Wollongong fashion designer Kaylene Milner has collaborated with other creatives to curate Greetings from Wollongong. Photo: Supplied.
An Illawarra fashion designer whose unique collaborations have captured attention across the globe has paid homage to her hometown by taking a step out of her comfort zone to help curate a new exhibition and create meaningful memorabilia.
Kaylene Milner has always been musical and creative but when it came to her career, finding the right fit was a bit of a windy road.
“I actually ended up studying musicology, so music research, at the Conservatorium of Music, and I really loved the study but I didn’t see a long-term, creatively satisfying career in it,” she said.
“I was looking for something that was more tangibly creative.”
She quickly pivoted to fashion design where she found a passion for high-end, spending time in New York interning and learning from large influential brands.
“I came back to Australia and started a label and it was more traditionally high-end label – at least that’s what I was going for,” Kaylene said.
“But then I realised that wasn’t viable and sustainable as a young broke designer to do that without any backing.”
Kaylene didn’t sit still for long, with a new inspiration centring about collaboration with the bands she loved.
“I just love the contradiction of having punk graphics in beautiful knitwear,” she said.
“When I started it, I spent time working on the branding and creating it as if it were going to last more than just a few months, but in my mind I thought this might just be a once-off little project where I create a few jumpers and that’s that.”
That brand, WAH-WAH, just celebrated its 10th anniversary, with the signature knitwear loved across the world, including by the likes of Noel Fielding and Taika Waititi. Artists such as Kaylene Whiskey and Tony Albert have partnered to create products.
“Just this year being able to fly to New York and show my garments during New York Fashion Week – that was a bit of a ‘pinch myself’ moment.
“To go back on my own terms and be able to have face-to-face contact with people who weren’t familiar with the brand and just have the opportunity to show it on a global scale.
“Not just my designs – I also feel quite a lot of responsibility to represent the artists I’m collaborating with.”
Kaylene with fellow curators Louise Brand, Daniel Mudie Cunningham and Aneshka Mora. Photo: Supplied.
Collaboration with artists and activists is the essence of WAH-WAH and now she’s taken collaboration one step further by curating a new exhibition at Wollongong Art Gallery.
“I jumped at the opportunity because how often does a fashion designer/musician get to do that.
“I guess what I do with my jumpers is a form of curation but a gallery exhibition – that was new to me.
“It was totally out of my wheelhouse but they followed through on everything I suggested which was really exciting for me.”
She worked with Louise Brand, Aneshka Mora and Daniel Mudie Cunningham to bring together Greetings from Wollongong, a show that delves into Wollongong’s political and creative scene through works including those from Redback Graphix and a survey of the films by local director Mary Callaghan.
“The thing I really hope that it inspires in people is that there’s a lot of different ways to show activism,” Kaylene said. “And there are a lot of different ways to make noise and to protest.
“As a designer, I’ve finally found knitwear as my vehicle for activism which is something that took a long time to evolve and most people wouldn’t think of that as being a way to be actively involved in activism.
“But it’s been a vehicle for me to have a positive impact or make a statement or start a conversation and I think the exhibition does that as well through different artworks.”
She also launched a new jumper using the imagery from the exhibition to complement the show.
“When I first released it a lot of people reacted going, ‘I can’t believe this exists’, which is quite exciting for me.
“It’s been really cool to see that the majority of orders are coming from Wollongong residents; it’s just a nice, really personal thing.”
Greetings from Wollongong is at Wollongong Art Gallery until 31 August and is free to visit.
For more information about the exhibition visit the Wollongong Art Gallery website or to preorder a Greetings from Wollongong jumper visit the WAH-WAH website.
