Style Discovery

Search results for label/Fremantle Fashion Collective 2008

Couture Friday by Fashion WA at Bistro Felix

by songy on 08. Nov, 2009 in Uncategorized

Fashion WA guys, Jacqui and Chelsey always seem to be doing interesting stuff for WA fashion supporting fantastically talented local designers. Couture Friday at Bistro Felix was one of those events. Fine dinning at Bistro Felix then pretty models from Scene walking around the table showing lovely garments. I later found out that the models even got paid. Yes, fashion models don’t always get paid for what they do, you know…

Coutre_Friday_FashionWA_Bistro_Felix_fascinators

Although I was feeling rather crook, I did pay a visit to see the crew before the show. Petticoat Minx’s fasciantors fascinated me. I hear that they are all individually handmade. Cool? Don’t you love the crazy brow make up by Penny?

Coutre_Friday_FashionWA_Bistro_Felix_clothes

Ah, I was thrilled to see Paper Skye’s new design (second row)! The venue, Bistro Felix, was cool although it wasn’t that parade friendly. I could see that the food was quite sumptuous. I loved their vintage style prints on the wall.

It was also great to see some familiar faces and getting to actually know names of some of the faces (as well). I finally got to meet Greg from the West. I see him in most events I attend but I never knew his name although he is rather famous in his own right taking photos from the biggest paper in WA. I was also approached by Emma Bergmeier, Fashion and Art editor from X-press magazine. She was asking me if I could ‘shoot’ for X-press at all graduation shows. Yeah, why not. I don’t know exactly what’s involved but I’m sure that means processing photos as soon as the shows are over… more sleep deprivation is in order it seems. I also saw Teagan (one of the project managers from the Perth Fashion Festival 2009 and Fremantle High Street Collective 2008) who is preparing to launch her own jewellery label. I hear that her stuff will be stocked at the famous Varga Girl. The flagship store was relocated from King St. to Oxford st. in Leederville recently. There will be an official opening of the store. It’s going to be big. I’m so excited about it… probably there will be a personal tour of the store by Teagan herself before then! Hurrah.

Back to Couture Friday, fortunately, I didn’t get to see the entire show. Regardless, I like the idea of lunching and fashion show. Will they be next time, Jacqui? Please count me in.. I might even get to sit down next time for a change?!

Fashion WA’s store is selling all you see in the photos (of course, not the girls or the wine…)

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STM fashion issue for Perth Fashion Festival 2009

by songy on 30. Aug, 2009 in Perth Fashion Festival 2009

Did you manage to get a copy of Sunday Times this morning? If not, you’d better hurry. Today’s issue includes a Fashion Issue of STM which was all about Perth Fashion Festival 2009. I have to thank Teagan Swell for reminding me of this. As I never read papers or watch TV so I do miss out on seemingly obvious news sometimes. Luckily, not this time.

The magazine was better than I hoped for. Is it to due to the fact that people are already talking about Perth getting out of the so called economic downturn? I don’t know if we actually had any to be honest. With Emily Catthermole on the cover, I found pages on who’s who of the Festival (maybe I could be listed in there next year? hmm haha) , an interesting analysis on the Festival and its future, an article on Ruth Tarvydas and the WA Fashion Awards write-up with a nice picture of the ‘trophy’ designed by Kailis. On a moment like this I’m very proud to be a West Australian. Perth is not a big city but we have so many talents and there are a lot of exciting labels – not mass produced and more often than not locally produced. Essentially that’s what makes up Style Discovery. That’s exactly why I was so buy yesterday attending three different fashion events in support of local talent. I hope you enjoy the festival. I’m sure I will.

Kailis designed ‘trophy’ is like a dog-tag isn’t it? No regular dog-tag though. White gold and mother of pearl panel make it very special. Some of them will also have black diamond I hear.

STM_Fashion_Issue_PFF09-designer_collection

If you haven’t got a calendar then head over to the official website. PFF officials have finally updated the program to include the only the calendar.

