capitalism. This meant Afonina was starved of beautiful clothes.
“There really was nothing to buy as far as fashion went,” she says over
coffee at Luxe, a café in Sydney’s Woollahra. “We used to buy interna-
tional magazines and then make the clothes ourselves based on the
collections.” Afonina’s mother, an engineer by trade, had been sewing
her own clothes since she was young and taught her daughter the
basics of design. Despite this, Afonina had no aspirations to work in
fashion. “I was always good at maths,” she says, “that was my thing.”
At 17, Afonina moved to Australia with her family, where she
enrolled to study finance at The University of Sydney. On graduating,
however, she was swayed into the world of
fashion, landing a role, as luck would have
it, in the fashion cupboard of Harper’s
BAZAAR Australia. Afonina then moved
into freelance fashion styling after the birth
of her son, Ollie, in 2011, racking up an
impressive little black book of clients
including Elle Macpherson, Lara
Worthington and Phoebe Tonkin.
Afonina says becoming a mother moti-
vated her to create Albus Lumen. “Having a
child made me more mentally mature
somehow,” she says. “It changed where I
was, not just in terms of my career, but in
terms of who I was as a person.” After a year
of brainstorming, Albus Lumen launched in
2015 with a collection inspired by a Greek
holiday during which Afonina had trouble
finding stylish resort wear that could also
translate to her everyday wardrobe. Her
first collection set the pace for what the
brand would be all about: simply struc-
tured pieces in linen and silk-cotton
blend, rendered in a palette of rust,
white and baby pink. “It was about
filling a gap in my own wardrobe, but
now I move very instinctively and
organically, following whatever I am
inspired by at the time,” she says.
Albus Lumen is now stocked on Matchesfashion.com,
Net-a-Porter and Moda Operandi, and is a favourite
among the Australian fashion set. A slew of accolades only
adds to the label’s perceived overnight success — last year
Albus Lumen took out the BT Emerging Fashion Designer
Award, the Australian Fashion Laureate Best Emerging
Designer Award, and was the sole Australian designer to
qualify for this year’s International Woolmark Prize.
The capsule collection that scored Afonina the
Woolmark nomination took an entire year to produce,
the finished product being a hyper-curated selection of
resort wear realised in Australian merino wool. Everything
is cream, with seashell inspired jewellery and merino
wool accessories; bucket hats and pouch handbags.
Afonina says. “It’s about taking wool into resort terri-
tory,” Afonina says. “I think people have this idea that wool is
always heavy, but it’s actually a very fine, natural fabric that is
really versatile. The approach that I had is that it’s still Albus.”
The IWP was staged in London in February as part of London
fashion week, with a highly esteemed selection of judges, including
former Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz andGame of Thronesstar turned
fashion icon Gwendoline Christie. Aside from the global recogni-
tion that comes with taking out the IWP, winners were vying for a
cool cash tip of $200,000 to invest into their businesses.
Ultimately, Albus Lumen didn’t
take out the top prize — it went to
New York-based husband-and-wife
duo Colovos. So far no Australian
has won the IWP (previous
entrants have included Dion Lee
and Christopher Esber). When I
see Afonina backstage after the
winners have been announced, she is gracious and in good spirits.
“I’m so glad I did it,” she says. “It was such an amazing experience.”
More than anything, the IWP nomination further cements her
position on the global map, which fits nicely into her plans (the
morning after the prize is announced she jets to Paris for appoint-
ments). “I love Australia, but it’s a small market here, and I think
everyone is working on a more international level. I’d like to do a
launch in Los Angeles and expand to Europe — there are a lot of
big plans for the next five years!”Afonina (in
white) with her
team members
Sarah Farrell
(left) and
Tiffany Shaw in
Paris in
September.“It’s about taking wool into resort
territory. People have this idea
that wool is heavy, but it’s actuallya very fine, natural fabric.”
All images: Albus
Lumen for the
International
Woolmark Prize.57 HARPERSBAZAAR.COM.AU April 2019