LA CHAMBRE DE BONNE. Melbourne, Australia, December 2014.
On a very hot summers day back in December 2014 we made our way to S!X at 'La Chambre de Bonne' in Melbourne for one of the funniest shoots I have been on in a long time.
Denise Sprynskyj and Peter Boyd formed the label S!X in 1994 'as a response to the local Australian fashion industry's lack of originality, over consumption and over production'.
'S!X combines traditional tailoring, dyeing and fabric manipulation techniques with the practices of recycling and deconstruction'.
This piece has been a long time coming, please enjoy!
..At the end of the day maybe we're like twins, maybe we're like brother and sister, maybe we're inseparable, maybe we just see the same thing. [DS]
..London Fashion Week, that's when we worked for Owen Gaster as interns..oh that was a great experience. Remember at the time it was Owen Gaster, Hussein Chalayan, Alexander McQueen.. they were the people to watch. They gave us a needle and thread and said 'right, do the punch stitch'.. 'I'm saying to Peter 'what's the punch stitch?'[DS]
..'Owen Gaster [like] five minutes before the show threw us a dress and said ''right, cut the hem on that!'..we just cut it and they said "quick, quick, it's gotta go out on the runway!"[DS]
..'The last show was Alexander McQueen in the church, we had no tickets, it was pouring down with rain. We get there, it's in Spitalfields..
.. it was the most spectacular thing we had ever seen, Isabella Blow was there, Philip Treacy, the way the show was staged..the who's who of all the models'.[DS]
.. 'I guess what London taught us was, that's the energy, those designers just got that stuff up on the catwalk, whatever way, whatever method, it was all valid. Where [as] Milan, you don't show in Milan unless you've got a big infrastructure behind you, do it a certain way...Paris, everyone gets a go, that's why we love Paris'. [PB]
.. 'Well, we've discussed, "why do we use french words when we both can't speak french".. our french is ap-pauling, um, so why do we do that?'.. [PB]
..'We know that when French is translated into English sometimes it doesn't translate "correctly". So it's about the ambiguity for us, the way of being evasive or ambiguous- you know what's one of our favorite labels 'Comme des Garcons' ..what does that mean exactly?I mean it's full of double entendre and paradoxes..like the boys' [PB]
..'I wouldn't buy clothing in the particular space we've constructed..we call it 'La Chambre de Bonne' ..translates into "a maids room", it is like your bedroom, it is like a wardrobe for you to get changed, put things on. You know, we come in, have a look, take it in, add something to it, you know but I guess you've gotta seek us out'. [PB]
..'With our PHD, we're looking at what it is we do and how we design, what sort of mental space or head space do we have to get in to to design the way we do'.[DS]
..'We need to surround ourselves with this idea of Paris..We transcend where we are and we surround ourselves or immerse ourselves in the idea of the imagined space or the Parisian space in order to be able to design'..[DS]
..' I just feel what has bought Peter and I together is that we've jumped so many fences, snuck in back stage to so many shows overseas over the years.. and when I think of the Jean Paul Gautier experience [we climbed a fence for that], and I said to Peter 'I'm never going to get over the fence.. I just went up and over... we got to the front door, there's Stella Tennant in front of me..that was just wonderful'.[DS]
Contributing Visual Director
Virginia Dowzer
virginiadowzer.com
On a very hot summers day back in December 2014 we made our way to S!X at 'La Chambre de Bonne' in Melbourne for one of the funniest shoots I have been on in a long time.
Denise Sprynskyj and Peter Boyd formed the label S!X in 1994 'as a response to the local Australian fashion industry's lack of originality, over consumption and over production'.
'S!X combines traditional tailoring, dyeing and fabric manipulation techniques with the practices of recycling and deconstruction'.
This piece has been a long time coming, please enjoy!
..At the end of the day maybe we're like twins, maybe we're like brother and sister, maybe we're inseparable, maybe we just see the same thing. [DS]
..London Fashion Week, that's when we worked for Owen Gaster as interns..oh that was a great experience. Remember at the time it was Owen Gaster, Hussein Chalayan, Alexander McQueen.. they were the people to watch. They gave us a needle and thread and said 'right, do the punch stitch'.. 'I'm saying to Peter 'what's the punch stitch?'[DS]
..'Owen Gaster [like] five minutes before the show threw us a dress and said ''right, cut the hem on that!'..we just cut it and they said "quick, quick, it's gotta go out on the runway!"[DS]
..'The last show was Alexander McQueen in the church, we had no tickets, it was pouring down with rain. We get there, it's in Spitalfields..
.. it was the most spectacular thing we had ever seen, Isabella Blow was there, Philip Treacy, the way the show was staged..the who's who of all the models'.[DS]
.. 'I guess what London taught us was, that's the energy, those designers just got that stuff up on the catwalk, whatever way, whatever method, it was all valid. Where [as] Milan, you don't show in Milan unless you've got a big infrastructure behind you, do it a certain way...Paris, everyone gets a go, that's why we love Paris'. [PB]
.. 'Well, we've discussed, "why do we use french words when we both can't speak french".. our french is ap-pauling, um, so why do we do that?'.. [PB]
..'We know that when French is translated into English sometimes it doesn't translate "correctly". So it's about the ambiguity for us, the way of being evasive or ambiguous- you know what's one of our favorite labels 'Comme des Garcons' ..what does that mean exactly?I mean it's full of double entendre and paradoxes..like the boys' [PB]
..'I wouldn't buy clothing in the particular space we've constructed..we call it 'La Chambre de Bonne' ..translates into "a maids room", it is like your bedroom, it is like a wardrobe for you to get changed, put things on. You know, we come in, have a look, take it in, add something to it, you know but I guess you've gotta seek us out'. [PB]
..'With our PHD, we're looking at what it is we do and how we design, what sort of mental space or head space do we have to get in to to design the way we do'.[DS]
..'We need to surround ourselves with this idea of Paris..We transcend where we are and we surround ourselves or immerse ourselves in the idea of the imagined space or the Parisian space in order to be able to design'..[DS]
..' I just feel what has bought Peter and I together is that we've jumped so many fences, snuck in back stage to so many shows overseas over the years.. and when I think of the Jean Paul Gautier experience [we climbed a fence for that], and I said to Peter 'I'm never going to get over the fence.. I just went up and over... we got to the front door, there's Stella Tennant in front of me..that was just wonderful'.[DS]
S!X
are the first practicing commercial design duo to complete a PhD in Australia
on their practice and its methodology, they completed this in February 2016.
S!X
Virginia Dowzer
virginiadowzer.com
