Jordan (Ioardanis) Spyridon Gogos, also known as the “Prince of Australian Fashion,” lives up to his title with crackling energy.
For the Afterpay Australian Fashion Week (AAFW) – from May 15 to 19 – Gogos collaborated with renowned fashion icon Akira Isogawa and applied a new and exciting gaze, taking the runway by storm with a collection of vibrant, intricate, and innovative designs that he describes as “non-normative.”
Gogos currently serves as the resident artist at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, where he will continue to showcase his artistic prowess until the end of the year.
“The Powerhouse has acquired a significant amount of my work,” he tells Neos Kosmos, adding that his creations can also be found in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.
In addition to his artistic endeavours, Gogos emphasises his knack for forging “brand partnerships” as a testament to his entrepreneurial spirit.
“We have creative collaborations with notable brands such as Glenfiddich, and you can spot our posters all over Sydney,” he states.
From the burb to unconventional fluidity
“I love Neos Kosmos, I grew up with it in my papou and yia yia’s place” he says.
I set him straight, “Mate we have hundreds of thousands of English readers – second and third gen readers…”
“Yes, yes, ok…” the young Gogos says – a default reaction to being scolded by a cranky Greek uncle.
When Gogos talks about ‘we’ and he means his team of creatives, those with whom he challenges convention and generates “revenue streams that are creative and fluid.”
The alliance between Gogos and Isogawa has been termed “poetically resonant” by Vogue magazine.
The designs are baroque wedded with elements of punk, and camp 80s colour, moreover they resonate with Gogo’s Greek suburban experience.
He does not hide the fact that like many of us, “grew up in the suburbs.”
“It’s where young people go to Westfield, for very conservative clothing, where I was everything was quite linear,” he tells Neos Kosmos.
Linear is not what his technicolour and high energetic collection is.
“When I started, I had no money to commercially produce clothes and I could never sew myself so, when we started the brand, I had really kind of crazy and creative ideas.
“I had access to fabric and, I could never compete on the level of making refined clothing, but I can have that production, or monetary support, so in total contrast we were able to push the boundaries in a different way.”
Gogos sells limited pieces and very wearable ones, commercially through his gallery and to institutions. He is in no hurry to over commercialise.
Shock factor and elegance
Gogos is conscious of the “shock factor” his designs can induce.
“There is a kind of uncertainty – people do get confused – some absolutely adore it, some people hate it,” he says.
He is conscious of the tension between the Greek Apollonian and Dionysian worlds – Gogos has thrown his hand in with Dionysius.
Gogos is aware that he creates “conversation and dialogue,” he is the sand in the oyster and no doubt a pearl is always produced.
“Our work has made people want to talk about it and that was a huge point of difference for us.
“If we’re just making beautiful shirts and stuff, we wouldn’t have stood a chance, our way was like to make noise in an industry that’s quite established.”
He references if not the work, the impact of punk fashion icon, Vivien Westwood.
“It has the same ethos in some ways, our work is very anti normative, for me, as an artist, I dress normatively in my home environments or when I go to the shops, bit why would I produce clothing that already exists in the world?”
Regardless of the overwhelming pageantry, colour, and chaos in the prince’s court his work is both ethereal and elegant.
“Some of the clothes are easy to wear, there always a way to reinterpret the chaos into something that’s commercials and wearable,” the young and adept business guru says
There are solid values which underwrite Gogos and his team’s work he wants Indigenous creative inputs, diversity in physically, gender and ethnicity of models, and is all about “empowering local workers, and local manufacturing.”
Anchored to suburban Greek-Australian roots
Gogos is invested in “elevating suburban Greek culture as a unique diasporic vision”.
He talks with excitement about “textile in Greek migrant homes.
“At my grandparents’ home and many other homes, I realised the impact of textiles, they were all around – all the art that I’ve grown up with was textiles.
“There were no paintings on the wall, maybe some icons, maybe some prints bought from stalls next to the church – but we all had intricate homemade embroidery.
Greeks in the suburbs, post-war immigrants embroidered, they carried with folk traditions extending to the Middle Ages. Our walls were adorned with embroidered colourful tableaus, our grandmothers and mothers spent time, much time, with needle and thread creating homegrown art.
“Greek migrants were all creative domestically, but the Australian never recognised it, I try to honour what they produced – the images, the textiles, the colours the sketches – it is about recognising them in a way”, Gogos says.
Right now, Gogos is focused on a showcase at Sydney Contemporary at Carriageworks. Whether artist, or designer, or something non-normative in-between or astride, it seems that the Prince of Fashion Iordanis Gogos impact on the Australian fashion has been cemented.
