Introduction & Main Facts
For two decades, the Australian fashion landscape has been thoroughly enchanted by the whimsical, technicolor visions of Romance Was Born. Founded by the dynamic design duo Luke Sales and Anna Plunkett, the Sydney-based label has built an international reputation for staging some of the most fantastical, narrative-driven runway presentations in the Southern Hemisphere. However, as the fashion industry grapples with questions of overproduction, environmental responsibility, and the sheer fatigue of the traditional seasonal calendar, Romance Was Born has chosen a different path.
For the recent Australian Fashion Week cycle, the brand famously stepped off the traditional runway schedule. Far from taking a step back, however, Sales and Plunkett redirected their boundless creative energy southward, making a striking debut at Melbourne Design Week. In a high-profile collaboration with Cultivated—the in-house sustainable furniture refurbishing program spearheaded by Cult Furniture—the designers unveiled a multidisciplinary exhibition that seamlessly fused high fashion with circular design principles.
Rather than showing a conventional rack of clothes, the exhibition featured discarded and vintage furniture pieces given a new lease on life through Romance Was Born’s signature maximalist, extravagantly embellished aesthetic. Hand-embroidered textiles, eccentric patchworks, and vibrant upholsteries transformed pre-existing furniture into collectors’ items, proving that sustainability does not have to come at the expense of theatricality.
Simultaneously, the brand revealed a meticulously crafted collection rooted in deep historical research and executed with contemporary flair. Drawing inspiration from the archives of the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney—where the brand’s studio is uniquely situated—Sales and Plunkett bridged centuries of design history. From French lace and handmade Art Deco wallpapers to upcycled vintage Italian bedspreads, the latest offering underscores a broader pivot within the brand: proving that high-concept fashion can successfully intersect with museum curation, interior design, and ecological stewardship.
Chronology: From 20th-Anniversary Triumphs to Melbourne Design Week
To understand Romance Was Born’s current trajectory, one must trace the timeline of their recent creative evolution, which balances monumental milestones with strategic departures from convention.
2023–2024: The Milestone Anniversary and Reflection
Last year marked a monumental chapter for the brand: the official 20th anniversary of Romance Was Born. To celebrate two decades of avant-garde design, Sales and Plunkett staged a massive, highly theatrical retrospective show in Sydney. The event was universally lauded as a triumph of Australian design, cementing their legacy as pioneers of print, color, and texture. However, the immense physical, creative, and financial toll of staging such an elaborate traditional runway show prompted the designers to re-evaluate their operational model.
Early 2025: Transitioning to the Museum Space
Following the anniversary festivities, the designers deepened their residency and operational footprint within the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. Surrounded by centuries of human ingenuity, decorative arts, and historical textiles, Sales and Plunkett began experimenting with artifacts outside the typical fashion canon. They immersed themselves in the museum’s extensive archives, studying traditional French textiles and decorative arts. This residency laid the intellectual and material groundwork for their next creative chapter.
Mid-2025: The Melbourne Design Week Pivot
Stepping away from the traditional Australian Fashion Week calendar in Sydney, the duo looked toward Melbourne Design Week. Partnering with Cultivated, they embarked on an ambitious cross-disciplinary project. They selected discarded, dated, or structurally sound furniture slated for disposal and subjected them to the Romance Was Born treatment. Using deadstock fabrics, intricate beadwork, and bold embroidery, the designers spent months transforming chairs, sofas, and tables into sculptural works of art.
Present Day: The Dual-Track Future
Today, Sales and Plunkett operate on a dual-track model. While their recent gallery exhibitions and design week installations have drawn critical acclaim from the interior and contemporary art worlds, the designers have explicitly reassured their dedicated fan base—affectionately known as "Romantics"—that seasonal ready-to-wear collections are not going anywhere. The brand continues to produce wearable art, bridging the gap between museum-grade archival inspiration and accessible, high-energy fashion.
Supporting Data & Creative Anatomy: Inside the Collection
The intellectual rigor underpinning Romance Was Born’s latest work is matched only by its visual extravagance. This season’s offering was born from a unique convergence of location, archival access, and material innovation.
The Powerhouse Museum Archive as Muse
Operating out of a studio inside the Powerhouse Museum grants Sales and Plunkett rare, day-to-day access to a multi-disciplinary repository of human culture. For this collection, the primary visual catalyst was a series of handmade Art Deco wallpapers designed by Auguste Thomas. The intricate geometries, botanical motifs, and rich color palettes of Thomas’s work provided a blueprint for the collection’s prints and structural silhouettes.
