Paris Jade Burrows
Doré
The couture designer taking Australian Fashion Week to the Nine Circles of Hell
Interview & words by: Faye Couros
Images: Mica Chutrau
May 25th, 2026
Building upon her first collection It’s Real If It Bleeds, designer Paris Jade Burrows’ new collection Doré, debuting in Australian Fashion Week’s The Frontier group, is leaning further into the darkness.
Taking inspiration from its namesake, Gustave Doré, the 1800s French graphic artist and illustrator, famous for his depictions of Dante’s Inferno, Paradise Lost, and the Bible, Paris is expanding on her existential questions about humanity and bring Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell to the runway.
“This is a story I’ve been sitting on for eight years and it becomes more and more relevant. The idea that Lucifer is this big bad evil, Gustave Doré doesn’t illustrate him in this way, instead he is passive, the real evil and violence is the humans themselves," shares Paris, who conveys her anti-war messages and politics into her designs. She pushes against how clothes should fall on the body and manipulates material to move with its wearer and tell a deeper story.
“The relationship between the clothes, the designer and the wearer is something that I always want to bring to my work,” she explains, and while the inspiration behind her designs is an important part of her process, her ideas are also born through collaborations with her models, who become her muses.
“The relationship between the clothes, the designer and the wearer is something that I always want to bring to my work,”
It truly takes a village to design 50 couture pieces for a runway show, and in Australia, there aren’t many examples of this level of high dressmaking. As Paris points out “true couture and custom made garments is a really lost art in Australia.”
AFW is the premier fashion moment of the year, showcasing the best of what Australia has to offer, and it’s an opportunity for independent and up-and-coming designers to receive recognition from their industry and bring their lore alive. Paris is distinctly unique from her peers, with designs that are especially concerned with world-building, even more so than beauty and not concerned with trends.
“We don’t design to make things beautiful; we design to have conversations and tell stories,”
“We don’t design to make things beautiful; we design to have conversations and tell stories,” Paris shares and in the lead up to her show on Tuesday, 12 May, she feels confident her designs which sit between the lines of costume and fashion, can push against the predominantly commercial industry in Australia.
“I’m super passionate. I think people are really terrified of it [the designs] and that makes me want to do it more, it shows me that this needs to happen,” she says. “Whatever button I am pushing that irritates people and makes them scared needs to be pushed, there is something not being represented enough in the Australian fashion industry. I feel secure in myself and the people around me. We’re happy where this is progressing.”
Gustave Doré was adored by the public for his imaginative designs, but was dismissed by elite critics for not joining the impressionist movement or his lack of classical training. Paris, inspired by his prolific work is also using her position as a couturier to rally against the du jour of her times, and make a mark that pushes the status quo, has something to say, and is delectably striking.
Designer - Paris Jade Burrows
Director - Samuel Lucas Allen
Head of Operations - Oliver Langbein
Lighting Designer - Isobel Morrissey
Sound Designer - Dahyo Lloyd
Makeup Director - Tatiana Rose
Makeup Artist- Yasmine Keong, Pamela Madoro, Abbey Hardwick, Rosa Day, Payton Campbell, Tri Tran, Sydney Taeko
Cast
Richard James Allen, Juliette Coleman, Maddie Moore, Mike Lin, Caitlin Green, Keesha Field, Mikey Sakinofsky, Lilian Alejandra Valverde, Kimberley Jonjin, Lach Preston, Evie Marie Korver, Francheska, Jessica Eileen Carter, Jake Fryer-Hornsby, Ziggy resnick, Saxon Thompson, Kaidyn Hovermann, Fiona Jacobs, Kiera Jacobs, Chloe Langbein, Aimee McQueen, Lucy Lock, Ella King, Noah Barret, Lola Niko, Gnima Sagna, Casey Van Elk, Sam Martin, Jude Paddon-Row, Lea Etournaud, Tulsi, Coco Smith, Angus Della Bosca