Copyright abc
Independent Melbourne fashion designer Amy Lawrance's sustainable slow-fashion couture is part sci-fi and part medieval costume. The 32-year-old RMIT fashion graduate, who worked with Toni Maticevski before starting her own label in 2023, took out Australia's prestigious National Designer Award in March this year. She returns to the runway in Melbourne this month with a new show, Total Recall, which will take place in a former Union Bank building which was constructed in 1919 and has since been renovated for creative use. Lawrance's new collection is a subtle ode to the 1990's sci-fi film of the same name; she creates ethereal dresses in sweeping ankle length that combine her signature Handmaid's Tale silhouette with a sci-fi dream sequence. It's architectural, breezy and otherworldly. Vogue USA wrote about her runway show Pleats and Perforations at Australian Fashion Week earlier this year; the impact of that editorial saw orders come in all the way from New York. Her hand-made couture is designed to slow you down; where seams are meant to be visibly pleasing, silk fabrics purposefully undyed, all elevated with a thread of gold that's woven through her neutral palette. Hers is a heroine bound for Mars, but trapped in a medieval state of mind. From Bendigo to Paris Born and raised in Bendigo, Lawrance moved to Melbourne at 18 to study a diploma of fashion at the Kangan Institute in Richmond; three arduous years of perfecting garment drawing and pattern-making. "When I started studying fashion design, I was super passionate about drawing design ideas, but the process of making a garment didn't come naturally to me, and it wasn't something that I necessarily enjoyed either," Lawrance says. "By the time I finished the course, what I loved most about fashion was the art of garment construction — the production side excited me. You'll find Lawrance's sewing room tucked in a small room of her Kingsbury rental in Melbourne — there's a three-metre by two-metre custom-made pattern-making table — a gift from her partner Josh and one she declares the most functional present she's ever received. There's an industrial sewing machine, an industrial press sitting against a chest of drawers, and undyed silk fabrics and drawings engulf her space. While she spends much of her time here building her fashion label, she also teaches one day a week at RMIT. She has poured the $20,000 she won from the National Designer Award back into her business, and says applying for it happened on a whim and a prayer. "I felt a little out of my depth applying to be honest, and I didn't think there would be any outcome. It really was a matter of me throwing my hat in the ring," she says. She's since shown her collections in showrooms in Paris and a pop-up in New York. "I have been uncharacteristically busy as a result of winning the prize, and had the most manic year in the most wonderful of ways. Things have certainly kicked up a notch since," she says. Total Recall takes a neutral stance Total Recall will feature 24 garments created over an 18-month period. Half have been created in the last three months. Where some fashion designers chase colour palettes on international runways as new seasons roll around, Lawrance stands her ground that neutral is here to stay. "I don't reinvent ideas each collection; every piece I make talks to the pieces that came before," she explains. "There is no massive departure from what I have done before either — it's about extending that narrative." Every piece has elements of hand stitching, a skill she laboured over during the pandemic. "I love working with undyed silks and the irregularities in the textures of the fabrics I use. There's minimal wastage and any off-cuts can be used again," she says. Producing from home keeps her craft small-scale. She says sustainability is important, and she only buys what she needs and makes garments to order rather than by volume. "The footprint is tiny as a result," she says. Lawrance also turns to her collection of 1950s sewing and pattern-making manuals for inspiration; she's obsessed with the vintage drawings within the pages. And she's a sci-fi buff too. "I love watching sci-fi movies; and especially love the aesthetic of the 1927 film Metropolis to more recent films like Gattaca and Total Recall," she says. Former NGV fashion curator Paola di Trocchio, who is working with Lawrance on her runway show, says the designer's fusion of two opposites is what appeals in her work. "Amy's clothes evoke all the sci-fi feelings you get when watching Total Recall; and her head pieces are very Handmaid's Tale too; sewn with individual segments and using the faggoting stitch. The clothes play off the rawness of the walls in the space, all while taking conventional dresses and juxtaposing pretty with contrary." Total Recall will be shown at Cecil Place Precinct, Prahran on October 22, followed by a four-day public showcase.
