Youth World

Youth World truly lives up to its name. This world is the invention of Australian Therese Rawsthorne, the art director and creator of the label. And what´s most alluring about Therese Rawsthorne´s world is its similarity with the worlds which almost all fashionable girls dream up, along with the rules which dictate how they dress.

Teresa graduated from design university in 1999 and moved to London in 2001. But she didn´t leave her native land behind for good and returned to Australia in 2003, bringing with her, lock stock and barrel, all the rules and codes by which the English fashion industry lives.

The spring-summer 2007 collection is the fourth in Youth World´s history, while the first made its appearance in 2004. Admittedly, following that Rawsthorne lay low for a while and reappeared only in 2006, but there are plenty of designers who can only dream of making the sort of re-entry that she did. After the first collection to go on show (spring-summer 2006/7) hit the catwalks, several companies from Australia, New Zealand and the USA immediately expressed a desire to start working with the brand and the collection was featured in Harper´s Bazaar.

The inspiration for Youth World´s new collection was drawn from rural Australia. All the clothing is designed in the spirit of folk traditions, of the sort of clothing worn at home by poor families living in the midst of mysterious woods and of the terrifying fairy tales born from them. Materials of the highest quality (the finest toile and transparent jersey) make up for the basically simple outlines. The collection is based on the founding principles of Youth World´s design — beautiful and obviously expensive items are made to look fairly casual and are worn in an off-hand way.