Designers Susien Chong and Nic Briand. Picture: Dan Himbrechts Source: TheAustralian AS a designer, if you don't name a label after yourself there is the all-important decision to be made of what name you will bestow on your fledgling project. It needs to be something you will like saying a lot over the coming years, and also something that other people will hopefully like saying as much as they like wearing it. It has to translate well into print, from tiny swing tags to enormous billboards, all things going well. Recently, when I caught up with Nic Briand and Susien Chong, pictured, the couple behind cult label Lover, the chat turned to the reasons behind their choice of moniker. They confessed that "lover" was what they used to call each other in a mocking, ironic fashion when they started going out. But there were a slew of other options on the table before they settled on that one. "We did keep the list," says Chong, "I would love to dig out that list now. It was written on lined A4 paper in blue biro. Briand says Chong almost had her way with another name entirely: "Susien really dug her heels in on Polite Society." "I was really into Jane Austen and anything Victorian and Elizabethan," she defers, which is understandable given the duo's penchant for all things lace. "And then Susien's mum came back and said, 'I think I've got it, Tops & Bottoms'," Briand says. We've never told people other names and have them say, 'That's better'. I think they made the right choice. Gomes hits catwalk running JESS Gomes hit the catwalk for the first time as fully fledged brand ambassador for David Jones last week. She certainly has a sassier presence, in my humble opinion, than her more cheesecake-worthy predecessor. When I caught up with her briefly during rehearsals for the show, the 28-year-old, who has been based in Los Angeles for 18 months, said, "I love coming home and working in the Australian fashion industry, so I'm pretty pumped about it." I also quizzed her about the impending media circus that is about to run circles around her, twice a year, for the next three years at the least. "Obviously I'm just at the beginning stages, so I can't say yet," she demurred politely. I asked Megan [Gale] today how many shows she had done and she said, 'Oh, about 20'. And I went, 'Wow'. She seems fine. So I look up to her and think she's amazing in handling it all and I hope that I can follow in her footsteps in that sense of work ethic and having that drive. Hopefully, she's got Gale on speed dial.