simple + comfortable outfits for handing in assignments / sitting an exam:

(i looked like a giant snowball on the top half with all of my layers of white, but i wore a new pair of cullottes which counteracted the poor self esteem:)

i found the stockings hidden away, i didn't know i owned them. they had a ladder in them so had to be thrown out afterward :(. the shoes were brought back from an Austrian Oxfam sort of store by my sister many many years ago, i have just rediscovered them. i've been trying to make an effort to wear more feminine shoes where possible.
the Diaz shorts are super comfortable and made out of a really soft olive fabric. i think they're going to be staples for many years to come. Ana was one of the first graduates from my Business / Fashion dual degree at QUT last year, and has already gone on to do some really great things..she showed a number of pieces at Fashion Week in Melbourne, + Sportsgirl has commissioned a captule collection in the near future (i can't remember the exact time frame). Ana's graduate collection was super wearable which is a bit of an escape from a lot of other graduates (not that i even have the right to be critical) that often seem to try to prove their skills and conceptual intelligence through excessively 'arty' and avant-garde collections.
you can see more of her pieces + the cullottes up close here.

anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security

some of my favourite moments from the gailsorronda.blogspot.com archives:

‘Seventeen’ 11.12.08
'Bruised Jewellery' is a love bite, black marks that adorn the body and stamp it with affection. it drips black ink down your chest, from the jugular of 'Ha Ha Battles'.

‘Crushes’ 29.11.08
the romanticism of Paris spreads like an invasive exotic: what surprises you most is its subtlety.
Paris is a human city. urine stains the walls. the weather leaves a lasting dampness. women are natural, perpetually un-kept hair and minimal make-up. Paris Fashion Week to them is a fucking circus. the people are stare-bears, eyes averting as soon as you catch them. the symmetry of spatial design is as equally stiffly conservative, the corduroy straight lines and the manicured gardens. everything is glazed over in repetition…but then the crush begins.
the men are territorial, marking every corner like a love cat. the touch of a rain drop is a fingertip on bare shoulders. eyes engage in courtship. you begin to see the streets more like a perforated dotted line. there is beauty in every gap communicating at first something you can’t pronounce. a Morse code. the treasured green pockets, boulangerie smells, father and son hand-in-hand on the walk to school. for such high density living it can be so self-consciously quiet. there is no gaudy advertising signage, no clothes hanging from balconies. an architecture of absence but not absent of feeling.
Paris is a place where you fall in love again. where seventeen crushes are crushed into one.

‘Heptadecagon’ 09.12.09
what are the seventeen sides to you? (eg skills, experience, interests, inspirations, insecurities, ingenuities, philosophies, political theories
etc)

‘Conservatism’ 11.11.09
question authority.

‘Chemtrails’ 18.08.09
this morning we were awoken by what sounded like a drone of mosquito wings. but alas it was the New World Order crisscrossing the Parisian sky with lines of white chemicals...
please research the New World Order's agenda (not through your TV screen).

‘Robot’ 10.07.09
conversation in the Sorronda camp this week has been of the impending collapse of internet neutrality and dehumanisation…
Hermes stings chaffed skin, shaved against the grain.
the blood congeals thicker than the traffic.
i reach the office in time to talk reality tv by the coffee machine.
at my desk i’m a machine for the system, creating waste.
the view is beautiful; i fill the river with concrete.
finger-paintings colour my walls with guilt, and adjacent, a framed piece of paper; the New World Order has trained me well.
welcome to the occupation.

‘Cairo’ 25.06.09
Gail Sorronda is currently thinking about: Sarah Moon, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, shaking paper, white chalk, cocoons, letters to aliens, promptings of nature.

‘Italy’ 10.03.09
inspiration: love, a foreign environment, bruised jewellery, Indian textiles, Indian sexuality, Gang Gang Dance's God's Money, infowars.com, apple tabac shisha, exotics, mating rituals, apartment 17 level 4.

‘Battles’ 06.02.09
Ha Ha Battles is when one feels helpless to the environmental forces that can plague like Poison Ivy. during a time of financial crisis, empty promises, necessary evils and sacrifice, sometimes all you can do is laugh with nervous energy.
under the guise of protection there is humour.
an Asthma Attack is cushioned with volume and ruffle. to feel comfort, one final breath before an induced coma. it takes you somewhere else, somewhere quiet. only Ha Ha Sound.
perforated dotes and pompoms hang idle and in waiting. gathers are repetitive but exaggerated. surprises with a mantra of discipline.
Ha Ha Battles is laughing in the face of adversity.

