some of my favourite fashion quotes

- '..but then you look at it and it’s like there’s not that charm to it. if you’re just wrapping yourself in the security of a bunch of designer names, it comes off in the photograph. it lacks the uniqueness as opposed to someone who has the balls – or not balls.’ – Scott Schuman

'whatever you do, don’t be safe because fashion is just full of the same fucking shit. be McQueen or Christopher Kane' – Jane Morley (my first fashion design teacher)

'i think a lot of people say blogs have democratised fashion, but i don’t know if that’s necessarily true. i think it’s created a lot more voices, but also a lot more noise. a lot of people say the ground work has already been set as to who the important bloggers are, but it’s kind of like music, you know? one guy with a guitar can mean more to people than an entire..' - Scott Schuman

what’s exciting you most about the fashion industry right now? 'how there are no trends or people who dictate fashion, everyone finds what they love and makes it important to them.' - unknown

'..i think that’s why we’re seeing a lot of young designers emerging from rural and regional Queensland, because when you grow up without being submerged in fashion, you want it even more. you could say that those who grow up in those traditional fashion centres like Sydney or Melbourne take fashion for granted.' – Michael Finch

'i always ran my company like a company. i wanted people to recognise my work and i wanted to sell clothes. its such a silly and obvious thing, but so many designers with lots of press don’t sell clothes. my goal has always been to make exceptionally beautiful clothes that woman want to own.' – Jason Wu

'as joseph Altuzarra explains it, ‘its how the editors wear their coats.’' (jackets worn over shoulders like capes - Elin Kling

'i’m not afraid of walking down the street in something that people think is crazy. what i can’t stand is looking like everybody else.' - Mary-Kate Olsen
design should be something that has function, fits into a person’s ordinary everyday life, but makes her feel a bit extraordinary.

'you’re considered superficial and silly if you’re interestd in fashion, but i think you can be substantial and still be interested in frivolity.' – Sofia Coppola

'women often don’t want to admit that they like fashion. and yet fashion enthrals everyone, from the taxi driver to the mega-intellectual. i have often asked myself why this is. i don’t know the answer.' - Miuccia Prada

stop hate criming my accessories

some of my most memorable sections of Kirstie Clements' 'The Vogue Factor' novel about her life leading up until her departure from Australian Vogue:

society is understandably concerned about the issues surrounding body image and eating disorders, and the dangerous and unrealistic messages being sent to young women via fashion journals. when it comes to who should be blamed for the portrayal of overly thin models, magazine editors are in the direct line of fire, but the conundrum is more complex. the 'fit model' begins the fashion process: designer outfits are created around a live, in-house skeleton. very few designers have a curvy or petite fit model. these collections are then sent to the runway, worn by tall, pin-thin models because that's the way the designer wants to see the clothes fall. there will also be various casting directors and stylists involved, who have a vision of the type of women they envisage wearing these clothes. for some bizarre reason, it seems they prefer her to be young, coltish, six-foot tall and built like a prepubescent boy.
it is too simplistic to blame mysognistic men, although in some cases i believe that criticism is deserved. there are a few male fashion designers i would like to personally strangle. but there are many female fashion editors who perpetuate the stereotype, women who often have a major eating disorder of their own. they get so caught up in the hype of how brilliant clothes look on a size 4 they cannot see the inherent dagner in the message. it cannot be denied that visually, clothes fall better on a slimmer frame, but there is slim, and then there is scary skinny.
after the shows, the collection is made available for the press to use for their shoots. these are the samples we all work with an they are obviously the size of the model who will fit into these tiny sizes. there are no bigger samples available, and in any case, the designer probably has no interest in seeing their clothes on larger women.
as a Vogue editor, i was of the opinion that we didn't necessarily need to feature size 14-plus models in every issue. it is a fashion magazine; we are showcasing the clothes. i am of the belief that an intelligent reader understands that a model is chosen because she carries clothes well. some fashion would suit a curvier girl, some wouldn't. i see no problem with presenting a healthy, toned, size Australian 10. but as sample sizes from the runway shows became smaller and smaller, 10 was no longer an option and the girls were dieting drastically to stay in the game.
it is the ultimate vicious cycle.
- p63
Couture is, by its very nature a luxury, and only very select journalists were in attendance. it was not exactly snobbery, but if you don't have the Couture customers, you don't get the chair. my colleagues and i used to call it the 'you're only as good as your economy' rule.
- p78
after i sat down at the table, a junior media buyer from an advertising agency who was seated opposite, and looked to be about 20-years-old, picked up his vintage Moet & Chandon and eyeballed me, clearly unimpressed. 'what are you going to do for the Vogue readers who don't know who Karl Lagerfeld is? for example, i don't,' he smirke, as if he was slapping down a trump card. i had no answer.
he was simply following the ignorant and ungenerous Australian tradition of refusing to be impressed by anyone or anything, even one of the world's greatest living fashion designers. it's moments like these when you appreciate what your ad team has to contend with on a daily basis. it took all of my self-control not to snatch the champagne out of his hand.
- p142
most people would assume that because you're with Vogue a red carpet is rolled out of your limousine and a minion will arrive to show you to your chair next to Anna Wintour. ah, no. you have to earn your seat on the bench. circumstances and pecking orders have changed so much now though, there will probably be a really thin, beautiful, Russian trust fund-blogger wearing current season Balmain and an online retail buyer from Iceland in front of you anyway.
- p173
since the emergence of the street-style photographer and blogger, the amount of 'poseurs' that exist outside and inside the shows has become a whole new business. the coverage of street fashionistas of indeterminate means is as important as the designer content, and may even be devoted more space.
social media has democratised fashion commentary and created a new order of power players in the industry. decades of experience at revered mastheads and the ability to articulate intelligently may prove to be of very little value in the near future.
it's getting harder to find honest, relevant criticism because the new fashion commentators are relentlessly positive in their reviews. it's within their interest to be so. they want to go to the shows. i would like to see more of them be truly critical, especially if they are in the fortunate position of not yet having any advertisers who could pull out.
- p179