By the way, Teagan was the project manager for Transformation – Fremantle High Street Collective from last year. High St. Collective has become, I hear, Fremantle Collective to include the wider fashion community in Fero. She is also managing the VIP Fashion Show as part of PFF 09. I met her in person finally last night at the Fashion WA Launch. You’ll get to see her soon in the launch post.. very soon.

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Mandi Mac by Amanda McKenna

by songy on 30. Jul, 2009 in styleaid 2009

So are you all ready for Styleaid?

Yeah, except for some last minute touches.

Then you’ll be delivering stuff tomorrow to WA AIDS council?

No, we are taking them in person because there’s this umbrella.

Is that because they are delicate?

No it’s just ridiculous big!

This is how my little chat with Amanda McKenna (Mandi Mac) went on. Nicely sized and positioned granny flat off her home is used as Mandi Mac’s studio in Menora, suburb that is very close to the city but not that well known – consider it as a hidden treasure with old charming houses.

I first came across Mandi Mac at Fremantle High Street Collective in 2008. I then found out that she dressed a best man (actually a girl) for my friend’s wedding. Confusing? Well fear not. It all made sense when I met her. With her cracking personality it’s not strange for Mandi Mac to design a suit to dress a girl who’s been named as a best man.

Are you then doing different things for PFF then?
Not completely but we will add fresh pieces for Perth Fashion Festival. It’s for us as well for others. We want to keep things fresh. And also we don’t do wholesales as we have two shops so we can do different things as we feel like.

So how’s Hustle and Libertine arranged and how’s the business?
It’s co-owned by three of us – Mandi Mac, Linpin and Cocoon. Mt Lawley (where Libertine is) is more out there more experimental. Whereas, Fremantle (Hustle) is less so.

Mandi Mac?
It’s co-owned by three of us – Mandi Mac, Linpin and Cocoon. Mt Lawley (where Libertine is) is more out there more experimental. Whereas, Fremantle (Hustle) is less so.

Mandi Mac how did it all start?

Started late, went to uni and did a couple of degrees.

Couple?

Anthropology and sociology, minor in media. Then I studied part-time at Freo Tafe (Challenge TAFE). And then entered a couple of competitions and did really well so I went full time study at Bently (Swan TAFE). Started my label in my second year and started wholesale in Perth. In the third year, I took my collection to Melbourne Fashion Week and got an agent. Then from there….

When was it then?

2006 no.. 2005

How do you describe your style? Why do people love mandi mac?

Most of stuff comes out of from here has hand worked elements. All of them we’ve touched in some ways. All the tucks in dresses they are done ourselves (Joe and Amanda). There’s always hand crafted feel to it.

Do you think that’s the main attraction?

Ah we also do very small runs. Just to keep it fresh for us and keep the momentum for us. I like doing 5-10 and move onto next thing then move onto next thing.

So you don’t have big collections happening once or twice year then?

Yep, keep injecting new things all through. For fashion festivals, I do more experimental pieces which I love doing. A little break from retail work.

But how you study anthropology and change it into fashion?

In a way, anthropology helped in this industry. Also, while I loved being academic I also loved working with my hands more. I love my tools. Dying fabric etc.

We then somehow got onto talking about her other half. Mandi hates calling him husband so we settled on ‘partner’.

So you have a partner? I’m not assuming anything here.

I love you said that. Yes, I do have a partner. He is a lawyer.

Do you dress him in a Mandi Mac kind of way sometimes?

No, he is fine by himself actually. He does it quite well.
The only reason he got a date from me was because he was wearing Dr. Martens. And the second date, he picked me up after work.. he was wearing cufflinks… he’s a bit left a field. Other lawyers don’t understand him. People don’t get it… Nah, he’s cool. Are you with someone?

I’m married.

You don’t look like you’re married to someone!

I’ve been married to my husband for 12 years! So, I know a thing or two about being with someone. Changing each other.. improving..

Growing!

Yes, Growing. He obviously supports you.

