Styleaid 2009 // WOW - ABSOLUT Emerging Designers

Vodka Absolut is sponsoring this part of StyleAid (Grand Ballroom at the Burswood Entertainment Complex, Friday, 31 July 2009) - supporting emerging designers. There's a familiar name Mandi Mac by Amanda McKenna which I've seen as part of Fremantle High Street Collective (which has now become Fremantle Collective).

StyleAid is on in the middle of winter but we will get to see swimwear by Lady Lasvicious and summer Kaftans from Almond Trees by Linda Ellis. Getting well and truly ready for really chic summer I hope? I'm also quite excited to see Paper Skye, Garth Cook and ADDAM as well. I've only got 10 days to go so I wonder how many designers I get to see. I'll be getting together with Sheree Dornan from Love in Tokyo as a start. I'll see how many I can fit in..Fortunately, I was able to get a media pass for the show so I'll see the show at the photographers' pit while guests will be dining. Hmmm.

Vodka Absolut emerging designers;

• Almond Tree Colourful Kaftans by Linda Ellis
• Mandi Mac by Amanda McKenna
• Lady Lasvicious by Nyssa Ashling
• Paper Skye by Kirsten Shadbolt
  
• Garth cook
• ADDAM
  

Anyhoo, it's so wet and windy in Perth of late I cannot possibly think of anything other than snuggling up in bed. That said, I did a couple of interviews to continue my discovery of creative sapces and designers in two days. Not bad huh?

I just hope that I'll have enough time to get to talk to more than just a few designers before the show if not all. Wish me luck and keep warm.

Creative Spaces - Christobel

My quest to discover creative spaces started with Lonely 8bit heroes' creator, Zoe Trotman's 'chaotic design studio'. The second instalment comes in an all together different package. Think vintage, antique market and sweet childhood dreams. That's exactly what came to my mind when I stepped into the Christobel's studio. Christine kindly invited me on a lovely Saturday afternoon to let me have a sneak peek at her latest creations for the upcoming Made on the Left street market. (July 24 and 25 at Hyde Park Hotel)

I've encountered Christobel for the first time in April at the Unwarpped South Perth market day. So curious about its style and whimsical materials used I wanted to see where all the goodies were created. Nested in a quiet area of Mt. Lawely amongst 1920's old houses, the exterior of the house had well trimmed rosemary hedges and an old kids' bicycle was sitting on the veranda. It was such a lovely space all throughout. At every corner I saw bits of old and new displayed in harmony. It didn't seem like she had to do some massive re-organisation or cleaning because someone was coming to take pictures of her space. The whole house was simply packed full of stuff - impeccably organised I must add - that it could not have been possible to create that space just for one off photo shoot. According to the artist, it has to be organised as she had so many things. Many things indeed but they were all incredibly beautiful.

Our conversation naturally drifted to her next outing, Made on the Left where she will be showcasing cuffs made with colourful fabric and vintage buckles. You can buy these on Saturday, 25th July at Hyde Park Hotel. You might have to hurry.. knowing the intended price I think they will sell fast.

Christobel goodies are created based on 'findings' - antique buttons, books, vintage buckles and other small pretty things- I cannot wait to see what else will come out of this charming 'studio'. There's an afternoon tea planned at the Christobel studio at the end of this month. That should be pretty cool. Watch this space to see what will come out of that little girly gathering.

Styleaid 2009 // WOW - White on White

Perth Fashion Festival 2009 Program/Schedule is downloadable here. The entire program should be downloadable soon.

Not having a TV is mostly good but it's bad when I miss out on things such as Styleaid. While the WA AIDS council has been promoting the annual premium fund-raising fashion event Styleaid on TV I had no idea that it was happening in my neck of woods. Obviously having a broken rib didn't help as I've been missing in action for good five weeks. Now I'm trying to get back into it only to find out that all tickets are sold out. They were going for AUD$200. Not cheap but don't forget that this is a fund-raising event for good causes.

The proceeds from Styleaid support a number of community projects. Just name a few (this is what I learned from Styleais website) - education for young people on HIV/AIDS, safe sex and safe drug use. DVD project titled 'Being positive' featuring three young people with HIV and their life stories. The most interesting this for me is the Freedom Centre where young with all different sexual orientation (they call it LGBTIQQ - Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Inter, Queer and Questioning) can hang out and support each other. We've truly come a long way since the movie, Priscilla the queen of desert.

Now, that was my little backgrounder. If you were lucky enough to score tickets for Styleaid on July 31 2009 bless you and I envy you. Anyway, this year's concept is White on White (hence WOW), the photographs have been taken by none other than Stefan Gosatti (I have a couple of photos of him check out my coverage from the last year's Perth Fashion Festival) .

Now onto designers - I didn't list all of them. These are my favourites. Another proud moment as these are all fabulous West Australian fashion designers. Some of them are already making it big internationally. I listed them left to right and top to bottom in the photos below. Tomorrow, I'll have to check out the emerging designers for 'ABSOLUT Emerging Designers'

• ae'lkemi
• Aurelio Costarella
• Alister Yiap
• Flannel - this is actually in my neighbourhood.
  
• Love in Tokyo
• Panache
• One Fell swoop
• S2
• Tarvydas
• Antipodium
• Empire Rose
  

Perth Fashion Festival 2009 Program Launch

Face of Perth Fashion Festival 2009, 2008 WA model of the year Emily Cattermole

Finally, Perth Fashion Festival 2009's program has arrived (Friday 4/09/2009 to Thursday 10/09/2009). This was a near miss. I barely got myself organised to get to the launch show at 9:30 this morning. Having only a couple of hours to spare I snapped away and said hello to a few people I know. It was a relatively cold morning but the venue - old GPO in Forrest Chase - was charming and I was so excited to see the program.

