Home Wrecker – AW15

Home Wrecker Verner was shaped at first by an interest in Robin Boyd and his critical observation of suburbia, 'The Australian ugliness begins with a fear of reality, denial of the need for the everyday environment to reflect the heart of the human problem, satisfaction with veneer and cosmetic effects.' Verner explored this idea through the nostalgia of her own memory of the Australian suburbs in the early 1980's when architecture and interior style were still blanketed by the previous decade. Reflecting on the Australian home, Home Wrecker Verner looks at how the body is in one's home. The ergonomics of how we interact and move between the interior and the exterior world. Integrating both the pleasures and comforts of the home into different spheres of everyday life - private and public, work and leisure. Verner has used traditional fabrications, prints and colours as a foundation. The warped tartan print, a light merino suiting in a navy pinstripe, heavy indigo denim, soft corduroy and chunky knitwear in rich burgundy, chocolate brown, navy, bottle green and charcoal grey. Home Wrecker Verner draws on the surfaces and objects that signify certain comforts of the home; blankets, rugs, cushions and other soft furnishings inform the textures and shapes within the collection.  Shapes are also overlaid onto the body with lines extending beyond the figure, annexed like a wrap around veranda or jutting out at the hip or shoulder like a window ledge from a wall. Verner cleverly converts feature into function, like the oversized couch bow adorns but also ties neatly as a fastening.  Garment are to be worn layered with each other and shapes don't simply reference an era they modify the original offering with a refreshing take on a classic silhouette. The practical is so far from ordinary because Verner plays with the original, adding clever tweaks and comical lilts that don't detract from the garments purpose but do give the wearer pleasure.