Yes, he does very much. He is the person who makes me a cuppa when I’m working at night.

How is it financially for you at the moment?

Self sustaining. There’s no point comparing with other WA’s big labels as we are doing well. And, I don’t want to leave Perth at all. I also have renovations to the house to do. I hate Melbourne weather.

I think you found your niche market here anyway. It’s only going to grow.

Exactly, I think it’s the long term sustainability of the business that is more important. Also going back to why people like Mandi Mac. – They are collectors’ pieces rather than trend based pieces and that’s how I want to keep it. A couple of times West Australian called them ‘must have’s but that’s how they called it at the time.

Well I can’t wait for the show on Friday.

Yeah, I’m quite excited. It’s like Christmas for fashion crowd!

We digressed, we laughed and had a good time. No doubt you will be seeing more of Mandi Mac in this space because we need that dose of Mandi Mac happiness (as often as possible).

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Styleaid 2009 // WOW – ABSOLUT Emerging Designers

by songy on 20. Jul, 2009 in styleaid 2009

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.

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Jailhouse Frock part III – labels from Hustle

by songy on 21. Apr, 2009 in Jailhouse frock

This is largely a guess work. I could have actually phoned Hustle to find out but it only occurred to me (7:30pm and the boutique is closed) then. If I wait until tomorrow I’m missing the opportunity to post this sort of on time (my arbitrary schedule). That is my excuse.

Last year, after Transformation, the High Street Collective show, someone wrote to me to ask where she could buy the dress she saw in Style Discovery. Later we found out that Hustle in Fremantle was the place. Lin Pin and Cocoon are available in Hustle and I’m guessing all others are too.

Here I have for you The Butcher & The Crow, Ruby Mariani, Cocoon, and Lin Pin. The chunky accessories for Cocoon are from Loop.

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Challenger TAFE Student work for Jailhouse Frock

by songy on 20. Apr, 2009 in Jailhouse frock

Student works always excite me. For the Challenger TAFE student section of the Jailhouse Frock show did present some pieces that I have already seen during Transformation. I did find some new stuff too.

I’m crazy about tulle so I’m happy to see it again and again. Also, the dress with bright flower appliqué is ever so sweet. I think these are the best shots I made for both dresses. The grey number, I haven’t seen it before. The print is interesting and so is the darts in the bodice.

The second batch of the dresses were totally new to me. I really like the skin tone dress with the back treatment which is subtly sexy. Of course, the blue dress is so vibrant and strong. I think they picked a right model for the dress as well. She wore it well and walked well in it. It shows well in the photos. I believe I was talking to the designer of this dress at the show. Unfortunately, I didn’t get her name although I gave her my card. I hope I get to post her name against her designs. That will be nice wouldn’t it?

Among the last batch, my fav is the bright blue and red panelled jacket and a matching dress. Oriental but not strictly. The cut is a lot stronger than of the traditional Chinese dresses yet it’s feminine enough to make a girl look elegant. What is your favouriate then out of all these?

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Love in Tokyo

by songy on 25. Mar, 2009 in Uncategorized

My guy and I decided to go out last Sunday. It was a nice clear day with moderate temperature of 20C. It was a fantastic day to be outside. Fremantle sounded like a good destination – shops are open and there would be plenty of people out and about enjoying the sun. I packed my Nikon D50 and Charlie’s Nikon FE.

With no particular plan we just went out. After a battle with slightly annoying Sunday traffic on Canning Highway we eventually arrived in High Street.

Love in Tokyo rings a bell? I knew that name from the Transformation show coverage I did back in November last year. I went in and immediately felt liking taking pictures. You’d easily guess why. Luckily I didn’t have to apologetically explain why I needed to take photos of the boutique when I met with Sheree Dornan because she already knew my website and my name. Blog card came in handy once again.

Love in Tokyo takes me back to my teenage years. When I walked into the store I had this strangely familiar feeling of reading romantic Japanese cartoon novels that I used to devour when I was in my teens.

