Gender-neutral, inclusive and sustainably produced fashion is at the heart of Gary Bigeni’s latest collection, but it’s taken the better part of two decades for him to find his feet.
His latest collection Modern Love, which debuted at this year's Australian Fashion Week, is a bold array of vibrant, size-inclusive and gender-neutral designs – and the culmination of a 20-year journey to embrace his true colours as a designer.
Speaking to ABC Arts from his indoor-plant-clad home studio in Sydney's Dulwich Hill, he is warm and effusive, dressed in a floral collared shirt and sky blue polka dot pants. "Growing up was a challenge. Mum didn't have any educational background in terms of a degree [and she] hardly spoke any English," Bigeni says.
"That's always been set in the back of my mind: If I want this, I have to get up and make it happen. That's what the last 25 or 30 years have been like."Bigeni's mum encouraged his love for textiles from a young age. Growing up with a hearing disability, he gravitated to visual learning and communication.
He also loved playing dress-ups and would frequently rifle through his sister's wardrobe. At school, he would stage playground runway shows and cast his classmates as models, draping them in his mum's lace curtains, strategically whisked from their rod and returned before anyone noticed they were gone.
"I kind of had a secret life [because] no-one knew that I had this stash of Barbies. Everyone would go to sleep and I would cut Mum's dresses up and make outfits for them," he says. Guided by Hirst, Bigeni left school after year 10 and did a one-year apparel manufacturing course at TAFE, followed by a year studying colour at FBI Fashion College. At 18, he applied for East Sydney Technical College , where he studied for three years, honing his technical craft skills.
It was a hit — the collection got picked up by two stores and put Bigeni on a path to setting up his own business. He landed a crucial appointment with Belinda Seper, who ranSeper took the young designer under her wing, mentoring him and giving him a space to work, above one of her boutique stores. It was a lightbulb moment for Bigeni, who started playing around with print and colour, and "then seeing a really different reaction from people and buyers and media".
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