Ms. Lover Lover

It's incredibly hard to spin a new bit of wordplay on the fashion label Lover that they HAVEN'T heard of considering how easy and tempting it is to tag an article with 'Love Lover!' or 'Lover Girl'.  When you search for Lover, the first thing that pops up is Lover's website, which is impressive given that the name is the noun relative to the most-used-and-abused emotion in the world.  Still in that one seemingly generic word, Nic Briand and Susien Chong have created an intimate world, which happens to have many girls clamouring to step inside it, and it is one which has spanned ten years.  Therefore showing at RAFW suddenly made sense not because it's a retrospective but because they wanted to take the chance to thank the people that have supported them as well as making an emphatic statement with their new collection which they did so with impeccable flair on Monday at the Sydney Opera House. 

I felt perhaps a tad sorry for the shows preceeding Lover as everyone seemed to have only one thing on their mind on Monday night, wondering what the show would be like after five years of absence from the RAFW circuit.  Perhaps what people weren't so much wondering was what the clothes would be like given that their aesthetic is so well-established and doesn't really go through seismic shifts, which is part of their appeal.  I must confess, my first knowledge of Lover came from an early issue of Lula which means I may have latched on late onto the Lover antics, not knowing of Susien's humble background of starting the label at a market stall in Sydney. 

From those beginnings, Susien and Nic have built their brand slowly and steadily to the point where you could say that Lover has a very international 'underground/cult' following.  I've met people in the most random of places and somehow Lover has come up in conversation as something that a certain girl really craves and wants.  They have an intimate relationship with their Lover pieces, treasuring and wearing them consistently.  You could somewhat pigeon-hole that Lover girl, looking at their lookbooks and overall branding and that's no bad thing when there are actually many, MANY Lover girls out there who want a beautifully made dress that is simply that – beautiful – unladen with connotations, complexities and design tricks.  Yet underlying each collection, there are always the thoughtful references which aren't ever overly-conceptual but rather, touch upon the music, the books, the films and the art that the Lover girl might well be into anyway…

Still, I wasn't going to predict purely simpering romance from Lover from their latest S/S 11-12 (our A/W 11-12) collection.  The posters on the night outside the Opera House made it known that I was going to be in for a good show…

… and into the Studio space at the Opera House was a suspended cuboid screen, projected with imagery selected from the ten-year old body of Lover's work which I suppose was the reminder of why exactly Lover has done so well over the years, gaining love and recognition at home in Australia.

The name 'White Serpent' immediately made me think of the Chinese Song dynsasty tale of Lady White Snake, of which I had a beautifully illustrated graphic novel book from the 1940s as a child.  I believe the reference is indeed to that tale and so the duality between the purity of the Lady White Snake and the evil demons of the underworld plays out in the collection, jostling between lashings of white lace and the more seductive red lace with black in between completing the palette trio.  It is still all about lace though despite the more sensual detour and Susien and Nic were most enthusiastic when talking about the French lace mills that they use as well as the artisans that they support in the process.  This was entirely evident when I went to see the collection up close.  I may have overgorged on lace held up against the light, something that never fails to please me, which is probably why Susien and Nic have found so much joy out of this material that has served them well over the years…

Long tunics that were undone and trailing, leather skirts and shorts and extremely low-cut dresses that are entirely sheer gave a sensual injection into the Lover aesthetic that perhaps showed an evolution in the brand.  For me it was the abundance of French lace that brought it back to Lover-land as well as the shapes such as an impeccably cut dress, that have miraculously turned some of my friends into one-outfit wonders, wearing a particularly Lover piece over and over again…

A buyer told me that she saw shades of Erdem in the collection and whilst being derivative of 'European' designers has been an issue that has cropped up somewhat this year at RAFW, I do believe that Susien and Nic plunge themselves into a world where mainstream/highly broadcasted trends don't enter their brains and that they are devoted to the craft of their clothing, ensuring every textile used has been transformed into something worthy of their fabric suppliers, as well as the legions of Lover girl who go back to them for something specfic, something that transcends temporal trends…

See what I mean about the lace-gorging?

I especially love the edge of the lace peeking out from a pair of shorts or a longer skirt, and when combined with the silouette, it has beautiful 'swish' factor…

Lace placement on the body seems to be important to Susien and Nic and in this collection, precision of how the lace falls and where it is embroidered is extremely imporant…

I haven't quite figured out whether I am a Lover girl myself.  Perhaps I am in some ways (ah the days when I got SO excited about the second issue of Lula and I'd go home and scan pics for The Fashion Spot).  I really want to be though and even more so now.  Thankfully having met the designers, there's no elitist membership scheme.  Just say "LOVE LOVER" without sounding like a disingenuous plonker and you're in.  Oh and I need to gets me a few more Lover Lovers in London too so that they can be stocked there more widely but for now, their e-shop will certainly suffice…