Talking the talk: Fashion Torque, Live in the Studio and Insight

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Have always been a big believer in fashion forums. In my brief incarnation as editor of Australian industry newsmagazine Ragtrader, I initiated a (very short-lived) series called “Breakfast with Ragtrader”, inviting various fashion players to have a yack about industry issues. In the many and varied fashion panels in which I have been invited to be involved in recent years (including FGI, New Zealand Fashion Week, the L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival and a talk series hosted by the State Library of NSW during last year’s Rosemount Sydney Fashion Festival), I have always walked away thinking that if anyone were to initiate an ongoing in-the-round fashion series in this country, it would probably be a hit. Social media conversations are fine, but nothing beats a live event. Interesting to see more and more activity in this regard. Fashion Torque was initiated a couple of months ago by Melbourne stylist Philip Boon and designer Jenny Bannister with various guest panellists. It runs every Thursday at 6.30pm at the Globe Café in Prahran and is free to attend. 

Girls on film at the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival 2011

screen cap 'catwalk' via 123nonstop.com

Arguably more fashion-specific documentaries have been lensed in the past four years, than in the last two decades combined, with offerings including Lagerfeld Confidential (2007), Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton (2007), Valentino: The Last Emperor (2008), The September Issue (2009) and Picture Me (2009). That's not counting the recent proliferation of fashion shorts and videos, whose distribution has obviously been facilitated by the net. For anyone who is interested in seeing some older examples of the frockumentary genre, in addition to some less high-profile recent examples and who happens to be in Melbourne next week, this year's L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival, which officially kicks off tomorrow - and which frockwriter will be attending as a guest of the organisers and Tourism Victoria - has an abundance of offerings.

Charlotte Dawson was a Marc Jacobs muse?

Well, for fifteen minutes at least. Here is a series of screen caps from an episode of Andy Warhol's 1980s MTV series Fifteen Minutes, filmed in January 1987 and which features the former Ford New York model, now Australia's Next Top Model judge, modelling one of Jacobs' earliest collections. The underwear-as-outwear-themed collection includes the Freudian Slip Dress, emblazoned with a Sigmund Freud caricature. Dawson was one of three models cast for the show. Twenty three year-old Jacobs conducts the interview astride a ladder. And if you find the photo shoot antics of the ANTM contestants amusing, Dawson and co are required to climb the ladder after him. It's one of three episodes of the MTV series that will be screened by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) next week under the umbrella title Marc Jacobs' New York, as part of ACMI's week-long Marc Jacobs on Film festival during Melbourne Spring Fashion Week.

Yes, that's right, an entire week of films - six in total - dedicated to Jacobs' work.

Frockwriter buddy Bryanboy, in whose honour the ostrich skin 'BB' bag from Jacobs' FW0809 collection was named, has been flown down by ACMI to open the festival on Saturday night.

Click here for the full schedule and ticket details.
















all images: screen caps from 'marc jacobs' new york', courtesy ACMI