Once upon a time in David Jones

the great restaurant at david jones, 1938

With apologies to Miranda Kerr, the terrific cast and some great Australian designer offerings at David Jones' Autumn/Winter 2012 showcase on Wednesday, in frockwriter's opinion the real star of the evening was DJs' just-restored On Seven space. This was no mere refurb, but essentially the fruit of retail archaeology - not to mention a multimillion dollar budget that must have made the David Jones board hyperventilate when it was first proposed mid 2011, shortly after ceo Paul Zahra issued a shock profit downgrade. Originally launched in 1928 as The Great Restaurant, the space was shuttered in 1965 and eventually cut in half with a floating ceiling in 1981, to make room for an international designer brand floor. The remaining void became home to over 200 different utility cables and a lot of dust. The space has been hidden from public view for the best part of 50 years.

Blowout at Buckingham Palace

antipodium's facebook

So Buckingham Palace's Australian reception is done and dusted. Three hundred and fifty guests descended on the palace last night for a special meet-and-greet with Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, ahead of next week's royal visit downunder. So far there don't seem to be terribly many photos of Andrej Pejic. But Antipodium designer Geoffrey J Finch snapped these two shots of Pejic en route to the do in a rather demure black vintage Versace pencil skirt and charcoal grey Paul Smith blazer (and not Jean Paul Gaultier, a rack of whose clothes, we hear, had been sent to Pejic prior to the event). Teamed with, Pejic tells frockwriter, an Issey Miyake blouse, black tights, boots from Australian high street chain Tony Bianco and his mum's vintage gold belt from the 1980s, the most extravagant aspect of the outfit was his coiffure: dead straight blond hair extensions which reached to his waist - the antithesis of his Bellatrix L'Estrange-meets-Marie-Antoinette up do at Myer's recent relaunch party. In the absence so far of any photographic evidence, did Pejic actually get to meet the Queen or did he just mill about the reception rooms while a select few were run past Her Majesty? "All the guests who attended last night's reception were presented to The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh" a Buckingham Palace spokesperson told us.
 

Because the night - LMFF 2011

Alex Perry's Spring/Summer 2011/2012 presentation was not the only glamour event at last week's L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival. Although unlike Perry's show, it provided no reveal of any brand new season's offerings, the L'Oréal Paris Runway 5 show on Friday night, presented by Harpers Bazaar Australia, was nevertheless a wonderful showcase of highend PM-wear from some of Australia's most acclaimed designers: Collette Dinnigan, Toni Maticevski, Aurelio Costarella, Jayson Brunsdon, Dion Lee, Scanlan & Theodore and Willow. Here are a few shots below. Click (here) to see frockwriter's backstage portfolio shot during the show.

Thurley's butterfly effect

Deadlines kept me away from Thurley's Spring/Summer 2010/2011 runway show last night at a gracious old home in Sydney's Woollahra. But a few backstage shots were slipped frockwriter's way. The four year-old cocktail and eveningwear line is designed by Helen O'Connor, who has earned comparisons with Collette Dinnigan - much to the latter's chagrin. The new collection is called 'The Butterfly Effect' and the show featured all Chic Management girls, including Samantha Harris, Meg Lindsay, Hannah Saul and Emma Norris. Styling was by Jolyon Mason, with Jon Pulitano for Redken on hair, makeup by Amanda Reardon and shoes by Camilla Skovgaard - the real Camilla Skovgaard, that is and not one of numerous Australian mid market manufacturers who are knocking her off.








all photos: courtesy golightly pr

Some mothers do 'ave 'em - fashion careers

dailymail.co.uk

Collette Dinnigan has been the subject of quite some online coverage of late - and it reveals rather a lot about her latterday role as a working mother. In the past month alone this has included two profiles on British Vogue's website vogue.com and a Q&A on Fairfax’s Essential Baby, which describes itself as the largest online parenting community - and one of the largest women's communities – in Australia. On the subject of Estella, Dinnigan’s four year-old daughter with former partner Richard Wilkins, who Dinnigan is raising as a single mother, Essential Baby asks a number of probing questions. These include what Dinnigan plans to serve Estella for dinner that night (grilled salmon fillet with broccoli), where she feels she excels as a mother (“nurturing and embracing Estella’s individuality & creativity”) and in which areas Dinnigan feels that she is guilty of motherhood fail (“bedtime & discipline”).

