This year’s Penthouse Mouse opened on Friday 5^th March to a packed out party-crowd at Melbourne’s former Naval & Military Club in Coates Lane in the CBD. Industry types, media, bloggers and hipsters alike enjoyed the chilled Asahi and wandered through the installations and artworks for the first time, and took in this year’s exhibition; a significant bounty.

Contributing labels include Trimäpee, Subfusco, Autonomy, Limedrop and From Britten. Accessories are aplenty with contributions from Estelle Deve, Does Not Equal, Anna Mason and Gail Sorronda. And just when you thought you could look but not touch, all the pieces on display are for sale. Not only are there pretty things to wear, but the exhibition is keynoted by several installations and artworks contributed by the likes of James Carey, Volker Haug & Chris Nash, Simon Boucher, Studio Organic and many more.

The venue is open 11 – 9pm daily, so head on down to Penthouse Mouse 2010 before doors close on Friday 19^th March. Stay tuned to Tangent for updates on PHM Events this week!

www.penthousehouse.com.au

Greetings from Big Ben!

We’re accessorizing!

It’s that time of year again.  For the past week, London’s fashion elite have congregated at Somerset house to check out the latest creations from the world’s top designers.

The Prime Minister’s lady, Sarah Brown, officially set the ball rolling by opening fashion week, followed by a minute’s silence as a touching tribute to the late Lee Alexander McQueen, by British Fashion Council’s chairman, Harold Tilman.

But, whilst the colourful creations were paraded on the catwalks, when it comes to our own wardrobes we’re still very much in Winter Mode, bundled up in winter coats and hats and scarves, and let’s face it, it can be difficult to be stylish when the prime goal is to keep warm.

Luckily, as always, the London high street seems to be one step ahead of us.  Until it’s time to dust off our summer dresses, the shops are filled with dazzling accessories to brighten up even the dullest of winter get ups.

Earrings are truly flamboyant, skimming shoulders with an almost chandelier-like quality.

Red earrings £10 from Accessorize

Necklaces are bigger, bolder and more colourful than ever before

Necklace, £30 from Asos.com

And we’re swapping woolly hats for feathers, fascinators and flowers…

Feather headband, £12 from Accessorize

Liz Frost, your London correspondent.

Liz Frost is a London-based freelance writer for Newspapers and Magazines.  To see more of her work go to: www.lizfrost.com

Til next time dear tangentines…

Bisous!

Ferni xxx

Milan, the historical centre of the fashion world, delivered its best this AW10. All the favourites turned out their signature looks with a touch of contemporary shebang. Here’s a snapshot of the timeless fashion fiestas they exhibited.

D&G sent out snow bunnies in woollen jumpsuits adorned with all our favourite Christmas friends, Rudolph, dancer and dasher. Reindeer even turned up on their signature corset dresses with adorable fluffy fur boots in tow. D&G threw a touch of childhood idolization into adult infatuation.

D&G

Roberto Cavalli introduced hippie rock chick melding his signature animal prints with tough leather studded numbers. Harem pants were the dominating look of his AW10 girl, who made them extraordinary by embellishing them with scintillating sequins.

Roberto Cavalli

Marni did not disappoint, maintaining their colour blocking aesthetic that has made them famous. Triumphs included their deep reds and greens, but the Marni girl was no longer content with a coloured classic, this time round it was all about the splash of feathers and fur that hardened up the colour with a more daring edge. Contrasting knee high stockings met loose thigh high shorts and graphic seventy style prints walked all over each other in complete suit styles. The look was head to toe Marni with a touch of modernized luxe.

Marni

Dolce & Gabbana catapulted sensuous misses in waist coats turned mini dresses and cropped jacket numbers with high waisted knickers onto a sophisticated catwalk dominated by black and white. Polka dots played a dramatizing role on the heel of the elusive sheers that frequented every look. Classy suiting whispered in the seamless tongues of the infamous Italian seductress and notes of feathers and sparkles dusted off the entire look. Overall an outstanding show from two of the timeless masters of seductive chic with a touch a shining sleek.

