Goth designer has the last laugh over Australian Fashion Week
The brilliant smile of designer Gail Sorronda is uncharacteristic for a goth. It could be muscle memory from Sorronda’s modelling past but in this case, it’s simply because her label has survived in the fashion business for 20 years.
On Saturday night, a smiling Sorronda celebrated her endurance and creativity, which has been recognised by Dolce & Gabbana and Chanel impresario Karl Lagerfeld, who died in 2019, with a runway show and party on the outskirts of her home town, Brisbane.
“I want buoyant energy and for it to feel like a celebration,” Sorronda said before the throbbing music began. “I want it to be a new memory.”
Gail Sorronda and her daughter Juniper take a bow at her 20th anniversary show ‘Chromophobia’ in Brisbane.Credit: Dane Beesley
In a slick show held in Urban Art Projects’ industrial space, models emerged in a disco Victoriana mash-up, where button-up white dresses adorned with sleeves puffy enough to satisfy Anne of Green Gables competed for attention with empire-line black dresses with paper-bag pleated details and bursts of fluorescent green and ultraviolet.
They were outfits your rebel little sister would wear to a school formal, your grandmother to a ceramics exhibition and your brother to a nightclub where the doors don’t open until 2am.
The collection was bright enough to erase darker emotions from February, when Sorronda’s application to participate in Australian Fashion Week was rejected, turning her Barbie smile into a Wednesday Addams frown. The Sydney event’s owners The Australian Fashion Council rejected Sorronda because she had indicated in a form that she was not open to wholesale orders.
Sorronda’s dream of celebrating her anniversary alongside her peers Romance Was Born and Gary Bigeni in Sydney at AFW, where her career took off in 2005, was shattered.
“I’m not a mega brand but I’ve got a voice that is authentic and that people are interested in,” Sorronda says. “The journey isn’t always as we expect, but as a resilient creative who has been doing this for 20 years, you realise you can pivot and it doesn’t mean the end of the road.”
It’s the type of resilience that comes from being a goth in the Sunshine State. “I’m a bit of a masochist,” Sorronda says.
Rather than retreat, or engage with the Brisbane Fashion Festival launching on August 24, Sorronda decided to go it alone on the runway. Well, that was the original plan.
A model in Gail Sorronda’s 20th anniversary show ‘Chromophobia’ in Brisbane.Credit: Dane Beesley
Sorronda’s former modelling agency Chic volunteered crucial sponsorship support, along with UAP and The Calile Hotel opposite her James Street boutique.
“I was surprised by how many people I have worked with over the years, and then they come out and want to help you in so many ways,” Sorronda says. “It’s like a big warm hug from the industry and my community. I feel so supported.”
With the show behind her, and wholesale inquiries already on the table, will Sorronda be applying for Australian Fashion Week next year?
“They would have to invite me next time,” Sorronda says. Even goth masochism has its limits.
The writer travelled to Brisbane as a guest of Gail Sorronda.
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