Vogue.com’s June 10 diary meanwhile, revealed that Dinnigan’s day starts at 6.30am and finishes 16 hours later.

In between - in addition to running a global fashion company - Dinnigan says she gets Estella up and ready for school, has breakfast with Estella, makes Estella’s lunch, drops Estella at school en route to the office – and returns home at 6.30pm to “relieve” a nanny, who has presumably picked Estella up from school. Dinnigan then prepares Estella for "bed and story time".

Dinnigan’s work day does not however finish at 6.30pm because she is at it again from 9.00pm, making calls to the UK and Europe in their office hours and also vetting emails and signing off on paperwork that needs to be done. As indeed would anyone who is running any kind of international business.

No, it’s not a timetable for the faint-hearted – or those who would prefer a 9-5 job working for someone else, a weekly pay cheque, including weekends, holidays, sick pay, superannuation – and now in Australia, paid maternity leave (from January 2011). All paid for by the employer who, of course, is obligated by law to pay all of this, irrespective of whether or not they have themselves actually been paid.

But it’s a path chosen by those who are prepared to work their guts out, often against extremely difficult odds and business pressures, currency fluctuations, bad timing, bad luck, bad weather, ripoff merchants - not to mention crappy show reviews - in the dream of building a business, a brand or a body of work.

Which is why I found myself doing a double-take after reading the following question from Essential Baby general manager – and apparently chief Australian Mommy Nazi - Melina Cruikshank:

“Have there been times when you’ve considered giving up your work to become a full time mum?”

Dinnigan may have also been taken aback by the question, because she skirts the issue with the following answer:

“I'm always exhausted at the end of designing a collection so often I don't know if I have it in me to do another. But I always find some inspiration somewhere to do it again”.

Of course, many female professionals have talked about the challenges involved in juggling careers with motherhood. In the fashion arena, many manage to combine both.

Perhaps there was no greater illustration of these challenges than when Phoebe Philo, the former creative director of French luxury brand Chloé, quit the high-profile brand in 2006 at the peak of her success, in order to focus on her family.

Three years later, Philo is back at work and has just unveiled her first collection for rival French luxury brand Céline.

Philo was of course merely an employee at Chloé, not the owner of the Chloé business. And you have to wonder if Chloé had been her own label, whether she would have made the same decision.

Stella McCartney on the other hand - who Philo succeeded at Chloé, when McCartney was lured over by Gucci Group to launch her eponymous label in 2001 - has had three children in quick succession, with no interruption to her design schedule.

There is something incredibly condescending about asking a successful businesswoman such as Dinnigan whether she would throw in her fashion business in order to concentrate on being a stay-at-home mum. Firstly, it implies that there is nothing serious, or important, about Dinnigan's business. At the very least, it directly employs a number of people, from Dinnigan's office staff to sales consultants in her three standalone boutiques in Australia and London.

Secondly, Dinnigan's savings notwithstanding, it implies there is someone waiting in the wings to support her when she is no longer bringing home the bacon - and presumably, a man.

And, moreover, as suggested by one fashion industry working mother whose opinion I just canvassed - who described the question as “insulting” - you just can't imagine the same question being asked of a man.

Coincidentally, on Essential Baby's masterlist of 20 ‘Mum In Profile’ interviews of working mothers, this question was only asked of the four business owners on the list: designers Dinnigan and Fiona Scanlan, beauty entrepreneur Natalie Bloom and Merino Kids founder and ceo Amie Nilsson (and author Kathy Lette).

The other interviewees were mostly television and radio presenters and entertainment figures (the tv/radio component of which would obviously be network employees).

While all those asked the question by Essential Baby reply firmly in the negative, Bloom and Scanlan do hint that they have entertained fleeting moments of giving it all away.