Western Romanticism with Japanese flare – as cheesy as it may sound for some – that is the best way for me to describe Love in Tokyo. I didn’t bother to look at any particular piece of garment. It’s for you to discover really. I think there’s something for any girl or woman.

I might have to think very hard to find out what those cartoon novels were called all those years ago in Korea. Chances of me finding that out is pretty slim I know.. but it will be interesting to see how I’d think of them now since I remember them being popular even among older folks namely women in their 30s.

Update: Love in Tokyo now has a store in King St. Perth. It’s at the Wellington St. end of King street so walk all the way down from Murray St in the City.

View Style Discovery – Shopping in a larger map

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Taking photos my way, Part 1

by songy on 01. Mar, 2009 in Uncategorized

Asian Cajun girls asked me to do a tutorial on photography last week. When asked, I deliver.

One thing is clear though I wouldn’t call what I do ‘photography’. People sometimes ask me if I’m a photographer. I am NOT. I just like taking photos of certain things in a certain way. When people ask me how I take photos I tell them that I just point and shoot. I don’t listen to what so-called experts say so what I’m saying here is just to show you how I do things and not asking you to follow. If you’re just interested to know how I took shots at the Elsa Couture launch, Fremantle High Street collective and other events..read on.

What I shoot, subject : I snap all the time but I do like shooting in high energy places such as busy restaurants, concerts and most of all fashion shows. I don’t like having to set up lights, and props etc since I’m not a photographer nor a stylist. For that reason most of my photos are taken with available lights. More on that coming up.

If I didn’t use the flash (not full but 20% I think) here he would have come out really dark. Check the settings here.

Flash or not to flash: I don’t use flash. Not usually that is. Only time I used my Nikon Speedlight 800 was at the Burlesque party. I rarely use the on-board flash on my camera but it did come in handy when I was shooting some sunset with my guy in the scene. As for the outfit post photos, I’ve been using lots of lamps around the room when I was living in my old house. My dressing room there was pretty dark so I had to but where I’m now I don’t have to as there’s really bright halogen lighting in the kitchen. I never use the red-eye setting. Doesn’t work and it just drains my battery much quicker.

Which camera?: This seems to be a perennial question for a lot of photo enthusiasts. I use Nikon D50 which my guy bought for me in 2005. Nikon and Canon both make really good cameras. There’s are lots of famous names but I haven’t used all of them so I cannot speak with any authority. I don’t participate in Nikon vs Canon battles either. I used both and they both make great pictures. Don’t listen to people raving about pixels. Now we can buy 24mega pixel cameras. Honestly, I don’t need one of those. Mine is 6 MP. Extra pixels don’t make good photos. For professionals shooting landscape and portrait stuff extra pixels will be good but for a snap shooter like me I don’t need all those pixels. Why? More pixels demand faster everything. Faster memory cards, faster computer and more RAM on my machine etc..it takes more time for everything. Downloading, storing and manipulating the list goes on. As I always say, time is of essence.

For the burlesque photos it would have been just as good to use a small pocket camera such as Canon SD880. Single Lens Reflex camera such as Nikon D50 or Canon 5D (confused? don’t worry.. I’m confused too) are good if you are willing to lug around a relatively heavy camera gear. They are not exactly small enough to fit in a handbag if you know what I mean. If you are thinking of buying a new camera I’d go with a Canon pocket camera and play with it a lot before going into buying an SLR. I even took photos of fireworks with my really old Canon digital IXUS 400 this year. This model came out in 2003 and I still use it. I see a lot of good photos taken with small pocket cameras and a lot of crappy photos taken with the latest mega Mega Pixel SLRs.

I’m thinking of buying extra camera(s) for these reasons:

D50 is not a full frame camera – almost all digital SLR cameras are about half frame. This doesn’t mean much to people. Simply put if I want to use a super wide angle lens which allows me to fit as much stuff as possible close up in one shot I need a full frame camera such as Nikon D3, D700 or Canon 5D. Why? Say 14mm lens isn’t really 14mm anymore with D50. It becomes more like 28mm in which case it’s wide but it’s not super wide.

