Designer Brenda Harvey’s third and recent collection ‘Living/Light’ is a series of premium constructed leather accessories
As much as New Zealand Brenda Harvey’s long dark haired locks could curiously match cursed female protagonists in Japanese horror films, our eyes are seemingly not allowed to be peeled away from Benah, a maturing collection of personal leather accessories that has also recently expanded for men.
Our personal experience with Benah remains unspoken, with only whispering chimes in an electric stasis whereby visual imagery, created by Brenda’s partner Ben Briand, a Sydney based film director locks us in a new kind of personal luxury. A continuous thread of frozen still frames is intimately portrayed as a parallel dialogue between Herione Cahill and Sam Smith, the two convened models used in Briand’s film. It is an aberration that Brenda directed them to capture the intertwining use of her silk and leather accessories as they bind and assimilate together. Castor & Pollux, in its slightly mysterious state began to open up the idea that as the desire of surprises, radio, literature opened by Hermione Cahill and her ambiguous half Sam Smith both contemplated their silk geometric scarves and a buttery men’s leather holdall had an endearing presence. The way in which the film stills are unfolding, so too are Hermione’s and Sam’s silent emotions, in which that have realised these crafted objects have unequivocally become their second skin and taken a life of their own.
Ouroboros, Brenda’s second collection caused us to synthesise a new found utopia where both geologic and an inescapable wilderness backdrop unearthed a sense of vulnerability, a civlisation which is youthful and the basic necessity for comfort, hence the finely-knitted cashmeres and variegated ring circles digitally printed as neck scarves. They appear to be a chain of our existence and its variation, an evolution which is forever changing of which we are born, lived, die and reborn again. It’s a shortcoming just to visualise Benah as a high-end fashion label. The collections so far have encompassed a led foundation, a keen understanding of the makeup of how the necessity for comfort and the human desire to attain beautiful design is composed. However, it is with Living/Light her latest collective range which imbues Benah’s ethos. In speaking with Brenda she explains, “The collection comes from an idea that human beings tend to make the simplest things complicated no matter what and that this can be viewed in both a positive and negative way. I started with the most simple of shapes, a spot and stripe, on the scarves but when worn they intersect in an interesting almost chaotic manner. I find this whole idea really interesting, and steams way beyond fashion.”
The concept of fashion dissipated, the campaign models dazed and confused and the outcomes in this collection that heavily focused on sensory, sensitivity to textures and materials became overlapped. The Zia Bucket Bag was sewn and stitched using canvas and leather straps nautically knotted, motionless printed dots and white light spearing lines toiled and wrapped in an infinite way, functionality whereby a totebag with a leather strapped upper created in such a way to also combine as a backpack. Whilst Brenda Harvey has enthusiastically delighted young les enfants with discernible tastes in new heights of personal luxuries, it is for Brenda’s mature design ability that is delivered Benah as a consummate whole, not merely a new fashion incarnation. It is the infinite and temporal that deeply intrigued Brenda’s work for if mythology and superstition are nuanced characteristics, for sure the patrons of sailors Castor and Pollux are looking after her.
Cultures In Between speaks with Brenda Harvey designer of Benah:
