A fashion designer and a chef walk into a bar: Australia’s best creative partnerships

When fashion designers look beyond their own studios to collaborate, great things happen. Jane Rocca speaks to three leading Australian designers who are expressing their fashion identity by sharing their sartorial song in a new creative partnership.

Bianca Spender and Rafael Bonachela

Fashion designer Bianca Spender and artistic director of Sydney Dance Company Rafael Bonachela came together for the 50th anniversary performance of Cinco.

Bianca Spender: “As a designer, I always imagine my clothes in movement: that they move with you and make you want to dance. That’s always been a principle of my creative process. When I collaborated with Raf at Sydney Dance Company for the 50th anniversary in 2019, it wasn’t the first time I was inspired by the world of dance. It also happened in 2016 when I designed a fashion collection inspired by birds and dancers. I was inspired by the way dancers move and how that informs fabric function. Inserting georgette silks and splicing them up through movement was key.

Doing Cinco and working with Rafael was the truest form of collaboration for me. The dancers’ movements inspired my designs. I turned up with three outfits on the first day and said to Raf, ‘They’re terrible.’ Raf replied, ‘No, they’re wonderful.’ Raf could always see the end, and that was part of the collaboration process – syncing our worlds. He could see the finish line.
The collaboration was a very nurturing space where each of us informed how everything evolved. I did costume tweaks up until the final weeks before performance.

Sharing my fashion journey with 10 others was so satisfying. Usually, I am in a studio alone creating. I spent six months making the costumes. I chose silk chiffon, the highest quality. During another practice, three costumes ripped to shreds. We had to find a way to make it work. It involved more slashing into the garment; outfits got shorter and shorter. I was like a sculptor cutting into a block of stone, finding a new way to express movement. The collaboration taught me about connecting to bodies in a profound way.”

Rafael Bonachela: “I met Bianca through her mother, the late Carla Zampatti, when she hosted a fundraising dinner for the Sydney Dance Company at her home. Carla was very close to her family and passionate about the arts and Bianca and I hit it off immediately.

When I have friends who are talented designers, artists and composers, it takes me longer to ask them to collaborate. I wanted to make sure the right project fitted with Bianca. For the 50th anniversary of the company, I wanted to create a work with a haunting, melancholic and intense string quartet by Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera.

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I immediately thought of Bianca. Having seen her work for 10 years at that time, I felt her sense of tailoring and refined sophistication and the way she weaves and drapes fabric on the body would work. There is fluidity and structure in her designs which I knew would work on dancers. I played her the composition by Alberto in the studio. She was shocked and surprised at how intense and rhythmic it was.

I gave her some space to take it all in and invited her to come to the studio to see the dancers many times. She has incredible instinctive skill with her scissors. She is a true artist.

Sydney Dance Company is about being in the moment and reflective
our times. You can say the same about fashion. In both disciplines, the body is the centrepiece. I know Bianca thinks about movement in her design.”

Lee Mathews and Julia Busuttil nishimura

A fashion designer and cookbook author walk into a bar, and the rest is a food and fashion collaboration that puts a new salad spin on clothing capsules.

Lee Mathews: “I met Julia at the wine bar Enoteca in Gertrude Street 7½ years ago. She was a regular customer at my store in Melbourne and I was a big fan of her cookbooks. It was a mutual respect and connection that brought us together. It happened organically over time. We share aesthetics between our love of fashion and food.

Last month I released a capsule collection using some dead stock inspired by styles Julia had purchased over the years. Julia is wearing a Lee Mathews dress on the cover of her second cookbook, and it’s a great way to shine a light on what we both do.

I also sell her cookbooks in our stores. She continues to contribute to our journal online, sharing recipes and stories with our followers.

As a designer, it’s nice to open up what you do away from fashion. Julia
is so gracious and generous of her time. I had a lot of fun making pieces named after her and finding old stock from dresses she once purchased to remake again. We recently hosted a book launch for Around the Table at our Melbourne Archive Store, which was a huge success.

When I started my label in 2000, the store came with lots of products I made – from clothing to quilts, pillows and kids’ toys. I have pared this back and think the collaborations are vignettes into both our worlds. With Julia, our collaboration is genuinely heartfelt. It’s about promoting someone, helping them out and contributing to their success.

The pandemic gave us a chance to become more Julia-fied. I cooked a lot and she was dressed to the nines in her kitchen! Ours is a partnership that will continue to evolve.”

