To the Melbourne Design Market yesterday, held in the car park of Federation Square. What a bunfight! Like a tribe of neanderthals in a cave fighting over a carcass. Thought I’d get there in the first hour to beat the rush but the rush was already there.
This is a classic Melbourne scene: a horde of 30 to 50-something Anglo couples, dressed in asymmetrical fibre garments, breathing last night’s wine, pushing strollers, frantically looking artistic. And so much snatching and grabbing at whatever was closest to hand, like a fish snapping at a passing lure.
The design itself was all perfectly matched to the crowd: safe, tried, tested, passé. Probably it never purported to be otherwise, but why then hold the market in a dark car park as if it were giving temporary space to some rude outsider? I mean, Nicola Cerini! Marc Pascal! These people have been doing exactly the same thing for years, same designs, same colours, same concepts.
What is it with Melbourne’s design/craft scene? Reheated leftovers are given the veneer of grunge in an underground car park, while the most highly provisional objects are mounted on plinths in establishment outlets and publications. And all the while there is so little that touches, moves and inspires the viewer.
The one aspect of yesterday’s market that was surprising was the frenzy of activity around two retailers of knitted garments, Fibre Red and Luna Gallery. The garments were well-executed, conventional items like scarves, jerkins, skirts, throws, beanies but people were going wild for them. It’s like the old Scarf Festival crowd had found a new feeding ground, and adds to my belief that the market for knitted clothing in Melbourne is huge.
It’s a town longing for a Sonia Rykiel or Missoni to move in and put it on the world’s fashion map.
In the meantime, we have the competent, appealing items produced by the likes of Kim Simon at Fibre Red. The skirts, in particular, were very attractive. She has an open day at her studio coming up at the end of June and it’d be interesting to see her knitting machines, and see them at work. Click here for more information.
Images: Skirt by Kim Simon at Fibre Red (top); Bed sheets, dress, wrap by Beverley Armstrong at Luna Gallery (bottom).