However when Scanlan says she has occasionally considered swapping her business for the stay-at-home mum option, she is referring to her four year-old childrenswear label BIG by Fiona Scanlan.

As distinct from Scanlan & Theodore, the fashion brand she co-founded with Gary Theodore in Melbourne in 1987 – and which Scanlan did abandon in 2002, in order to concentrate on her family and leave it to Theodore.

While BIG by Fiona Scanlan has been successful, Scanlan’s profile as a fashion designer has definitely waned since her departure from Scanlan & Theodore. Already well en route to becoming one of Australia’s most influential designer labels prior to her departure, the brand has since gone on to emerge as a powerful monobrand retailer.

In her March 4 Q&A with Essential Baby Scanlan implied that she launched a childrenswear label because of a non-compete clause with Theodore.

Talking about the pressures of raising a family while designing fulltime, Scanlan told Essential Baby:

“Scanlan & Theodore was started without children and then children came along. I always had the feeling that children remained second in that world. Nobody had children at work and there was an expectation that you were to be available whenever was required and that is very difficult to maintain long term – organised or not….Children don’t fit into boxes or time frames and so work really has to have some sort of malleability to it. I ended up feeling rushed, frayed and the feeling I wasn’t doing anything particularly well”.

On March 3 2008, the host of ABC Radio’s Talking Heads program, Peter Thompson, managed to get a lot more out of Dinnigan than Essential Baby.

Thompson talked to Dinnigan about the pressures of being at the top of her profession. Dinnigan replied that there is a cost - but that is not less time with Estella.

Dinnigan noted:

“There's definitely a price to pay. I think there's more loneliness”.

Of the business pressures in general Dinnigan told Thompson,

“There are days where I most definitely, definitely, can leave it behind”.

On motherhood and what ultimately drives – and creatively satisifies - her, Dinnigan noted:

“I was exceptionally driven, you know, up until having my daughter. My priorities have changed. And I sometimes think I've lost it but then having more time I can see ideas... I just can't leave it alone. Even to go on holiday to stay in a hotel, it's just not right. I can't help myself, I have to pull back and just relax and not worry about it, so then think "Will I do my own hotel?"

Collette Dinnigan's three strikes on Style.com

collette dinnigan SS09/style.com

Critics, at the end of the day, voice personal opinions and I must admit there are many times when I don’t necessarily agree with some of the reviews on major fashion sites such as Style.com or The New York Times. Critics also don’t buy the clothes. Retail buyers - and of course consumers – buy the clothes. And critics and buyers often have quite different viewpoints on runway collections. That said, I can’t help thinking that Collette Dinnigan won’t be taking too kindly to the Style.com review of her SS09 show in Paris yesterday. To make matters worse, it’s Dinnigan’s third bad review on that site.

Notes Nicole Phelps today:

“There was a little black dress midway through Collette Dinnigan's show that reminded people who've followed her career of the early days. The frock's peekaboo-lace back echoed the lingerie-inspired dresses with which she made her name in the nineties. It would've been a good look upon which to build her Spring collection. As it was, it was just a (welcome) blip among many other pleasant but less distinctive dresses, some densely embroidered in metallic paillettes or studs, others cut in a filmy white chiffon with a violet butterfly print. Military touches on jackets struck a timely note, but there wasn't enough here to distinguish the clothes from those found in the contemporary collections seen on the runways of New York. In fact, that might be a good venue for this commercially oriented designer”.

Reviewing Dinnigan's previous FW0809 collection Phelps wrote in March:

“It's the last day of Paris, and if people aren't preoccupied with plotting their exit strategies, they're tallying up the season's strongest shows and asking questions about what it all means. It's not a good day for the Aussie designer Collette Dinnigan to present her modest collection. There are simply too many reasons to overlook it, and Dinnigan's first job should be to address that issue before another season passes”.

And here is what Phelps wrote reviewing the SS08 collection:

“Does Dinnigan, who was on the runway for the second time after a comeback last season, have the goods to compete on the Paris stage? Not yet, and not unless she returns with a collection that has some actual fashion in it”.

