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Lucire Fashion 2003

New talent Brad Batory has a healthy, postmodern outlook on designing fashion—one that includes a humanitarian agenda of helping teen mothers, as Jack Yan discovers

 


 

 

He explains, ‘I like companies that encourage you to be you. I hate clothing lines [and] companies that dictate.’

NE OF THE MOST personable designers we’ve come across in the last 12 months is Brad Batory, the man behind the Indashio label in Dunedin, Florida.
   When we connected with Batory, he was excited about his latest collection, to be shown in March, all proceeds from which will benefit the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
   It is easy to be cynical of donations, especially when one considers that some of 2002’s fallen companies were major donors to causes. But in Batory’s case, the concern is genuine. He’s a 19-year-old who wants to make a difference and has had to already fight a great deal of frustration and many naysayers to realize his dream.
   Fashion-wise, he’s already there. His première audience will not be disappointed, if the preview we received at this magazine is any indication. Youthful, flowing and off-centre, they speak of Batory’s design philosophy of creating garments that are personal and have his creative signature. In other words, Indashio is happy to carve its own niche and sets out to be as distinct from the mainstream as possible. ‘My vision is diversity,’ he tells us. ‘I find beauty in things that I think others look past … I want to do what hasn’t been done.’
   Like many Generation Y members, Batory has a postmodern outlook on life, critical yet accepting at once. ‘It’s like that saying, “Two people could be looking at the exact same thing and each of them see something totally different.”’
   Not formally trained, fashion came to Batory as an epiphany. With an undistinguished high school career—‘One of my greatest accomplishments was graduating’—he had enough passion and direction to know that he was not going to follow a downward path. He would carve a future for himself, but on his terms. Of his fellow classmates, he believes half are in jail, the other half in college. Neither seemed desirous in Batory’s independent eyes.
   That independence is apparent with Batory’s plans for his label and its future direction. He is determined that Floridians won’t be the only audience for Indashio shows. As with his contemporaries in most of the world, Batory is hooked on the idea of the global audience and its treasure of individual cultures. ‘Indashio inspiration is [the] different cultures throughout the world: their history, their style, their cultures.’ New York, Miami, Paris and Tokyo are the cities that he picks as his stylish locales—and possibly sources for future audiences.
   He rates any label that properly differentiates highly. Christian Dior and Versace get his vote for being colourful and willing to stand out. For men, Batory cites Girbaud and Sean John. A particular favourite is Betsey Johnson. However, he is not impressed by the mass marketing of some labels, believing that fashion should be as personalized and as distinctive to the wearer as possible. ‘I hate the Tommy Hilfiger look. It reminds [me] of Communism where everyone dresses the same.’
   He explains further, ‘I like companies that encourage you to be you. I hate clothing lines [and] companies that dictate.’
   Wisely, Indashio is not just a label churning out clothes. A lot of graduates from FIT, NIFT, Central St Martin’s and Massey might be doing that and only a handful make it into the household-name arena. One essential difference is doing something on top. Batory’s differentiation comes from his humanitarian causes, which instantly attract titles like ours. The great irony here is, despite his disagreement with the Tommy Hilfiger look and their very different philosophies, humanitarianism is a corporate strategy shared with the Hilfiger company.

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