Last Thursday, in the heart of Sydney, where the city’s pulse oft mimics the rhythm of mainstream fashion, a new beat emerged. The WINGS Independent Fashion Festival, held from May 8 to 9, 2025, at the revitalised George St Plaza Hotel, staged a divergence from the conventional catwalks of Australian Fashion Week.
Founded by Alvi Chung of the Sydney label Speed, along with Daniel Neeson, WINGS was conceived as a sanctuary for independent designers, providing a platform for those whose voices often go unheard in the fashion industry’s commercial echo chamber.
The festival’s ambience was a deliberate departure from the polished halls of traditional venues. Inside the Plaza Hotel, vintage televisions buzzed with static, the air was thick with the caw of live punk performances and the atmosphere was charged with an electrifying sense that revellers were a part of something new.
In a fashion landscape increasingly dominated by mass-produced trends, WINGS stands as a testament to the enduring spirit of independent design. It not only challenges the status quo but reaffirms that Australia’s countercultural fashion scene is vibrant, resilient, and very much alive.
Meet the designers...
WINGS 2025 featured five innovative labels: Catholic Guilt, Jody Just, Jotéo, Amiss, and SPEED. Each brought a unique narrative to the runway.
Amiss
Vanessa and Joshua Grey showcased their work for Amiss, a label that exists somewhere between digital futurism and intimate couture. On night two of WINGS, Amiss explored vulnerability and elegance through tactile craft. Deliberately off-kilter yet deeply intentional, the label rewrote the rulebook on silhouettes, where oversized met ultra-fitted, and chaos found choreography. It’s fashion for the disenchanted optimist, existential but make it couture.
Jotéo
A quiet storm with thunder in the stitching, Jotéo unveiled a world of romantic deconstruction. This emerging label is where architectural minimalism meets dreamscape tailoring. Fluid lines, asymmetric layers, and a palette that whispers rather than shouts — Jotéo isn’t here for a trend cycle, it’s here to build a language. Less “look at me,” more “feel this.”
Catholic Guilt
Led by Melbourne’s Ella Jackson, Catholic Guilt showcased breathtaking, intricate chainmail creations that shimmered with rebellious elegance. Their demi-couture designs, built from lace-woven metal and stones, were imagined as holy relics — esoteric, powerful, and unforgettable. Forged in the furnace of femininity, Catholic Guilt makes, “Ecclesial armour to wear for the impending apocalypse.”
SPEED
The soul of WINGS itself, Speed by Alvi Chung brought the show home in a flurry of dystopian beauty. Think club kids in mourning: veils of mesh, hand-painted leathers, distressed suiting, rebellious layering and wrapped up in cables, set to the pounding heartbeat of G.U.N.’s post-punk live set. Speed doesn’t ask permission; it reclaims the underground and parades it in platform boots, or in this case, the partnership with CROCS rubber shoes.
Jody Just
JODY JUST, a Sydney-based brand founded by Roman Jody in New York City, reimagines streetwear by utilising diasporic identity, punk energy, and personal memories.
Final Thoughts
In a fashion context where the definition of “authenticity” feels increasingly muddy, WINGS dares to actually push the envelope. The inaugural showcase wasn’t just an event but a manifesto of sorts — a bold, beating reminder that the soul of fashion lies not in conformity, but in the courage to defy, to dream, and to disrupt.
Next year, get ready for something even bigger and more incredible.