Dolce & Gabbana

The devil does wear Prada it seems, when it comes to Miuccia Prada’s latest triumph under the labels signature look. She saluted their patronage to cashmere and marched it out with stimulating leather a-line skirts. Sixties and seventies swing style dresses and skirt suits ruled the shapes, with cut out midriff and eighties style pointy corset shapes interrupting their conventional look. Prada dressed the classic woman with a touch of tough tango loving, disco dancing fever.

Prada

Fendi upgraded shabby chic using a monotone colour palette with touches of mustard yellow. Fur was a key element in the signature AW10 look and boots with rubber tips added the contrasting ingredient of the fortified modern woman. Swinging skirts and coats swished down the runways grounded by the weight of winter fabrics. Velvet undertones turned on the eveningwear and sheer shoulders added a punch to the all day all nightwear. Not too shabby at all.

Fendi

Missoni was a mix of blanketed patterns and bare midriffs. Draped capes and skirts fell haphazardly over sculpted braletts. The look was Scottish kilting with French lingerie and a hint of old English professionalism.  Colours were blended by aggressive lines, while soft sexual undertones were illuminated by the loose shaping and gaping of the seemingly pinned garments. Pinks and reds punctuated the collection with traces of fur and loose crochet knit, splicing up the traditional winter look.

Missoni

Bottega Veneta cemented their name as one of the Milanese shows to watch. Their opening leather suits were seasonal standouts alongside their nature inspired print dresses. Candy pinks and romantic reds in lush silks, swept the ground in dresses or were cinched into the waists of streamline pant shapes. There was no shortage of diversity in this eclectic collection for the truly dichotomous women.  Pretty meets punk meets true Milanese romance.

Bottega Veneta

Milan took the traditional and tricked it up with a touch of sensuality. The classic took on a new class and the usually informal became sophisticated chic. Viva La Italia Luxe, Viva La Italia love!

London fashion expresses the duality of British culture, where tradition coincides with the avant-garde. London has always been a launch pad for emerging designers and known for fusing creative ideas with Saville Row tailoring.  This season, London Fashion Week Fall 2010 expressed a fairly tame but well rounded season of beautiful designs.  There were two dominant trends from the previous Spring/Summer season that permeated the designs shown on the London catwalks.  These trends were digitised prints, inspired by Alexander McQueen Plato’s Atlantis SS10 show, and, the return to chic elegance which was driven home by Phoebe Philo at Celine in the same season. Other trends explored were block colour, sci-fi futurism, 1940’s glamour, and lingerie inspired outerwear.  In true London style there was still a splash of fashion that was absurd and obscure which forces us to challenge the way we view the function of cloth, and thank goodness for that!

Prints:

(L-R from top) Holly Fulton, Matthew Williamson, Erdem, Nathan Jenden, Peter Pilotto, Mary Katranzou

Clean Lines

(L-R): Todd Lynn, Sykes, Jaeger London

Block Colour

Antonio Beradi, Mark fast,Charles Anastase, Roksanda Ilinic, Holly Fulton, Matthew Williamson

Lingerie Inspired Outerwear

(L-R): Mark Fast, Richard Nicoll, Marios Schwab.

Elegance

Richard Nicoll, Erdem, Central Saint Martins

London Eccentric

Meadham Kirchhoff, Julien Macdonald, Unique (Topshop), Louise Gray, Nathan Jenden

Sci-Fi Sculptural

(L-R): Louise Goldin, Louise Goldin, Acne

Back in 1983 Nicolas G. Hayek founded Swatch. A new concept of Swiss analogue watches ready to face the rising Japanese competition with it’s digital Casio and Seiko watches. Their goal? Re-popularise the old school way of seeing the time with a twist – sell a Swiss watch that was affordable to all and that was made out of plastic (two wow factors back then!). Plus bringing to the crowd a vanguard design with it’s bright colours and quirky spirit representing the 80’s generation and the upcoming ones with gusto! Today they are the largest watch company in the world and still considered an art, design and fashion icon.

Swatch has been collaborating with creative artists and walking side by side with art since day one, investing heavily in collaborations that help to reinvent the brand and keep it fresh.