Upon Dinnigan's return to the Paris runways in March last year, after a one year hiatus, I blogged the show and an interview on smh.com.au.

The post included reference to one 2006 Sydney Morning Herald news story in which I had reported the industry speculation which had initially followed the news of Dinnigan's decision to take time off to raise her new baby.

At the time, retail sources speculated that Dinnigan may have been dropped by the Paris organising body because she wasn’t pulling her weight in publicity (publicity beyond Australia, that is - where Dinnigan's publicity is almost invariably uncritical).

The Chambre Syndicale denied it - and of course Dinnigan has been back on the Paris schedule now for four seasons.

Part of Dinnigan’s problem, in my humble opinion, lies in the fact that she not only continues to show in the claustrophobic underground Carousel du Louvre venue, but at a time when a major ennui has descended on the fashion caravan (not to mention the media at large) after buyers and media reps have been on the road for four weeks following the season.

Dinnigan moved her time slot to Saturday this season, but it does not look to have won her many favours, at least in Style.com's view. What does WWD have to say about the show? One sentence.

Then there’s the runway collection. Not to mention the show.

Dinnigan has a great brand and she gives good glamour, via both her signature beaded lace cocktail dresses and the longer eveningwear. And she is capable of putting on a sensational presentation.

Dinnigan should try to come up with a fresh new strategy for FW0910. The 'first Australian designer to show on schedule in Paris' schtick has worn thin. In spite of Style.com's criticism that Dinnigan is a "commercially-oriented designer" - which must sting, because Dinnigan has long traded off the idea of the Parisian fashion fantasy - New York is not such a bad idea. At least for a change of pace.

Yes the New York event is an absolute monster however Dinnigan is a well established brand, the American market is an intrinsic component of her business, the New York shows take place at the very start of the season and furthermore, they are infested with the kind of celebrities who like to wear her clothes. Dinnigan would presumably be able to leverage considerable star power there.

Last but not least, never put your showroom on the runway. It's about the brand - not bread-and-butter.

Drop dead Dinnigan

While perusing The Carry Bag Company's trade show stand this morning, frockwriter was struck by one particular CBC client sample - from Drop Dead Gorgeous.

A highend boutique located in the Auckland suburb of Newmarket, according to this Newmarket info website Drop Dead Gorgeous stocks:

"the latest styles in leading international brands such as Chloe, Stella McCartney, Luella, Phillip Lim and Schumacher".

Specialising in such leading international brands, Drop Dead Gorgeous - and its customers - evidently have a tremendous appreciation for original design.

Uncanny then, that there's such an extraordinary resemblance between the corporate ID of Drop Dead Gorgeous, whose pink carry bag boasts the company's brand name writ large in flamboyant calligraphy - and that of high-profile antipodian designer Collette Dinnigan.

Perhaps there's something in the water here and they came up with the idea at precisely the same moment.

Although Sydney-based, Dinnigan was raised in Auckland.

Collette's page one

Missed this yesterday. But congrats to Collette Dinnigan on her Tuesday WWD cover with this cute little white lace dress.

It's not Dinnigan's first WWD cover - as far as I recall, that was way back in 1996. The paper ran a shot of a model in a Dinnigan dress, together with the coverline (from memory) "The Lace Maker".

Dinnigan had just emerged on the Paris runways and it was a pretty big deal for her at the time. As I recall, she took the issue in with her to the studio when rocking up for an interview on Nine's Midday show with Kerri Anne Kennerley.

Collette's tough love: ditching the princesses in the childrenswear department

Collette Dinnigan made her "triumphant" return today to the catwalks of Paris after a hiatus of two seasons. That's how the Australian media will no doubt report the show - as breathlessly as they have done since Dinnigan first started showing in Paris in the mid 1990s. That's not to say that the show wasn't good - it was.

But let's put things in perspective here. It wasn't Dries Van Noten or Hussein Chalayan or Martin Grant or Stella McCartney or YSL or Christian Dior or Jean Paul Gaultier yada yada yada. Not in terms of size and buzz.