D50 isn’t really fast enough – my old Nikon F90 (old film camera from 1992) is much faster than D50. I can only shoot 2.5 frames per second(FPS) with D50 as supposed to 4.1 with F90. I just can’t shoot action (eg fashion shows) that well with D50. I saw what I could do with more FPS when I was using Canon 40D (6.5FPS, shown above) at High Street Collective. I was having a burst of three shots in a single release (shutter press). Super!
D50 takes crappy shots at ISO1600 – ISO is basically the light sensitivity setting which used to be the film speed for film cameras. With day light I shoot with ISO200 (I’d use 100 if I could but D50 only goes down to 200). As I mainly shoot with available lights without flash I need to have it higher so I go up to 800 when there is very little light. If I use 200 (less sensitive) at night time, D50 will take forever to get enough light to take a shot. While the camera is doing that I have to hold it still. In most cases my photos are blurry that way. Now you know why your photos get blurry. That’s the shutter speed. When using lower ISO settings the shutter speed slows down. It’s fine if I’m using a tripod with a remote release but if not I do need to increase the ISO so that the shutter is a little faster. If I could use ISO 1600 my photos will be a little sharper but D50 makes really grainy pictures with that setting. Higher ISO means nosier and grainier photos. With later models I could get away with ISO1600 although some people will tell me never to use 1600. I don’t care what others say as long as my pictures look good to me.

Settings, forget about camera settings: This is another area which makes people go crazy. I don’t listen to what other guys (yep, it’s usually guys who crap on about camera settings) say about settings. What looks good for them looks crap for me in general. This means I have to do things my way. Luckily my way is pretty simple. I use program Auto which is ‘P’ in my camera dial. It’s basically Automatic but with the P mode I can change things around. I sometimes just shoot in Auto with the flash turned off.

At fashion shows for example, I take a shot and if it looks okay I’ll continue to take photos with the auto or P mode. If the shutter is too slow (making shots a little blurry), I increase ISO. If it’s little too dark, I lower the aperture number (F setting). There are times when I go with the manual mode for example for fireworks. Here’s the settings for the photo above. I followed the instructions from Ken.

28-70mm F2.8 I bought second hand for $1500. Image from Ken Rockwell

What’s with aperture? I’m not going to get into this in any depth but if your lens (pocket or SLR) says F2.8 this means you can take an easier shot with less light than when taking a shot with F4.5. That is one of the things that pushes the lens prices. For example, my mid zoom lens was AUD $1500 second hand because it’s F2.8. My regular lens is only F3.5 and I can pick that up for less than AUD$200 brand new. This is one of the reasons why sometimes pocket cameras take better pictures. My old Canon IXUS 400 is built with a F2.8 wide angle lens. Want to know a little more? Read an article by mr. Rockwell himself.

I think this is enough for one post. I’ll continue this in my next installment.

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Blog Cards with MOO.com

by songy on 16. Feb, 2009 in Uncategorized

This is a real lame-o post if you ask me. I hope someone out there could still benefit from this. Sometime last year when I went out to take some pics from the Perth Fashion festival I had to tell people who I was. I guess the conventional way is to present a business card. As I don’t actually run any business I decided to make Blog Cards. Nothing special really: it looks just like a business card but instead of having a business name I had my blog name, blog URL and nothing else.

I had quite a few different versions of Blog Cards until now. 1st generation was made with some wrapping paper from Ikea printed in my HP ink jet printer. For the 2nd generation I sourced some scrap booking paper (card stock) with different designs on each side and printed the information on one side in the same ink jet. Until recently I didn’t feel the need to get them printed professionally.

Time is of essence for most of us now. I decided to get heaps made so that I didn’t have to manually print and cut them one by one. Here comes moo.com. UK based company delivering a very cool online application enabling people to upload their own photos/images to be used in various types of cards. MOO also works with third party applications such as flickr, Facebook and Etsy so I was able to use high quality images I already had in my flickr photostream.

