Play it again, Lover

Influences on Lover's design have included Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, Iggy Pop and French singer Francoise Hardy.

Imagine hearing your favourite album played over and over again, non-stop, for six months. Or seeing your favourite movie more than two dozen times. That's a bit what it feels like for Australian designers, Susien Chong and Nic Briand, after they've completed a collection for their label, Lover.

Every season, the pair is inspired by elements of popular culture - it could be a band or a movie they like, or an artist they've seen - but at the end of the design process, after months of focusing on the same things, understandably they're over it.

"And yeah, there's something a little bit sad about it because once we've done it, it's almost like you can't listen to that sound or watch that movie again. Well, maybe in a year or two," says Briand.

Which is why the couple won't be revisiting the documentary, Guerilla, about the kidnapping of heiress-turned-terrorist, Patty Hearst. They may also need to shelve albums by The Kills.

These were major inspirations for Lover's range for next summer. Their collections have also been inspired by the likes of Kurt Cobain, Iggy Pop and French singer Francoise Hardy. The clothes are often more a conduit for whichever aspect of popular culture the couple, who live and work together, are into at the time.

"We surround ourselves with a bunch of stuff and then we sit down and say, I like this or this and that, and the narrative comes out of that. It's what inspires us really, what relaxes us. And you know if something is forced, it just doesn't sit right," says Chong.

Briand is mainly a graphics guy (he was a creative director) and Chong is the one with the sewing machine (she worked for another Australian label, Zimmermann, for 3 1/2 years). But their roles at Lover intersect. There's regular discussion about colours, patterns and graphics from both partners. And, perhaps surprisingly, not many arguments.

"People think we're weird," says Chong.

"They say, no one's like that - you're bullshitting," says Briand.

"Or else they think we're just really dysfunctional," Chong adds.

"Or else it's all bottled up in there somewhere and one day, in 10 years, one of us will flip out," Briand concludes. And they both crack up.

"No - sure, there are debates. After all, we're working together and living together. But that just means we've got to sort things out," says Briand.

Living together, listening to the same music, watching the same films and being inspired together - it has to help. "We always just run on instinct and intuition," Briand explains. Because we know that if we like it and get it, then there'll be someone else out there who likes it and gets it too."

Lately that group - the ones who like it and get it - has been expanding. The label launched with its summer 2004 collection and since then the retro-inspired hipster prettiness they peddle seems to have quickly garnered a firm following among Australia's most fashionable.

Part of the charm is a certain sort of vintage stylishness with more than hint of the 60s and 70s about the Lover clothes.

Their garments are akin to the coolest thing you'd find in a second-hand store, but with the happy addition of a modern cut and fabric.

"The kinds of clothes we do are not always show-stoppers but we like presenting them in a way that's about Lover and about what we're into," says Chong.

And this, they believe, is another part of the secret of Lover's success. They haven't advertised and believe the label's popularity has spread by word of mouth. And there's a lot of attention paid to detail, Chong says, pulling at a swing tag on a piece from the winter range. Each tag tells the story behind that season's collection and this one, called About A Girlf after the Nirvana song, is about a listless hottie called Molly who has an adolescent crush on Nirvana's former lead singer, Kurt Cobain.

This makes for, what Chong calls, "an emotional connection; [the customer] has a link with us."

Interestingly, despite being named as ones to watch by every Australian fashion magazine worth its Gemma Ward cover, neither she nor Briand feels part of the Australian fashion establishment yet.

"We're just doing our own thing - we have to be part of the industry but we're not out there chinking glasses and air kissing. In fact, we go to things and most of the time people don't even know who we are," says Briand.

"A lot of our peers have chosen to be the faces of their brands but we're not really comfortable with that," says Chong.

"It's more about the culture and the story [behind each collection] and I think that comes through," says Brand.

At which stage Chong tells the tale of a VIP customer who came to the show at Australian Fashion Week in Sydney a couple of weeks ago. The soundtrack to the runway show was a mixture of songs by The Kills.

"When she met us she didn't even say anything about the clothes, she just went 'oh my God, I love The Kills. Did you see them live'?" says Chong.

"It's kind of like being at a party and seeing someone wearing the same band T-shirt. They're your best friend for the night," says Briand.

And what better reason could there be for making pretty clothes? Briand and Chong get to introduce a whole bunch of would-be best friends to the pieces of popular culture they're passionate about on a seasonal basis. And, maybe, not listening to an album for a few months afterwards is a small price to pay.