Three Australian designers showed at Paris this week, sharing an atelier and, more pointedly, sharing a strategy: smaller collections, slower production, fewer pieces priced more deliberately.

A reaction to scale

The decision is partly a reaction to the scale at which the rest of the week operates — and partly an aesthetic argument about what Australian design can plausibly contribute to a market dominated by European and Japanese houses.

What the buyers said

Several large department-store buyers, off the record, described the showing as 'the most interesting Australian work in five years.' Whether that translates into floor space at the appropriate price is the question of the next twelve weeks.