New Wave of Powerhouse Designers

Australian fashion is forever in the process of evolving — shifting always on its axis to create something new.

In this new video series, designer Jordan Gogos charts that process of evolution through interviews with five of his contemporaries. It's a hand-picked selection of emerging luminaries who are reshaping approaches to material and form.

Covering everything from sustainability to experiments in textiles, these interviews provide a snapshot of the designers that are actively shaping where fashion's going next.

As the founder of Speed, designer Alvi Chung has never shied away from the avant-garde, whether that means debuting a collection in the tunnels of the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium, or taking on our uncertain times with her new collection Phantom Revolt.

“The world is just going topsy-turvy ... there’s a lot of anxiety,” Chung says.

In the face of that uncertainty, Chung has found fresh reserves of creative strength, presenting a line that finds strength in subtlety, tradition and the potential for rebirth.

Jordan Gogos is both the host of this series and one of its subjects. In this video, he talks about his own work, which pushes the idea of "wearable art", and his ongoing collaboration with Powerhouse, including the items that he has donated to the archive.

“I want to create this ideal of something I haven’t even lived,” Gogos says.

Miimi & Jiinda is a lifestyle brand that spans design and art. Given that multi-layered approach, it’s perhaps unsurprising that it’s the brainchild of two people: Melissa Greenwood, a proud Gumbaynggirr, Bundjalung, and Dunghutti woman, and her mother Lauren Jarrett.

In this video, Greenwood discusses how making art alongside her mother produced an acclaimed brand that transformed both of their lives.

Amber Keating, the creative director of Common Hours, is as likely to be influenced by poets and authors as other designers. In those literary forms, Keating finds the provocation and beauty that is a hallmark of her work: a style that combines the expert craft of high-end fashion, with something considerably daring.

Such an approach results in collections that, in Keating’s own words, resemble canvases that can be imbued with “memory, or feeling, or emotion.” 

Many of the most exciting breakthroughs in design are born from playing with form — something that Ruby Pedder, founder of the brand Rube Pedder, has done since the very beginning of her career.

Pedder makes her garments through a technique known as smocking, a craft-led approach to work that results in painstakingly fashioned and highly original pieces.

“The process is an embodied practice, because you really are part of it,” Pedder says in this interview with Gogos.

Maybe paradoxically, designer Nathaniel Youkhana has always found the best place to discover innovation is by returning to the traditional.

Since bursting onto the scene with his collection One Of at 2025 Australian Fashion Week, Youkhana has won plaudits for his hand-stitched, hand-braided approach.

“I use my own drawings as a reference for most of my designs,” Youkhana says. “They originated from my hairdressing background.”

Jordan Gogos founded Iordanes Spyridon Gogos (ISG) in 2019. His intention was to use the brand as a conduit for community making and co-design. The brand is experimental, non-gendered and innovative in its approaches to sustainability through practice-led design research methodologies. The label staged its first runway show at Afterpay Australian Fashion Week (AAFW) in 2021, receiving acclaim for its colourful celebration of community and collaboration.