Their brightlicious recently released collection ‘Colour Code’ was no exception. Graphic artists such as Gary Card, David Benedekand Carrie Munden were given artistic license to add their magic to one of the 6 Swatch Art Specials. ‘Colour Code’ is based on their very first collection that took the world by storm back in the early 80’s. Tagging along with the Art Specials there are the ‘originals’ – 20 ‘most amazing’ solid colours matt and shinny watches. In resume, different flavours to suit everyones taste!

To celebrate the launch of the 80’s inspired Colour Codes Collection, Swatch have challenged fore magazines like V, Nylon,P.O.P, ID, Another, Dazed and Confused and Wallpaper to spread the word in their editorial pages, shooting and interpreting the idea behind the collection and leaving it up to the public to decide which one is best. If you vote for the winner you have the chance to get your hands on one of these colourful babies, vote here and good luck!

Aurelio Costarella

Since his inaugural collection in 2000, Aurelio Costarella has produced stunning couture and ready-to-wear ranges donned by the likes of Eva Mendes and Dita Von Teese. The silhouettes are dramatic, seemingly drawn from period modes of dress and seriously powerful. What woman could resist? I know I’ll be on the edge of my seat come Tuesday, March 16th for the Loréal Paris Runway 2 at 9:00pm.

Nicola Finetti

Nicola Finetti has been working it since 1995 and is an institution to womenswear in his own right. In his own words, “my aim is to give women the possibility to explore their inner self and embrace their femininity”. Each collection is unique, a celebration of women from this Italian-born Australian. Recent collections have presented that fashion-forward edge, futuristic and bold for those girls who want to feel empowered! Finetti will present his recent wares a the Loréal Paris Runway 1, Monday March 15th at 6:30pm.

Jayson Brunsdon

I remember once happening upon the Jayson Brunsdon boutique in Sydney’s Strand Arcade and exclaiming to a close female friend that girls just get all the fun. Brunsdon’s collections could be described as delightfully austere in his approach to colour yet seemingly inspired by the elegance of old Hollywood screen-sirens. One can expect some serious glamour on the catwalk at the Loréal Paris Runway 3, 6:30pm on Tuesday, 16th March.

Toni Matecevski

Admittedly a personal favourite, Melbourne-based designer Toni Matecevski has an approach to couture that is idiosyncratic and almost emotively driven. Every collection, whilst bearing his signature style the clothes seem to speak for themselves. The silhouettes are soft, yet sometimes dramatic allowing the wearer to move with freedom of constraint. The fabrics drape and float across a room, almost ethereal. Matecevski will present his most recent collection at the Loréal Paris Runway 1, Monday March 15th at 6:30pm. We’ll be waiting with baited breath.

… stay tuned for more updates before the excitement begins!

]]> http://tangentmag.com/blog/2010/03/06/lock-load-for-lmff-2010-volume-2/feed/ 0 http://tangentmag.com/blog/2010/03/04/from-tokyo-to-melbourne-tangent-digital-interviews-fashion-hayley/ http://tangentmag.com/blog/2010/03/04/from-tokyo-to-melbourne-tangent-digital-interviews-fashion-hayley/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:22:41 +0000 Annabelle Milosavljevic http://tangentmag.com/?p=3582 Fashion may as well be Hayley Hughes first name. The blog she writes, Fashion Hayley, is a daily expose of what the stylist wears, sees, loves, is interested by and is inspired by. Having previously spent a year in Tokyo as a stylist, Hayley now edits her blog and takes street style photographs for melbournestreetstyle.com.

A “lover of Melbourne’s sub-cultures”, Hayley’s sartorial subjects challenge dressing to fit a mould, showcasing the true meaning of individual style. When you read one of her posts, you get the sense that she is writing to you directly, and that if you met her in the street, you could greet her like you would a friend. Her blogs are personal and honest, while her outfits are fun, polished and wearable.

Her style inspiration? When asked about her favourite Australian designers, Hayley admits the work of RMIT students, right alongside Kirrily Johnston.

Tangent Digital asks Hayley what makes Tokyo different to Melbourne and why bands and fashion collide.

