the wunderkind. “I instantly gravitated towards the idea of the feeling, the depth and bold detail being worn to resemble rugs. There is a sense of comfort, armour and security in the pieces—similar to the anchorage of your feet sinking into the levitation of yarn holding you off the ground.”
This idea of tactility, and the universality of fibres translating onto the body, was omnipresent from the moment pioneering First Nations model Eliane George stepped out to open the show. To the tune of greasy 90s Eurodance hits, George posed in the vein of the Pale Man from Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth. Who needs the hands of god when you have George’s decorated appendages? Models with literal palm tree headpieces and miniature hair sculptures of Gogos’ Trojan horse followed suit in every expression of the designer’s upcycled methodology.
Yes, there were pieces literally made of rugs, like the penultimate look that rendered one of Linda Jackson’s “bush couture” prints in shag form or the five “soldiers” that carried rolled-up rugs on their backs. Straightforward wearable art cut with Gogos DIY DNA made up the rest in geometric panel cut coats or sculptural dresses that were held together by visible thick threads. But where there was youthfulness, there was also maturity. A layered tulle sack gown embroidered with a handwritten, notebook-esque quality felt red carpet ready. (Perhaps for a nascent songstress at this year’s ARIA Awards?) The same goes for a panelled gown made from upcycled textiles, which could’ve easily been part of a graduate collection from the school of Bode.
“It felt like going back to my first show… like a sense of breaking free once again of constraint,” Gogos said of the collection.
“I have felt immense pressure to bend the brand into other avenues and this collection feels as though we can confidently present art and creativity without bending for commercial expectations. I’ve constantly reinvested in the brand’s capacity to produce creative outcomes and it feels like I’m in uni again making from the heart with a touch of adrenaline.”
