BARCELONA, Apr 12, 2009 / FW/ — Susan Dimasi and Chantal McDonald founded materialbyproduct in 2003 and launched the label on the international market in 2004. The studio works in Paris and produces two prêt-à-porter collections each year.

Designers Susan Dimasi and Chantal McDonald on the runway Fall 2009 Barcelona
Designers Susan Dimasi and Chantal McDonald on the runway Fall 2009 Barcelona

This year, materialbyproduct has exhibited PARA-SITE at Dysfashional, at the MUDAC (Musée de Design et d’Arts Appliqués Contemporains) in Lausanne (Switzerland), and How You Make It at Craft, Victoria (Australia).

As one of the most innovative design studios in Australia, it often displays its work at the National Gallery in Victoria. In 2007, it was a finalist in the ITS#SIX contest in Italy.

Singer Björk commissioned a specially designed outfit from materialbyproduct for the tour to promote her latest album. The same year, the label won public recognition with the Victorian Premier’s Fashion and Textile Design Prize and the Victorian Premier’s Design Award. Materialbyproduct is marketed in London, Paris, Melbourne and Hong Kong.

The notion of starting a house was both a naive dream and a grand ambition held by a couple of geographically challenged designers from Australia.

To address geographic disadvantage, Dimasi & McDonald started making the components for portable house, so far a series of curtains, one of which, printed in wood grain, is suggestive of a wall.

A dress caught like a chrysalis in a screen is featured in this collection. This dress-screen captures an ambiguous moment in the MATERIALBYPRODUCT design process that gives birth to dresses, curtains, screens, walls, floors, and fantastic fashion.

[Photo by Biel Sol]

www.materialbyproduct.com

 

Runway show review