Here’s the latest iteration of my Blog Cards with full contact details (now you know my mobile no.). Pack of 50 has different photos on the back. I cannot remember exactly but there were about 13 different images so just a few repeats in 50. I could have had 50 different pictures if I wanted. They look so good that I sometimes hesitate to give them away. The photos were taken during Fremantle High Street Collective and Elsa Couture launch. It makes sense to have photos from the local fashion events for fashion Blog Cards. Great conversation starter as well as showing off some photographic talent or lack there of.

The pricing? Remembering what it is like to get something printed with a huge variety of images in one set of cards at a regular print bureau MOO’s service is pretty cheap. ($22 USD for a pack of 50+shipping). My hourly rate is so highs now that it’s no longer cost effective to make the cards at home.

The Quality? Print quality is as good as it gets. Obviously it pays to have high quality images for the logo and photos. If in doubt just follow MOO’s instruction or go with MOO’s pre-designed cards. They look very handsome.

Delivery? It seems like everything is done somewhere in Europe if not in London so it takes a bit of time to arrive. I got mind in 10 days or so. For me that’s normal as anything I order has to come from the US or Europe all way to Perth, Australia. Each shipment also contains a discount card to lure you into printing other cool things in MOO.

What would you say? This is my third/forth post on Blog Cards (first one here and second one here). If you haven’t made one yet maybe it is about time. MOO.com is the best business web application I’ve seen in a long time. Printing cards can’t get easier than this. In case you’re wondering MOO didn’t ask me to write this nor was there any payment involved. I don’t make money blogging hence Blog Cards not business cards.

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Discovery of Olympus OM10

by songy on 29. Dec, 2008 in Uncategorized

I caught a bit of a camera bug this holiday season. This isn’t sort of a bug which only makes mere mortals yak on endless about pixels and full digital lenses. This is a mega bug that makes me covet all things camera – Box Brownie, Leica, Mamiya, Holga, disposable film cameras, all things Lomo and so on.

There’s a legend in my household which is often told to embarrass moi. Back in the old days, I’m talking early 90′s. I bought a top of the range Nikon.. which was named F90 (N90 in the USA). I was a complete dummy when it came to SLR cameras. I did not know what aperture meant and what shutter speed did when making photos. I shot everything in the Auto mode and I didn’t know any better for many years. Fast forward 10 years. My friend Charlie who is a little more cluey about cameras was having a look at my SLR gear one day. I presented two lenses from my camera bag which has been tucked away in my closet and only saw some daylight once a year. One of the lenses was 70-210mm. This really meant squat to me. I only knew it as a telephoto lens but never found it useful until Charlie pulled the lens barrel out to extend the length. My eyes widened. Charlie and my guy couldn’t stop laughing at me. Look Ma, it’s a TELEPHOTO lens! For ten years, I only used it at 70mm and I didn’t know that the lens was meant to be pulled out to be used for 85mm and onwards.

Time flew without me attempting to know anything about my cameras. I’ve been a good ol’ ‘point and shoot’ happy snapper and everything was honky dory. Then digital cameras came out. The same story. It was even better as I could dump any bad shots without wasting paper. As with any amateur gadget hungry chicks, I bought a DSLR (Nikon D50) without much thought three years ago. The ‘shooting auto’ saga continued until this year. I finally started understanding what I was doing this year thanks to Mr. Ken Rockwell. The result of this enlightenment can be found in many of my posts: Elsa Couture and Unwrapped and High Street collective to name a few.

Today, I had one of the happiest moments. When I was rambling on about different film formats and vintage film cameras my guy pointed out that he also had a vintage camera. Olympus OM10 with a 50mm f/1.8 lens has been hidden in the darkest corner of our house for years until today. I was so eager to start shooting but it didn’t have any power. Batteries were flat. They might have been sitting in there for over 10 years without being used. Oh well, first thing tomorrow, you know what I’ll be doing.