creep it real

i've already done two posts previously on my design assessment for the 2nd semester of last year, and never really got around to finding the time to finish (or start) posting the third. the third designer/s that i focussed on was Gail Reid (now Harwood, i believe?) of Gail Sorronda notoriety.
it's a bit of a blogger bore that i love her and her work to bits, but Gail definitely holds a special place in my heart. for starters, of course, because she also studied the same degree at QUT that i am currently battling my way through.
much like Riccardo at Givenchy, i feel as though my dream design aesthetic would have a lot of similar elements to her own, and a lot of this is because of her focus on opposite and equal reaction. that is something that i always find in my own work; particularly the projects that i enjoy the most or am the most proud of. i love the balance of darkness and frivolity. i love masculinity and femininity perfectly in opposition. this is also true about garments that i own (and also shoes, homewares - you name it) and love the most. i don't have a reason for it but i'm happy not to fight the matter
she also has a fondness toward conspiracy theories. i don't necessarily believe all conspiracies, but i absolutely love to read and watch films about alternative theories. i have discovered some of my favourites through Gail, such as the Charlie Chaplin time traveller (have a little snoop on youtube if you're intrigued).


although i had found most of this information previously through my own OTT investigation and constant scouring of any new interviews, some of my favourite parts of the research that i found were:
- 'i'm always asked why i don't use colours in my collections. it's not that i'm afraid of colour, it's that i want to focus on the contrast between black and white. it works as a metaphor for the opposite and equal reaction. the shadow against light, night and day. it's natural to hvae contrasts. just as you have to suffer a little to appreciate the good things. it's about accepting the dark and the light - not trying to mish them together, but just letting them co-exist.'
- 'there is a misconception that there is limited opportunities in the industry. if you're willing to work hard, be proactive and persistent and do it for the right reasons, you will create your own opportunities.'
- 'the Murmur headpiece was inspired by Egyptian headdress 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 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.'
- 'social media is great but for a niche label like ours, you don't want to be over-bearing with promotion. sometimes i think, what would Margiela do?'
- 'i love fluidity, but i liked the idea of that bulbous shape just being captured and from the ieas of wax slowly dripping to water droplets on a glass window. i started to explore the idea of suspension.. even the idea of human suspension, like when people physically hook themselves.'
- 'anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security.'
- describing her ideal world: 'it would definitely be bi-polar! everyone would be on their own time! time would become an artificial construct and as everyone might already know, i'm always fighting the compulsion to meet my own time. so ideally, in a Utopian sense, there would be no concept of time. primarily, it would be like something called a resouce-based society where i would vanguish all monetary systems and instead you would exchange your talents so everyone would be working towards an actualisation of realising one's self. no paper-shufflers - just creative potential.'
- 'this morning we were woken by what sounded like a drone of mosquitoes wings. but alas, it was the New World Order cris-crossing the Paris sky with lines of white chemicals.'
- 'fashion shouldn't just be another opiate for the masses. research beyond the mass media.'
- (SS11): inspired by distant voices, drones and the all-seeing eye.
- 'my signature is definitely the opposite and equal reaction and that's why i create these parameters of only working monochromatically in a collection. ..you find that in all forms. it's the natural orer; the male and the female counterpart, the black and the white..'

