Jenny Kee x Jordan Gogos
‘An idea becomes tangible very quickly. It's like a conversation. There's an energy that's pulling people around to create and in such a dynamic way.’
Setting the stage for IORDANES SPYRIDON GOGOS X POWERHOUSE Afterpay Australian Fashion Week 2022 runway show, Powerhouse Resident Jordan Gogos and Jenny Kee talk creative process and collaboration for the first episode of The Age We're In.
‘It just reminds me of just how Linda [Jackson] and I were here 50 something years ago and here you are. The whole idea of wearable art, you're taking it to another level.’
‘There's a lot of colour. I've got a lot of new people around me right now and new energy. When they walk into the studio, they recognise all this colour, but there's so much colour laid on that. You stop seeing the amount of colour. Your eye can't capture that intensity of colour. It becomes form and layering.’
‘When I went to dress design school, they said you can't design what you are wearing. And I was in colour.’
‘It's amazing because here we are in the powerhouse, you are going to have this amazing show and you are going to be taking recycled works of mine from the powerhouse exhibition, which is just perfect.’
‘I can't wait to go over it because when you look at a grid on a piece of paper you can scan it. But this is at such a scale that I'm almost going to have to walk up to find the grids. It's going to be like this monstrosity of things that I get to discover through the meterage of this work, this material.’
‘To create things for the Olympics I found the most incredible artisans that I worked with. I would say something and you know, Paula Martin, the fabulous theatrical designer, she would say, oh, but we could do it like this or this or this, but beautifully. It was like a dream working with her and her team.’
‘My job's not designing half the time. It's like kind of pulling apart people's thought processes. I spend half my time just connecting on that level. The making's easy, the designing's easy, but to get on the same wavelength of thought and that continuum.’
About Jenny Kee
Jenny Kee (born Sydney 1947) is one of Australia's most important designers, best known for designing and retailing a unique range of colourful clothing and knitwear. One major theme links all aspects of this collection, Jenny Kee's love of Australia's unique natural environment.
About Jordan Gogos
Iordanes Spyridon Gogos (ISG), "Wearables for the imaginative" was founded by Jordan Gogos in 2019 with the intention to use the brand as a conduit for community making and co-design. The brand is experimental, non-gendered and innovative in its approaches to sustainability through practice-led design research methodologies. The label staged its first runway show at Afterpay Australian Fashion Week (AAFW) in 2021, receiving widespread acclaim for its colourful celebration of community and collaboration.
