Interview with sleepwear designer Annelise Magee
Posted in: Interviews | 23 February 2010
How did you get your start in the fashion industry?
My creative sensibilities decreed that there was no alternative. I broke into the industry by sheer persistence and my pesky personality. After incessant phone calls to the HR department at Country Road, they finally agreed to employ me to stop my menacing! I began my career packing boxes in their warehouse in 1990, with the naive enthusiasm of an aspiring designer declaring, "I would be a designer before they knew it" ...it took over ten years!
Who or what in the world of fashion inspires you?
In particular, designers of past and present such as Dior, Givency, Westward and McQueen. Icons such as Betty Page, Edie Sedgwick and of course Dita Von Teese never fail to inspire and delight.
How did you become a sleepwear designer?
As a child, I was introduced to movies that echoed the golden era of Hollywood, I began a life-long love affair with vintage and burlesque. I was entranced by the things that evoke a sense of nostalgia. Costumes would nourish my imagination, providing a fertile landscape for dreams to grow into a world of endless possibilities.
I have always adored corsetry - the intricate seaming, the perfect design lines and most of all, the masterful illusionary effect tailored to challenge the limitations of the female form. It is visionary art that challenges, provokes and questions the relationship a woman has with her body, a relationship bound by a uniquely feminine control, discipline and desire.
It has been my vision to translate; to pare down and interpret every woman's desire to embrace their femininity, to in some small way, be the mistress of their own form. My desire has been for women to be able to take an inspirational and affordable approach to enhancing a sense of mystery, of style, of control and self-affirmation.
Integral to designing sleepwear silhouettes is an understanding of the consequences of time. The challenge lies in our ability to interpret the restrictive structures and rigid fabrications of a bygone era - a style that simply does not translate into this modern age where women opt for comfort at the expense of glamour - to meet the needs of women today.
I have aspired to create whimsical nostalgia, with femininity in sleepwear that is both comfortable and easy to care for. Heavy satins and brocades of the past are replaced by subtle lightweight cotton voiles, complete with lustrous finishes to create the gossamer visions of silk and splendour. Rather than adding a costume element through the use of beading and lace, I believe that illusions can be created by contrasting pattern and design, layering and juxtaposing fabrics into frills and flounces.
Never one to follow mainstream contemporary fashion, sleepwear was an obvious direction for me to focus. Unlike contemporary high street fashion, sleepwear is not driven by trends or catwalk fads. It is a platform on which endless creative themes are possible.
Where do you find inspiration for the collections you create?
Like a bower bird, I forage through flea markets in Australia and Europe... it might start with a piece of ribbon, a wallpaper template from an era long past or a broken tin or tile. Like most creatives, I devour all that is available to me in the world of visual arts, film, music and literature, hence it is no coincidence that designers arrive at the same conclusions and fashions are born!
What are your favourite pieces from the Hello Sailor collection?
Our winter collections have a very different aesthetic to the gossamer silhouettes of the previously described collections. The aforementioned desire for comfort is paramount in winter time. Fine cotton voiles are substituted for plush flannelettes and the collections adopt a more snugly, playful attitude. My favourite piece from Hello Sailor is the yarn dye stripe pant with tattoo embroidery on the hip bones and across the bottom. I designed this when designing the next tattoo for my own body!
How long does it take you to create each collection?
A collection can gestate for years or just flow in a week. Obviously we work to tight deadlines which I feel is detrimental to a designer. It is important to put a full stop on the design process, otherwise we will keep processing and processing until the designs become over worked. How long is a piece of string? The design process itself is infinite but our deadlines prescribe that a collection is turned around in five month increments. We stagger the development of approximately 10 collections at the one time.