Staying independent is radical, top fashion label says
When Zaachariaha Fielding was asked to collaborate with top Australian fashion label Romance Was Born, he felt like a pinata being smashed apart from the inside.
“I tell you, my body could not handle the frequency that day,” the multi-talented artist told AAP.
“I almost passed out … five different emotions happening at the same time.”
The invitation came the same day his music duo Electric Fields found out they had been chosen as Australia’s entry for Eurovision.
While Electric Fields didn’t make the finals of the competition in Sweden, Romance Was Born’s runway show featuring prints of his art was a stand-out at Australian Fashion Week in Sydney.
Taking inspiration from the 1984 fantasy film The NeverEnding Story, the resort 2025 collection featured luminous moon children, humanoid replicants and quilted space cocoons.
Ahead of the collection’s release in December, Fielding showed off a cosmic balloon gown at a preview of the Radical Textiles exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia on Friday.
Romance Was Born’s Luke Sales said the garment was essentially a “big princess gown”.
He said he and design partner Anna Plunkett were drawn to Fielding’s intense use of colour.
“We always say his work has a real beat through it, like his music,” said Plunkett, also in Adelaide for the exhibition launch.
Collaborations such as these, combined with extravagant runway shows, mark Romance Was Born as a pioneering label.
Since it was founded in 2005, it has championed an Australian sensibility through collaborations with artists including Jenny Kee and Del Kathryn Barton.
It’s high-end stuff, but as the Australian industry is smashed apart from the inside by imported fast fashions and a cost-of-living crisis, it’s becoming ever harder to make truly radical work.
“In this market and this climate, it’s radical to be an independent brand and still doing what you do and being authentic,” Plunkett said.
Australian Fashion Week’s long-time owners IMG pulled out of running the event earlier in November, and with its future in doubt, industry peak body the Australian Fashion Council has stepped in to run the 2025 edition.
While Sales loves runway shows, he said they were hard work and stressful – and for many designers, might no longer be necessary.
“Maybe Instagram is a better platform these days for a clothing brand … the runway maybe should be saved for someone who’s trying to do something a little more artistic,” he said.
The Radical Textiles exhibition also shows off high-end international designers including Vivienne Westwood, Viktor&Rolf, Iris van Herpen and Jordon Gogos.
As for Fielding, he was feeling the heat showing off his cosmic balloon gown with its voluminous taffeta and interior corset.
“I’m like walking lava – this is good,” he said.
“It’s testing me, and I think I’m doing quite well.”
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