Industrial revolution

Vanessa Leyonhjelm worked as a fashion designer in Melbourne, New York and Paris in the ‘80s and early ‘90s but Divergence was her very first commission for dance. Her designs – the sculptural VacForm bras, the cylindrical tutus, the body con all-in-ones – both subverted and celebrated the history of ballet costume. We talk to Vanessa about her industrial revolution.

You said a few years ago that designing costumes for ballet is the closest thing to haute couture in Australia.
It absolutely is. You have a workroom that will to bend over backwards to do everything that you need and everything that you envisage down to the most minute detail. It’s wonderful.

Stanton Welch said he wanted the dancers to look “like Vogue models”. What kind of brief did he give you for the costumes?
His brief was that they should be very high fashion. I took that away and thought, “How can I make this fashionable today, and fashionable forever?”

Was it a collaborative process?
He gave me a brief that described the type of costumes he wanted for every movement of the music; and also that the changes were very fast; that the bra piece would stay on right through, except for the pas de deux where it’s impossible to keep that bra on; and that he wanted a very stiff tutu, like the Russian tutu. But I didn’t want it to look like a stiff Russian-wired tutu, I wanted it to look a little different. So I went to industrial materials. It was the only sort of mesh that I could find that would tremble and do everything a tutu does, but could still be pulled off and thrown into the air.

The tutu is such a commanding emblem of ballet, coming with so much history; so many associations. Was it an emblem that you enjoyed subverting?
I had a lot of sleepless nights, and did a lot of drawings for different tutus, but in the I end chose what was the simplest and the best. It was only a matter of finding mesh that would do what we wanted. I kept thinking, “Something like fly-wire, but not wire. Something that’s pliable”. Then we found this plastic mesh that’s used in air-conditioning as insulation.

It’s probably just long enough now that we can look back at ’90s fashion objectively, and though it’s often maligned as a decade, there were lots of interesting things happening: deconstructionism, underwear-as-outwear, clothes that were sexy without the aggressiveness of so much ‘80s fashion. Was it an interesting period to be working as a designer?
I tried to make Divergence very modern, but very classical at the same time. I wanted the tutu to do everything the tutu does, but to be as simple and as modern as possible. I didn’t really look to fashion when I was doing it; I just looked to doing something that would be modern for as long as possible.

Which designers do you enjoy these days?
I’ve always like Gaultier for his haute couture. Since I was young I loved Franco Ferraro because he was so sculptural. As designers from way back, Dior and also Charles James – he considered his designs from above and from the sides; from every angle they had to look fantastic. I always thought that was such a fascinating way to work, and to work on the round as well, not on flat patterns. I have done that as much as possible. Also ‘60s Paco Rabanne. Just more sculptural designers. It’s easier to make a piece and just add, and add, and add to it, but it’s difficult to do a really beautiful shape, and it’s difficult to cut really well. I think people who know how to cut really well do it, and people who don’t just embellish a bit more.

Divergence returns to the stage later this month alongside Suite en blanc in the double bill Paris Match. Melbourne: 24 June – 4 July.