Backstage at the finals of 2024 Australian Wearable Art Festival at Bokarina on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in August was a cauldron of creativity. Dozens of stunning models in dazzling wearable-art costumes crammed in grid formation like too many pieces on a chessboard. Makeup artists dabbed and brushed. Assistants straightened hems and headpieces. Designers teased masterpieces to perfection.
Metres away, the longest catwalk in Australia parted an auditorium packed with fashion fans from around the nation. Euro dance music pumped. The master of ceremonies greeted guests. Cameras flashed.
The competition finalists were world class: anyone could win. Amid the cacophony, one designer desperately searched. A vital mechanism – a simple piece of ribbon that would transform her creation from one form to another – was missing from her artwork. Madelyn Sumner, 23, a fashion designer from Perth, had invested every waking moment for six months designing and hand stitching her ornate creation. She spent thousands on materials and travel and sacrificed immeasurable personal stress. It could all be dashed by a 50c piece of ribbon.
“It was crucial to my dress, and everyone knew it,” she said.
All about, other designers conjured makeshift solutions: a piece of yarn, a strip of leather, a length of pink glitter ribbon. They were collaborators more than competitors. A solution was found.
“That’s why I made the effort to fly across the country to be among a beautiful community of crazy minded misfits like me … to breathe life into my garment, see it become a character on a model, then release it down the runway and watch the audience feel what I feel,” Madelyn said.
Madelyn’s earliest memories include her mother and grandmother teaching her to sew. She sat on the floor near the cutting table, layering scraps of fabric over Barbie dolls. She experimented with texture and colour, hand sewing them into gowns. She immersed herself in Disney movies and could sketch every dress from memory. Her favourite was the red satin dress worn by Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge (2001).
She developed a style: fun, feminine, colourful, borderline art/fashion, theatre gowns. In year 12 she spread fabrics across the dining room table and crafted her school formal dress.
“I remember thinking if I could do this for the rest of my life, just having fun, music on, cutting, designing, sewing, I would be happy. It filled me with peace. It was a challenge and I loved it,” she said.
It was no surprise when she majored in Fashion Design at Curtin University. Her family expected it and supported her. Madelyn entered many competitions and shortlisted twice in the International Student Design Competition partnered with Real Leather Stay Different.
“I wanted to improve my digital design skills … the judges trained us … I gained a folio of important international contacts,” she says.
She said that she doesn’t care about who wins or doesn’t win awards because that decision is outside her control. She concentrates on maintaining the stamina to continue producing dresses that are true to her own style. “It’s a form of art, an expression of self. The closer an artist can stay to that – is success,” she said.
The master of ceremonies announced: “Faberge’s Secret Garden by artist Madelyn Sumner.” Chadwick model Jasmin Hutchins bridal-stepped down the runway wearing an egg-shaped dress inspired by Faberge’s masterworks crafted for imperial Russian royalty. She spun a pirouette, tugged the length of pink glitter ribbon and the egg flourished into an emerald-green ballgown of layered fabrics adorned with hand-stitched flowers. She danced wistfully, visiting each group in the audience with playful fairylike greetings, blowing kisses. As she returned up the runway to give her final wave, the audience broke decorum, and burst into applause.
Peeking from the side-stage, Madelyn fought a tsunami of emotions.
“In that moment, I felt like my younger self again, watching a Disney movie, a beautiful princess dancing in a ball a gown. I was amazed at it myself along with the audience, thinking ‘oh my gosh that’s so cool’. I was very proud and very happy that I could do that for them. Afterwards little kids came up to us wanting photos. That was really sweet,” she said. “My ultimate goal is to design for the Met Gala.”
“All of my designs, the competitions, staying true to myself – they’re all a dress rehearsal.”
