All Entries in the "RAFW" Category

RAFW: Beauty at Nookie Beach

Nookie Beach SS collection Nivarna is breezy ocean side easy. The collection is full of earth tunes keeping the collection close to the ground, a girl with her ear to the earth.

Marc Armstrong brought the hair element to life with KMS California. He created the effortless beach chic hair that is so sexy you’ll want to wear it all summer.

“The girls look as natural as possible, as raw as possible. Forget your beauty pageants, this is straight off the beach. It’s nice easy hair that achievable.” Said Mark.

To compliment the simplicity of the hair Nicole T from M.A.C cosmetics created a luminous make up look.
“We’re going for really gorgeous glossy skin there’s nothing overdone about Nookie’s makeup, we’re keeping it simple and creamy. The girls look healthy and sexy but a little bit undone. “ Nicole Thompson tells us.

Face and body all over, no power all creams, to give it life. I love the brown lips in M.A.C freckle tone. The look is easy to do yourself at home. The tones match the collection especially the body art that was airbrushed on by M.A.C, the stenciled was designed to match the collection as well.

I’m grabbing my surfboard, chucking on my bikini’s and throwing some KMS California seat salt spray through my locks this summer! Gnarly.

RAFW: Shakuhachi

The problem with the creative design from fashion is I often find myself thinking, wow that piece is beautiful, but when and where would I wear it? Or wow that’s such a gorgeous dress, I’d wear it everywhere if I looked like Samantha Harris.

The collection Shakuhachi present this morning at RAFW combined the best of creative innovative design and ready to wear consumer friendly products.

The collection ‘Block Party’ was inspired by a young Bridgette Bardot. Think glam girls of the 70’s with round white sunglasses flicked under bobs and creamy white travel goods. These are the kind of women that travelled business class in the 1970’s.

Embellished daisy chain tanks, loose pants and dresses flooded our thoughts of a time where the peace seemed like an attainable reality. The kind of mood we all want our spirits in.

Apricot and neon blue was a strong colour blocking trend through the collection.
Shakuhachi has a boutique in Paddington Sydney otherwise check out https://www.shakuhachi.net/stockist.php.

Cloud Nine created the Bridgette Bardot esque hair which we love and are pretty excited to recreate. Maybe post photos when I give it a whirl. Cloud Nine gives us a step by step guide below.

THE HAIR LOOK: A modern take on a 60′s inspired Bridget Bardot low ponytail. Using a low heat with the Cloud Nine Wide iron, which created a really natural bend through the hair to project a matt, raw and fluffy textured finish.

HOW TO RECREATE:
• Create a clean, centre part
• Mist a sea salt spray through the hair and blow dry in using your fingers to create a matt, fluffy-like texture.
• Starting at the nape, take horizontal sections and using the Cloud Nine Wide Iron, create loose, natural waves through the hair. To do this, clamp the iron vertically to the roots (cord facing sky), rotate it one turn (180 degrees) and glide it through to the roots. TIP: holding the iron vertically will ensure you keep and maintain length in the style
• Using your fingers, lightly rake hair towards the nape, leaving hair to fall over the ears and secure with a tie. The position of the pony gives a 60′s feel with the texture creating a modern finish.
• To create the wispy static finish in the ponytail, we used a unique technique by rubbing a deflated balloon across the hair.
• Mist style with light hold hairspray to complete the look

RAFW: Little Joe Woman

It was all about the celebrities at Little Joe Woman NY yesterday morning at RAFW. As a model herself Gail Elliot knows beauty, and knows how a great model can make a show a talking point. That’s why she invited her bestie Yasmin Le Bon along to walk for her show.

Other models included Samantha Harris and Rachel Rutt who are also talking points for the shows this week. We’re guessing they must have blown the budget with the big name models as Mini Cooper showed an advertisement pre role to a captive audience.

The collection was very marketable, full of jersey dresses, leopard print maxi’s, cotton drill shorts and feminine prints. The most interesting pieces were the navy crochet maxi and the navy crochet mid length dress.
Love in Exile is an easy collection to work into your existing Spring/Summer wardrobe. It’ll be great for throwing on for beach front drinks or a trip to the supermarket. It’ll be soccer mum favorite.

Hair was create by Brad Ngata we love the 70′s boho feel. Big volume, shiny and sexy. The easy jet set glamour that we love. With so many sleeked back looks this week it was nice to see someone pump up the volume. Brad Ngata tells us how to achieve the look using L’Oréal Professionnel.

Achieve the Look
1. Using Brad’s double-moussing technique – applying mousse, blasting the hair completely dry and repeating – gives the look a raw texture and natural body

6. Brush through lightly to add a slight frizz and finish with L’Oréal Professionnel Infinium Lumière Extreme Hold Professional Hairspray 4 to hold

RAFW: Beauty at Karla Spetic

RAFW isn’t just all about fashion. Just as important is the direction of make-up and hair styles we can expect to emerge around September this year. Last night we chatted about the direction of the makeup artist Rebecca about the look created by Napoleon Perdis at Karla Spetic in the video above.

