Jordan Dalah (Q4856)
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Jordan Dalah is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Jordan Dalah |
Jordan Dalah is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Jordan Dalah’s ballooning work often inspires associations with comfort, serenity, and the security of home life. One of his earliest lookbooks, starring New Zealander model Georgia Fowler, played into the pillowy side of his oeuvre: Fowler curled up on top of cabinets and tucked into beds. For spring 2023, staged during Australia’s resort 2023 fashion week in Sydney, Dalah busted out of the house, sprinting towards a more rigorous, potent vision for his brand.His first stop was the hardware store. Supplies from his local shop, like irrigation piping and foam tubing, replaced the tender wadding he usually uses in the hems of his garments, lending them a more rugged silhouette. “I wanted to bring everyday objects into my world,” said Dalah over a Zoom call, “and play with that relationship between performative gestural ideas and how normal things could creep through.” Clothespins collected from his neighbors and friends act as stuffing for the hem of one sheer dress, giving it a chunky, bubble shape. Elsewhere, he innovated with metal, making silvery tops from wire that crinkled and shimmerd as models walked by.Butnormalis not really the word for Dalah’s super-stuctural garments. Instead, tryfamiliar. See the proof in a little green suit that has been scrunched into Dalah-worthy proportions to look as if Jackie O went to Whoville. The introduction of rosettes, twisted up like “cinnamon buns,” he laughed, brought girlishness and fantasy to his already fantastical ideas, but he tempered the sweetness with plain white singlets—the top of the summer—and cut-out bralettes.Finding the female body underneath his industrial engineering was another of his stated goals this season and an expanded range of bias draped pieces helped make the case that a Dalah dress can find a life off the catwalk. The British songstress Griff recently wore one from spring 2022 to open for Dua Lipa in the U.K. It’s just that kind of quirky, rebellious gal who will love Dalah’s cheeky-lovely creations.
18 May 2022
“As a designer, it’s easy to make radical gestures,” Jordan Dalah said over Zoom from his Sydney studio, “it’s harder to make those gestures reach more people.” After a show-stopping runway collection presented at Australian Fashion Week for spring 2022, Dalah has reconsidered how to make his inflated silhouettes reach more people. His solution for fall 2022 is to “deflate” his shapes to find a common ground between the theatrical and the everyday.Among the loveliest designs are his draped dresses and tops in a semi-sheer silk with dotted and striped linings peeking out from underneath. The silhouette is still anchored on tiny shoulder pads, but lacks any poufs or frills in the mid section. Similarly, jersey dresses with a keyhole neckline are easily his most body-con ideas, each finished off with a dupioni ruffle. The effect is more classic cocktail attire than what Dalah has previously offered, though it’s not without its strange charms. Ditto for new leggings with padded halos at the ankle that are a way of translating his “doorstopper” silhouette into something that can be worn more easily than a six-meter wide skirt.The showpieces are still in the mix, but pared down in number and color. Here there are just two cropped jackets with shrugged-forward shoulders in black and black-and-white habotai silk, and a single bell-shaped skirt in the same black-and-white fabric. The power to bring Dalah’s drama to life is now in the hands of the wearer: A new campaign for Glenfiddich he directed takes these more understated pieces to high camp levels. Will customers do the same?
27 January 2022
It’s no small feat that Jordan Dalah, a young upstart in Sydney, was given the opening spot at Australia Fashion Week. But when you see Dalah’s cocooning garments that extend and distort the potential of the human silhouette, well, it starts to make sense. His work is singular in 2021 for its ability to project a comfy bow where a bosom could be or turn a hump or bump into a coveted, not embarrassing, protrusion.As Dalah explained over a Zoom call, he spent the months leading up to his runway debut “finding the strongest silhouettes I could make—and then really knocking them out.” His fluted shapes and high, gathered shoulders are positively supersized, cloaking models in quirky stripes, graphic patterns, and soft rose-colored silks. That’s where the surprise element comes in: Underneath some of Dalah’s more dramatic shapes are removable tubular bustles that look something like a pool floatie. When the dresses are deflated, so to speak, they lose their gargantuan proportions and reveal expertly done sensual bias draping.Other pieces are cut slim from the start, like a ’40s-ish black button-up midi-dress and an evocative light blue mini with a pierrot collar and bell cuffs. A leather jacket with signature exaggerated sleeves has more mass appeal—ditto the puffed sandals made in collaboration with Actually Existing and the puffed robes made with Common Hours. Dalah has proven he has the mettle to think big and practically. Let’s hope he’s back on the runway next season.
1 June 2021
Cocooning and protective shapes have become a minor theme of the spring 2021 collections—unsurprisingly so, considering the state of things. But there are few who can make a sumptuous pouf of a garment as convincing and lovely as Jordan Dalah. The Australian-British designer has been on the rise since his graduation from Central Saint Martins. Dalah makes blooming garments, bulbous and cozy; his clothing might look complicated, and its construction is actually quite considered, but wearing it is as easy as slipping into a T-shirt or sweatpants.Lightness and airiness define his ideas for spring 2021, which he designed and photographed in Sydney. Made from deadstock materials sourced from local suppliers, Dalah’s explorations of form read a bit more intimate this season. It’s less Old Masters and hoop skirts—though both ideas remain present—and more about the small comforts we experience at home. Giant pillow sleeves and bows envelop model Georgia Fowler as she lounges on a bureau or vamps on a settee. In the most basic interpretation, these are clothes that would make your Zoom sessions a lot more fun—but they promise a certain relief for your mental state too. What if a garment could envelop you with the warmth of a hug?Dalah reports that his most dramatic silhouettes are actually quite salable, though for the less sartorially adventurous, he has more traditional ready-to-wear pieces. The star in that category is a crinkled red dress made from almost 40 meters of taffeta pleated at the bottom of a jersey knit body. It’s a dream of an everyday dress—and the way it’s shown on Fowler, lounging on a mattress, it makes the idea of staying home alone for the indefinite future seem a little more manageable.
19 October 2020