Topshop coming to Oz

According to Grazia, Topshop will be stocking clothes in Incu stores in Sydney and Melbourne! Although we can buy online now, and the range will not be as large, it will be cool to be able to try clothes on as I have had a few inconsistent size dramas with buying online.

Friendly Fires - How to Dance

Friendly Fires

Love this clip for kiss of life, the lyrics, Ed MacFarlane's voice and jagger-esque dance moves. I hope they win the Mercury Prize! Click the link to see the clip.

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Easton Pearson at GOMA

The 20-year anniversary of iconic Australian fashion label Easton Pearson is to be celebrated in an exhibition at Queensland’s Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA). The exhibition will run from August 22-November 8, 2009. http://www.qag.qld.gov.au/

Maticevski beautifies bridesmaids

Haute Couture designer Toni Maticevski has launched a bridesmaid dress range at Myer called 'Sweethearts' with options priced between $250-$399.

New diffusion line Grbac

Juli Grbac, winner of Project Runway Australia season one is adding a more affordable line called 'Grbac' to her usual haute couture range. Prices will range from $300-500 and will hit stores in October, ready for summer parties! Brisbanites can get a sneak preview at Mercedes Benz Fashion Festival in August.

Fortune SS09/10 Tina Kalivas

Topshop Translations

Topshop has created some great new shoes designs embracing Louis Vuitton's tribal and Salvatore Ferragamo and Chanel's ladylike bow visions. Online at topshop.co.uk. Summer is just around the corner.

Chanel and Vogue on film

I saw Coco Avant Chanel last night and I was intrigued by the story of Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel's personal life before she made it to the heights of fashion design. Do not read on if you haven't seen it as there are many spoilers!

The movie profiled her early days before she made it big, from singing cheesy songs in cafes, her affairs with wealthy men and the beginnings of her business. Despite her impoverished background - having being raised in an orphanage, she appeared to have a sense of entitlement and snobbery about her, and seemed frustrated that she had not been born into privilege, lying about her true beginnings.

She is portrayed as a multi-faceted woman who was unique from other women of the early 20th Century. She wanted to have a career but she did not realise where her talent lay- an attempt to be an actress revealed how self unaware she was. Her desire for a career was really driven by her poverty, like so many successful, famous people.

She was also a contradiction in her dealings with men, cynical about the role of men and love after being abandoned by her own father, all the while engaging in affairs with very wealthy men whom it seemed she used for money. She did fall in love with a man who she later found out to be married and he was instrumental in encouraging her and funding her business (with his wife's money). Later in life she was involved with a nazi soldier which caused her to fall out of favour with the French. I was dissapointed that she was not purely independent and seemed to use her body to get ahead however it was a very different era and I should not criticise with my post-feminist movement eyes.

I was inspired by her role in revolutionising women's fashion, freeing them from corsets and frills and using men's clothes as her muse to create her signature style that is still timeless today.

Audrey Tatou does a brilliant job in portraying the subtle nuances of Chanel.

The catch cry from friends who have seen this was that we wanted to see more of her journey from when she first started designing hats to her rise to the top of the fashion world. There are also darker aspects to her later life - stories of her attempts to wrest control of Chanel Parfums from her partners, the Wertheimer family, by exploiting the Nazi race laws, and of her startling offer to Hitler’s secret-police chief to broker a negotiated peace with her old friend Winston Churchill—a farcical operation code-named Modellhut (fashion hat) by Chanel’s S.S. handlers. Perhaps there will be a second biopic in the works that covers this.

There is another Chanel movie that debuted at Cannes this year, called Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky. It profiles her affair with the impoverished composer Igor, where she invites him and his family to move into her villa, allegedly enaging in a passionate affair. Keep an eye out for that one!

In other fashion film news, The September Issue is coming up at the Brisbane International Film Festival on August 4. It debuted at Sundance and is a fascinating behind the scenes look at the 9 month process of Anna Wintour, Grace Coddington and Andre-Leon Talley creating the september issue of Vogue with Sienna Miller as covergirl. Can't wait!

Ezy Ezines

Taking magazines to the next level of interactivity are groupie and pages, free Australian e-magazines @ http://www.pagesonline.it/

Pages is the fashion mag where the photographs literally jump off the page and with the click of a mouse you can purchase what you see online or comment on collections.

Groupie has a similar level of interactivity with each page turn you get to listen to a band's latest track while reading about them and purchase on the spot.

These mags are the future of editorial and advertising in publishing. Gone are the days of reading your favourite magazine and then calling stockists to see if they have that dress in stock and can they hold it for you, or having to go to a seperate website to listen to the tracks you read about.

There are more titles in the works from this innovative company so stay tuned.

