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| ILLIONAIRE |
Fashion Feature |
Words by: Lara Antonelli Images by: Dan Whitford
In a world bombarded by wanna-be rock stars, hyperactive fashionistas and an overload of razzmatazz, it’s a tough endeavour to find something real that fits perfectly into a niche all its own. It’s a catch 22 situation (isn’t it always?) - be original and creative, yet popular enough to well...get noticed and be successful. Enter ILLIONAIRE. With masterful wit and enough bite to ward off vampires, the lovely lads from this up and coming label have cemented themselves onto the path to glory.
The three mates, Ben Woodcock, Ben Huber and Dan Hernandez (aka Wooden, Hubes and Danny Darko) recently showcased their newest threads at Mercedes Australian Fashion Week, to tumultuous applause and rapturous reviews. Having secured their spot in the Next Generation designers show, they woke up the exclusive crowd by flashing their hot graphic designs across the screens, coupling their tasty aestheticism with rocking music. They kept everyone engrossed by transforming their images of iconic buildings onto t-shirts, even having some models wear oversized cardboard cut- outs of the Eiffel Tower and Sydney Opera House.
There’s no doubt that the boys from ILLIONAIRE were crowd favourites. And snaps to them for being the only designers to walk the length of the catwalk (complete with curtsy from Dan) – testament to the ethos of label: have fun, be spontaneous and look damn hot at the same time! ILLIONAIRE possesses a certain structure born from the boys’ architectural and graphic design backgrounds resulting in outfits, which once worn, have an air of versatility and ease.
ILLIONAIRE seems to emit a no bullshit attitude that is mighty refreshing. No air of pretentiousness, just genuinely cool designs created by young, creative and ambitious guys. Resourceful and intuitive, the boys have also made the effort to travel overseas to source material and add that to their creative process to decipher what works. And it’s obvious that the ILLIONAIRE mobile is a finely tuned piece of machinery.
The S/S 07 range boasts square-neck t- shirts, low cut singlets with simple yet striking patterns, hot pink denim mini-skirts and oversized hoodies. It’s about slashes of bold, bright colours, flattering cuts and re-working denim.
Not wanting to simply be a ‘jeans and t-shirt’ label, ILLIONAIRE sees itself becoming more couture focused, and with Ben and Dan’s fine arts background this hardly seems a difficult task. They have already established themselves with more than a dozen stockists nation wide. The maestros behind ILLIONAIRE are busy little bees, already working on their next season’s range. The future for ILLIONAIRE is as Ben Huber quipped, "keeping our ideas on track & keeping those ideas secret."
And so, to end on a cliché: it’s no secret that the boys will continue their blinding streak of success in the fashion industry. Remember, threads from ILLIONAIRE are not restricted to the wealthy. As Dan explains the reasoning behind the name is the old skool street slang that to be cool is to be ‘ill’. So make like a millionaire and possess a wealth of coolness, with the aid of ILLIONAIRE.
Photo courtesy of Illionaire Pty Ltd
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