Tangent Digital: Hayley, how did you get into styling?

Hayley Hughes: I have always had a passion for street fashion, what people are wearing on the streets both here in Melbourne and in Tokyo. To me that is where the creativity lies, in how people put together an outfit. Styling for me is about opening up new ideas about wearability and transforming the everyday into something new and exciting but not always beautiful. I love uglyness in fashion as much as I love beauty.

TD: Who are your key Australian designers?

HH: Romance was Born, Antipodium and Kirrily Johnston are designers I really admire for pushing the boundaries every season. I also love the students’ work coming out of RMIT. It’s incredible what they come up with and their end of year show is my most anticipated fashion event of the year.

TD: What inspires your blog content?

HH: My blog is 100% original content. I try to take all my own photos and I never will copy images from other blogs. To me that is the most boring thing you can do, have a blog with all stolen content. So I take my camera with me to parties, fashion events and on the street and I blog what I see. So you could say the streets inspire my blog content.

TD: What was it like to work in Tokyo and how is it different to the Melbourne scene?

HH: Tokyo’s fashion scene is vastly different to Melbourne’s. Tokyo has been looking to street fashion as its inspiration for a long time, the scene has developed in such a way that the people in the street photos are mini celebrities, often shop owners or staff, and they promote a certain style. Every shop has its own style and devotees and then the magazines that showcase that style. The shop owners and staff are stylists too, working on shoots for the magazine in their shop’s style. That doesn’t really happen here and I feel street fashion photography is only in its infancy here.

TD: Do you have a signature fashion item?

HH: My Make Believe black resin flower necklace that the girls gifted me (we all lived in Tokyo at the same time back in the day) OH or my huge black 80’s specs that I wear everyday due to my near blindness.

TD: You’ve worked with Miami Horror, do you think fashion and band culture go hand in hand?

Hayley styling the Miami Horror boys

HH: Fashion is so important when it comes to music. If a band doesn’t have the right look they really won’t go very far. I love working with the Miami Horror boys, they are so much fun and a really into creating something new and exciting for their look.

TD: Are there any bands you would like to style (or are going to style) in future?

HH: I have been getting offers from other bands but so far no one who I really enjoy the music and feel of as much as Miami Horror. It’s got to be the right partnership of creative minds I think.

Costumes designed by Hayley for Miami Horror

TD: And finally, where do you think fashion will be in the next five years?

HH: I think fashion will be more driven by people on the street or blogs then what is happening on the runway.

Date: 21^st February 2010

Location: London

Event:London Fashion Week Fall 2010 RTW

On a cold ,windy, rainy London day, what better way to spend an afternoon than in a cosy little pad (or giant portable warehouse space housing all of fashions elite?!) simply ‘seeping’ in the creative air around you, as you sit privy to the newest of the new, and the what’s ‘hot’ in fall fashion 2010 fashion.

The show was Roksanda Ilincic, and the mood was; glamorous screen goddess-meets- chic –‘ladies who lunch’- fabulousness all the way, with just the right hint of a decade gone by, yet never (especially in the world of fashion) ever forgotten; the 1940’s.

With colour ways spanning grey, charcoal, black and camel, accentuated with strong rich ‘burnt sienna’ and set off by beautiful hand beading appliqué, (faux?!) fur trims… Roksanda had it goin’ on!!

For hair and makeup, the brief was strong and classy.  Models drifted down the runway sporting crimped afro-meets-40’s finger waved tresses, (LOVVVED!!) while lips were a classically classic shade of luscious scarlet.

Verdict: LOVE, LOVED! Tres magnifique mon cherie! J

Til next time dear tangentines…

Ferni xx

www.fernmadden.com

It’s 1989 and a grounded team of driven fashion minimalists stand on a beach in England with a clean faced, fair skinned, rake skinny blonde fifteen year girl, who has a little snaggle tooth to add to her alluring appearance. She is wearing a handmade daisy chain necklace and $5 Native American headband, the stylist is unpretentious revolutionary Melanie Ward, the eye behind the camera is Corrine Day and the model in question is the now household fashion name, Kate Moss. They are taking the simple spontaneous photographs that will unveil the face of the future of fashion, no airbrushing, no photoshop, no hoo ha and za za zoom styling, just natural beauty.

