The following piece was originally written for Australian Fashion Guide, June 2010
Senryu
On a cold Wednesday evening in Melbourne, I am preparing to interview one of our state’s finest up-and-coming designers. The young lady I am about to meet is under 30, has established her own fashion label and has high ambitions for the future. I’m not sure what to expect, but I do know I am already in awe of her – after all, I am just a simple writer.
When Diana walks into the room, it’s easy to feel underdressed. She laughs it off, ‘this old thing?’ but the blue, purple and green mottled print shirt with shoulder ruching, simple black skirt and belt, opaque tights and low heels are elegant and unassuming. With deep brown eyes and a girl next door air about her, I get the impression Diana is someone I could be friends with before we even start to chat.
Having only launched her label, Senryu, in March of this year, Diana has plenty to talk about. We start with the name, unusual as it is, and I find myself getting a culture lesson alongside a fashion one.
‘A senryu is a three line Japanese poem similar to a haiku.’ Diana tells me. ‘Traditionally, haiku poems are environmental while a senryu is people related. I am inspired by people; poetry, so that was the story behind the name.’
Diana continues, telling me about her Spring Summer 10/11 collection, entitled one hundred years. The collection focuses on nostalgia while combining fresh ideas and remaining fashion forward. one hundred years represents both the past and the future, embracing timelessness and classic shapes and styles while continuing to be individual and edgy.
Diana’s flair for design began at a young age when she started out assisting her seamstress mother and grandmother making made to measure garments from home. While fashion wasn’t considered to be an appropriate career choice, Diana attained a Degree in Biomedical Science and a Masters in Radiography, not starting work on her own label until age 24, launching in 2010 at barely a quarter of a century.
Scientist by day, fashion designer by night, Diana and her business partner create Senryu in a second bedroom-come-studio in her apartment in Melbourne. Having lived in Adelaide and Perth previously and specifically moving to Melbourne for the label, Diana finds Melbourne to be the most inspiring of the lot, mainly due to her love of food, art, culture and of course, fashion.
While Diana has no formal fashion training, her business partner does and together they have created a label for today’s woman. ‘We are not a fad label’ Diana says. ‘The clothes are complimentary to a woman’s body; the winter collection we are working on now is designed as an extension of the human body.’
The Spring Summer 10/11 collection features beautiful colours in shades such as jade, pink and peach, but Diana tells me it was an effort to steer away from the typical black.
’The SS10/11 collection needed colour – it’s warm and people want to wear colour – but the winter 11 designs are darker, use suedes and leathers, lots of panel work. There is colour, but in deep purples and burnt shades.’
I ask Diana about the Australian fashion industry and her thoughts about the future.
‘Only a handful of Australian designers are successful overseas. We are a young country with a different identity. Somewhere like Paris has a history and a culture – we have a separate identity. I think New Zealand labels are doing really well at the moment; we look up to labels like Zambesi and NomD.’
I consider Diana for a moment – gorgeous, successful, creative – and figure there has to be a skeleton in there somewhere. I pose my final question.
‘Do you have a fashion moment you would rather forget?’
Diana ponders the question, laughs and says not that she can think of. I share with her my personal faux pars and we spend the next few minutes giggling like schoolgirls about the things our mums used to dress us in. She has come a long way from parachute tracksuits but I as I get ready to leave, I have the distinct impression that we have barely seen the beginning from Diana and Senryu.
