‘We do things our way’: fashion label Aje celebrates Australia rather than trying to copy Paris or Milan

Adrian Norris and Edwina Forest launched Aje 11 years ago with a simple premise: to design fashion their friends would want to wear

They have turned the disadvantage of being so far from the world’s fashion capitals to their advantage, by taking inspiration from Australian nature and culture

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Models show looks from Aje in the shadow of Sydney Harbour Bridge. An Aboriginal councillor spoke before the show, as Aje’s Edwina Forest explains: “We were presenting in a space that’s not traditionally our land but the indigenous people’s land so it was important to us that we started with an acknowledgement of that.” Photo: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

Published: 5:00pm, 7 Jul 2019Updated: 5:34pm, 7 Jul 2019

One of the most poignant moments at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia (MBFWA) was the “welcome to country” speech Yvonne Weldon, a board member of Sydney’s Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, gave to launch the show by Australian fashion label Aje.

Aje’s founders, Edwina Forest and Adrian Norris, felt that it was their duty to do justice to the aboriginal culture of Australia without glossing over the country’s conflicted relationship with its past.

Sandwiched between two Sydney landmarks, the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, the show venue was as iconic as it gets. “You can’t really shy away from what happened to us and our history and we were obviously presenting in a space that’s not traditionally our land but the indigenous people’s land so it was important to us that we started with an acknowledgement of that,” explains Forest when we meet her and Norris in their studio in the leafy enclave of Paddington, Sydney.

“The Opera House and the Harbour Bridge are iconic but they’re new developments; it’s not part of the original land, so we wanted to acknowledge that, and I’m so proud that we did because it’s never been done at a fashion week before, which seems kind of crazy and very sad. Art galleries, for instance, always acknowledge that.”

Designers Edwina Forest and Adrian Norris thanks the audience following the Aje show at fashion week in Sydney. Photo: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

After Weldon’s speech, against a haunting soundtrack meant to evoke the eerie noises of the Australian outback, models clad in a mix of flowy dresses with puff sleeves and workwear-inspired separates sashayed down the catwalk.