Complementing the Art Deco influence were traditional French lace techniques and mid-century textile remnants. The designers utilized slender bias-cut dresses crafted entirely from vintage Italian bedspreads. These garments, oscillating between caped grandeur and sleek sleeveless minimalism, were accessorized with dramatic feathered trims and classic evening gloves.
Balancing Antiquity with Contemporary Edge
While historical reverence anchored the collection, modern streetwear and youth-culture tropes provided friction and balance. The historical weight of the vintage bedspreads and lace was brilliantly offset by contemporary wardrobe staples:
- The Embellished Denim Pencil Skirt: A classic utilitarian silhouette elevated through heavy beadwork and paired unexpectedly with casual flannel shirts.
- The Mod Mini: Ultra-short silhouettes styled over hyper-vibrant, contrasting coral tights, injecting a dose of 1960s youth rebellion into the mix.
- Textile Dialogue: A standout embroidered patchwork jacket featuring a dramatic fuchsia feather collar. Upon close inspection, the jacket’s textile mirrored the exact fabric of the upcycled couch sitting directly beside it in the exhibition space.
Official Responses and Creative Philosophy
Speaking over Zoom on a bright Australian morning, designer Luke Sales reflected on the motivations behind the brand’s recent directional shift and the philosophy guiding their work.
"It was an exciting project," Sales shared, discussing the Melbourne Design Week collaboration with Cultivated. "It’s something we’ve always wanted to do—we did a really amazing show last year for our 20th anniversary, and decided to focus on [Design Week] instead."
The decision to merge furniture refurbishing with fashion was not merely a stylistic exercise; it was an exploration of how objects communicate within a shared space. Describing the campaign shoot—which took place inside the cavernous halls of the Powerhouse Museum—Sales emphasized the deliberate curation of objects.
"The collection was shot in the [Powerhouse Museum], and so we used garments that could talk to the furniture," Sales explained. This concept of inanimate objects holding a dialogue transformed the presentation into something akin to a silent film restored and enhanced by modern cinematic technology.
Acknowledgeable of their own penchant for the theatrical, Sales embraced the inherent drama of their output with characteristic self-awareness. "Cheesy? Perhaps," he mused, addressing the over-the-top nature of their world-building. Yet, this unapologetic theatricality is precisely the point of the Romance Was Born ethos. "There is kind of a weird humor in what we do," Sales added, highlighting that beneath the high-fashion posturing lies a joyful, tongue-in-cheek celebration of pure creativity.
Implications: The Future of Australian Fashion and Circular Design
The pivot by Romance Was Born away from conventional runway schedules toward design weeks, museum partnerships, and furniture upcycling carries profound implications for the broader fashion industry, particularly in Australia.
1. Decoupling from the Seasonal Treadmill
For decades, the fashion calendar has demanded an unrelenting cycle of spring/summer and autumn/winter collections, often forcing independent designers to burn through financial and creative capital. By stepping off the traditional Australian Fashion Week schedule to participate in Melbourne Design Week, Romance Was Born has demonstrated that viable, high-impact alternatives exist. Designers can leverage cross-disciplinary festivals to showcase their talent without succumbing to the burnout of the traditional runway treadmill.
2. The Rise of Functional Circularity
The collaboration with Cultivated signals a maturing conversation around sustainability within the Australian luxury and contemporary market. While many fashion brands rely on greenwashed marketing or superficial eco-capsule collections, Romance Was Born’s intervention physically reclaims waste. By turning discarded furniture and vintage deadstock into high-value design objects, they prove that circularity can be luxurious, highly artistic, and commercially viable.
3. Institutional Integration
As creative studios increasingly find homes within cultural institutions like the Powerhouse Museum, the boundary lines separating fashion design, fine art, and interior curation continue to dissolve. Romance Was Born is pioneering a model where fashion designers function simultaneously as historians, archivists, and installation artists.
Conclusion
As Romance Was Born looks beyond its twentieth year, the brand proves that true longevity in fashion requires evolution, experimentation, and a willingness to break one’s own rules. Whether they are dressing upcycled vintage sofas in vibrant feather trims or crafting bias-cut gowns from historical Italian bedspreads, Sales and Plunkett are not just making clothes—they are constructing entire worlds. And for a fashion industry searching for sustainable, imaginative ways forward, that world-building has never been more vital.