It was a small-ish show attended by a large number of Australian media representatives, a couple of international media reps who have or have had links to Australia, with the most high-profile attendees, as far as I could see anyway, being Australian designer Marc Newson and his UK stylist girlfriend Charlotte Stockdale. The backstage media 'throng' afterwards could have been counted on one hand.

I was surprised to have even received an invitation to tell you the truth. I had still not received one by this morning. At the last minute, I received word that my invitation had gone astray.

Why would I be persona non grata at Dinnigan's show? Oh no reason - apart from an article that I wrote this time last year, after Dinnigan pulled out of her first Paris show season, citing the need to spend more time with her then 18 month-old daughter Estella.

I reported industry speculation that Dinnigan may have in fact been bumped by the Paris show organisers, the Chambre Syndicale - something which the Chambre Syndicale (eventually) denied. But which irritated the Dinnigan camp no end at the time, prompting a hilarious riposte that weekend by another Australian fashion journalist who dismissed me as a "frock writer". I did have to laugh. As did a friend of mine, who had a "frockwriter" T-shirt specially made.

As it turned out, sources from Sydney to London (and one of them a senior source in retail) seemed to feel at the time that because space is so tight on the Paris show schedule, Dinnigan might not be deemed to be pulling her weight in terms of publicity - publicity outside Australia, that is.

But she's back on schedule now so clearly, that doesn't seem to be the case. Certainly, it is a feather in a designer's cap to be invited by the Chambre Syndicale organisers to join the schedule. That doesn't axiomatically make a brand Balenciaga. Here are a few names with which you are no doubt unfamiliar, who also showed on-schedule this week: Lie Sang Bong, Dice Kayek, Moon Young Hee, John Ribbe and Wu Yong.

So I wander backstage beforehand to kill some time.

There's Dinnigan with Estella, a beautiful little two and a half year-old with long blonde hair, who is dressed in what Dinnigan informs me is a Dinnigan-issue fairy dress, complete with jewel-embellished tiara. I return 15 minutes later and bump into Richard Wilkins - Dinnigan's on-again, off-again partner, and father of Estella, who would appear to be very much on-again right now. Wilkins looks and sounds utterly exhausted, like he's just disembarked from a red eye flight.

"I've been at the Oscars - and took the long way home" says Wilkins. At another point, I spot him kissing and cuddling Estella on his lap. He looks like a devoted, affectionate Dad.

I pick up my seat finally - and notice that Dinnigan has given me a "b" row seat. Given that every other Australian media rep seems to be in the front row, I could be imagining things however it looks like a deliberate slight on Dinnigan's part. But hey, it's her show.

And no matter. I wait to see which way the seating is shaking close to start time and simply take one of the - numerous - gaps in the front row of the seating block that looks straight down the barrel of the runway. Obviously a few VIPs didn't turn up.

Although the front rows on both sides of the runway are full, there are a number of gaps in the second and third rows on either sides. As the show goes to start people who have hitherto been standing fill the gaps. All up in the end it's a full house.

The collection is called 'Equinox Girl' and the show is confident - even if most of the models are not.

Yes of course there's at least one of Dinnigan's trademark lace cocktail dresses - micro-length, in bronze metallic lace with a black 'harness' inset panel - but also some beautiful coats and jackets, one in ivory wool with scalloped hemline, a striking black Duchesse satin evening jacket with exaggerated puffed sleeves and a 'tough' black leather cropped jacket with short sleeves and trench coat-like flap. There are also some great, 30s-look, highwaisted woollen flared trousers and cropped leggings with ribbon ties down the outside legs in both black velvet and grey wool.

The best dresses are not in fact in the trademark lace at all: one is a cafe-coloured knit dress and another a jade green off-the-shoulder babydoll. To my mind the strongest piece in the entire collection is a sheer black, highnecked blouse with sleeves made entirely of what look like maribou feathers. It reeks of old-worlde Parisian glamour.

