Devonshire St Safari

In such an eclectic suburb as Surry Hills you're sure to meet a diverse range of characters, but I didn't think I would find such a random garden ornament of a rhinoceros that is to a close scale to a baby rhino! Hopefully it is supposed to be a baby rhino who hasn't grown its ivory tusks yet otherwise poaches have struck this beautiful styrofoam/plastic soul

Old Factory in Alexandria

This looks like an old factory or workshop from some disbanded government agency in Alexandria! I suppose its been forgotten since it's not as sexy as the old tram yards in Rozelle. 

Australia Fashion Week is...

Fashion Week is a lot of things and often not what the general public thinks it is. It's hard not to be dazzled and engrossed amongst the throngs of parties and fashion shows which seem to harbour beautiful people, the goodie bags thrown to patrons and often being wined and dined all for free all in an attempt for brands to score media coverage and their merchandise picked up by stores. 

Others say its an event for vain, vacuous people to congregate and celebrate life's frivolities whilst being exclusive and safe away from normal people with their curvy-overweight bodies in generic, mid-priced clothes. But at the end of the day it is a business event for designers to bring their wares to the market in search for a good buck. 

Security passes for Australian Fashion Week & Sydney Fashion Festival

A fashion show appears to be glamourous because it is and the nature of it breeds publicity for the brand whilst being the easiest way a designer can broadcast and show their designs to a large group of people all at the same time. Without all the smoke and mirrors, it's easy to forget that it is a professional event for designers to sell their brand to boutiques and generate media coverage to persuade the general public that they should buy brand x's merchandise. And now a designer's fashion show is just as important to their customers than just the industry when it's an avenue to maintain a relationship with their fans when fashion shows are hosted for consumers at events like the Loreal Melbourne Fashion Festival where tickets are purchased by the general public or fashion shows screened live to consumers as a sort of editorial come advertisement. 

But having attended Australian Fashion Week as media and many more private fashion shows it is easy to get lost in the experience and forget that you are there for a reason. Many times you feel like you are watching a performance and that you are entitled to be there rather than network, and write about the garments not just the experience about being at a fashion show like many bloggers do. That's why preparation is a must, you have every opportunity to see every show, but then if it is worthy you need to follow that up with an article if you're a writer like myself and make fashion week a valuable professional experience by finding new angles rather than just reviewing the collections, organising interviews and pitching my articles to other news outlets to make it worth my time. 

But at the same time, who am I writing for? I like to write about fashion week because it is interesting to cover and an easy avenue to generate stories and expand my portfolio, but at the same time will people get it? Creatives will coo over fashion for its expression, but will the normal person have that same eye and see why people invest in fashion and style?

In the Style Zeitgeist We Trust

We’re in an age where information is so readily accessible that new smartphone models are outlasted by long life milk where you’d think having or needing a leader in cultural and social life would go the way of The Buggles song ‘video killed the radio star.” With creative industries gaining more prominence and an increasing informal society you would think people would master and lead by their own interests rather than go hand in wallet in whatever movement comes in next.

Perhaps it’s our own ingrained need to belong to something or the mean girls from high school have conditioned us so well that we need to be part of the ‘in group’, but we only believe that our interests have any credence if a big name star has attached their name to it, see Rihanna’s seapunk performance at Saturday Night Live or it is another attempt by Madonna to stay relevant to youth culture since 2005. Other times big names catch on to legitimate social/cultural groups and borrow from the work of others to be seen as progressive or creative, again see Rihanna’s seapunk video at SNL!

The cultural zeitgeist is a great way to collectively recognise a group of people who maintain a common idea or link, but all too often it becomes a fashion statement where youths are more concerned about teen angst in needing to belong to some ideal even if it has already passed. We all just follow trends, ignoring its historical connections and make it into pop culture as the festival going youths are apathetic about Ray Ban sunglasses with its connections with Johnny Cash much less understanding it previously was mainly a product for American serviceman.

Look at your local newsagent and boutique and observe how brands and magazines use the cultural zeitgeist as a selling proposition to sell an idea, experience or lifestyle rather than the actual piece of content or clothing. Rather than buy a garment to cover our naked bodies, we read magazines to find ‘The Look’ or if you read Vogue Australia’s it hosts articles titled “Fast forward: what you will be wearing in 2013,” or if you want to experiment a little you can learn how to dress ‘like a model’, ‘for a summer party’ or ‘eccentric glamour’ so much so that our interest in fashion, music, film and culture can seem like one long advertisement.

