Snubbed by the Oz fashion press - shot by Lagerfeld

There were probably plenty of great stories lurking amongst the stands at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre yesterday. In the nanosecond that I was there, I hoped I might find at least one. I didn’t expect it to be handed to me on a plate on the FGI discussion panel: milliner Katerina Miaoulis.

Like many Australian milliners whose businesses rely heavily on trade from the racing sector, sales for Miaoulis' four-year old Memsahib brand were decimated by last year’s Equine Flu outbreak in Australia – which rocked the racing industry.

Undeterred by what Miaoulis reports were “thousands and thousands of dollars” in lost domestic sales, she booked a stand at January's Accessories the Show trade show at the Jacob Javits Convention Centre in New York, where Miaoulis promptly picked up 23 international accounts, from the US to Israel, Japan and Dubai.




memsahib hats @ fashion exposed

But it was not just buyers who liked Memsahib's sweet straw cloches and trilbies, many of which incorporate vintage embellishments.

Miaoulis' trade show stand was spotted by the accessories coordinator from US Harpers Bazaar, who took a card. As many do of course at these types of netwworking events.

Six months later, an email arrived from Harpers saying (words to the effect):

“Karl Lagerfeld is shooting Stella Tennant for a December feature called 'Duchess', with Lady Amanda Harlech styling. Do you think you could send some hats?”

The email was dated July 1st and the delivery deadline was July 4.

With the Australian time difference, the email was received in Sydney on July 2nd. When couriers told Miaoulis that they could not ship a delivery to Paris on time, she did the next best thing: grabbed seven hats and hopped on a plane herself.

Miaoulis told frockwriter yesterday:

“I had not had a shower, had not had a chance to prepare anything. I literally pulled my suitcase from under my bed, took my apron off, threw in a couple of pairs of clean knickers. Got there in the nick of time, four hours before the shoot, delivered the stuff myself and just left it there, met everybody very very briefly and then went back to my friend’s house [where she was staying]. I walked straight past her and threw up. I was terribly stressed out”.

She added:

“What I couldn’t understand was they had other milliners who are better-known than I am on the international stage and they had access to Stephen Jones and access to Philip Treacy. But for some reason they wanted my look”.

According to Miaoulis, she has had negligible press coverage in Australia - and notably not one mention in any fashion glossy. Miaoulis says she has no budget for PR, however did nevertheless manage to pull A$4,500 together quickly for the Paris trip, which may wind up paying off.

Of course we all know that fashion magazines call in many, many different products for shoots and not everything makes it in.

Miaoulis is crossing her fingers that when the December issue bows some time in November, she’ll see at least one of her hats.

FGI roadshow Part III – Fashion Exposed

urban original totes @ fashion exposed

A funny thing happened on the way to New Zealand Fashion Week. I was co-opted by Fashion Group International to moderate yet another panel discussion at one of their Fashion Flash trends forecasting seminars – this time inside the autumn/winter 2009 showcase of the southern hemisphere’s biggest apparel trade show: Fashion Exposed. Lordy, that makes three Fashion Flashes in six weeks.

Caught a plane this morning, which was delayed. Arrived at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre just in time to have a quick meet-and-greet with my fellow panellists:

• Jo Parkinson (Geoff Bade)
• Milliner Katerina Miaoulis (Memsahib)
• Julie Angerosa (Anna Fiori shoes)
• Suzie Rose Vella (Pizzuto)

(L to R) parkinson, miaoulis, angerosa and rose vella

I’ve now seen this FGI fall/winter 0809 video about five times and I feel like I know it back to front.

I still giggle when the Marc Jacobs BB bag comes up on the screen in the accessories section.

After the video we chatted about their respective winter ranges, how they are all coping with the tough retail climate – with Miaoulis offering the best anecdote of all (which I’ll blog a little later).



Checked out the trade show – very briefly, as I had to dash to the airport for a connecting flight to Auckland.

Chanced upon a brand I’ve seen here and there but never really knew much about – and which, beyond its Prada knockoffs, had some pretty cool print canvas bags: Urban Originals. I am reliably informed print canvas totes are an Urban Originals signature. I gather this brand has been in business for years and sells to around 1500 stockists in Australia.

On the way out the door I chanced upon a new Australian fashion sibling duo.

You know fashion sister acts Nicole and Simone Zimmermann (Zimmermann), Genevieve and Alexandra Smart (Ginger & Smart) and sole sisters Andrea and Joen Tan (the Andrea & Joen shoe brand).