Bold lips and creamy skin are making strong return for Spring/Summer. The look of a creamy skin opposed to an luminous we’ve seen previous seasons is a definite win especially for Queensland beauty, even though I’m NSW beauty based now I can still sympathise with your continuous climate crisis. Brows are natural , just perfectly groomed which is perfect for beach days for a natural feel.
Rebecca says the look is “runway to reality” perfect! No tweaking fashion forward mono brows or green dotted blush.

The beauty look harmonised with the Karla Spetic show perfectly. It was fun, playful and easily wearable. Karla Spetic introduces us to high waited swimwear with a spaghetti strap halter top, 90’s beach party with a soundtrack Spiderbait by would suit perfectly.
The cigarette pant in lime green will be an editorial favourite but I’m not sure how that will translate into a summer wardrobe which looks like it’s going to be full of silks, Japanese prints and cool cottons like we have seen at Little Joe, Arnsdorf, Morrison etc.

Follow us on twitter: @MeganAney
Photos by Elaine Kwok.

RAFW: What I wore Day 2

RAFW is beginning to feel like high school on free dress day. Everyone is carefully selecting the outfits they spent their hard earned pocket money on and styling with the utmost precision to put together a look that you can say “oh this, I just threw it on.”

RAFW is a kind of warped reality I am living in for the week. On the flipside of this free dress day scenario you’ve got your serious fashion editors and newspaper journalists who were clothes that say “I am a serious news journalists I don’t need to wear Isabel Marant to prove my authority.” But secretly their basic trousers are Prada and their white tees are DVF.

I am loving the opportunity to absorb fashion in an array of expressions in its proudest Prada booties.
I’m wearing a mix and max of labels today to keep a little bit of me and a little bit of fashion present. I’m absolutely in love with the Morrison cape the Designer Forum stylists have dressed me in. I feel like a RAFW super hero, off to save the day, one Spring/Summer collection at a time.

Cape: Morrison from Designer Forum
Hat: Bardot
Skirt: Kookai, last season
Boots: Kors by Michael Kors from Shopbop

RAFW: Alex Perry

Alex Perry was the talk point of LMFF earlier this year by presenting his Spring/Summer 2012 collection to a consumer-based audience. Cuban Princess (part 1) was unveiled in March to a consumer audience, months before it hits the stores. The second part of the collection, Cuban Princess was unveiled in the traditional sense to media and buyers first today, so Alex was somewhat quiet savvy by creating collection hype from the best of both worlds.

The first half of the collection was full of colour and the second part was pretty similar. The heavy satins were a featured amongst what usually is a silk/chiffon fueled collection. Wrapped halter necks and hoop earrings gave the pieces a Ziggy feel. The collection also featured embellished Japanese silk print, mermaid-esque mint sequins, brilliant crimson and some seriously think stilettos. Alex Perry choose colour over animal print this season for the win.

Above is the video of the final walk.

Online: www.alexperry.com.au

RAFW: Arnsdorf

New York based Australian designer Jade Sarita Arnott has graced us with her presence at RAFW 2011/2012 to present the Spring/Summer collection for her cult followed label, Arnsdorf.
Founded in 2007 the labels associates with phrases like modern esthetic, subtle tailoring and artistic design. Known for using a subtle colour palette and mixing in key print pieces this year was no different.

The highlight of the collection was the mint trim featured on structured nude beige dresses. The print knot shoulder dress is very commercially viable, can see it landing in boutiques. The fabrics were heavy (which seems to be a popular trend for summer), the colours mixed basic nudes with mint and brilliant pink and digital prints were a favourite.

Minimalistic but with a touch of character.

Buy online: www.arnsdorf.com.au, www.mychameleon.com.au

Photos: Elaine Kwok

RAFW: What I wore

Trying to decide what to wear each day at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week is harder than choosing a name for your first born child.
My wardrobe defiantly wasn’t up to scratch but luckily the team of gorgeous stylists at boutique Designer Forum worked some serious magic on my lack luster wardrobe.

Today I’m sporting:
S&B Vie An Immediate Response (poncho) $490
S&B Vie Cast in Bronze (sweater) $270
Shoes, Joe Jeans, www.shopbop.com
Sunglasses, Prada from Sunglass Hut

My make-up was equally as important when putting together my outfit as I needed a look to carry me from day to night and most importantly last all day, we’re talking 12-16 hours of smiles here. I’ve puckered up with my new Tom Ford lipstick in Pure Pink. It’s packed full of rich moisturizers like to keep my pout nourished.

Designer Forum is located in Robina QLD, Castle Hill NSW & St Ives NSW

Photos by Elaine Kwok – official An Australian Wintour photographer for RAFW

RAFW: Overused Words

My Youth Pastor came up to me last night with a bold innovative statement that the word ‘so’ would have been one of the most overused words during fashion week. “That is so last year” “That is so great” “That is so creative” “That is so beige” What other words would of the fashion pack killed during the week’s festivities? Here are my guesses:

Battery: A unusual word to kick us off but in the digital age we live in and the fast pace of fashion week everyone was trying to capture every look, every catwalk, every moment on their laptop, camera, video recorder or mobile phone. So the following phrases would be overused; “I need to charge my Blackberry battery” “Can you twitter me not text my iphone battery is dead.” “Has anyone got a spare batteries for my camera?” That’s an initiative for technology companies to provide battery charging facilities at fashion week next year. 

