The Fashion Designer Profile series is sponsored by Estée Lauder Pure Color Envy
Recently announced as finalists for the BT Emerging Fashion Designer Award 2014, Melbourne-based Mario-Luca Carlucci and Peter Strateas of Strateas Carlucci are the talented duo behind this new creative collaboration. Since debuting their AW 2013 season to a select number of buyers in Paris two years ago, the label has gained a hyperactive amount of press excitement, particularly ahead of their debut showing at this year’s Australian fashion week. In anticipation of 2014’s event, we profile the designers…
Who:
STRATEAS. CARLUCCI was launched in 2012, evolving from a previous project by the two designers called Trimapee, a label that also encapsulated the current label’s artistic, rebellious sensibility with a lower price point, and a focus on the high street market. Both are self-taught designers, Strateas moving from the field of communication design into fashion, and Carlucci from industrial design.
Their new venture has focused on a more refined approach in terms of the designer’s artistic direction, with a dedication to quality, and an eye towards the international luxury market. This was a rebranding move that spelled immediate success for the label, which launched in Britain, Europe and Asia following its Paris debut. In a marketplace that was filled with brands like Dion Lee and Camilla and marc creating diffusion lines to cater for fashion conscious buyers looking for lower priced pieces from the designers they loved, it was a risky move that ultimately paid off.
Spanning both menswear and womenswear, the collection’s debut Autumn Winter collection was taken directly to Paris to be shown during Paris Fashion Week, where it was met with immediate interest, and acquired 15 stockists in the eight months following.
The Melbourne designers have shown four times in Paris and now boast more than 20 stockists around the world. And though they are a well-known name on the international buying circuit, it is only since last September when they launched in Australia that they have become widely recognized on home shores. If there is one thing to be noted about the label, it is their idiosyncratic approach to fashion design. They have stated that their aim is to merge art and design and bridge the gap between creator and collector. The result is a superlative label that redefines the traditional expectations of Australian fashion, and has everyone waiting with bated breath for their upcoming show!
Signature look:
STRATEAS. CARLUCCI designs focus on construction and tailoring, using luxurious fabrics from Italy and Japan, and obscure and luxurious materials such as resin-coated wools and kangaroo leather. Where some designers take colour or print to the forefront, for Strateas and Carlucci, structure, texture and fabric are of the utmost importance.
The designer’s vision is to create garments that are both timeless and subversive. Each garment has hand-crafted elements, contributing to the structured, minimalist aesthetic of the designs, which unite with subtle references to underground sub-cultures and art movements. The label associates itself with a culture of artistic and creative freedom of expression, melding art and fashion, classic and cutting edge, hand crafted materials and construction using modern, cutting edge technologies.
Their design methodologies are also unique; the designers favour taking oppositional forms and melding them to create shapes and silhouettes that unite hard and soft elements. Geometric forms, origami folding, twisting and draping and luxurious, hand-treated fabrications unite in a predominantly black and white colour palette that eschews fleeting seasonal fashion trends.
Their AW14 collection ‘FORTRESS’ extends upon the label’s established design aesthetic, with expertly constructed harem trousers, crisp shirts, blazers, coats, and an exemplary tee wrought from kangaroo leather and boiled wool. And the SS’14 collection ‘Pyrtite’ is inspired by the properties of the namesake mineral, and the interplay between natural and manmade forms. What makes the label really special are the personal details; each piece is stamped with its own unique number and comes with a silver pendant- a gift to the buyer.
Watch the full STRATEAS.CARLUCCI Fashion Week Australia 2014 Runway below:
The Fashion Designer Profile series is sponsored by Estée Lauder Pure Color Envy
