Interview with

Natalie Wood, not the dead actress, but the alive and kicking Australian Fashionista who gives us “something” more!

What were the underlying concepts of the “Beauty of Nature” project and is it still going?
Beauty of Nature was a project I accidentally began, it started out as an art project but ended up leading me back to fashion, but with much more of a slant on the fusion with art. At the time I was looking for a different way of working that could be more free to express different ideas and themes I liked at the time. It wasn’t restricted with needing to be a fully functioning business so it was much more free.

I would go through obsessions and then go quite deeply into them. For example the second season I had just been on a work trip to India and became really into the idea of sequins. So working with artist Georgina Cullum we made some pretty insane sequinned designs. Looking back they were pretty intense and absolutely beautifully out there. There was always a lot of hand work feel… I needed to feel like I had hand touched most things in some way. Each season always had a very very different aesthetic and where I think this was probably very confusing for some… which is what kept it really interesting for me.

Do you think you can maintain creative integrity and be commercial?
Yes of course. It’s just that you need to be constantly tweaking your creativity in a way that makes it have some kind of purpose in the world, thus in a way making it somewhat commercial. I like my work to have a sense of purpose anyhow, so I think that in itself almost makes it commercial.

What effect does public pressure and media expectation have on the work you do?
None really for me. I exist in a bubble and I don’t really pay too much attention to it. It feels safer for me to be this way. I like to protect my creativity and my process, so I can’t be worrying about anything other than the purity of that.

If you weren’t a fashion designer you would be…
A collage artist with a big vegetable garden surrounded by lots of lovely creatures.

Your greatest creative influence is…
Definitely and endlessly nature.

Was the winding down of Sample a disappointment for you?
It was a big time in my life, and it was a very hard decision to make. But to tell you the truth I was so burnt out, completely overwhelmed and exhausted from having worked so ridiculously crazy for 2 years – so there was also a huge sense of relief.

Do you endeavor in your designs to incorporate trends or to generate them?
I definitely need to be incorporating trends as that is what my job is (and this has different levels in each of the labels I work in). But I’m always looking for particular slants on things and I think I have a very specific aesthetic. If I am researching or feeling a trend coming, I tend to then look at it in a different way and then chop it up a bit and it comes out in a another form. Therefore it has the essence required to “fit” into the time, but also have a sense of uniqueness. Fashion is all about timing. It is very easy to be too early – or too late.

Is fashion art?
It certainly can be if that is what it was made for. Always depends on the context. Anything can be art if you want it to be.

Insight’s website is very different, were you involved in its creation or did you give free reign to the designer?
No I wasn’t involved in its design. The very talented marketing team at Insight were responsible for it and they worked with the amazing artist and designer Jonathan Zawada. I’m not a massive website user, but I like the Insight site, there is always something on there that makes me laugh.

What is your greatest achievement artistically?
My last show at Sydney fashion week in May this year for my label “Something Else” titled Lost in Paradise it was an installation. The concept behind the show is to lead people into an “experience” where sight, sound, feel and smell overwhelm you. You become a part of it. Clash of old vs new. Vintage juxtaposed with modern. Overgrown gardens and decay, but the beauty of this process. I worked with an amazing set designer and in a warehouse space. We recreated an abandoned overgrown house completely decayed and falling apart. The front of the space was all covered and you had to enter through a cupboard. There was an overwhelming old musty smell and the models were placed in various situations around the space. It was very intimate and confronting. I liked that it made people feel something.

What next for Natalie Wood?
Live life to the fullest, love to my greatest, and continue creating to the mostest.

Related Links

Something & Something Else

Insight

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