The We Wear Australian campaign showcases WA’s Kimberley and local fashion

Will Kalimba looks serene as he stands on the banks of Crab Creek, lustrous pearls heavy around his neck. The sun was rising behind photographer Claire Hart as she shot Kalimba against a backdrop that bleeds from red earth into pale turquoise sea and azure sky. The 22-year-old dancer and DJ, on his first major modelling assignment, was trying to keep his mind on the job. “I was moving and dancing but also peering to the back of me thinking, ‘are there crocodiles in that water’,” Kalimba remembers, laughing. His unease didn’t show, and the portrait of a bare-chested Kalimba, wearing Willie Creek pearls on Yawuru country, is one of the stunning images from the ambitious extension of the second We Wear Australian campaign, started in 2020 by Showroom-X founders Richard Poulson and Kelly Atkinson to support local brands during the pandemic. The week-long trip earlier this month aimed to produce pictures that will draw international attention to Australian fashion but also to WA as a travel destination, depicting the Kimberley as one of the last true wildernesses. It was conceptualised and directed by Ken Leung, who recently left his life in New York and job as the global creative director of Uniqlo to settle back in Perth with his young family. About two months ago, Leung joined one of Poulson and Atkinson’s regular video roundtables, the genesis of last year’s #wewearaustralian project, which helped drive more than $3 million in retail sales for participating brands. Much of the east coast was in lockdown and the mood on the call was bleak. Brands of all sizes had ranges that hadn’t sold and resort collections were about to drop. Leung felt confident from his experience overseas that when lockdown lifted, retail would surge with pent-up demand — but how could they bridge the gap? With WA the only place open enough to do a shoot, they asked brands to send excess pieces west, and Leung began work on a project to meld fashion photography with WA’s most stunning landscapes, in locations across Yawuru, Miriwoong and Kija country. This month, supported by Tourism WA, that group headed north. It included Kalimba, who moved to Perth from Zambia as a child, recently discovered rising star Cindy Rostron from the Northern Territory, Angus Minear, a Fremantle teaching student scouted by Priscillas on TikTok last year, 17-year-old India Anderson, fresh out of high school, and Perth-born Naomi Stevens, the most experienced of the models, who is also studying psychology. Atkinson had the mammoth job of sorting through more than 300 pieces from more than 180 brands, large and small, including Ellery, Morrison, Nobody Denim, Palma Martin, SIR and Váhy. Top of her mind was pairing established brands with emerging ones, so the small operators were exposed to the larger one’s audience. “I went through everything and edited to try to make a cohesive story with five models and nine locations,” she says, with a wry laugh. “But I’m not gonna lie, it was really hard. It was hard to take everybody’s DNA and make it all work together.” “We’d be steaming clothes until 10 o’clock at night, then re-steaming,” Poulson recalls. “Then we’d move location and everything has to be pulled onto racks; we had 36 suitcases. It was really crazy.” The days were long, often starting at 3am to get hair and makeup done for sunrise, retreating inside in the heat of the day, then back out from 3pm into the evening. The skeleton crew bonded quickly; Leung remembers an impromptu dance on Cable Beach on the first day and a boat party celebrating the final shoot on Lake Argyle, as the water reflected a pink sunset. “The energy was so good; one of the best shoots I’ve been on,” says Leung, who has done campaigns in countries including Bhutan, Ethiopia, Morocco and Poland for brands such as Phillip Lim. “What I’m most proud of that it was such a grassroots thing. Everyone pitched in. The models carried gear and equipment. For the amount of content we shot, I would normally have three art directors assisting me.” Leung has established his own agency, Studio PARÁDISÔ, to elevate his home State to the world. He points out that the gorge country in the Kimberley is the equal of Monument Valley in the US — but remains largely unknown. He plans to push the photographs out through contacts in the international fashion press but also wants to stop people mid-scroll on social media. “I wanted the images to be as vivid and vibrant as possible, so when you’re scrolling and it comes up on your Instagram with a geotag, you’re like, where is that?!” As with last year, the campaign will also benefit Thread Together, an organisation that rescues clothes and directs them to people in need; brands must donate, either clothing or money, to participate in We Wear Australian. Last year’s campaign dressed more than 10,000 people; the aim this year is 25,000, including recently arrived Afghan refugees. Poulson, Atkinson and their team donated their time and admit it’s been a time-consuming effort made at the expense of their own business. But they hope what they’ve created will have a legacy that will outlast COVID. “It’s what we love,” says Atkinson. “We love what we do and we love our industry. It comes naturally to want to help.”