The zeitgeist is one long distraction; often it is something contradictory to our reality when someone can spend thousands of dollars on ripped, grungy outfits from Raf Simons or Rick Owens when those in the 70s punk subculture wore whatever was cheap, dirty and contrasted against the rigidity of the mainstream/authority. Now we are sold expensive leather jackets punctured with hard metal studs as a show of anarchy and rebellion in a country of free education and health care.

So then how do you present yourself? Do you follow trends and buy what magazines tell you to buy or will you go against the grain, wear something eccentric of your own choice and have people comment that you are so Lady Gaga because the singer has worn and in effect monopolised any unconventional outfit and material.

MBFWA Round Up

Alex Perry RAFW 2011

2013 will be my 6th year attending Australian Fashion Week, and the 3rd covering it as media. With all the changes underway having being brought forward and changed venues with bigger showrooms it really will be a new event particularly because it is hosting more unknown designers than just the regulars. Below is a list of some of articles I've produced over the years; 2 of the links open in youtube and another into a website I edited.

• Mercedes Benz Changing With the Season - What's changed in 2013
• Paul Scott, Leroy Nguyen and Inder Dhillon appearing at MBFWA 2013 after showing at Aus Graduate Fashion Week
• Easton Pearson has received the 'Mercedes Presents' title and sponsorship, but last year Johanna Johnson had the honour (youtube)
• The Mens Group show last year had to be one of my favs (On the Streets of Sydney)
• Suboo & White Sands show at Swim Fashion Week Miami
• Alex Perry is returning after last showing in 2011
• MBFWA is Getting More Tribal
• Simon Locke Aust. Fashion Week founder
• MBFWA Street Style 2012 
• Uscari has been one of my favourite brands to watch over the last 2 years
• Last year Dion Lee & Josh Goot left the season to pursue other business. They haven't returned for 2013.
• Oroton S/S 12/13 (youtube)
• RAFW Set Up - how fashion week prepares itself
• Everyone is excited over Emma Mulholands inclusion on the MBFWA 2013 schedule, hopefully she wins the Qantas SOYA Awards
• MBFWA Physical Invites
• Susie Lau AKA Style Bubble is returning for 2013
• RAFW Street Style 

RAFW 2011 Media Pass

Between Places: NSW Gallery of Art

Anish Kapoor's Conceptual Works

Sky Mirror (2006) Anish Kapoor

The back of Sky Mirror (2006) Anish Kapoor

Anish Kapoor's exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art was extraordinary, the whole time I felt I was inside the lens of my DSLR camera as Kapoor explores concepts of mass, space and perceptions in his mammoth installations. 

Sky Mirror (above) a giant concave mirrored disc guards the entrance of the MCA as a public offering come reason to get you inside to buy a ticket to the exhibit. At any each time it shows a snapshot of time showing you a different perspective that changes throughout the day and from whatever angle you view it. Viewing the exhibition is similar to the house of mirrors of an old style carnival with huge reflective installations that warp your view. A lot of the sculptures seem to be a flat disc of mirror when often most of the sculpture is hidden by a wall. You feel you are looking at a flat piece of glass because there is a lot of depth or darkness to it, but actually it is a huge cavity. 

My Red Homeland (2003) Anish Kapoor

My Red Homeland (2003) Anish Kapoor

Sitting in a room all by itself on 2 floors separating it from the rest of the exhibition because of its sheer size and scale My Red Homeland is an epic piece of wax whose dial slowly rotates around the work engraving and digging into it to create new shapes, but also is still a work in progress. The shell of it is really interesting, it looks like rocky, hardened lava, but when you touch it (which you're not supposed to, but I rarely follow instructions) is soft as putty.

Apparently they used to let patrons walk around this steel zeppelin, but after someone tagged the back of it as guerilla way of becoming part of the artwork, the museum put a stop to that which is a shame because Kapoor's work is all about looking at it from different perceptions. 

C-Curve (2006) Anish Kapoor

I wonder how they keep the mirrored  surfaces clean because without the white line taped on the ground to form a boundary the sculpture and the room easily blends together. 

S-Curve (2006) Anish Kapoor

Anish Kapoor at the MCA closes 01/04/13. Ticketed Event