#Person jumping line drawing series#

I know many more people in Tokyo than in London” - and she was meant to make a 59th on September 12. Sherman’s acquisition of Japanese fashion has necessitated 58 visits to the country - “I’m part of the furniture there. ‘The Bride Wore Pearls I’ (2022) by Atong Atem © Ben Sullivan (2) “It’s not grand,” she says, “but for Sydney it’s historic.” They include a house built for the lord mayor in 1918. “I didn’t see that as a collection until we moved into the new house,” she says, referring to her home, Braelin, more like a campus of five discrete buildings on Sydney’s Centennial Park. Her collecting ranges across contemporary art, clothing, jewellery and, more recently, furniture. She is one of Australia’s most assiduous collectors, philanthropists and art-world activists. While not high-maintenance in the hair and make-up sense, Sherman is a powerful figure in Sydney’s cultural life. Over the years, sections of the collection have been gifted to museums, not least the Powerhouse (or the Museum of Applied Arts and Science) in Sydney, where she sat on the board from 1993 to 2000.Ĭlothes by Yohji Yamamoto (left) and Commes des Garçons from Gene Sherman’s collection The rest is carefully cleaned, wrapped in acid-free paper, boxed and archived. “My ‘wearing wardrobe’ used to be 32 garments, now it’s gone up to 55,” she says. She believes that thousands of years of Japanese thought flow through his work. She doesn’t just live in Issey Miyake - she’s wearing it as we speak and in the FT’s portrait - but has also collected clothing by the celebrated Japanese designer for years, along with a lesser showing of his compatriots Comme des Garçons and Yohji Yamamoto. He liked to say that he didn’t design for high-maintenance women.”

“People ask me, What are your comfortable clothes? Well, Miyake is comfortable. “I’ve never owned a pair of jeans, and I’ve never drunk a Coca-Cola,” says Gene Sherman.

#Person jumping line drawing series#

Gene Sherman photographed at her home in Sydney for the Financial Times by Ben Sullivan.