EXCLUSIVE: Martin Grant Talks First Major Career Retrospective in Australia

Yahoo

06-02-2025

PARIS — One of the most discreet designers in fashion, Martin Grant is about to step into the spotlight with his first major career retrospective set to open in his native Melbourne.
Though he's dressed style icons such as Cate Blanchett, Lee Radziwill, Meghan Markle and Queen Rania of Jordan, Grant has always kept a low profile.
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'I didn't go into this to become any kind of star,' he told WWD in an interview. 'The idea of performance terrifies me. So whereas other people have that naturally in their makeup, for me, it was always [about staying] backstage, working.'
Nonetheless, he's something of a national hero in Australia as one of the country's most famous fashion exports, not to mention the designer of the uniforms worn by Qantas pilots and flight attendants.
The 'Martin Grant' exhibition, set to run at the National Gallery of Victoria from March 28 until Jan. 26, 2026, will feature around 100 works from the museum's collection, in addition to more than 40 loans from the designer's personal archive and private collections.
It promises to provide the first comprehensive overview of his career from the mid-1980s to the present day.
'It's true that I'm probably one of the only Australian designers established internationally and for such a long period of time. I was definitely the first Australian that showed in Paris,' he said. 'I've been here for 35 years, so for a whole younger generation, they wouldn't necessarily know me, but I think after this, they will.'
Last year, the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) announced that the designer had gifted the institution more than 200 items from his archive, in addition to material including press clippings, runway footage, sketches and photographs.
As a result, the museum, which has been collecting his creations for three decades, now owns the world's most significant body of his work, noted Tony Ellwood, director of the NGV.
'Martin Grant is a self-taught, Melbourne-born designer who has truly captured the attention of the international fashion world. With a background in sculpture, he approaches fashion with a sculptor's eye, creating garments that have a direct formal relationship to the body,' he said in a statement.
A master technician with a flair for exceptional fabrics, Grant is known for chic, timeless looks with a dash of flamboyance. The exhibit will showcase eveningwear and ballgowns in monochromatic hues on specially designed invisible mannequins that create the illusion of the garments floating in mid-air.
His signature outerwear — think crisp tailored jackets, peacoats and trenchcoats — will also be in focus. Highlights include his brown leather 'Napoleon II' coat from fall 2000, worn by Naomi Campbell, and a red wool 'Joan of Arc' dress from fall 1999, seen on Blanchett.
Grant took stock of his archives during the coronavirus pandemic, subsequently closing his showroom in the Marais district of Paris and moving full-time to a country home near the southern French city of Arles, a magnet for creatives thanks to institutions like the Luma art complex designed by Frank Gehry.
Propped against a wall of the temporary showroom where he presented his fall 2025 collection were two framed children's drawings, ready to be shipped to Melbourne.
'These are my paintings that I did when I was in kindergarten — so I would have been 4 — and they're all ballgowns,' Grant explained, adding that 10 in total will be included in the exhibition.
A section of the show, to be held at the museum's Ian Potter Center, will highlight pieces he designed for Radziwill, the younger sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who was a close friend until her death in 2019.
'She was like the chicest, naughty aunt you could wish for,' he said at the time. 'We spent many summers together, swimming, painting, smoking.'
The exhibition will also feature pieces worn by celebrities including Blanchett, Michelle Pfeiffer and Diane Kruger, as well as photographs of the likes of Kristin Scott Thomas, Kate Moss and Lady Gaga in his designs.
In recent years, the NGV has hosted blockbuster exhibitions like Dior's 70th anniversary retrospective, in addition to becoming a force to be reckoned with on the international auction stage, mainly thanks to Krystyna Campbell-Pretty, a philanthropist who has purchased and gifted more than 250 garments to the museum since 2015.
The institution is also padding out its fashion photography collection and has purchased a large-scale image by Sarah Moon featuring a red taffeta dress designed by Grant, which will be featured in the show.
He continues to design two collections a year for his mainstay retailers and private clients like Sofia Coppola, using deadstock fabrics to minimize the environmental impact of his creations.
Grant's navy, fuchsia pink and red uniforms for Qantas are set to be phased out in 2027 after 13 years, but he continues to work with the airline on new projects, most recently on pajamas for first-class passengers.
A book accompanying the exhibition details how Grant, who got his start in the Melbourne club scene of the '80s, landed in Paris with a series of guerrilla-style happenings.
'I look at my collections as they are now, where I've kind of synthesized everything down to these classic styles, and that's how I see myself. But actually going back into it, and when I was doing the fashion shows, there's a lot of much more exploratory work there,' he remarked.
His first show in 1994 was held in a café on Rue du Trésor in the Marais, with models walking in the street. For the second one, the late Vogue editor André Leon Talley invited top editors to Grant's tiny shop on Rue des Rosiers and corralled Campbell to walk on a runway made of real turf.
For aristocrat Valentine de Ganay's wedding, he dressed the statues at the family's Château de Courance in giant crinoline skirts — one of fashion's current obsessions. The next season, he held his show under one of the tent-like skirts at his store. 'There were maybe 15 people there, it was a tiny thing,' he chuckled.
Grant's charismatic persona and easy humor may well be the secret of his longevity.
'A journalist recently referred to me as the Red Dwarf,' he said with a delighted cackle. 'I didn't know this, but in a constellation, the Red Dwarf is the star that's out there that you can barely see, but it's the one that's creating beautiful galaxies.'
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