I'm sure Dinnigan would value the opinion of international frockwriters Suzy Menkes (The International Herald Tribune), Cathy Horyn (The New York Times), Sarah Mower (Style.com) etc.... over that of any Australian journalist, but I'm not sure that I saw any of these in attendance today so here goes in the interim for what it's worth.

Collette Dinnigan is a talented designer who became the first Australian invited to show on the Paris show schedule. She quickly carved out a successful niche for pretty embellished cocktail dresses and eveningwear.

But if some lament that her style has failed to 'move on' and therefore lacks the ability to generate show buzz - the kind of buzz that comes from independent editorial reviews, as opposed to that generated by publicists - then perhaps that's because there is an element of truth to it.

I recall one show that Dinnigan did during Fashion Week in Sydney in 1997. With extraordinary styling and art direction, it was the highlight of the event. That was 10 years ago. By soliciting - and listening to - expert advice, and with the appropriate infrastructure, there is ostensibly nothing to stop Collette Dinnigan from one day becoming as big a brand as Alberta Ferretti. This new collection - and attitude - is a small step in the right direction. Let's hope she builds on it.

I had a quick chat with Dinnigan after the show:

So why Paris? You obviously spent some time in US showrooms in the past twelve months, why is Paris so important to your brand?
Well we were invited, you know 'Please come', and from a commercial point of view it was a very good decision to go to New York but I think for us now, Paris is really emotionally like my city and my place.

Why?
It's very creative. I know it very well. It's perhaps not as efficient as New York in producing a show but I really think that what designers put down the runway is truly from their heart and from a creative spirit. In America it's very driven, much more by commercial reality.

That's where the celebrities are.
Yeah it is and I'm sure we would have a lot of great front row people there but it feels right to be here and I don't know exactly what that is and what the formulae is but I think I've made the right decision.

You took some time off to spend with your daughter - do you think it's tougher for a female designer in this respect? Obviously taking the year off led to some speculation that there might have been other reasons why you weren't showing.
You know my priorities have changed but that doesn't mean my work has taken a back row. But it's difficult. You can't be 24/7 working and when you don't have a family your work is very much part of your life. Your life does change.

Male designers obviously don't have to deal with this issue.
No exactly - even ones that have children, they have somebody at home to always look after them.

What do you think having your daughter has contributed to your design philosophy?
Well my childrenswear collection is my favourite, I love that.

In your adult collection I mean. Coincidentally perhaps, this collection is a bit edgier than the stuff that you normally do.
But perhaps I'm playing more my fairyland with my childrenswear and not having to put so much of that in my collections so therefore it's almost like couture and ready-to-wear. So I have my fun girly play times with the Enfant collection and much more of my serious, creative drive...

You were just [in another interview] saying something about learning to leave things in the showroom. That is, not showing what you normally are expected to show. Could you elaborate?
It's like I'd continually do people's expectations and I think it's always good to challenge that. It's always like... the higher the benchmark or whatever the saying is. People need to come for a surprise, mystery, an element of change, the stream doesn't have to change direction but it needs to have a freshness. And I think that's important and that's why the show was condensed, it was smaller, and that was really also Karl [Plewka, stylist] said, 'No, do a small show, we're not showing for commercial reasons'. The collection, which is much larger, will be hanging in the stores but the essence of it just walked down the runway.

That is the challenge though isn't it for designers - when something is commercially successful and you become very well known for the beaded cocktail dress or the runway dress etc... It is a temptation to just kind of show your greatest hits, isn't it? That's what Giorgio Armani keeps doing.
No but he's a great advertiser and I think he also has a lot of kudos and he does a lot of other things very well. But I wouldn't survive. I have to reinvent the Collette sensibility I guess, something fresh, something new. And this season I really needed to be confident, strong, urban, full, volume, detail, leather... That's what felt right for me.

Did you feel energised, having had two seasons off?
No, because I still worked just as hard. In fact I worked harder, making sure that people didn't get the impression that I was having a holiday. And I still cannot believe people think I had a holiday - and my shops are still full of clothes.

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