Australian Fashion Designer Kym Ellery Followed Her Gut to Paris
Fashion League podcast episode with guest Kym Ellery.
Podcast Episode Summery
On this episode of the Fashion League podcast, host Mikahila Bloomfield interviews Australian fashion designer Kym Ellery, the creative director behind luxury fashion label Ellery—the cool-girl brand that became a red carpet favorite with stylish women like Rihanna, Cate Blanchett, and Solange. Growing up in Perth, Kym knew early on that she wanted to become a fashion designer—even when others challenged her about the idea.
Launching Ellery
Ultimately choosing to abandon her studies at London's Central Saint Martins (one of the top fashion schools in the world, with graduates including Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen), Kym instead started her fashion journey manning the fashion closet at Russh magazine. Kym launched Ellery in 2007 when she was 23 and still working at the magazine. By 2014, she was debuting Ellery at Paris Fashion Week. Today, with decades of experience in the industry, Kym has also been vocal about the need to restructure the fashion schedule, which as it currently stands is an antiquated system that caters primarily to the needs of department stores and massive conglomerates like LVMH (Louis Vuitton, Dior, Givenchy, etc.) and Kering (Gucci, Balenciaga, Saint Laurent, etc.).
Fashion Show Reviews?
And speaking of antiquated systems that need revamping, Parsons Paris organized two days of seminars discussing transformations in fashion print media. During one of the conversations, Miles Socha, the editor-in-chief of WWD (Women's Wear Daily) mentioned that the publication's website metrics indicate that fashion show reviews don't actually capture a lot of readers online. Which is an interesting reveal, considering some murmurs about how fashion criticism — the writing style and content — has gone pretty stale. If you're on fashion Twitter, or even fashion TikTok, maybe not fashion TikTok, its weird over there, but on fashion Twitter and fashion Instagram you have likely encountered some of the new voices with fresh takes on fashion critiscism. Speaking with a journalist at Fashionista, one such fresh voice is fashion archivist Kim Russell (@ TheKimbino), who gave insight into what makes these new-aged fashion critics so popular online:
"I think it does well because I've made fashion education and entertainment quick, easy and accessible to have," she says. "You can also get involved in my pages by interacting with others who are like-minded."
For legacy publications, there's something to explore here. Today, we see Pierre M'Pelé (@ PamBoy) now leading GQ France after beginning his foray into fashion using social media in 2015 to publish fashion criticism and capturing an engaged audience. We know fashion cristicism is an imporant tool for designers and its a necessary archival instrument — but how will legacy publications bring fashion cristicism into relevancy?
Listen to this episode for our interview with designer Kym Ellery — we discuss how she launched her luxury fashion brand, Ellery, her journey to Paris Fashion Week, and the challenges small designers face working around the mandates of the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers. Plus, she shares her insights on fashion sustainability. And yes, of course, we play a round of Faux or Fashion™ trivia.
Faux or Fashion™ Trivia
Ellery
Shop Ellery:
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