Fashfest 2014: Designer Review - SZN

I won’t lie-I had really, really high expectations for Susan Dlouhy’s collection for SZN. Being Fashfest alumni and something of a prodigy on the Canberra Fashion scene, it was hard not to build slightly unrealistic ideas in my head about what would come down the runway.

Nothing could have prepared me to have my expectations so thoroughly exceeded.

SZN presented a collection of XXXX looks of both men’s and women’s clothing, in a pallet of blue and black. The cuts were slightly exaggerated and boxy in a manner which referenced fashion maverick like Comme des Garçons and Alexander Wang; however this collection was definitely SZN.

Perhaps the most breathtaking element of the collection was that most of the pieces were made out of patch-worked denim! I mean, I can’t even quantify how exciting that is to me personally. The greatest feat of this denim engineering is evidentially the completely denim striped T-shirt, cut entirely out of two pairs of jeans and perfectly fitted to the model who wore it, which you can see above.

I think that this collection from SZN is a huge triumph for Susan, and it isn’t just because the clothes are gorgeous or cleverly made. The collection is almost entirely made from recycled materials and produced almost zero waste; and yet it doesn’t LOOK recycled. In my humble opinion most environmentally conscious labels produce really ugly clothes, that look as though they are made from recycled materials, and for me that is a huge negative.

Sadly, Canberra is losing Susan and SZN to Melbourne this month.

While it is a fantastic opportunity for the SZN label to reach a new audience; I can’t help but feel like a spoiled child being forced to share his toys with a hated cousin.

I am, however, not a child (though I am spoiled), and so I wish Susan all the very best with her move, and I cannot wait to see where this move takes her and the SZN label.

If you have seen something here that you like in the SZN Fashfest collection, your best bet to get your hands on it would be to email Susan directly, the details for which are here.