In an industry as competitive as fashion, Antipodium is almost an impossibility; a label that was founded by accident. Antipodium was originally a store and PR showroom in London, but, out of a few key show pieces, an entire fashion line grew. "It sort of got away on us," says designer Geoffrey Finch of his collaborative creations with Ashe Peacock, and Freemantle-based Fenella Peacock (who now has an eponymous line under the Antipodium umbrella). "Things started snowballing and we went, 'Ok, time to get serious.'" Now the label has a long list of covetable clients, like Alexa Chung, and is stocked in Liberty, Harvey Nichols and all over Australia.
Fashion is not the only creative endeavor Finch is behind, the designer also hosts a notorious party night - which happens only occasionally - called No Romance Without Finance. This raver spirit translates back into his clothing, which has a twisted, naughty sense of humour. Think prints with winking Madonnas and hidden phalli, reversible dresses with names like 'The Morning After' and all sorts of other ribald jokes.
His latest undertaking is a collaboration with Sportsgirl, which launched last week to strong sales. The range is references Sportsgirl's 1990s golden days, with madras shorts, boyish basics and a bandana print with a strange little twist.
Up next - in exactly one week's time - is a showing at London Fashion Week, about which Finch will reveal little but his excitement.
We caught up with the designer on his last trip to Australia to find out more about going from Toowoomba to London, crying gogo boys, and toning it down.
What excited you about Sportsgirl?
I was really flattered when Sportsgirl asked us to do the line. Growing up in Toowoomba, the Margaret Street Sportsgirl store was sort of an oasis, so I have lots of very fond memories of Sportsgirl, it's an intrinsic part of Australian popular culture, the logo'd tee, the duffel bag…
What are you aiming for with this range?
I'm doing the collection as I guess a little sister line for Antipodium, I'm making it something Antipodium customers can really buy into as well, so I'm thinking about how we can achieve that at a pricepoint. We're doing that just by using different fabrications, I didn't want to make it a watered down version of our label, which is why we've done things like design a custom print. Prints are a really important part of our label, so we've made a Mandana print exclusively for Sportsgirl.
Can you tell us a bit about it?
It's pretty funny! I was a little stuck on what to do for the print, and so Charlotte at Sportsgirl had very kindly sent me some scans of the Sportsgirl archives, and I was flicking through them and saw some bandanna prints from the early nineties. I was thinking about how we could make that our own, so I decided to put a little piece of me in there, so if you look closely at the mandana print, you can see my face peering out! Daniel our production assistant did the print… he had to have a picture of me zoomed right in for hours!
Did you have a younger customer in mind for Sportsgirl?
Yeah, there's a younger element there because the pricepoint allows it. But just like with Antipodium it's not so much about a particular age group as a state of mind, and i really like it that I'm working at Liberty on Saturday and crazy old art ladies will come and buy pieces. There are elements of that there, like the anorak and the printed leggings that suit all different age groups… I'm not sure that the madras shorts are such an option, but you know, there are pieces!
You're known for the occasional dirty joke, did you try and tone down the risque element of the label for this collaboration?
No, I don't think so. I think the thing with Antipodium is that if you really want to read into things you can. I did apply our sense of humour to it.
Can you tell us about London Fashion Week?
It's pretty major! It's a really fun time to be designing at the moment, it's hard, the market's tough, so I've been pushing things a little bit further and people have been really reacting well to the development of the label. With this one I'm worried about setting the bar so high I might end up hanging myself! The presentation's going to be really, really good.
How has the label changed since your accidental inception?
You get older I guess, I think you learn to refine your ideas and I think there's something even funnier about it being more subtle. It has become more subverted, you can read into it. Our best selling print from our last collection, the moth print, if you look really closely at it there are certain elements that… well let's say the more sophisticated customers thought they were acorns: they weren't.
Do you ever find yourself thinking you've gone too far?
How I design basically is I take a ridiculous concept and then refine and refine it. So yeah, there's a streamlining there. But that's the element of design I really like, that I can start with ridiculous notions and potty humour and end up with something quite chic!
How does the expat psychology show in your label?
Well as I said I grew up in Toowoomba, and I often reference my country childhood in my collections. My dad's a farmer, and my brother is an equestrian trainer and rider. Very often in country towns there's a pragmatism and pretentiousness, Australians in general have a really lovely nonchalance and sort of ease about them. I like to bring that to the collections, and I love the London sensibility, the sense of history.
There's a parochial element for sure…
Yeah, like the shirt dress, which my mum loves! And when we introduced chambray, before it had become a trendy fabric, but it was what I grew up in. Chambray shirts and moleskins.
Can you talk us through the party spirit in your brand?