This camera first came out in 1979. This is older than you maybe? This 30 year old manual is going to be my bed time reading tonight. 2009 is going to be exciting. I’ll be making pictures with films. I’ll be having fun.

I hope this is going to be my last rambling on cameras. I do hope to get my hands on a decent medium format camera such as Hasselblad, a toy camera such as Holga 120N(or CFN), a rangefinder like Mamiya 7, wide format digital like Leica D-Lux 4, full frame film SLR such as Nikon F5 or F6, and oh the list goes on and on. There’s a definite risk of this blog becoming a camera blog. Yikes.

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empire rose sale and deals too good to be true

by songy on 01. Dec, 2008 in Uncategorized

When deals sound too good to be true then they are, right?

Deal 1 (no deal): I’ve been looking for a full frame DSLR (i.e. Nikon D700 or D3). Last night, while I was browsing eBay half asleep I came across an unbelievable deal. One eBay seller claimed that she was selling D3 for less than $2,000 AUD as supposed to the usual price of $6,500 AUD. You’d think that’s a scam right off the bet. Well, I didn’t. You see..I can be very gullible. As I really wanted that particular model, I wanted to believe that it was true. I sent the seller an email asking various questions. Basically, she had five units of D3 and she is not that greedy blah blah. She even had a feedback rating of 99%. There was six hours left to go for the bidding to end and it was nearly midnight. I didn’t believe I could make any kind of offer so I went to sleep. Looking back I think it was totally stupid but I thought that could be a real deal?! After having a lousy night sleep, I went to work sheepishly. It was a good thing that I talked to my buddy Hiep who told me that the kind of scams were rampant on eBay. Specially those don’t take regular biddings and asking to transfer money via Western Union are to be avoided at all cost. That woke me up. Although I wanted to believe, it was too good to be true. I would never find out if it was a genuine deal or not but I can be sure that I won’t be losing $2000 AUD for a camera that may not arrive.

my dream kit: Nikon D3 with 70-200mm VR F2.8{photos from www.kenrockwell.com}
These are not cheap. Handsome 10K.. I could buy quite a few WendyB’s jewellery for that price.

Deal 2 (real deal): empire rose is a West Australian(WA) label designed and made in Fremantle in WA*. I absolutely adore all of the designs from ER and some of you have already seen the winter 08 collection in C’est si belle some time ago. The only issue is that everything from ER is out of my price range. Imagine the joy I had when I received a mail announcing a outlet sale. Knowing how expensive garments can be I was rather dubious at first but I did score three fabulous shirts and a pair of trousers. Shirts usually go for $375 each but I got them for $75 each. The trousers were a sample design so there was no original price tag but knowing what it is I can guess that it would have easily been between $300 and $400. I paid $50. Real deal? Hell ya.

Empire Rose Studio, 10 Elder Place, Fremantle WA 6959
Phone: (08) 9433 6781 Fax: (08) 9433 6782

I’m in no shape to dress up and pose for you so these will have to do for today.
The pin tuck shirt looks fab on me!

empire rose has some incredibly beautiful sheer dresses, ruffled tops, great basic items and unusual designs which I tried all but couldn’t buy as I couldn’t face going bankrupt over clothes.

*I could have said Perth but people in Freo will kill me for it. Freo is a port town which is about 20 minutes out of the Perth CBD.

Read full story • Comments { 27 }

Dressing Songy No.4 – Beige Patent Sets

by songy on 23. Nov, 2008 in dressing songy

Dressing Songy No.4 has been pushed to the bottom of my posting list for so long. I nearly forgot to finish. It’s really no one’s fault remembering the fashion show I covered and the party! So much is going on in Perth I almost have to say I love the place and I can barely keep up with all of the posting materials.

When I bought the beige patent sandals in question I was dubious about the usage. Well, by that I’m saying I was going against the golden rule of shopping ‘don’t buy unless you love it’. The downfall of that kind of shopping is that I never get out of my comfort zone hence no experimentation.

