In 2019 fashion designer Kym Ellery closed her Australian business, citing abnormally high manufacturing costs in Australia and her isolation from international fashion capitals. Ellery closed her two Sydney retail stores and took up permanent residence in her apartment in Paris.

“When I moved to Paris two years ago I wasn’t in a hurry to find an apartment,” explains the Ellery designer, who had her first show in the French capital for Spring Summer 14. RUSSH magazine recently interviewed the designer at home in the Marais. “After all of the years of travelling to Paris for work I felt that I knew the different arrondissements well, but not well enough to choose just one. So essentially when I arrived I spent a good year moving around, staying in different neighbourhoods because I wanted to see how it felt to be a local in each.”

Duran Lantink

Fast forward to October 2020 and Kym Ellery’s new collection ‘When Two Become One’, when the newly-minted Parisian connected with the Dutch designer Duran Lantink (IG) The Amsterdam-based visionary is among the growing number of fashion industry creatives frustrated with mass production and overconsumption promoted by our industry.

In October 2019, Browns East. the fashion concept shop located in Shoreditch, East London, hosted a capsule collection created by Lantink. Resulting from the designer’s deep dive into the depths of Browns’ warehouse, the presentation launched an exclusive range of womenswear and menswear, using the innovative retailer’s own deadstock. The ‘zero-waste’ collaboration is part of the Browns Conscious commitment to creating new fashion pieces where everything has been recycled, reused and reimagined Because, it’s #cooltobekind to the planet, writes Browns.

Ellery Spring 2021

Kym Ellery followed in the steps of Browns and other clients of Lantink, when she decided to hand over 150 of her existing leftover pieces from past Ellery collection. Vogue notes — and AOC agrees — that it seems “rather brave for a designer to hand over her work to be melted down and resculpted.”

Ellery’s thoughtful response intrigues. “It was so interesting to take something, like, not quite deadstock, but something that as a garment has an almost negative energy to it, and rework it to lend it a new freshness and identity, a second life.”

Ellery added: “I really wanted to give him space to have time with the garments and to do whatever he wanted. To be honest, I found the whole thing really refreshing.” Lantink’s vivid chop shop process created “new” garments that were fashioned from up to four “old,” she added.

Lantink’s New Ellery Challenges

“This is the first time I’ve ever worked with material from a single brand. It was interesting because when I work with material from different brands you don’t really have to think about them, you can really express your own identity. But working with Ellery, I had to figure out how you don’t lose that brand’s identity while also staying true to myself. I had all those archive pieces and I took them out and then set myself the puzzle of putting them back together in a new way.”

The results of the Ellery-Lantink collaboration are a sophisticated, daring edge to the Ellery garments that sits harmoniously with the brand’s DNA.

How will Ellery follow up this new fashion act? In our COVID-laced world, Kym Ellery will have plenty of time to decide what’s next.

The Ellery Spring 2021 Lookbook is modeled by Gaia Orgeas and photographed by Marie Deteneuille (IG). Samia Giobellina styles the images./ Makeup by Emilie Plume