In what was the most eagerly anticipated show of the week, Jordan Dalah delivered. An alumni of Central Saint Martin’s he has already been setting the pace here for bold, beautiful, softly sculptural clothes and today he created all this and some. “I’m inspired by theatre and I look at a lot of costume and pull it back to the ready-to-wear space to make it clear that ready-to-wear is where I belong,” Jordan told us after the show. “I look at big volumes, I want to take things too far, I don’t like safe silhouettes.” His suspended cloud-like dresses “under bustles” draped with fine stretch elastic were divine and a much needed lift to a world where we have all worshipped wearable this past year. These are dresses to stand in and sway gently and just be smashing. “There’s no rhyme or reason to the veiling, it’s simply a powerful silhouette I love,” he says. “Renaissance was a big point in which I started a lot of my work. I paint in that style, that was what got me into art and fashion. My initial collection is very much inspired by the Tudor period, big billowing shapes. I still feed that into everything I do but I also leave it where it needs to be left. It was in this collection but it wasn’t everything in this collection. I think once I find a reference I love to leave it and then pick it up again. There is no real theme to what I do. I start with 3D, the volume. I need to see what shapes look like. For me, it’s all about the silhouette on the body and pushing that silhouette.” And push it he did. There was an epic energy that ran through the collection, with his “pool toy” dresses and shocks of redhot big bows and brilliant larger-than-life sleeves. “I feel very lucky to be opening fashion week here. I’m really grateful - I’ve never been to a fashion week in Australia before but I hope there is space for people doing something a little bit different, and allowing me to have my vision.” Oh yes, we like his vision.

jordandalahstudio.com

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