As usual, collective wisdom of my readers couldn’t be underestimated and you amazed me with more brilliant ideas. Here’s the long list of suggestions from Your Total Awesomeness.

Franco said…
I see this with a black dress maybe. Beige is tricky, not really white, not really brown.BUT i see it with a dress.

Couture Carrie said…
I love the “nude” look – another similarly hued item like a camel or skin-tone dress would be fab!

La Belette Rouge said…
Like CC, I like nude with nude. I also like it with brown and navy. I am a big patent fan. Love beige patent otherwise I feel like beige just looks blah on me.

Dapper Kid said…
I love the pale colour, I would go with medium to dark clothing, so biscuit browns and navy

Emily said…
one of my favorite color combinations is red with beige. i have some nude patent heels that i throw on with a red dress for a subtle, sexy statement.

The Clothes Horse said… Monochrome beige look? I just imagine a beige winter look of piled on layers…but it doesn’t really suit the shoes…I’m just cold as I type.

THE HOUSE OF STYLE said…
i like clothes horse idea. i will take it a step further… so lots of almost non colours(pastels perhaps)…think ecru,grey,mint etc loose garments. so start with a loose maxi dress in one of those colours then pair over it a loose cardi in another non colour type garment ,could be a loose cardi and so on dear. so make it a loose unstructured look with lots of yummy pastels and mild colours,mix different pastels together for a calm look. Think Jill sander and her muted palette.whatever you wear i know you will look fab!

Stompface said…
I actually wear a ridiculous amount of beigey colours (bags, shoes etc)
I think it looks really good with pale blues and greys.

Sarah-Lou said…
I would wear them with white men’s trousers, a skinny shirt and many many golden necklaces for a glamorous and retro style!

K.Line said…
Here’s my idea: Don’t figure out how to wear them. Send them to me!!
(These are FANTASTIC)
Oh, and they’d look great with navy opaque tights in fall or with a pleated dancing skirt (knee length, chiffon-y)

Agnes said…
OOOOOh, Season 4 of Dressing Songy, I’m so excited!!
I’d probably wear them with a faded pair of old jeans and a fancy sleeveless lace top and long necklaces… that’d be my first draft anyway.

Brigadeiro said…
Oh, I love nude shoes! T these are so simple & classic, gorgeous!
The beauty of ‘nude’ is that you can wear them with pretty much any colour (especially bold tones)! It’d look gorgeous with a patterned dress too! Something easy & flowy, or a shirt-dress (maybe even a bit of YSL’ish safari look with a patterned scarf at the waist for interest).

enc said…
I vote for contrast. Let the beige shoe extend your leg, much as it does for Angelina in that post on Savvy Mode’s blog. Contrast with black, brown, navy, mulberry, grey, purple, green, the list goes on and on.

AsianCajuns said…
Ooo lovely shoes. I have a pair of beige heels (non-patent) that I would wear in the summer as “nude” so that my legs look a bit longer. For winter I think an all-beige look or a chocolate-brown dress!
Let us know how it goes!
-h of candid cool said…
they’re a neutral color so they could go with virtually anything.
and true what enc says because of the skintone-ish color they extend your leg.

TheSundayBest said…
I am utterly useless at this. I really need a giant closet that I can pick things from…

Maz said…
Mmm… I would go street syle. With blue denim skinny jeans & a basic white tea. Tossled hair and a small tan cross-body bag with thin straps. Urban chic
November 13, 2008 4:57 PM

yiqin; said…
Hmm I’ll wear them! I think shoes of different colors are more fun to wear:D
we wear things said…
oooh those are quite kute!! i’d say a nude slip type dress.. lacy even!

Lavender said…
I’d want a bright red dress to wear with these.

With all that in mind, I went virtual window shopping and here’s what I found. Hopefully, I will be your bitch and dress up for you to finish up this long delayed Dressing Songy No. 4 soon.