Panache at STYLEAID 2009Panache at the Perth Fashion Festival 2009

Panache has very obvious feel of India from the colour palettes to motif. It’s cuts are not necessarily Indian. Oh having said that the designer is somewhat mixing Indian men and women’s wear in the cutting. So I guess there’s nothing so obscure about Panache. That becomes more obvious in the WA Designer Collection for Perth Fashion Festival 2009.

33 Poets at STYLEAID 2009

As for 33 Poets, maybe it’s obscure because the designer isn’t necessarily marketing it hard under her name? Or is it because it’s usually all in black? It could be said that it’s a little more experimental in it’s approach.

33 Poets at the Perth Fashion Festival 2009

As far as I can tell, Rebecca is having a lot more fun. She not only tries out something that isn’t so conventional but also she literally plays with words with her designs. Whether we would like to call 33 Poets Rock & Roll chic or old school charm it’s obvious (not obscure at all) to me that she gets to keep her fun side along with just designing for decorative Panache. My dream at the moment is visiting her Mumbai workshop for Panache.

I seriously wonder what kind of creative space she’d have there. Would she have a 33 poets’ dedicated space or is it more of a case of her switching back and forth just in her mind.. intriguing.

One last note, there was a bit of debacle getting photos at STYLEAID for Panache and 33 poets. I’ll have to make a special request to our beloved creative director Aly May so that we can avoid it in the future but what happened was that four models for each collection just walked out without any break between them so it was next to impossible get decent photos. So if you think the shots are so so now you know why….

I was rather surprised and annoyed to find out that he was the winner of the Emerging Designer Award at STYLEAID 2009 when I never got to talk to him beforehand. Well, I was happy for him for sure. He even received a cash prize of $5,000 as part of the award. His designs were quirky, edge but elegant. Obviously, inspired by scary furry creatures – spiders or other crawling bugs with fur – it could have easily been categorised only as ‘fun’ but he managed to add femininity to his garments by mixing pastel coloured silk with strong cuts of ‘creatures’. Very clever! So looking back, he was a pretty obvious choice. I don’t know whether I’d ever get to meet with him or not. Maybe, I could pull some strings. I don’t know. I’ll just have to conjure up more courage this time.

UPDATE to add on August 29 at 11:18pm – I got to meet Garth tonight at the FashionWA party . Hurrah! Apparently, my mail didn’t get to him. Dang. I shall try again. At least I’ve met him, ho ho ho.

More STYLEAID 2009 photos in my flickr collection.

If I had some free time one of these days, I’d pay a visit to Ruth Tarvydas on King Street in Perth. Actually, if I were to do that, I’d first have to rummage around my closet so that I could suitably dress ‘up’ for it. Ruth Tarvydas isn’t one of those boutiques I can just walk in wearing a tee and jeans which has become my everyday uniform of late. I feel quite fine about that by the way. After all, I’m a practical girl before being what others call me at work as a ‘Fashionista’. That doesn’t mean that I gave up the joy of dressing up. It just means that I do have other priorities – having to carry a huge camera bag for one which does not permit wearing anything of value or too delicate. Going back to Ruth Tarvydas. I don’t know where Tarvydas (the designer and the idea) originally came from but I cannot imagine using Tarvydas for anything other than a fashion label. Could you? Interestingly, I don’t see Tarvydas as just a celeb, socialite dressing kinda gown designer. I like looking at these photos and her boutique’s window in King Street because there’s certain feel of old charm in her designs.

At STYLEAID, The very first model who came out with a short black dress just took my breath away and I think how I felt at the time shows in the photograph.

I hear that there’s going to be a bit of competition getting into her show at the Perth Fashion Festival as part of the photographers’ crew in September. Only 20 or so sleeps to go before the festival. I’ll see if I can get in. I cannot wait, to be honest. So, one of those days, I’ll dress up suitably and pay a visit to Tarvydas and when I do, I’ll tell you all about it.

Then, we had Paper Skye. It was good that I got to see the designs beforehand as the lighting for that show wasn’t matching with poetic (what I thought) designs by Kirsten. Having said that, garments did look much better on models than on a dummy.

S2 was interesting. I liked the dress worn by Bec (short blonde). The hair and make-up I thought was spectacular without being ‘huge’. It worked well for the design and I like that slightly messy hair – I’d like to call it controlled messiness.

Interestingly, Flannel had the same problem with the lighting. What I call a problem would have been just a case of making the fashion show more interesting for the lighting crew and the audience. I seriously doubt if fashion conscientious people would have appreciated the funky blue and purple lighting. Anyway, I definitely didn’t like the harsh lighting for the delicate and elegant designs from Flannel. I’ll let you be the judge of that anyway. If I were you I’d just head over to my interview with Flannel’s Kristy Lawrence. There, you will have more of relaxing Flannel experience.

Tonight’s three designers/labels are – One Fell Swoop, United Constructions and ADDAM EID. I’m a little disappointed to find out that they don’t have any profile information let alone a website available online. Maybe I should have dug deeper by looking at Google search page 10 or 20. Honestly, it’s not difficult to set up something online, people. Maybe that should be my mission – enabling and empowering designers to have something decent (nothing fancy) online just to showcase and let the world know what they are doing. Enough of my rant.

As always, I appreciate good design. Although One Fell Swoop isn’t something I’ll seek out to wear I do like the ‘tucked’ and ‘pinched’ dresses. I also like the colour palette.

Now onto more exciting label (for me). I so feel like wearing United Constructions. They are exactly how I would love to dress at the moment. They are nothing I have in my wardrobe so it’s going to be a bit of challenge – wanting them all and not going to have them all.

Just the way I admire Alister Yiap’s creativity. I do admire Addam Eid’s design. I did get in touch with Addam before the show but she wasn’t available for an interview. Also, I caught up with her at the backstage and got to see those pieces up close as well. Jealous?

Just the way I admire Alister Yiap’s creativity. I do admire Addam Eid’s design. I did get in touch with Addam before the show but she wasn’t available for an interview. Also, I caught up with her at the backstage and got to see those pieces up close as well. Jealous?

So where can you buy these? The stockist information is available in the STYLEAID website but the info is embedded in annoying Flash so here I give you ‘vanilla’ text info.

One Fell Swoop – Dilletante and Billie and Rose

United Constructions – Richarda (91 Waratah Ave, Dalkeith) and Periscope (King St, Perth)