Off Schedule: Three Australian Fashion Labels Drawing Outside the Lines

Godsway Williams chronicles the corners of Australian fashion that exist beyond the runway. As conversations around the breadth, relevance and financing of Australian Fashion Week continue, Williams poses a question: if some of the country’s most exciting brands aren’t showing at fashion week, where’s the real energy in Australian fashion?

Many of the country’s most compelling brands choose to operate independent of traditional frameworks, showing collections on their own timelines, building slower businesses or bypassing the system entirely. It’s a model that feels increasingly like the future of fashion.

Here, Williams looks at three labels – Shinzo, Milkbar and Mutimer – that have built loyal followings and thriving businesses outside the fashion week apparatus, revealing how a new generation of labels is rewriting the rules of visibility and growth, and shaping fashion culture from the outside in.

– Megha Kapoor

Shinzo

Melbourne-based brand Shinzo launched in 2020, during lockdown. It was born out of founder Alex Mihail’s longstanding connection to Japanese culture. His brother is half-Japanese and his mother spent time living in Japan, influences that have shaped the brand’s vision from the outset. The level of care and understanding is so considered that, at first glance, people assume Shinzo is a Japanese label – and that’s by design.

Mihail believes “there’s no such thing as a small detail” when it comes to clothing. That philosophy extends across Shinzo’s product offering, but nowhere more clearly than in its signature fireman clasp, a heavy-duty, utilitarian fastening used in the same way toggles might be used on a duffle coat. It’s a feature on many of the brand’s most popular pieces and became so influential it sparked a wave of imitation among other streetwear labels. At the height of its popularity, even Zara released a jacket that prompted comparison videos across social media. (When the world’s largest fast fashion retailer dupes your design, you’re probably doing something right.)

What sets Shinzo apart beyond its garments is its approach to marketing. Shinzo has dominated the online streetwear space with a string of hyped releases generating momentum that few brands at this stage in their lifecycle can match. Working with creator Klover Keah, the brand has mastered the short-form video lookbook, and recent work with production company One House pushes the format further still, creating films that feel more like cinematic shorts than campaign content.

The brand’s Melbourne consumer lives and breathes Japanese media and fashion. Recent growth has seen Shinzo’s overseas following increase significantly, its vision resonating with the same niche markets around the world. In a relatively short period, Shinzo has amassed more than 265,000 Instagram followers, cementing its place among a new generation of Australian brands building audiences outside and beyond the traditional fashion system.

Milkbar

Milkbar captures the essence of Melbourne’s inner north with a nod to its vital, iconically Australian corner stores. As with milk bars across the country, many were opened by Greek and Italian immigrants who built communities around them in suburbs like Brunswick, Fitzroy and Carlton. While many of those stores have fallen into decline, Milkbar founder Simon Agosta, the son of Italian immigrants, understood what they represented.

Agosta launched his label in 2022. Its most popular item is a fitted raglan-sleeve T-shirt, a piece that resonated with older Gen Z and millennial menswear fans. Agosta leans into 1950s references, an era he’s always been drawn to, citing figures like Marlon Brando and James Dean among his key inspirations.

Milkbar has now expanded into more tailored, era-specific garments and recently unveiled its most ambitious offering yet: a two-piece suit. Rather than announcing the launch on Instagram, the brand distributed physical newspapers across cafes, from Carlton to Collingwood. If you wanted to read about the drop, you had to go outside to find it.

For a brand that built its audience through the algorithm, there’s something refreshing about encouraging customers to step away from the screen and return to a bygone way of living. It’s also a reminder that the internet was once a place to escape reality; now, reality can feel like an escape from the internet.

Mutimer

Jasper Mutimer launched his brand in 2020, during Covid-19, while studying finance. Six years later, Mutimer has amassed more than 400,000 followers on its social media platforms and recently opened its first bricks-and-mortar location on Smith Street. In 2022, a floral lace shirt proved to be the label’s inflection point, finding an enthusiastic audience and bringing Mutimer to wider attention.

Mutimer sits somewhere between menswear and unisex clothing, offering the kind of considered staples that appeal to someone in the process of building out their wardrobe. It is like the Doc Martens loafer of Australian fashion – a refined take on streetwear that doesn’t ask too much of the person wearing it. Its customer isn’t defined by one demographic either. Mutimer knitwear, for example, has found a following beyond the streetwear crowd, speaking to how versatile the brand has become. The brand has also doubled down on its jacket game in recent years – jackets and graphic tees are two of its biggest drawcards.

Collections drop seven to eight times a year, each one conceptually thorough and accompanied by a mini movie that encapsulates the theme of the collection. At a stage where most brands would go down the wholesale route, Mutimer opened its own store, giving itself full control over the experience, environment and brand identity. The Smith Street flagship feels like a cool friend’s apartment – a retail embodiment of a Mutimer lover. With a physical presence, the “Instagram brand” label is wearing off fast.

This story is part of Broadsheet’s annual Fashion Issue, presented by Alfa Romeo.