Baroque and roll

i can't believe how long it has been since i have been on this site other than to follow others' new posts.. not once this year. i am now on semi-holidays for a few more weeks and can breathe a little. i had no plans to abandon this project but quite literally since day one of week one of the semester that has just flown by, i have been well and truly swamped by course work. it was the hardest academic period yet for me, and my one design subject alone consumed hundreds of hours and hundreds of dollars.. for a project that i'm mostly embarrassed and disheartened by. i will probably end up sharing it on here because i suppose i have already done a little bit via instagram already. we focussed on tailoring, but structure is the one thing i'm completely allergic to. i couldn't design even if i wanted to. my creative soul was choked and in creating things that i hate, i thought that i was at least ticking the boxes and creating what the teaching staff expected and desired..but i didn't even manage to achieve that. so i guess i learned that it is not worth producing something you don't believe in for someone else - because it most certainly didn't pay off for me in this case. it was an interesting learning experience though, and i'm thankful for being thrown in the deep end.

i hope to be on here more frequently again now, however, and today i am super enthusiastic to share some tidbits from a not-so-recent fashion talk by David Bush (up until this year, he was the head womenswear buyer for David Jones and is a significant and renowned figure in the local industry). up until this year, he has also personally critiqued the tailoring assessment at QUT that i just finished up. i was so devastated to learn that he wouldn't be joining us for that, as QUT's relationship was more with him through David Jones, than with him as a personal mentor. but he was generous enough to still speak with us and i loved every minute of it. i didn't necessarily learn anything new, but it was terribly reassuring to hear what he did have to say.

i believe you can listen back to the talk here.

my most noted parts:
- the quicker you know the customer, the quicker you earn money.
- without product, there is no brand. You need supply.
- a brand is based on a gut feeling. It is owned by the customer - whether or not they like or are stimulated by a product, or from the feeling they get from buying or looking at your product.
= how does the customer know to walk straight to your brand or product?
= trust - built over a period of time.
- you have a brand when someone returns to purchase over and over. If they only buy once, you have a business; not a brand.
= it is about meeting or exceeding their expectations - every time they purchase.
- some great brands have adapted or changed with the times but ultimately remained the same
= eg. Vogue - globally. You know exactly what you are going to get, yet it continues to change. The brand extensions that are employed make sense.
= eg. Ermenegildo Zegna. There is a town called Trivero in Italy that is the heart and soul of this brand. (The brand was originally built on wool-making, and today, David mentioned that you can cheekily see Zegna tags - for the fabrics - on suits made by opposing designers. What a curious situation). Paolo Zegna was a wool maker - he is ‘it and a bit’.
- stick to what it is you do - be focussed. There is nothing wrong with building a brand, but make it focussed, relevant and not just revenue-driving.
- don’t ever think about price. Inputs to value are more than price. You will go bankrupt when you stop listening to the customer. It is good to sell stuff yourself, so you can get the feedback.
- customer are fashion savvy. They know quality, they know the sewing, and so on.
- don’t worry about what everyone else is doing (other than to differentiate). Don’t make short-term decisions - you will fail. You have to know and care about finances, accountability and be inside the details. You’re the only one that really cares.
- where is your customer going to wear the garments?? ‘Commerciality’ and making money means, for example, that they can wear it to work, or that a bra can be worn with it. If you can’t answer that question, stop. You can still be innovative, but you need to be able to wear it somewhere or more than once. It has got to be adaptable - for example, worn from lunch to cocktails.
- does a potential stockist have the right customer for you? How is the brand marketed? Who are you sitting alongside in the store? What is the retailer’s long-term strategy.. is it consistent? What are you getting out of it? You have to cost all of this into the garment.
- take your time. No deal is better than a bad deal - for example, if Myer or Target come knocking.
- if you’re not failing sometimes, you’re probably not trying hard enough, or being innovative enough.
- there is no prize for coming first. The prize is longevity. The prize is the holiday, the car, the revenue..

even though i have had such a massive absence from here, i hope you will join me again for chapter 2.