Inspired by architecture and the designer's 'weirder' impulses, Tridente is a label showing a side you've not seen from Couture+Love+Madness' Cristina Tridente.

Cristina Tridente is known for the structured, feminine gowns of her high end fashion label, Couture+Love+Madness. So her new fashion label – self titled, Tridente – might be a bit of a shock.

Cristina in her home studio working on a Couture+Love+Madness gown.

A cross-section of art, fashion and architecture, the eponymous label was designed whilst Cristina studied at fashion school, Central Saint Martins.

“The concept came out of my summer study at Central Saint Martins last year. They gave us a brief that was about distorting human bodies, and whether you looked at architecture or sculpture or a dancer for inspiration, I focused on Zaha Hadid – her sculpture and how skeletons are the backbone of her work,” says Cristina.

An affinity for architecture seems natural for Cristina; her father and brother are both architects in Adelaide.

The pieces are made with fabrics unlike any she’s used before: trench coats, rain coats, kites, parachutes. And the method for designing each piece is new to the established designer as well.

“They’re very organically draped,” says Cristina. “There’s not a lot of pattern work in it. I came up with a concept of cutting a particular shape out of the fabric and just piecing it together to just see where it went. It just kind of forms on the body.”

The result is fascinating.

“When they’re on the runway, they’re like clouds, they’re meant for movement. Because they’re so lightweight, they pick up a lot of air.”

It’s a big leap from the lined, boned, highly designed pieces she has been making for the past seven years with Couture+Love+Madness, but Cristina says it’s an exercise that has enabled her to harness her full potential as a creative.

Cristina with a piece from her new Couture+Love+Madness collection

“I think there’s always been a real artsy, more weird side to my designs that have popped up in the past. This is like a bridge between the side of my brain that has all of these wacky ideas, but is still wearable. That side is probably suppressed because of what customers want, and has been dormant for a few years,” she says.

In saying that, the new label is already receiving commissions despite not having officially launched.

A Tridente piece was included in the Adelaide Fashion Festival campaign imagery, which garnered the attention of many a couture lover. But what she finds most interesting is the type of person who is purchasing the designs, and how they wear them.

“In my head I thought this was going to be for the more eccentric people who go to every exhibition at the art gallery, that they’re more kind of works of art that are built upon with every client. It’s really interesting to hear that people would mix them with more mainstream pieces, you know with a sneaker.”

Studio cat – Supervisor No. 1

Tridente will debut this Thursday evening when on the Couture Culture runway at Adelaide Fashion Festival.

Couture+Love+Madness will continue in addition to Tridente, and the new collection will also debut at the Couture Culture runway.