The thing is since the economic downturn there was a talk of downsizing the festival (it's now running for 7days instead of 10). For example Ray Costarella (local designer exporting to the US ) apparently refused the covetted invitation to the NY fashion week as it was deemed not viable. I say 7 days of fashion is better than non at all and looking at the program it is pretty jam packed. I'm pretty sure that WA's economy is better than most other places looking at new designer store opening in the city namely Emporio Armani and Burberry.

Perth Fashion Festival is now into the second decade celebrating its 11th year. Oh I didn't know that until today but it is certainly the biggest event in my calendar after my guy's birthday. The launch show - if I could call it a show - was all about acknowledging the sponsors, organisers and most of all the release of the official program. Who's who of Perth fashion scene were there to have some chitchats and drink some champagne - a little early I thought.

I had some exciting moments without having any champers. Jack Be Nimble's Alister Yiap and the last year's WA student designer award winner, Leanne Lim will be showing off their work as part of the WA designer collections #2 on September 5.

Also, I met Sheree Dornan from Love in Tokyo - one of my favourite stores in High Street in Fremantle. She is flat out not only preparing for the festival (WA Designer Collection #1) but for the show StyleAid 2009 which is due to happen in two weeks time. I might be able to have a sneak peek at her designs before the show.

Alister Yiap's design

As you can see Perth Fashion Festival is all about supporting WA local designers and industry. On a day like this I'm quite proud to be living in Perth. We've got only 50 days to go. Running up to the launch show I will be catching up with student designers, WA designer collection participants and visiting local boutiques participating in the festival.

Tomorrow, I'll reveal the whole program.....but not before I go though a few more shots from this morning.

Tom Bull is our Youth Ambassador for the Festival. He is studying at UWA (the BEST in WA ) and jet-setting around the world modelling (who says all models are bimbos... ?) for Etro, Vivienne Westwood, and Ferragamo. Lisa Scaffidi is the Perth City Mayor and also the Festival Ambassador and finally Lisa Cattermole, the face of the festival.

You would think by now I wouldn't make such a big deal out of goodie bags after each event by showing you a photo but I still get excited by show goodie bags. Here I have some hair products from L'Oreal, Bella Hart's perfume sample and some tube of fancy cream. Of course, there you see the program. Ok. it's been a long day and I'm off to sleep. Ciao.

UPDATE: Perth Fashion Festival 2009 Program (Schedule) in PDF. Download HERE so that you can manage your fashion schedule more wisely!

UPDATE: Perth Fashion Festival tickets will be available online at Ticketek or check the Perth Fashion Festival website's ticket page for more details.

Lonely 8bit heroes by Zoe Trotman

I kick off my WAIFT (West Australian Institute of Fashion and Textile) 2009 graduate interview series with the creator of Lonely 8bit heroes. Creative people come in all different flavours. If I were to be moronic enough to categorise them Zoe Trotman would fall into the 'wild creative' category.

Zoe studied Photo media at ECU. I asked her how she got into studying fashion after having completed a degree. It turned out that she was doing a photo shoot one day and she had to dress a model. That little moment was a turning point for her. Ditching a camera for needles and threads.

Lonely 8bit heroes' experimental designs are all very fun. Quite fittingly, she was given the opportunity to spend three weeks at the studio of Romance was born in Sydney in April this year as part of the graduate work placement. She spent very long hours cutting and stitching up a storm to get their collection ready for the Rosemount Australian Fashion Week. Who would have thought I'd get to meet one of those who worked behind the scenes of that fantastic collection. After that amazing experience Zoe is getting geared up for the graduate exhibition in December.

Don't you want to buy her colourful tights? I suggested to her that she should start selling her creations in Etsy. We will see if that does happen. I cannot wait to see her florescent silicon tin dress on a runway. Only five months to wait. Not long...now.

I did see Zoe's design during 2008 Perth Fashion Festival.

Lonely 8bit heroes' dress and a jacket. Jacket made out of curtain. I don't know but that curtain was supposed to be made into a jacket I think. I don't see how it was a curtain in the first place.

Tin dress. Not quite finished but nearly there .

Fun drop skirt. Zoe with her cheese ring.

Check out other cool photos of Zoe and her crazy creative space.

Why Creations by Willem Heyneker

Aviation pilot turned Jewellery designer, Willem Heyneker's exhibition is a lot easier to understand than many other art exhibitions. I'm the first person to admit that I don't always understand everything I see. For a start, Heyneker's inspiration apparently came from landscapes across the UK, Africa and Australia. Most importantly, they are wearable almost all except maybe the spine look alike thing - Tingles down my spine. I don't want to make a huge deal out of this but this is amazing stuff. There were some decorative pieces as you can see in the photos.

Most pieces are quite affordable too - relatively speaking that is, jewellery exhibition visitors I assume have bigger pockets. The exhibition runs until Sunday 26th July at the Cracked Gallery at Behind the Monkey.

Willem has a website - Why Creations http://www.why-creations.com
He is also blogging http://heyneker.blogspot.com/

Tingles down my spine - image from Willem Heyneker's blog

Haute Couture Fall 2009 - Jean Paul Gaultier

While I've been blissfully ignoring the world fashion for the past few months Paris Haute Couture shows came and went. I'm no Queen of Jordan or Oprah so I have no reason to pay much attention to the Haute Couture collections apart from the good ol' entertainment value. After checking out various media sites I can say that Jean Paul Gaultier entertained me the most closely followed by Givenchy. Jean Paul must have upset animal activists all over the world as so many furry and not so furry animals should have been killed to adorn those models. I don't have much qualms about wearing fur/leather so no big deal for me but it seems there was plenty of animal skin abound. My favourite was non-animal turquoise silk dress (bottom left) this time.