Jason Clark’s graduate collection is capturing the kaleidoscopic nature of nightlife
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JASON CLARK
WORDS BY IZZY WIGHT
“It’s about creating a sensory experience to wear, but also to view.”
Inspired by Sydney nightlife, twentieth-century philosophy and his grandmother’s flower garden, fashion student Jason Clark’s graduate collection, Body Out of Bounds, is equal parts elegance and chaos. Made from digitally-printed fabrics and garment offcuts, his work is modern avant-garde – think high-intensity tailoring and fluorescent tartan. “These garments have these silhouettes that would playfully bounce off you on a dance floor,” Jason says. “It’s about creating a sensory experience to wear but also to view.”
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As an official media partner of Paypal Melbourne Fashion Festival, Fashion Journal is excited to once again be supporting the National Graduate Showcase, celebrating Australia’s top-ranked emerging fashion design talent. The top 10 leading graduates from across the country will exhibit their collections in a boundary-pushing presentation, showcasing experimental design and innovation. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be profiling each designer through a series of interviews. Next up is Jason Clark.
Please introduce yourself to our readers.
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My name is Jason Clark, I’m a fashion designer and recent graduate from the University of Technology Sydney’s Fashion Design and Textiles (Honours) program.
Tell us about your collection.
My collection is titled Body Out of Bounds and is inspired by Sydney’s nightlife and my experience of fashion, [which has been] creating spaces of play and exploration. This collection of garments exceeds the body’s natural borders – questioning space, performance, concealment and desire as a tension between fashion and the space it inhabits. [This is] juxtaposed with hand-painted florals and electric colourways, wrapping the wearer in the saturated hedonism of these ludic spaces.
When did you know you wanted to get into fashion and textile design?
When I was a kid, I wanted to be in theatre. I loved how I could assume different characters and loved the escapism of it. Over time, I noticed how the costumes were this ‘light bulb’ moment for an actor and you fully embody the character. As I got older, the language of fashion became more apparent and when I was in high school, fashion became this daily ritual to build myself up.
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This same feeling I continue to try and capture in my work – even now at 28, long after high school. That feeling I’m sure everyone has had when you put on that one item of clothing and just feel 10 feet taller, it feels like coming home to yourself… it’s just a magical moment for the wearer and designer.
Tell us about the experience of putting together your graduate collection.
Creating this collection was simultaneously the most challenging and rewarding experience [I’ve had] so far. I would start working every morning at 8am or 9am and sometimes not leave the university until 3am.
Towards the end, we had a small crew of us in the honours year sleeping on the couches at university [and] sewing until all hours of the night. In all the chaos, I never wanted to be anywhere else but those sewing studios because that process of creation was so enriching and by the time you see it on your models, it makes those sleepless nights worth it.
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What part does sustainability play in your design practice? And other ethical considerations?
As designers practising at this time, it’s so important to consider the sustainable and ethical considerations within our work… being able to have complete control over the textiles in my collection gave me greater transparency in the development of everything. I was deconstructing previous work and draping offcuts into existing pieces… [while] cutting down on waste in the development stages.
… Digital printing gives me the ability to purchase one single fabric and it be reimagined in multiple different ways by companies I trust, knowing people are paid fairly for their time and skills as well as limiting the number of variables… it proved to be an experiment in the possibilities of creativity when we limit our consumption.
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What about the Australian fashion industry needs to change?
I think Australian fashion needs to take more risks, both creatively and in terms of swinging the doors open to new ideas and collaborations. There are so many young and emerging creatives ready to transform the Australian fashion landscape into something truly inspiring, creative, daring and innovative. I’m grateful to PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival for giving a stage to upcoming talent and hope this continues to encourage other leaders in the industry.
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You’ve experimented with digital prints and hand-painted fabrics in your work. When it comes to choosing materials, what’s your process?
… Every project I give myself a new challenge, usually something I’m afraid of. Last year I wanted to challenge myself to inject print and colour into the collection, and the process of experimentation began. I just kept following the wins until they turned into the collection I have today.
As this was the first real embodiment of my creativity, I wanted to be able to have complete creative control over everything in the collection, which meant that every material had to be reclaimed. I arrived at this obsession with florals late in the year and had already developed a few single-colour silkscreen floral prints. I decided that to capture the kaleidoscopic nature of nightlife, I needed to have an eclectic mix of unique prints throughout the collection.
Who or what inspired the collection?
In the beginning, I was looking at Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of the grotesque body. The grotesque body is about expanding [the body] beyond its natural borders… I saw the parallels to haute couture designers in the 20th century and the desire for experimental new shapes that expanded the natural form.
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I was also looking at photos of me and my friends at parties, we would get dressed up in these costumes just to have fun and experiment. I wanted to capture the essence of play in these nightclubs, from both the wearer’s and viewer’s perspectives. These garments have these silhouettes that would playfully bounce off you on a dance floor… it’s about creating a sensory experience to wear but also to view…
I wanted to contrast this subversive nightclub atmosphere with sweet heritage florals that were inspired by my grandmother’s interiors and flower garden… her influence on me as a child gave me the bravery to experiment today and continue to try new things without fear. It was an ode to the encouragement she gave me as a creative, and it was really special to have her front row at the graduate show and for her to see her flower garden immortalised on the clothes.
Some of Jason’s responses have been edited for clarity. To view more of the designer’s work, head here.
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