Designing South of Eden: a Q&A with Melanie Bower

Melanie Bower has swiftly become one of Australia’s most exciting breakthrough designers. Her autumn-winter collection (pictured above), fresh off the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival runway, straddles the stylistic extremes of austerity and hedonism. For the upcoming season of Bodytorque.à la mode Melanie has designed costumes for Daniel Gaudiello’s new ballet South of Eden, a piece about female escorts working in a hotel, waiting for the right man to come along and take them away. We chatted to Melanie about what inspires her work and the experience of designing for dance.

Can you tell us a little about the work you’ve designed for Daniel Gaudiello’s South of Eden?
In keeping with Daniel’s inspiration for the piece, the costumes are very body conscious and rely heavily on textural fabrics and cut-outs to abstract and sometimes fetishise the dancers’ bodies.

What is it about the work of Helmut Newton that has inspired your designs for this ballet?
For me, Helmut Newton’s work was a great influence because of the way he explored the relationship between sex and power.

What are you hoping to bring to the ballet stage?
I hope my preoccupation with fashion will allow me to bring something fresh. If nothing else, I think, as newcomers, the costume designers for this season of Bodytorque will break conventions, because we don’t know them all!

What has it been like designing for dance?
It has been exciting and challenging. I’ve had to rely heavily on the expertise and knowledge of the amazing wardrobe department at The Australian Ballet.

Tell us about your residency at Alice Euphemia …
The residency was a fantastic opportunity given to me, along with three other graduates from RMIT, to show our work upstairs at the store in Cathedral Arcade. It’s great to be stocked at the store now, two years on.

Can you tell us a little about the collection you showed recently at L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival?
The pieces were all silk and merino wool. The silk was digitally and screen printed so they have quite an unusual texture; simultaneously soft and structured, sheer and opaque.

Are there reoccurring themes in your work?
Rather than themes, I’m interested in ongoing technical research in the aim of developing new textiles and techniques.

Does your work draw on any fascinating characters or events throughout history?
I prefer to concentrate on creating things that feel new, incorporating more abstract references like the prints from my last collection which were photographs taken by a microscope, but from a distance it just looked like gingham.

What everyday things inspire you?
The way clothes change over time and the way people adapt things. Like, a baggy pair of jeans cinched in at the waist, which end up draping really interestingly, or a beautifully stretched out neckline on an old jumper.

What have you learnt since completing your fashion studies at university?
I’ve learnt about the importance of finding the right people to work with in order to make great fashion, and to show it.

Beauty is …
… usually a fortunate accident.