Photography / Waylon Palmer
Art Direction Savannah Young
Fashion / Blake Tobin
Model / Hannah @ Division Models
Hair and MUA / Grace McBrierty

When Lewis Carroll penned Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland before the days of digital animation and unhinged film directors in the good old days of 1865, who would have known that little blondie falling down the rabbit hole would have caused such a literary stir? But as time would have it, iconic names resurface over the years and we come to appreciate an unconventional changing of the guard. And so again, in 2014, we have a new Alice to keep our eyes on, though this time it falls to her second name.

Georgia Alice, the womenswear label born in 2012 out of Christchurch by the designer of the same name, does not for the purposes of comparison have the same attributes to that of our original Alice. Though perhaps if our nineteenth century clumsy blonde had been wearing a metallic crop or graphic emblazoned sweater instead of powder blue then we could draw more of an aesthetic comparison. But originality is, after all, what drives the creative industries, and is why Georgia Alice is proving to be a name that should be remembered as it expands from its New Zealand roots. Yes I know, there may not be anything that original about slicing a few inches off the bottom of a shirt or whipping up a pair of blue jeans. But the thing about Georgia Alice is she’s not rocking the boat with designs that are so left-of-centre that they are deemed socially unwearable. She’s taking pieces in the fashion system and redefining them in a time other than when they were created for a common purpose – to wear.

Having studied fashion design and learning the trade under the wing of Therese Rawsthorne, Alice walked away from the 2011 Westpac Young Designer Competition with the main win and from there “took the plunge” into launching an independent label. Maintaining a dedication to trend awareness and an aesthetic of less is more, the Georgia Alice label has moved swiftly from the workroom to the catwalk and onto industry publications in quick-time if you think of the two year span. “I think it is so important to acknowledge the trends and then either ignore them or engage with them,” says Alice. “I think my whole mentality around dressing is keeping things simple and that’s what I like most about good menswear,” she continues, outlining the common denominator of androgyny throughout each collection, regardless of who is wearing it. “My target market is more a ‘type’ of person,” says Alice. “The whole process is so abstract and I put it all down to a feeling. If a collection is successful, it is because that feeling has filtered down into each garment. Style is not age specific, and I like the idea that clothing can transcend time,” she says. So when it comes down to who indeed would wear Georgia Alice, the answer is, from Alice’s perspective, a simple one: “someone who does it for the girls, not the boys.” And there you have it; fashion with a side of feminism. Thank you, Miss Alice.

Words / Grace McBrierty