Tender joy, poetry and whimsy: Inside Alix Higgins’ fourth solo showcase

The ascent.

Alix Higgins. It’s a name you’re likely familiar with, whether you’re intimate with the ins and outs of Australia’s fashion landscape or not. Perhaps you’re one of the lucky few who’ve had the pleasure of glimpsing his work on the runway at Australian Fashion Week (AFW), or maybe you’ve come across his pieces IRL, on the racks of your favourite stores, or at his showroom in Sydney’s Chinatown (or at Cafe Forgot in New York City, like Hunter Schafer).

You might’ve spotted one of his iconic digital prints or tops in the wild, with the words ‘I was late to the party but I still drank the most’ or ‘Who’s afraid of Alix Higgins’, and it left you wondering who exactly Alix Higgins is.

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However it entered your orbit, once you know his work, you’ll start to recognise it everywhere. With his penchant for playful colour and typography, the designer behind the eponymous label makes clothing inspired by his early days on Tumblr, queer club culture, and his friends.

It’s the kind of clothing that evokes a sense of freedom, reminding you that fashion can be fun. And while his pieces might seem overtly playful, Alix’s work is, and has always been, about exploring identity and bringing poetry into the everyday.

In the making

This year marks Alix’s fourth solo runway at Australian Fashion Week, an impressive feat given the designer officially launched his label in 2021. But the ascent of Alix Higgins started long before that.

Having grown up in the small town of Otford on the New South Wales south coast, he credits Tumblr as being a major influence for his love of fashion. “One of the things that I found really important [was] the way that people would write about and document their own identity, particularly gender identity,” he told Fashion Journal in 2021.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Fashion at the University of Technology (UTS) in Sydney, Alix moved to Paris to complete a master’s degree in women’s wear at the Institut Français de la Mode. The years in between his studies and current role as head of his own label saw him work as a textiles designer and consultant for labels including Marine Serre, Coperni and Maroske Peech.

For his debut runway in 2022, the designer transformed Sydney’s Carriageworks into a desert landscape and introduced audiences to his signature print work, where garments were branded with the words like ‘Scanning’ and ‘I’m not scared anymore’.

The following year, Alix returned with Delectable Earth Shudder. Inspired by his friends and an old Tumblr poem, this runway was an antithesis to the barren landscapes of his previous show. Delectable Earth Shudder was a forest, featuring animal prints and a blended earth-and-pastel palette.

A notable favourite was his cream singlet, with the words ‘I was late to the party but still drank the most’ splayed across the front. It was also the year he was awarded ‘Emerging Designer of the Year’ by the Australian Fashion Laureate, a prestigious annual award ceremony recognising Australian talent.

Last year marked his third consecutive solo showcase at AFW, I forgive you God. By now, he had firmly established his design identity, and his confidence in his vision was clear. The digital prints from earlier collections were pushed further, with creative details, like fingerprints masquerading as dots. Likewise, fragmented poetry appeared once more, this time featuring phrases from personal journals like ‘Good boy’, while his pink polo, branded with vertical red text and pastel horizontal lines immediately became a cult favourite.

Again he played with deconstructed silhouettes, showing upcycled fabrics draped over one another, with hidden details, like ruffled collars peeking out. Rather than fall stale, each repeated element showed a clear progression of the Alix Higgins vision, creating a signature of his work and earmarking it as almost instantly recognisable.

Presenting: The Needle

At this year’s showcase, you could tell Alix’s show was next, purely by the crowd. People flooded into the gallery in a procession, paying homage to the designer by repping some of his most iconic styles, from his ‘tulips, roses’ knit, to an ‘Alix is King’ polo.

Comprising of 35 new looks, The Needle is a whimsical blend of bohemian and digital elements. Like his clothing, the floor of the runway this year was also full of hidden phrases and words. Larger declarations like “The music plays all night and no one else in the house can hear it…” were visible, while smaller singular words like ‘sunlit’ and ‘athena’ were hidden in the carpet, encouraging you to look closer. “I was more nervous than ever to share it because it felt direct, open, honest, true,” he wrote on Instagram about the collection.

The first third of the collection was grounded in a warm but neutral colour palette, before opening up to bold streaks of blue, turquoise, yellow and purple. Embroidered pieces featured for the first time, alongside digitally-printed jerseys and suiting, while models donned Ugg moccasins (adored with hand-painted tulips) or simply went barefoot.

In a pre-show interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Alix referenced finding inspiration in folk stories and children’s costumes, with one piece drawing on Peter Pan elements. This could also be seen on headpieces designed by Ann Shoebridge and makeup resembling Native American body paint. Post-show, some attendees have raised questions about how closely the show toed the line between art and cultural appropriation.

In an Instagram story days before the show, Alix opened up a question box for his followers to ask about The Needle. His response on what to expect was simple: “Tenderness, joy”. When Alix came out at the end of the show to a huge round of applause, that was the overwhelming feeling in the room. The collection moved the needle in more ways than one.

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