Dion Lee’s Friday night runway show might’ve started more than 45 minutes late, but it was well worth the wait.
The designer is a master at juxtaposing aggression with beauty, or rather a tension between subversive sexuality and sensuality, and he did so again with a fall collection that riffed on “second skin” with shownotes calling out the words “snake, serpent, scale, reptile, shedding, unraveling, ouroboros, etc.”
“I think as a designer, you’re constantly shifting, evolving and changing. Fashion is like reinventing yourself or constantly moving on, like a departure. It was that parallel between identity and I suppose the patterns in nature — my last collection was really looking at patterns in nature and this idea of biomimicry, so it shifted from that leaf and nature motif into something that was more reptilian,” Lee said backstage.
He manipulated the idea with lots of intriguing fabrication plays on scales. For instance, sexy fishnet bodywear, artisanal crochet and mesh layers with hints of sharp tailoring and plenty of signature leather harness dressing, updated with interlocking “scale eyeleting” diamond hardware. There were also reptilian etched, “peeling” leather styles from head to toe; snake dyed Shibori and distressed denim that riffed on the theme, and were certainly party-ready.
“We’ve been playing with how to kind of create this ‘shedding,’ like something falling apart, as well as a play on hosiery as your base layer of how we dress with lingerie and intimates,” he added of the collection’s creative study of ecdysis. There were strong hand-distressed hosiery base layers, which Lee called, “like a tissue around the body” (which looked great as an alternative men’s evening tank with tailored trousers) and undone beaded fringe slipdressing. He topped many looks off with signature outerwear boasting corset-like cuts — leathers, shearlings and inflatable puffers (yes, the kind blown up with air).
Sexy, bold, innovative — Hiss!