Fast-forward twenty-one years and down in our very own Sydney seaside haunt, Bondi, Lincoln Ferguson, an avant-garde model booker, is taking the exact same natural photos that may unveil the next face. He is working with his models like they are friends taking casual photos in his living room, he is taking the facade out of the fashion industry and leaving the door wide open to fresh faces, new creative’s and already established clients who are looking to step ahead of the time.

The ‘business,’ is called The Agency and the concept reflects it’s modest name, “The Agency is about people working together, models booker, etc. not for each other,” Lincoln tells me over a casual coffee in Bondi. He’s a casual kind of guy, he informs me I’m lucky he even put thongs on to come down and see me, but behind the casualness is a deep passion for people, beauty in all it’s various forms and fashion in all it’s boundless reflective abilities of both.

Lincoln has worked on both sides of agency life; he has been a client and the third party between the booker and the client in his styling days as well as doing a short stint as a booker himself. All this bought him to the conclusion that there was a key element lacking in the relationship between all three roles, the element was openness and empathy and so The Agency was born. “As an agent I like to empower the models not to make them dis-empowered. We can all help each other.”

This pretty much sums up his attitude and the attitude of the models he takes on, “I love proactive models.  This new generation are savvy and informed. They are not like teenagers of 20 years ago.Half of them come from broken families, they’ve lived and seen a lot more, thanks to the Internet, than young people used to.” Lincoln doesn’t treat his models like children; he encourages a mature attitude that in turn empowers them in their working environment. “I’m supplying models with a chilled work environment and clients with great friendly models and serving it with a smile.” He does this through his own relaxed approach to dealing with his models, by providing them with a comfortable open environment they learn to create this in their own working environments with clients. “I want a fresh relaxed vibe between everyone.” His models are human beings not coat hangers and that in it self is a springboard for great work to launch from.

The unique point of difference between The Agency and other agencies in Sydney doesn’t stop only in the way he works with his models though it carries over to the way we presents them. When you click past the boxing animation on his homepage (seemingly symbolic of his fight to change the industry,) there is no glossy magazine pages or touched up portfolio shots instead his models appear in natural digital shots taken in his  Bondi lounge room. “When I was working as a booker the first thing clients asked me was ‘can we see the digital shots,’ they want to know what the girl (or boy) looks like in real life. I’m providing clients with real pictures of models first so clients can see what they are really booking not just prettied up pictures to make the agency look good.”

The concept was inspired by German Agency, Nine Daughters and a Stereo, who also feature natural shots on their homepage. The Agency also channels their relaxed approach to fashion, Lincoln says, “It’s fashion, its fun, we’re creating, not saving lives.” The man makes a point, somehow I think uncovering Kate Moss on that fateful day was far from a serious venture, it was a beautiful accident created by inspired people, who probably just wanted to take some happy snaps.  Lincoln is embracing those inspired people, he is throwing open his Bondi door to creative’s with a vision like Melanie Ward whether it is a model with a great set of eyes or a stylist and a photographer looking for their Kate Moss, to make their vision a reality, “everyone is welcome, there is no pretense.”

Lincoln honestly wants to see a change in the fashion industry and he isn’t just sitting around waiting for it he is starting with a back to basic, carefree attitude just like Melanie Ward and her rebellious London friends had back in the early 1990’s when they took their vision based on realism and overhauled the industry.  Just like Ward and her anti fashion comrades, Lincoln is creating an environment where work is like having fun with your friends.

Oddly enough Ward and Co also pioneered their groundbreaking new vision on the back of a  recession, something that is inherently linked to the timing of The Agency. “It’s a new market out there and people are tired of the way business is done and are starting to look for different ways to do business.” And The Agency is delivering.

Real people, real images and real communication pretty much sum up the agency in a nutshell, “We’re just keeping it real in a fake industry.” The wheels of change are in motion again, but this time the beach in the background of the photo that started them rolling might just be in our own backyard, Bondi.