that<\/em> corset, for example<\/a>. It sat in the same category as Bottega Veneta’s square-toe mule or Loewe’s Puzzle Bag: one of the cult, defining pieces of the year that saw almost every celebrity in its soft jersey paneling and dipped hem. It was also a sellout. Over and over and over again, Lee telling me they still can\u2019t keep it in stock. “Celebrity has definitely helped the business on a sale level and in terms of brand awareness,” he explains. “I feel like there are a lot more people now that are aware of the brand and I think that that has really helped us continue to grow.”<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/73712508_1212171118972717_3161510405270330090_n-1.jpg\")
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But by his own admission, leveraging a brand through celebrity and brand awareness is just “one component” – “it\u2019s really important to have that presence but how you communicate on your own social media platforms is another big part of that.” There’s also another very important component: you have to have an excellent product to start with. I tell him this, and he agrees, almost reluctantly. I also inform him his Spring Summer 2020 collection was my favorite to date (a huge feat for a long-standing fan like myself). \u201cOh, thank you,\u201d he says beaming, almost bashful. \u201cHopefully this one will be the same!\u201d<\/p>\n
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And that it was. Today’s Fall Winter 2020 collection was yet another step-up, with another surprising revelation: jewelry. Not just stand-alone, “show” jewelry (in which he’s dabbled in the past), but jewelry that became the piece, the fusion of jewelry and garment at the collection’s core. “I developed this kind of custom of chain where individual links join onto each other, so that\u2019s really allowed me to both explore jewelry but integrate jewelry into clothes,” he explains. “So a lot of the idea was kind of building these clothes that felt like jewelry and the pieces were like necklaces in a way.”<\/p>\n
Indeed, this unique chain-link became the star, not a peripheral accessory; imbuing turtleneck tops, suspending black slacks, dissecting hooded jackets, tracing open backs. Its use was both diverse and deft, adorning athletic silhouettes to feminine pleated mini skirts, moonlighting as waistbands.<\/p>\n
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A study in both subversion and fluidity, utility and beauty, it felt like the perfect extension of last season, with his famous corsetry,\u00a0 technical approach, and gender neutrality also explored. “There are a lot of elements within the collection that are an evolution from our last Spring Summer collection,” he muses. Even the jewelry began in its infant stages in the previous collection, “really evolving into this collection.”<\/p>\n
Inside The Shed, a new cultural space in Hudson Yards in Manhattan’s West Village, models – both male and female – whizzed up escalators in exquisite pieces from this forthcoming collection. While jewelry is a new m\u00e9tier for the designer (he had previously “played with show jewelry” but never in this way), there were other forms of newness. Tie-dye and representations of tribalism came to the fore, although Lee is reticent to describe it this way. “There’s a slightly more, well not exactly tribal, but I guess it is this kind of ‘tribal’ influence that comes into the collection, in terms of how it comes together and how it’s styled, in some of the details and the silhouettes.”<\/p>\n
Introducing a “drape and ease that felt really effortless,” indigo-dying techniques were tapped via a textile house in Japan to develop hand-dyed shibori fabrics, which made for a striking new proposition of print. Seeing it unfold almost felt like a really good “trip”, acidic and graphic and spontaneous (and without the hangover).<\/p>\n
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There was also the 90s – a decade steering fashion as a whole at the moment – that informed the collection. “I was looking at the early 90s and a lot of the trends in music and dance. There\u2019s definitely a feeling of how people were dressing in the early 90s and how that was present in popular culture at the time.”<\/p>\n
Once again parlaying subversion through tailoring, hips were exposed in clever, seductive cut-outs as too shoulders, while waists were laced in intricate fishnet (the laser-cut aesthetic has long been a code of the house). Broader concepts of femininity and masculinity were also dismembered; girls were utilitarian, boys were sexy – and together they formed a kind of brilliant non-binary band. Along with his classic muted palette of black, white, grey and khaki,there were a blazing burnt orange and rich indigo rose, as well as a pale salmon.<\/p>\n
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A quiet achiever, Dion Lee goes about his business softly, gently, but now confidently – something he says has stemmed from New York, his home for the past few years. “It\u2019s definitely a city where you really have to stand your ground, it requires you to be the fullest version of yourself,” he laughs. This newfound confidence is also reflective in his work, his New York-based collections have felt much stronger and subversive in character. “The diversity and the confidence of character that comes from living here does come through in the collection,” he muses. “I think it\u2019s probably that and also evolving as a designer and experiencing new things and surrounding myself with people who inspire me. And continuing to push myself.”<\/p>\n
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While it’s clear that determination and diligence define Dion Lee, he remains impossibly polite and gracious, almost surprised by his great success.<\/p>\n
For the boy who changed Australian fashion, it is so exciting – and well-deserved – to see him take on the world like this.<\/p>\n
view the dion lee fall winter 2020 collection below:<\/span><\/p>\n
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