Ophelia: The Timeless Woman

Melbourne Spring Fashion Week (28 August - 4 September) this year features an exhibition titled Ophelia: The Timeless Woman, curated by Maggie Journal, an online publication for live art, in conjunction with Southgate Melbourne. Six emerging local designers were asked to create a unique outfit for the tragic character Ophelia of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Each outfit represents Ophelia as she would look through the ages - past, present or future.

Penelope Hale, of Penny Drop, is one of the designers that has re-imagined the traditional portrayal of Ophelia; the innocently virginal beauty that falls in love with Hamlet, but unfortunately loses her mind when he murders her father. Since the story goes that the devastated Ophelia commits suicide in a lake, Penny Drop has come up with a very marshy, rotted swamp-lady outfit, but with a futurist edge since the outfit is of course from the year 2056.

Penny Drop is an emerging fashion label based in Melbourne. Combining underground nineties-rave themes with pops of colour and sparkle, the up-and-coming label aspires to be anything but the typical fifty shades of grey and black that Melbourne is so infamous for.

When she was at University, a classmate, who incidentally claimed to also be an alien, approached Hale one morning and said, in a tone of complete sincerity, ‘Penny, please never stop wearing colour, it makes me feel so happy’. This resonated with her and is exemplified in her work.

Penny Drop aims to make women feel comfortable and happy in colour, when Melbourne can sometimes seem like a sea of black.

With a realistic sense of the current state of Melbourne’s fashion and design industry and the highly competitive nature of seeking paid work, Hale is motivated to create colour-hungry items that she can call her own. Since she has begun working at a studio with other Melbourne-based designers, Hale has gained a deeper appreciation for the collaborative and all-encouraging fashion community in Melbourne.

‘One really beautiful thing that I’ve discovered lately… is that they (designers at her studio) are really open about everything, they want everyone else to learn and to share, and no one is in competition with one another,’ she said.

Something that has been really motivating and inspiring for Hale is ‘to actually realise that people want success for others’.

‘There are so few jobs out there other than interning, where it is generally unpaid… you’re aware of it when you’re at Uni… but when you come face to face with it, it is quite confronting’, she said.

Hale is currently building up a collection aimed at festival-goers, in time for the festival season that spring and summer will bring – the perfect time to start adding more colour to your wardrobe.

Other designers featuring outfits are Aya the Label, Marlow and Grump, Madame Buttons, Prebared Slow Fashion Co, and Elisa J Keeler. The outfits will be displayed between 7am and 10pm each day.

To view Penny Drop’s dazzling designs click here, or to purchase items online click here.

Ophelia: The Timeless Woman
3 Southgate Avenue, Southbank
Friday August 28 - Friday September 4, 7am-10pm
facebook.com/events/1620253594883655