Photography by Stefan Gosatti
Jade Sarita Arnott (pictured), Rosemount Australian Fashion Week 2009 Photo: Cultures In Between
Here is a self-effacing, modern young woman which seemed only just yesterday to stroll into Sydney for her first show which capsulated our focal attention to her label, Arnsdorf. ‘I Think We Could Do Great Things’ for Spring/Summer 2008 at Format Furniture, Surry Hills in Sydney was an embodiment of criss-crossed, twisted drapery in soft, fluid silk flattering cuts in a sea blue jumpsuit, dresses in jersey and silk cottons that were keen to externally wrap with a nude transculent tone that uniquely wanted to contribute to a new kind of feminine interpretation. On the outset of looking at one designer’s collection, through their capability and points of ideas, the Belgian designer Veronique Branquinho whose elusive statements and fragmented world shrouded in a running duality of illusion and reality has seen her draw influences from the work of David Lynch’s films. Similarly, early on the reflections of Arnsdorf really meant Jade tied her conceptual pursuits as a fashion collection was very much drawing the strengths of her acknowledgment and curiosity to her life and the life of her parents. Her parents were a vibrant undercurrent, for which their physical travels and romantic interventions was an equal response to balloon jacquard dresses with sleeve zippers, a cropped black leather bolero jacket with soft-toned cotton tanks and a ruby red double breasted overcoat all intertwined the documentation of her father’s and mother’s personal relationship.
Click image to view Arnsdorf Spring/Summer 2009 runway video Video: The Australian
Spring/Summer 2008 was an immediate preface that formatively and stylistically converged a smooth, accented form: a female silhouette that rather concentrated entirely as a whole shape, the slashed cuts, deep folded lapels, the criss-crossed bodices and arctic colour palette communicated Arnsdorf’s identity and strength was a narrative-driven process. And it has continued and only to be articulated further with the label’s introduction to ‘The Dawn’, created for Automne Hiver 2009. This collection was an expression of deconstructing the procedure of dressing, how one attempts to interact with a garment and what the actual garment does to the wearer’s body overall. The collection unlocked minimal sensuality with a kind of unstated but very flattering sexiness. It wasn’t very overt but enough that jersey dresses in arctic white were of much shorter hemlines, tailored dinner jackets with folded lapels, tencel denim high-waist jeans, a golden waist-tied jumpsuit or tie-know dresses that accentuated leg proportion gradually informed a subtle documentation of a female wearer.
Just counting on the expectation that Arnsdorf’s modernity would again be a light and clean exterior, it wasn’t because for her first runway show during Rosemount Australian Fashion Week (RAFW) earlier in the month, saturated colours and varying textures were cleverly crafted. It emerged that ‘And You Love’ a title track from Lazarus’ album Hawk Medicine was a precision of strength. Strung brassiere dresses, a side zippered cream dress and paired buttoned-down collar shirts with emerald cuff shorts pairing waist tan belts successfully translated her conceptual pursuit that was the embarkment of taking risks, to choose yes or no either way would conjure a different and profound effect. Jade played with precision cuts in the pant hemlines that were of rich silk purple and linen trousers but this collection particularly concentrated on asymmetrical exposures where a silk mesh composition in a shoulder sleeved shirt and extensions in flapped silk fabric gave a kind of light chemistry to protect this female, enough that her forward movement and actions still felt compelling and perfectly balanced. The mood and feeling from the overall collection was a contemporary assembly in soft-structured shapes that felt ethereal and the use of eloquently spoken fabrics, which for this season were much bolder and stronger than her last, it transpired a subdued beauty because in-between the lines and the never-ending moments of climaxes and rollacoaster emotions, function for Jade is seeing those elusive details in films, art and music. A trio of genres that all continue to omit an open-ended quest as the lasting message from the runway show for 2009 was of substance and authenticity.
Accompanied show poster invitation
