Australian Dion Lee a designer for all seasons
Print Edition
FASHION retail is experiencing a seismic shift: The audience is global, seasons are increasingly irrelevant and the rise of social media means consumers don’t want to wait for runway styles.
Designer Dion Lee, the breakthrough star of Australian fashion who has worked with Kanye West and whose clothes are worn by the likes of Jennifer Lawrence and Cate Blanchett, understands such challenges better than most.
Lee launched his brand in Sydney — which has opposing seasons to the fashion capitals of Europe and North America. “We’re obviously very conscious of the seasonality differences between Australia and the northern hemisphere so that’s something that... we design into,” the 30-year-old said.
“I think the geography is a challenge. It is not a challenge that is insurmountable,” adds Lee.
One of his solutions is to ensure his collections — known for their precision lines, fine tailoring and sculptural forms — have a core which does not change regardless of the time of year.
He is not alone — Burberry recently announced it will switch to “seasonless” collections, with items suitable for wear year-round available at its outlets worldwide after they appear on fashion-week runways.
The rise of online shopping and social media has meant fashion is having to adapt away from the traditional seasonal approach, where consumers wait months to buy trends from the catwalk. Lee says: “There’s been a global conversation I suppose about the relevance of seasons and how the model has really changed and is starting to evolve with the rise of online being so prevalent and e-commerce being a large part of our business.”
This approach — and the fact his clothes are available on international fashion sites such as net-a-porter.com — has boosted his global profile.
Sales in North America — Lee’s biggest foreign market accounting for 35 percent of wholesale — are expected to be up 90 percent in the year to June 30. Asia is also a growing market although currently only accounts for 16 percent of total wholesale sales.
Lee is fresh from Fashion Week Australia, a showcase of the country’s best designers which this year centered on ‘resort’ wear — a focus that saw bikinis and bright, billowing prints hit the runways at events attended by local retailers and international buyers.
Held on a rooftop overlooking Sydney, Lee’s collection showed another side of fashion and featured sharp-edged suit jackets and full, structured skirts, prompting Vogue Australia to praise his “urban inflected shapes and sharps and those clever twists and turns in his tailoring.”
The magazine’s editor-in-chief Edwina McCann, says Lee’s aesthetic appeals to young, urban customers the world over. “I think in the modern world it doesn’t really matter as much where a designer actually comes from,” she says. “And Dion — and I think many of our designers are benefitting from that now — that their clothes are appealing to a certain customer who is global rather than national.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