We need to do the parties again! People have been asking me and I think I'll do one at Christmas. We started them because we were looking for something fun ourselves. I do them with one of my best friends DJ Bush Pig who was working at Modular at the time. They're fun because they're fashion parties but they don't feel like fashion parties. There have been lots of misadventures at them, Gogo boys crying and accusing me of stealing their shoes…
Fashion is not the only creative endeavor Finch is behind, the designer also hosts a notorious party night - which happens only occasionally - called No Romance Without Finance. This raver spirit translates back into his clothing, which has a twisted, naughty sense of humour. Think prints with winking Madonnas and hidden phalli, reversible dresses with names like 'The Morning After' and all sorts of other ribald jokes.
His latest undertaking is a collaboration with Sportsgirl, which launched last week to strong sales. The range is references Sportsgirl's 1990s golden days, with madras shorts, boyish basics and a bandana print with a strange little twist.
Up next - in exactly one week's time - is a showing at London Fashion Week, about which Finch will reveal little but his excitement.
We caught up with the designer on his last trip to Australia to find out more about going from Toowoomba to London, crying gogo boys, and toning it down.
What excited you about Sportsgirl?
I was really flattered when Sportsgirl asked us to do the line. Growing up in Toowoomba, the Margaret Street Sportsgirl store was sort of an oasis, so I have lots of very fond memories of Sportsgirl, it's an intrinsic part of Australian popular culture, the logo'd tee, the duffel bag…
What are you aiming for with this range?
I'm doing the collection as I guess a little sister line for Antipodium, I'm making it something Antipodium customers can really buy into as well, so I'm thinking about how we can achieve that at a pricepoint. We're doing that just by using different fabrications, I didn't want to make it a watered down version of our label, which is why we've done things like design a custom print. Prints are a really important part of our label, so we've made a Mandana print exclusively for Sportsgirl.
Can you tell us a bit about it?
It's pretty funny! I was a little stuck on what to do for the print, and so Charlotte at Sportsgirl had very kindly sent me some scans of the Sportsgirl archives, and I was flicking through them and saw some bandanna prints from the early nineties. I was thinking about how we could make that our own, so I decided to put a little piece of me in there, so if you look closely at the mandana print, you can see my face peering out! Daniel our production assistant did the print… he had to have a picture of me zoomed right in for hours!
Did you have a younger customer in mind for Sportsgirl?
Yeah, there's a younger element there because the pricepoint allows it. But just like with Antipodium it's not so much about a particular age group as a state of mind, and i really like it that I'm working at Liberty on Saturday and crazy old art ladies will come and buy pieces. There are elements of that there, like the anorak and the printed leggings that suit all different age groups… I'm not sure that the madras shorts are such an option, but you know, there are pieces!
You're known for the occasional dirty joke, did you try and tone down the risque element of the label for this collaboration?
No, I don't think so. I think the thing with Antipodium is that if you really want to read into things you can. I did apply our sense of humour to it.
Can you tell us about London Fashion Week?
It's pretty major! It's a really fun time to be designing at the moment, it's hard, the market's tough, so I've been pushing things a little bit further and people have been really reacting well to the development of the label. With this one I'm worried about setting the bar so high I might end up hanging myself! The presentation's going to be really, really good.
How has the label changed since your accidental inception?
You get older I guess, I think you learn to refine your ideas and I think there's something even funnier about it being more subtle. It has become more subverted, you can read into it. Our best selling print from our last collection, the moth print, if you look really closely at it there are certain elements that… well let's say the more sophisticated customers thought they were acorns: they weren't.
Do you ever find yourself thinking you've gone too far?
How I design basically is I take a ridiculous concept and then refine and refine it. So yeah, there's a streamlining there. But that's the element of design I really like, that I can start with ridiculous notions and potty humour and end up with something quite chic!
How does the expat psychology show in your label?
Well as I said I grew up in Toowoomba, and I often reference my country childhood in my collections. My dad's a farmer, and my brother is an equestrian trainer and rider. Very often in country towns there's a pragmatism and pretentiousness, Australians in general have a really lovely nonchalance and sort of ease about them. I like to bring that to the collections, and I love the London sensibility, the sense of history.
There's a parochial element for sure…
Yeah, like the shirt dress, which my mum loves! And when we introduced chambray, before it had become a trendy fabric, but it was what I grew up in. Chambray shirts and moleskins.
Can you talk us through the party spirit in your brand?
We need to do the parties again! People have been asking me and I think I'll do one at Christmas. We started them because we were looking for something fun ourselves. I do them with one of my best friends DJ Bush Pig who was working at Modular at the time. They're fun because they're fashion parties but they don't feel like fashion parties. There have been lots of misadventures at them, Gogo boys crying and accusing me of stealing their shoes…
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