The designer turning your existential 9-to-5 crisis into crumpled couture

The last thing most of us probably want is Mark Zuckerberg anywhere near our puss, so it’s a wild feat that rising designer Brendan Plummer could potentially convince us otherwise. The 24-year-old Sydney-based creative, who packed in a job as a tradesman in favour of studying fashion, now turns out what he calls “conceptual, textural, banal” clothing. To that last point, however, we’d have to disagree. Spotted while scrolling mindlessly through Instagram late at night, Plummer’s scrunched-up tailoring and wonky skirts immediately stood out among the meme posts and spon-con spam that usually proliferates the timeline.

According to Plummer, his jumping-off point for his collecton Nothing starts, unsurprisingly, with “nothingness”. “The whole idea of nothingness within a fashion context was interesting,” the designer explains. From there, he extensively researched uniforms, particularly in the corporate sphere “where feelings of existential nothingness are perhaps more apparent.” The end result is crumpled office wear in dingy, washed out hues, like papery suit jackets that looked like they could have been fished out of the waste basket, skew-whiff pencil skirts that suggested – perhaps to the more perverted among us – an illicit stationary cupboard quickie, and creased shirts plastered with bog-standard stock imagery. ‘Size Matters! a standout style featuring a tape measure-brandishing woman reads. 

Take a look at the anything-but-boring, brilliantly subversive, and slightly seedy collection in the gallery above, and get to know Plummer better below.

Hey Brendan! First question. When did you first become aware of the power of fashion?

Brendan Plummer: I guess I came into realising its power but also its impact in two separate instances. The first being during my time as a tradesman, as at the same time I was caught up in an existential crisis wondering where I belong and what I should be doing with my time. When I realised the extent of my purchasing of clothing – ie; spending my entire paycheck on Raf Simons AW17 knits or old Margiela jewellery – I thought I should just study fashion and leave trades as soon as possible.

The second instance where I became further obsessed, I think, was when I got prescribed Comme des Garçons FW19 in illustration class in first year fashion as the collection to draw. My drawings were pretty awful, but being able to deep dive into a designer and realise that there was space for conceptual thinking and see how it can be applicable to a collection was incredibly inspiring. I take a lot from fine arts as well, so to see links to Louise Bourgeois and other artists in Comme and Loewe collections was cool. Beyond that, brands which, like Comme, are known for their depth of attention in materiality, print, or concept have been impactful – Craig Green, Martine Rose, and Kiko Kostadinov come to mind for their playful, conceptual, thought-provoking offerings.

Did you study fashion? Where did you study? 

Brendan Plummer: I currently still study fashion actually, I’m in my 4th year at the University of Technology in Sydney in the fashion honours program. Hopefully next year I’ll be able to join a masters program at IFM or CSM or wherever things take me. I think I could really benefit from some of the ways in which the European scene teaches fashion nowadays.

What is Brendan Plummer: The Brand’s USP? How would you sum it up in three words?

Brendan Plummer: Conceptual, textural, banal.

Tell me about your latest collection. What were you inspired by, what’s the concept behind it? 

Brendan Plummer: Sure! I guess the best place to start off with is the overall concept. The collection was about Nothing. But more than that, it was about the paradox of Nothing, in that it cannot exist as there is always Something. So ‘the Something’ is what I explored, alongside an array of references from the bygone Russian avant-garde and the influence of Zen Buddhism on American Arts and their approach to Nothingness. I guess the whole idea of mere Nothingness as well within a fashion context was interesting. This led me to examining repetition and desensitisation of itself, especially in uniforms, and especially within spaces such as the corporate world, where feelings of existential Nothingness are perhaps more apparent. From spaces like this, I was able to pull out references such as the crumpled paper which is shown in the dress and its ability to be scrunched and held. 

Alongside this, prints were really important within the collection. In perhaps my nerdiest conceptualisation of a print, I attempted to link the dot-to-dot print as a visualisation of the paradox of Nothingness. With reference to the idea of space Nothingness and the little amount of matter that may exist in a vacuum, I drew from the idea that it only takes the dots of matter to be linked and a form is created. This was then shown in a sort of childlike dot-to-dot trompe l’oeil where, according to numerical value, dots were joined and the detailed silhouette of a shirt could be recognised. I guess this in a sense is a key piece, alongside the sideways skirt I designed which pays particular homage to (Ukrainian artist) Kazimir Malevich’s white-on-white painting, but recontextualised through the banality of a corporate pencil skirt, alluding further to its Nothingness. 

Did you have a freakum outfit when you were growing up?

Brendan Plummer: I don’t think I did – I’m pretty lazy with dressing and its also too fucking hot for most clothes here, I just rocked footie shorts and any t-shirt I could find whilst I was growing up. 

Do you have any style icons? Or who would you most love to see wearing your clothes? 

Brendan Plummer: I don’t have any style icons, but I do like Australiana and the everyday. Which doesn’t exactly negate or pinpoint someone as a style icon, but I love the unintentionally fashionable. 

When it comes to who I want to wear my clothes… I’ve always dreamed of the possibility of surprise in seeing someone wear my clothes. It’s kind of a boost to the ego to romanticise my clothing as a spectacle but I’d love to see it in an everyday context on someone I don’t know.

Please share the most recent note from your notes app...

Brendan Plummer: A little sneak peek for my next collection. 

The most embarrassing picture/screenshot on your camera roll?

Would you accept an OBE?

Brendan Plummer: I’m not eligible for one but I’m technically eligible for an order of Australia. Probably not, though. I’m not really into the idea of being an ambassador for a government.

The worst advice you’ve ever been given?

Brendan Plummer: I don’t know, I guess I usually forge my own ideas of how I live and what I do. Any bad advice given to me is probably someone super naïve? Other than that, ‘How to get a six-pack in two-week’ type videos are also not true, so they’re not good advice.

What would your ghost outfit be?

Brendan Plummer: [Something from] Craig Green’s MA collection for sure. 

Title of your biography? 

Brendan Plummer: Me vs. brian [brain].

What’s your weirdest internet obsession?

Brendan Plummer: I don’t know if it’s weird but I love watching James Kalm on YouTube. He’s this guy in NYC that just cycles around and live reviews art showings in pretty cool galleries, and he’s super interesting to watch. I also love being super up to date with Arsenal Football Club, it’s certainly not weird but I guess in comparison to James Kalm it might be? Idk, it’s all cool to me. 

What conspiracy theory are you quite into?

Brendan Plummer: I guess to some extent it’s a conspiracy but I guess I love puzzling my brain and thinking about what happened before the Big Bang. I love the idea and the thrill of the idea of not knowing that there is anything but because nothing is a paradox what is there? Also what do people mean by floating in space on a rock? It’s not like the same floating we experience when we float on water. We’re sort of just ‘moving’ in nothing?

What are people’s biggest misconceptions of you? 

Brendan Plummer: I think I’m a bit of an anomaly – not in some dumb cliché way but I love very blokey things like the pub and football, but at the same time I love fashion and currently love reading about dust and its phenomenon [spoiler for my next collection xoxo]. I guess people assume I’m one or the other sometimes, but I don’t see the point in liking just one thing or basing your personality around that. 

What would the line-up be in your nightmare blunt rotation?

Brendan Plummer: Phillip Plein, Margaret Thatcher, and any person that eats loudly

You encounter a hostile alien race and sound is their only mechanism for communication. What song would you play to them to inspire them to spare you and the rest of the human race?

Brendan Plummer: “Sugar/Tzu” by Black Midi.