Nude: Not the people, the colour! Minds out of the gutter, but seriously, everything seemed to be nude at fashion week. The colour for Spring/Summer 2011 will be nude, in every possible different hue. It was beautiful everyone did the shade well, but hearing the word nude so many times in one week made me a bit uncomfortable. The word was over-killed in the following sentences.; “Loved the nude heel” “Loved the nude draped dress” “Loved the nude shoulder” “Nude is the new naked”

Nandos: A bit of an in joke, but I’ll share with you, because it was just that frustrating. At the Overseas Passenger Terminal food options were very limited.  It was a bit of a high heeled hike to get to the circular quay restaurants or anywhere in the city. Also the majority of us were on very tight deadlines so clacking off for a few hours for lunch just wasn’t an option. Nandos decided to come to the rescue as they were the only food sponsor for the event. So we ate Nandos for lunch and dinner, every flipping day. I never ever want to see, hear or speak of Nandos again.

Deeper actually fashion related posts to come later in the week.

RAFW: The Marriage of Models and Fashion

 We are gathered here today to celebrate the marriage of models and fashion week. Before we all runaway and elope lets make sure we’re taking the essentials with us:

SOMETHING NEW – She isn’t a new model, but a new breed of supermodel. Samantha Harris walked an outstanding 20 shows during RAFW 2010. Her career is soaring after scoring a Vogue Australia cover; or did Vogue score her? It’s hard to keep up.

SOMETHING BLUE - Camilla Franks sent this beauty down the runway for self titled label – Camilla. Can you guess what the theme of the show was? 

SOMETHING BORROWED – RAFW borrowed Louise Van De Vorst away from Silverchair boyfriend Daniel Johns for the week. Hopefully someone returned her with a care package of some sort.

SOMETHING OLD - Seriously, take a breather Lara. She was the guest of Harpers Bazaar for RAFW, she didn’t model just hung around the front row in borrowed clothes. She should of stayed at home.

RAFW: Day 4

Some personal information to start the day, I have the worlds weakest stomach. Anything that is a little too warm or a little bit old will make me sick. So last night I decided it was a great idea to eat a McDonalds cheeseburger at midnight and then spent the whole night awake and ill. So I’ve missed the first 4 shows today, so not much to report. Here is what I did manage to see later in the day.

Gary Bigini

What I expected:  Another label that I know nothing about. I could do some sweet ‘googling’ research and give you a biased PR generated opinion on the brand, but instead I’ll wait until the show and give you real first hand insight into Gary Bigini.

What I witnessed:  A pretty same same collection. More neutrals, more draping, more peach tones, more commercially viable products. Fashion week is a chance for designers to show off everything they are capable of, not what they can just sell. Disappointed in the lack of vision. 

Lui Hon

What I expected:  Another Project Runway designer showing at fashion week. We’re expecting something big and something out of the box, because they seem to train them well over at Arena’s project runway. 

What  I witnessed:  Honestly I was expecting more. It was black, it was white, it was all a bit the same. When the first 3 looks came down the runway I was in love, but as they kept coming I realised they were all the same, and I never fall for the same piece twice. Blah.

Samantha Harris for Ruby SmallboneDhini

What I expected: Dhini is another rising star on the Rosemount calender. Dhini worked in London as a design assistant before starting her own label back here in Australia. She was a finalist in this years LMFF designer awards so things are looking promising. 

What I witnessed: After a morning of draping, neutrals and jesery fabrics I was pretty excited to see some innovative prints at Dhini. The collection had a real futuristic feel with high teased hair something from maybe the year 2030. Well done Dhini it was an excellent solo debut. 

Kooey

What I expected: Expecting aboriginal style prints, Rachel Finch as their ambassador and all things that make summer fun and alive. Looking forward to another Perth show, two in one day with Ae’lkemi this morning! Kooey has promise to become a household name in swimwear so fingers crossed they deliver.

What I witnessed:  It was really beautiful well constructed swimwear. The show was creative and visual pleasing but despite all these efforts their was still the smallest turn out I’ve seen at an individual show so far. Had a great front row seat to took a few good iphone pictures. I know I’m terrible not having a real camera, but i’m a poor university student.  The one downfall of the collection was every print looked the same. I know it’s Aborginal dot painting but to the untrained eye they all look exactly the same.

 Ruby Smallbone

What I expected: A celebrity favorite, a high flyer and a uniform designer. Ruby has developed a cult following for her dark edgy designs and her clever use of shapes and fabrics. It’ll all be happening at 8:30 tonight. 

What I witnessed: I was really really pleased with the collection. It was structured, it was bold, it was coherent and it was beautiful. They had some amazing models walking for the label, Avril Alexander, Samantha Harris etc. A panelled black dress closed the show, and left the audience with a positive and bold statement. 

images courtesy of ghd hair.

RAFW: What I am Wearing

dress – neon heartache

blazer – camilla & marc 

boots – mollini