I can't speak French

How good is your french? your italian? your espanol? If it's not so hot, then follow this link to fashion designer's names with the correct translations: e.g Lacroix is Lakwa, and Loewe is Low-vay.
http://fashiondoohickey.blogspot.com/2008/12/tongue-twister-fashion-designer-labels.html

Valentino: the last emperor

There seems to be a proliferation of fashion documentary films of late - The September Issue featuring Anna Wintour and Lagerfeld Confidential about Chanel's maestro Karl Lagerfeld.

I will be looking out for this film, which has recently screened at the Sydney Film Festival. The story revolves around the day to day activities of Valentino and his partner Giancarlo Giammetti in what it takes to design and deliver several fashion shows, the lead up to his 45 year celebration, and the demands of the corporation behind haute couture.

Lost and Found

Tired of fishing around your bag for your keys/wallet/phone? Chanel's new briefcase may be your must have new accessory. But it will only look good if

a)the contents are worth showing off and

b)the contents are not being shown off to muggers in an unsavoury neighbourhood.

Fallow me Fallow me

Fallow on Brunswick Street in the Valley, Brisbane is one of my favourite stores. Its position tucked away from street level perched up high makes it feel like a members only club where pedestrian people are not invited. The fit out of the store is dark and moody yet feels warm with its friendly stylists and deer antlers. A fire place in the corner would feel very at home here. Labels like Friedrich Gray and Buddhist Punk are amongst the mono-chromatic themed pieces.

Kristy Morgan's jewellery line has just arrived - pieces incorporate kangaroo leather, feathers,spent bullet casings, cast bird bones and fish vertabrae. It feels very reminiscent of All Saints - the London label, except that all of the pieces are unique, not mass produced.

French designer Sandrine de Montard's chain mail jewellery has also arrived:

Mossy Mania

High summer is upon the northern hemisphere and the latest Kate Moss for Topshop collection is about to be raided by thousands of northerners. Her latest collection is one of her best yet, featuring her trademark boho with luxe metal embellishment and ethnicity thrown in. I am loving Mossy with a bit more meat on her bones too!

Coco Before Chanel

I am eagerly awaiting the new movie Coco Avant Chanel which opens in Australia June 25. The film is partly based on the biography L'irreguliere by Edmonde Charles-Roux which traces her life from her humbe beginnings before her rise to queen of the fashion world.

Audrey Tatou plays Coco and apparently papa Karl (Lagerfeld) designed her costumes and approves of her portrayal! And papa Karl knows best.

RAFW Spring/Summer 2009

Wrap up of the Rosemount Australian Fashion Week Spring Summer 2009

A Grade

Alot of cosmic/cellestial 70's looking prints from TV & Friedrich Gray, Balmain inspired strong shouldered jackets at Ellery, Camilla & Marc and Harem pants everywhere! While this has all been done before in the overseas collections last year, it is nice to see some creativity thrown into the mix and not just bland copies. Friedrich Gray is a fave because of his Josh Gootish easy to wear Jersey-ish material you can just throw on in, depsite that fact his stuff is mostly black, except for a couple of neon pieces for summer. Dion Lee was the most exciting new talent with his structure, tailoring, cut outs and zips.

D Grade

Wayne Cooper, Lisa Ho and Antipodium were all disappointing. Wayne looks like his mind was stuck in a late 90's nightclub (how does this guy have a place at fashion week?), Antipodium tried to bring back grunge but it just looked sad and Lisa Ho's collection was all over the place and such a disappointment from her recent A/W 09 collection- the animal print/safari clashed with her 70's prints and grecian frocks. eek!

A Grade

Ellery

Dion Lee

Friedrich Gray

D grade

Lisa Ho

Wayne Cooper

Mr Hilton, I'm over you

Bored of wading through Perez Hilton's mass market celebrity blog?

Gofugyourself.com hones in on the fashion of hot young things in hollywood/ny but in that familiar bitchy tone of voice which makes us feel much prettier than supermodels.
http://gofugyourself.celebuzz.com/

Economic crisis - Vogue to the rescue

Vogue Australia's April 2009 issue is fashion on a budget. If one of the most high end magazines is featuring a pull out mini-mag on high street chic and are saving money themselves by reproducing the cover photo from a Vogue Japan cover, you know things are tight. 

But the mini-mag's art direction and styling is still very vogue and makes me want to get back out there shopping. Kirstie Clements is to be commended for doing a take on realistically priced fashion when half the world has lost their jobs. Although I must say it was a bit sad that she chose to appear on Today Tonight - the shameless 'current affairs program', giving styling advice to the pedestrian audience that watches that show (don't ask how I happened to see it!).

American Apparel are the new inventors

The crew at American Apparel have been twisting and unravelling into new inventors with the creation of the Circle Scarf. The Scarf is one piece of fabric that can be used to create twelve different looks. From $65 and in several block shades and a tie die finish, this is the most recession proof piece you need this Autumn.