ESS Laboratory

The Melbourne based Ess. Laboratory, design duo from Japan has embraced an extended notion of fashion as a collaborative effort where a reaction to the predominance of commercial designs and conventions in the Australian fashion industry inspired them to create fashion that stems from individuality and conceptual ideas. Hoshika Oshimi established the label in 2001. She showed her first collection Sprit of the Beehive in Melbourne where she has since presented her women’s collections.

Her collaborative partner Tatsuyoshi Kawabata, renowned for composing music for television commercials, animated works and films in Japan, composes music for all Ess.Laboratory shows and soon became a part of the design team in 2003. Oshimi and Kawabata have an obvious desire to defy any commercialisation of their work. Surrealistic ideas are translated into unorthodox shapes, unexpected cuts and forms, and by the same token, Ess.Laboratory’s clothes are always wearable and timeless. To them, fashion is not seen as something that is superficial but a search for the essence of it.