Kym Ellery sought to amplify her sculptural register and take it higher end with her debut couture collection for spring, which was mixed on the runway with the first drop of her fall ready-to-wear, part of a new strategy for the Paris-based Australian designer.
Her voluminous proportions and cutout shapes were familiar territory, drawn out into more dramatic looks for evening, but the combination of both bespoke and ready-to-wear on the runway made for confusing reading.
Ellery was inspired by a curator of art, furniture and objects, and transposed her collection of works onto the body, “whether she wore her bed out during the day or had a vase as an earring,” she explained backstage after the show. The bedding reference was loud and clear, seen on a padded robe-cloak draped and pinned with a floral brooch.
Ellery’s familiar boxy suit, when done in a black lurex tweed, was a highlight, and her leather blouses, especially a Victorian-inspired design with puff shoulders, also had a lot of appeal. An open-back, square-neck dress in burnt orange plaid was another standout, both dressy and somewhat streetwise. Elsewhere, however, the proposition somehow struggled to meet the mark.
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