‘Assange’ 09.12.10
we could write one hundred and one chapters on the events that have lead to the arrest of Julian Assange but we’re about to go see Interpol (and unfortunately so is Assange). kooks like Sarah Palin have compared him to an Al Qaeda leader (like who Sarah, CIA agent Osama bin Laden aka Tim Osman?!). but despite all of the media attention, not much in the mainstream brings awareness to the ramifications. two bills have already conveniently been drafted in the United States to implement severe internet censorship, more control over information, and freedom of speech. the technology is already in place and such Orwellian surveillance would ensure a blog post like this one would never see the cyber world light.
maybe this saga will mean a change in consciousness. but then again is all this a narrative used as a vast hologram of propaganda to keep us distracted, entertained, mislead and confused?!

‘Lanvin’ (x H&M) 24.11.10
high street disposable consumerism does freak us out a bit. but collaborations like these produce something to treasure and the considered dust-bags, boxes, hangers and carry-bags reflect this. and like the past Gail Sorronda collection for Designers for Target, we will treasure these pieces forever (and not scalp them on eBay).

‘Antenna’ 13.10.10
something about being happy not to own a television. leftovers of Gail amongst the TV antennas on the rooftop of our new apartment building...

‘Symbiotic’ 24.08.10
the Gail Sorronda symbiotic skull cap is a great companion for your pineal gland. the crystal glass beads will remove blockages in your electromagnetic field ensuring healing energy (and customised fashion) for humans and aliens alike.

‘Beast’ 20.08.10
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley depicts a global government controlled dystopia where superficial entertainment is the opiate of the masses. Sydney artist Beastman obviously takes inspiration from such a controlled society. his joint exhibition Brave New Worlds with Luke Taaffe features occult symbolism such as the all-knowing owl, the all-seeing eye and Illuminati triangles. the exhibition opened at Nine Lives in Brisbane last night and runs til the end of the month.

‘Godspeed’ 28.07.10
it can be challenging to tell a story without words. but for one of our favourite bands Godspeed You! Black Emperor and their bleak and emotive soundscapes (and very minimal voice over narrative), they have more to say than all the major record label Illuminati puppets combined. delicate strings with minimal, expansive guitars lead to military powered crescendos that tell important stories of government corruption, tyranny and human emptiness (a theme of Murmur).
so it gives us hope that despite having body adornment (and a random blog post) as a medium, we have the opportunity to say something. for there is no shortage of artists, writers and musicians with political and social undertones, but for fashion not so much.

‘Pineal’ 20.07.10
the Murmur Skull Cap was inspired by Egyptian headresses and the fruit of the evergreen tree (the pine cone) symbolising eternal life. like the Great Pyramid built in the centre of our physical planet, the pineal gland is located in the geometric centre of the brain and is considered the most powerful source of ethereal energy available to humans. it’s often called our third eye as it contains retinal tissue and is our window to inner vision and spirituality. Ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Buddhist and Hindu cultures (amongst many more) make reference to the symbolic pine cone.

‘Murmur’ 03.07.10
Murmur is inspired by the noise that distracts us from important social issues and how we as humans have strayed from our natural instincts.
the collection explores the opposite and equal reaction through matt versus shine, transparency versus opaque and structure versus fluidity. this further reinforces the almost black comical duality between the organic versus mechanical relationship.

‘Current’ 03.06.10
Gail’s mother nicknamed her the wrecker when she was young. anything electrical that Gail touches ends in an untimely death. laptops, mobile phones, light bulbs etc spasm only in her presence, and when my camera suddenly died in Gail’s hands at the beginning of our holiday i’ve since obsessed over this electric human phenomena. apparently it’s not conventional static electricity but some kind of psychic power.

‘Unveil’ 09.04.10
the last couple of years we’ve been influenced by our growing concerns of the New World Order’s agenda. freedom of expression, information censorship, a financial collapse by design etc etc all affect us in one way or another.
we’ve subtly communicated our views in the media and again Gail’s next spring summer collection will have some political undertones. fashion shouldn’t just be another opiate for the masses. research beyond the mass media eg infowars.com and prisonplanet.tv and question why is Iraq occupied to begin with?!

‘Eleven’ 07.01.11
despite being sick since the New Year and slowly turning the pale colour of our mannequin, in numerology the year 2011 starts off brightly carrying with it illumination. number 11 is a master number and is referred to as the number of the psychic. it also exhibits the properties of number 2 which includes duality and opposites.
number 11 carries a vibrational frequency of balance. it represents male and female equality. it contains both sun energy and moon energy simultaneously yet holding them both in perspective separateness. perfect balance.