Wah-Wah is the Australian label creating punk-rock knitwear in collaboration with local artists
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JORDANNE CHANT FOR WAH WAH
WORDS BY IZZY WIGHT
“At the end of the day, I want to create beautiful, sustainable garments.”
These days, the worlds of contemporary Australian fashion and music are often converging. Artists like Montaigne and Mallrat can be seen wearing designers like Maroske Peech, All Is a Gentle Spring and Jarrod Reid, while Thelma Plum just finished her dash as Melbourne Fashion Week’s official 2022 ambassador.
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With music as her first love, designer and musician Kaylene Milner created her brand Wah-Wah “out of a need to combine all of [her] interests into one fun and sustainable business”. Crafting loud, consciously-made graphic knitwear pieces, Kaylene works in collaboration with Australian artists and musicians. Partnering with bands like Amyl and the Sniffers, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and The Hard-Ons, Wah-Wah is where Kaylene’s two great passions come together. Below, she tells the story of the brand so far.
Tell us about you. What’s your fashion background?
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My name is Kaylene and I run Wah-Wah Australia, which is a knitwear brand created out of a need to combine all of my interests into one fun and sustainable business. I’ve always straddled the music and design worlds, having studied musicology at Sydney Conservatorium before dropping out to study fashion at TAFE NSW.
I’ve also played a heap of music from a young age, from the classical trumpet in professional orchestras to drums in my current post-punk band Loose Fit, and a number of different genres in between! I figured out fairly early on I didn’t want to make a career out of music, but I wanted it to always play a part in whatever I do – which is why I decided to switch to fashion. In my mind, it looked like a cruisey, creative and fulfilling career.
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I loved studying fashion and went on to show my graduate collection at Afterpay Australia Fashion Week, before heading to New York for the best part of a year to work as an intern in the industry. I’m a really hard worker, but I just couldn’t get excited about working for a fashion house. The reality of the industry was worlds away from the reasons I made the switch to design, so rather than change paths (yet again), I’ve been determinedly carving out a little niche for myself ever since.
How did the label get started? Talk us through the process and the challenges.
I started my namesake label when I was pretty fresh out of fashion school, as many naive graduates with little to no funding do. It soon became pretty apparent trying to run a viable, high-ish-end fashion label while producing seasonal collections on a shoestring budget with no other employees was a one-way ticket to being burnt out and broke.
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That said, it was a fantastic way to learn the ropes of running a business, and a good way to figure out what I didn’t want to do. I still had a strong desire to have a brand, and for a long time, the idea of creating punk rock knits had been rattling around in the recesses of my busy brain. The idea was largely inspired by an image of J Mascis wearing a hand-knitted Deep Wound sweater his mum had made him. Knitwear is tricky though because the set-up required for sampling means the minimums for production are quite high.
I reached out to a local knitwear manufacturer, and as fate would have it, he happened to grow up in West Sydney going to punk gigs and seeing bands like The Hard-Ons (who were the first band I reached out to with the idea). I think the absurdity of what I wanted to do made him excited about my little brand, even though he knew I’d only be producing a small handful of jumpers for a start.
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What were you trying to achieve from the project at the time? How has this evolved and what are you trying to communicate through the brand now?
When I first started out, I was quite literally just wearing my influences on my sleeve. Coming from a fashion design background with a love of high-end fibres and knitwear, [it] meant I wasn’t content with just designing band T-shirts – so instead, I set about creating laborious punk-rock knitwear. At first, there was a bit of backlash from the fans of the bands, saying paying over $200 for a garment “Wasn’t punk rock”.
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Maybe it isn’t, but I’ve stuck to my guns. At the end of the day, I want to create beautiful, sustainable garments. In the early days, I also did a couple of collaborations with illustrators. I felt the spirit of their work was kind of in line with the album art and gig posters I was inspired by. Interestingly enough, no one questioned the price when it didn’t have a band name on it. It has since evolved into a celebration and curation of basically whatever art and music I’m excited about at the time.
How would you describe Wah-Wah to someone who’s never seen it before?
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Luxury knitwear for people who don’t want to wear beige cashmere.
Where did the name come from?
I wanted something short and catchy with a nod to music. I have a page in my old sketchbook with a heap of potential brand names scribbled on it. I just felt like Wah-Wah best captured the not-so-serious nature of what I was trying to do. I love that Wah-Wah is slowly becoming an interchangeable noun for a knit jumper – the ultimate branding achievement!
What are you most proud of in your work on your label?
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I’m really proud of the fact I haven’t followed a typical approach in any aspect of the business. This has allowed me to go at my own pace and do it with integrity. I’m also really proud of the fact that the clothing is a celebration of other artists and musicians. I also think it’s really cool I’ve been able to use fashion as a way of sharing information and raising funds for various causes.
What do you wish you knew when you started?
It’s better to do one thing really well than try to cover all product categories.
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Who do you think is most exciting in local fashion right now?
I’m really excited to see how House of Darwin continues to grow. They’re a great streetwear brand that reinvests profits back into social programs in remote Indigenous communities.
Dream local collaborators?
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I’ve actually released a new style with Amyl and The Sniffers, who have been on my list of dream collaborators for a while!
Go-to dinner party playlist?
Some relaxing vibes upon entry from Shintaro Sakamoto, Francis Bebey while we’re eating, Selda Bağcan once the drinks really start flowing and Bryan Ferry to wind down at the end of the night.
Who is in your wardrobe right now?
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Lots of Issey Miyake. I justified buying a lot of secondhand Issey when I was pregnant last year as I figured it would fit me right up to 40 weeks and beyond. I recently bought a few pieces by the brand Myfawnwy, run by artist Maisie Broome. She creates very cool hand-marbled garments as an extension of her art practice. Other than that, it’s mostly a whole lotta band tees and Wah-Wah.
How can we buy one of your pieces?
I sell through my online shop and just a few very select art galleries.
Browse the Wah-Wah collection here.
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