Australian fashion designer Martin Grant has gifted over 200 designs from his own personal archive to the National Gallery of Victoria.
The collection covers more than three decades of Grant’s career, with designs spanning from the early 1990s when he established his eponymous label in Paris, through to his recent autumn-winter 2019 collection. The gift also includes a large selection of archival material including press clippings, runway footage, sketches and photographs.
It also adds to NGV’s initial collection of approximately 30 other designs by Grant.
The gift will form the basis of an exclusive exhibition surveying Grant’s body of work, held at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, and designed in collaboration with the designer.
Highlights from the gift cover cocktail wear and evening gowns, including a dress from the designer’s 2014 spring-summer collection featuring a graphic diamond jacquard, alongside outerwear such as tailored jackets, peacoats and trenchcoats such as his Mary Poppins coat.
This isn’t the first time NGV has collaborated with Grant, with his designs being featured in a 2005 exhibition - his first major Australian retrospective.
“With a deep appreciation for the traditional techniques that sit at the heart of bespoke tailoring and couture practices, Martin Grant has established himself as a longstanding and beloved figure of both Australian and global fashion culture,” NGV director Tony Ellwood said.
“This incredibly generous gift of more than 200 works to the NGV Collection is truly transformative. It brings extraordinary depth and comprehensive breadth to our representation of Martin’s work and makes ours the most significant holdings of his works anywhere in the world.”
Throughout his career, Grant preferred to work with a restricted colour palette, with fabrics such as felted wool and silk satin, and with very limited use of surface embellishment. His high-level clients have included Cate Blanchett and Lee Radziwill, as well as Juliette Binoche, Emmanuelle Devos, Tilda Swinton, Blake Lively, Cameron Diaz, Kate Hudson, Emma Stone, and Eva Longoria.
“The National Gallery of Victoria houses the largest and richest fashion collection in the southern hemisphere,” Grant said. “To have my own body of work represented in this collection in Melbourne, the city of my birth, is a true privilege and an honour.”
Martin Grant began his career as a young fashion designer in Melbourne in the early 1980s, notably as an active participant in the Fashion Design Council parades. After seven years of running his own fashion label in Melbourne, Grant undertook studies in sculpture at the Victorian College of the Arts.
Travelling to the United Kingdom in 1990, Grant then worked for two London-based fashion houses before deciding to move to Paris. In 1992, Grant re-established his fashion label and four years later opened his own boutique in the Marais district.
In 2003, Grant was invited to join Barney’s New York as artistic director of Barney's Private Label - a tenure he held for 10 years. In 2014 he designed uniforms for Qantas.