Romance Was Born steps beyond the traditional runway with RE, an ambitious new presentation created for Melbourne Design Week in collaboration with Cultivated, Cult Furniture’s sustainable refurbishing programme. Following the Sydney label’s 20th-anniversary celebration, designers Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales turn their attention toward a more multidisciplinary exploration, giving salvaged furniture a spectacular new life through the house’s exuberant language of embellishment.

Developed within the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, the project draws deeply from its textile archives, with traditional French lace and handmade Art Deco wallpaper by Auguste Thomas providing key points of reference. Those historical influences are translated into slender bias-cut dresses fashioned from vintage Italian bedspreads, finished with feathered trims, capes, and evening gloves. Elsewhere, an embellished denim pencil skirt, flannel layering, and a mod mini styled with contrasting coral tights introduce a sharper contemporary edge.

The dialogue between fashion and interiors becomes central to RE. Upcycled sofas and chairs are transformed with antique and vintage textiles, sequins, tassels, and fringe, while garments echo the richly decorated furniture around them. An embroidered patchwork jacket with a vivid fuchsia feather collar mirrors the upholstery of a nearby refurbished sofa, creating a playful visual conversation between clothing, object, and space.

With its cinematic atmosphere and deliberately extravagant spirit, RE feels less like a departure from Romance Was Born than an evolution of its imagination. Rather than treating nostalgia as a destination, Plunkett and Sales use heritage as material for reinvention, blending fashion, art, and circular design into a joyful new world. Two decades into the label’s story, the project signals a broader creative direction, one that embraces experimentation and sustainability while leaving the drama and exuberance of Romance Was Born firmly intact.