Julia Busuttil Nishimura: “I like to cook using local and seasonal food; it’s a shared philosophy with designer Lee Mathews, who is all about slow fashion. I was star-struck when I met her. To see her become so supportive of me as my career has grown has been a wonderful way to collaborate and get to know each other. I enjoy sharing recipes on their website journal and wearing the brand was part of my DNA long before we even knew one another personally. I have been a big fan of the brand for more than seven years.

With Lee, what stand outs for me is the quality of the fabrics and the care and attention to detail – it’s the very opposite to the fast fashion vibe. Her clothes ignite the same joy that local and seasonal produce does for me in my food world. I am a big fan of her billowy sleeves. A few months ago, her company contacted my agent to say they wanted to make clothes inspired by the designs from Lee in my wardrobe.

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Seeing archival prints return in this purposeful way was inspiring. I got to visit the workshop in Sydney and look through the fabrics and discuss what would be made. I told her what I love and miss and what I would wear again if I could. We hosted a beautiful dinner for my book launch in the Gertrude Street Archive store.

I love how Lee has moved to more tailored and structured pieces now, but still adore her floating dresses and full, tiered skirts. A favourite dress is one made from Japanese seersucker with contrast stitching and gathered sleeves.

There is a nice synergy in what we do, a similar mindset of thoughtfulness. I take care with the produce and don’t complicate things too much when I cook. Lee’s designs are beautiful and all about simplicity. Wearing her clothes makes me feel connected to her. She has a brilliant mind.”

Kit Willow and Jane Tewson

KitX designer Kit Willow has teamed with her aunt and founder of Igniting Change Jane Tewson. They’re upcycling exploded landmines into charm bracelets to raise money for community groups in Australia.

Kit Willow: “I collaborated with my paternal aunt, Jane Tewson, in 2013. Together, we came up with an idea for a bracelet using recycled bullet casings and exploded landmines that had caused atrocities in Cambodia. The aim was to raise awareness about these issues.

Jane is the founder of Igniting Change, and found an organisation in Cambodia that engaged in Fair Trade practice and employed women to create the handmade jewellery pieces. I sold them via Willow, my first fashion brand. It was Jane who said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we collaborated on something else together?’ This was the beginning of our creative partnership. We also wanted to raise money for The Social Studio in Melbourne, which employs and trains refugee women.

Using my place in fashion gives us a chance to talk about issues and put a lens on the gritty issues at the heart of our society that most people don’t see. Jane really gets right behind these organisations and impacts change at a grassroots level and we see it come full circle. She identifies problems and gets in there and rolls up her sleeves with her team. It’s not just about handing money over to charities. She talks about the shifts we need in society
and where we need more awareness.

KitX is part of the creative design process of the newly launched charm bracelet. All the strings from the charm are remnants of silk. The bracelets are made and packed with the help of The Social Studio in Melbourne and by Giant Steps, a Melbourne school supporting kids with autism. We say to people you can layer the charms. They are made out of the KitX symbol, and 100 per cent of the proceeds go to Igniting Change, which distributes the funds where they are most needed. At every single point of creation someone is winning.

Fashion invokes stories and empowers you. People comment on what you’re wearing, and the bracelet will lead to conversations. That’s our advantage as humans – we can make change through word of mouth, and history tells us we can move mountains when we work together.”

Jane Tewson: “What I love about Willow is her beautiful zest for life and desire to help others. They are such special qualities. Igniting Change is all about involving people experiencing issues themselves, helping them to help others. We know money helps charities, but it doesn’t fix the root of the problem.

Whenever Willow and I get together, things happen. At family settings, she is always asking me about what I am up to. I try not to bring my work to the family events, but it’s inevitable it gets raised because she is always curious about projects I’m working on and asking how she can get involved.

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Collaborating with Willow is a chance to bring what we both do together to make a positive social impact. That’s how this partnership to make the Symbol of Hope bracelet came about. The bracelet is a chance to remind people to be kinder. It has the words ‘kindness’, ‘curiosity’ and ‘openness’ on it, which can start the most beautiful conversations with others when they see you wear it.

The work we do at Igniting Change is emotional. The divide between those who have and those without has grown even greater over the years. Working with community groups allows us to see the suffering and inequality. That is challenging, but every day in my life there’s always a positive.”

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