This Is Veneer – SS16

This season, VERNER is going home to the suburbs and remembering parent’s homes and faded decor schemes. In response to the current taste for minimalism, the label is celebrating the other side of Australian midcentury design; the accessories and palate that aren’t entombed in coffee table books, but rather still alive in kitchens, living rooms, and bedrooms. While good taste has trained us to brush past fake flowers, statement rugs, gaudy lamps, and knick knacks, we treat them with a fresh and unbiased eye. Looking past a clutter of trivial and futile objects, the Australian home reveals overlooked qualities where pretty and kitsch become muddled. The ornamental fussing may be an attempt to make something ordinary lovely, but the vivid primary colours, hot pastel tints, and cuts of stark black and white speak to our nations aesthetic strangeness. In the years since gauche decorations ruled, we’ve attempted to cleanse our palates with European ease. But have ignored the savage and abstract style that we—perhaps unconsciously—created. In This is Verner, the label is celebrating the fake, and the cult of form over function. We’re unashamedly creating ornaments, and asking why do we lust for timelessness when we can be of the moment and hedonistic in our desire for right now? After centuries of natural romance, the Australian home once took a stand and tried to be greater and fiercer than it’s natural environment. It dared to argue that artificial can be more appealing than natural, and standing out was an art form. We’re recommitting to those ethics, we’re here for the attention.