Romance comes of age, with portrait of fashion pioneers

Designers Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales chose their longtime friend and collaborator Samuel Hodge to create a portrait of them to mark the occasion - and the resulting collage is as extravagant as one of their label's runway shows.

"When you take as many photographs as I have, it's really difficult to make sense of it all - so one way to do this is just put it all together," Hodge said.

The artist has combined hundreds of images of the designers taken over decades, incorporating brushstrokes of colour across four framed panels, all mounted over a specially made wallpaper.

The artwork, which measures 4.5 metres across, was unveiled at the gallery in Canberra Friday night.

It's the biggest framed work Hodge has ever created, and reminds him of the over-the-top approach that Plunkett and Sales' take to their runway shows, which have been known to feature everything from snow machines to giant lunar sculptures.

"It's so much more than they even need to do, but they can't help themselves, and I think weirdly that's washed off on me, especially with the production of this work," he said.

As well as being coveted fashion items, Romance Was Born designs are held in the collections of prestigious art institutions, and have been shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Plunkett and Sales have dressed the likes of Bjork, Caroline Kennedy, Cate Blanchett, Nicki Minaj and Miley Cyrus, and collaborated with artists such as Linda Jackson, Jenny Kee, Del Kathryn Barton and Ken Done.

Standing in front of the portrait for the first time, the renowned designers both seem a little overwhelmed, partly due to its proximity to famous portraits of household names, such as Howard Arkley's painting of singer Nick Cave.

"It feels like a very iconic moment for us to be put next to these people who we really admire and have always looked up to," Plunkett said.

"When you're just young and starting out making stuff, I never thought that in 20 years I'd have a portrait at the gallery next to Nick Cave."

For Sales, who says the artwork is "awesome", each of the snapshots in the collage brings back forgotten memories of designs, collections, models, photo shoots and runway shows.

"It's very nostalgic and it's been emotional and overwhelming, I'm still kind of processing what it all means," he said.

Hodge received the portrait commission in January, and spent months selecting photographs, painting onto them, scanning, reprinting, hand-cutting and gluing them.

His printer was shocked when he turned up wanting to print about 1000 images for the artwork, requiring about 30 square metres of paper.

Despite his experimental methodology, Hodge was always confident the finished product would work - after so many years collaborating with the designers, he knows what they like.

The portrait will be on view at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra from Saturday.

Australian Associated Press