Now meet Bianca and Kveta Fiebiger.

They’re not quite Oz rock n’roll royalty but close to – the Feibiger family owned the Musicland record label and both sisters used to work for Melbourne hip hop label Obese Records.



Feibiger Shoes launched last year, currently boasts 40 Australian stockists and AW09 is the second season.

The 29-style, ice cream parlour-nosed winter collection has some pretty jewel toned satin mules with diamante embellishment, some two-tone patent sandals (with Burberry-look uppers) and some very cute patent wedges in eye-popping gelato colours, which the Feibigers are calling “Gelettos”.



Both sisters are well-versed in the Tokyo street scene: Kveta lived there for three years and Bianca has spent quite some time there as well.

With RRPs of $89.95 for the Gelettos up to $99.95 for the exxiest item in the collection, it’s a cute young brand.

Which Fashion Week?

Well here we are again, another season, another Fashion Week. But which Fashion Week? That's the question. Today in fact marks the kickoff of a rare confluence of four fashion events, three of them taking place in the one city.

Eleven years after Australia's premier fashion showcase emerged in Sydney, Melbourne finally gets to say, for one week at least, and with some justification, that it's the centre of the Australian fashion universe.

This week Melbourne is the stage for Rosemount Australian Fashion Week, the consumer-focussed Motorola Melbourne Spring Fashion Week and the (very) large trade fair, Fashion Exposed.

Yes you heard correctly. For anyone who missed last week's news, the event formerly known as Mercedes Australian Fashion Week has been reborn this season under the banner of a new naming rights sponsor... wait for it... the mid-to-low price, Fosters Group-owned wine brand Rosemount Estate.

The news was something of a shock to some when it first broke. It's hard to say whether that shock was solely due to the habit of calling the event MAFW for so many years or the prospect of having to quaff Yellowglen at same for the next five. The Fosters-owned champagne brand Lanson may be the event's new official champagne, however Yellowglen Non Vintage is definitely getting a look-in.

Others volunteered (and apparently quite sincerely) that they wouldn't have minded the name Fosters Fashion Week. In any event, nothing lasts forever, 11 years is a marathon run for any sponsor and this is a new era for AFW - not to mention Rosemount Estate, for whom AFW is irrefutably a great get. Perhaps some will even get into the military-sounding swing of the new acronym: RAFW.

Only problem, the first RAFW is on a Lilliputian scale. Simon Lock just can't win. Last October, he was bagged for having a light-on schedule for the autumn/winter MAFW showcase and he vowed to reschedule the event this year, as per industry feedback, to an earlier timeslot. So he brought it forward by almost two months and the timing appears to be a disaster, with an even lighter schedule.

The fact that RAFW runs right into the kickoff of the northern spring/summer 2007 show season, may be exacerbating things.

Apart from the intense competition for publicity between the three Melbourne events this week, more and more Australians are heading to New York to show. The more who show, the more publicity the New York event is generating in Australia and although both RAFW and the official New York event, Olympus Fashion Week, are owned by the same company, IMG, the widening spotlight on New York is cannibalising publicity for the event which put those names on the fashion map in the first place.

It's a vicious cycle, RAFW is becoming a victim of its own success and quite possibly needs to restrategise.

I should add that this is a problem peculiar to the far younger, autumn/winter showcase in Melbourne, which was launched as recently as 2002 and which has been renamed this season as "Transseasonal" collections.

Judging by the number of shows this year (head to www.afw.com.au to see the schedule) it could have been crammed into one-two days max. The spring/summer showcase in Sydney is now 11 years old and has in fact been stretched to five days to accommodate demand. Spring is a far bigger season in Australia and, dare one say, more designers might in fact take part if the smaller event were also to be held in Sydney, where most of the media is based.

Which brings me to this week's fourth fashion event - and second Fashion Week.

New York Fashion Week starts on Friday and there are no less than six Australian labels on its runways. It's a record number - in fact triple the number who showed last season.

For the first time smh.com.au readers will have a ringside seat at the New York action, and indeed all the action of the entire spring/summer 2007 circuit, which continues on to London, Milan and then Paris over the course of the next five weeks.

From the runways to the backstage shenanigans to the parties, we'll be there - and blogging.

Having been so bitterly disappointed with the dud celebs on the MAFW superyacht in April, as some may recall, we do look forward to touching base with the real thing. They trot them out over there like inflatables at a Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

So watch this space. Not MySpace.


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