It was a social week of launches, openings, exhibitions and champagne. Here some fashion festivities from Melbourne.
Event: Acne lunch, new store opening, Melbourne.
Date: 27th August
I’ve often been accused of having a girl crush on Alex Keating, but who wouldn’t? Alex is a beautiful, creative, grounded, generous, quirky, clever chick, and is always incredibly dressed.
Yes, the former Prime Minister’s daughter is all class and incredibly cool. Her style is effortlessly chic, her talent for mixing the perfect vintage pieces with unexpected modern classics is as unique as the girl herself.
Our first wardrobe meeting for the film was so exciting, I devoured Alex’s vintage collection of rare designer pieces (like a dress owned by Queen Elizabeth!). Every piece was amazing, and I only saw the tiniest bit as most of it was in storage whilst she was working out her next step in life.
She decided on moving to New York, where she is a creative consultant and a partner at Safari Sundays- a boutique creative agency. On top of all that she also manages the band Wim, whose music we used in the film. This down to earth chick surpasses all fashion boundaries, the 50’s dresses she was wearing 5 years ago are now so right.
Vintage dress and 1940s’ gold bracelet bought from Anne Schofield.
“The lady I bought it from said that it was the dress that Queen Elizabeth wore on her 1954 visit to Australia. I love the history of this piece, the emerald beading is so intricate and the collar designed back is very ahead of it’s time. Regardless of it’s history I find it a master piece. During the day I wear simple pieces like a twin set and a scarf, but I think there is a lot of fun in getting dressed for a large event. In these cases I like to stay true to the era in terms of style.” AK
A vintage Edwardian dress, red leather bracelet, costume Cartier 1940’s ring and antique necklace.
“The dress was bought at an antique store in Paris. Most of the jewelery pieces I wear are gifts from my father for various birthdays, the most recent of which is the ring, which I got for Christmas. The brooch is a Chanel camellia. A gift from my girlfriend Mariella, she knows that I am a Coco historian. I find that the most uniquely seductive era was the Edwardian era. Today I find women look sexy but they all seem to adopt the same style. I rarely wear something vintage with another vintage piece. Here I am wearing a silver Marnie Skillings slip underneath.” AK
vintage Chloé dress
“It was my Mothers . This is my favorite dress, It is hand painted and hand finished. It has a stark simplicity in design but the print is so arresting to the eye. I find that Chloé today is going back to it’s original quality and design and I am very excited to see what they do next. I like to style it as it is, with bare feet.” AK
camilla and marc dress (given to her by designer and boyfriend Marc) styled with vintage stole.
“This is my favorite camilla and marc piece, the pieces I fall in love with are the ones that are occasional dresses. The detail in the silk flowers is simply an ode to the attention to details and finishes that camilla and marc are known for.” AK
1950’s vintage dress
“I bought it from Rocket my favorite Australian destination for a great frock (which is sadly no longer). There is something very feminine and innocent about 1950’s clothing, it is an era in time that I wish I could be apart of. I included this piece as it was the dress that I was wearing when Romy and I first met. At the moment I like to wear it with a pair of Marni heels and a Bakelite handbag.” AK
A heaven couple, whose combined talents create a crazy amount of creativity. Ben Briand, an award winning film director and Brenda Harvey who designs accessories for her label Benah, fittingly complete our “artist & muse” week.
Brenda Harvey shot by Ben Briand
An intimate film by Ben of a conversation he has with Brenda about how their individual inspirations affect on the other’s creative process. A very personal look into their artistic relationship.
Benah, is a high end fashion brand with a focus on understated accessories. Drawing on a nomadic upbringing, collecting objects here and there and a love for subtle luxury items with a past history. Benah is her long term passion project realised by Brenda.
Ben is a creator of films, commercials, music videos and video installations. Recently, the Cannes Young Director Award winner completed three short films back to back, ‘Apricot’, ‘Castor & Pollux’ and ‘Some Static Started’. This trilogy explores Briand’s favourite themes of memory and identity. With a background in fine arts, he possesses the ability to form delicately crafted visual images whilst also generating honest human warmth from his characters. (Oh yes and he’s the brother of recently posted, equally gifted, Nic Briand)
Nic and Susien are lovers and the creative pair that formed the aptly named fashion label Lover.
Photo of lovers Susien Chong, Designer and Nic Briand, Creative Director.
“More often than not Nic and I will give each other books, DVD’s or CD’s to each other as presents. We love how inspiring they can be, and they always end up referenced into a collection, somewhere, somehow. Last Christmas we gave each other books, that became the starting point for our new Spring Summer collection, ‘Untitled’.” Susien
Image from ‘Man Eater’ by Aurel Schmidt, a book given to Nic from Susien.
“Nic gave me a book of photographs by Lewis Carroll, most famous for his masterpiece ‘Alice In Wonderland’. The photos have a beautiful Victorian feel about them, with many of them being of his muse Alice Liddell, who inspired the book.” Susien
From these books sparked the idea of creating a collection that was based around the female artist, with touches of tomboy and Victorian beauty.
