Designer Alix Higgins Grew Up Online and It Shows (and We Love It)

Like many young designers nowadays, Alix Higgins is a product of the Digital Age. For Higgins, though, this part of his cultural upbringing is at the forefront of his brand. He presented his latest Resort collection at Afterpay Australian Fashion Week 2022, and it encompasses what growing up online can give a person — a brain accustomed to a constant layering of meaning and a command over the detail of it all. 

Embedded within and dropped on top of an array of prints and patterns, words in sans serif type, rotated 90 degrees along the front of dresses and skirts, never quite legible as the fabric moved with its wearer. The word 'god', all lower-case, placed at the chest atop an all-over black and fuschia floral, the word 'fairy', this time in a serif, all caps, dripping the kind of irony that manifests in a person who spent their formative years on tumblr.com. 

Higgins brings these pieces together into a refined whole. After spending time in Paris assisting the 2017 winner of LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers, Marine Serre, he is now putting his training to practice at his eponymous brand — and building a few famous fans along the way (including Grimes and Hunter Schaefer, per Vogue Australia). At the presentation, a varied cast walked barefoot in assorted states of undress, and it was a treat to see different body types represented in this stimulating, future-focussed collection.

Features Editor: Emily Royal      Photos: Phoebe Wolfe

We acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the traditional owners of land on which this show took place.