Ben Pollitt is taking a break

boudist.com

A few Rosemount Australian Fashion Week shows are still up in the air ahead of this Thursday’s release of the official schedule by organisers IMG Fashion Asia Pacific. In the interim, see frockwriter’s preview of what's on. But one name will definitely not be among the late additions: Friedrich Gray. That’s because Ben Pollitt, the designer behind the Sydney-based label, has ceased production – temporarily, we are assured, by his spokeswoman Rae Begley, who confirmed that Pollitt “is definitely taking a break”. Although retailer Belinda Seper, Pollitt’s mentor and former employer, told us she was unaware that Pollitt had produced an Autumn/Winter 2011 range, according to Begley he did do a “small injection” for winter. But there is no Spring/Summer 2011/2012 collection and for the moment, it is unclear just when Pollitt will be resuming work.

SOYA formulae

antipodium SS0910/sonny vandevelde

Project Runway is not the only fashion competition in town right now. The sixth annual Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards are still calling for entries – and not just in fashion. There is $70,000 up for grabs across seven categories, from fashion to film/animation, industrial/object design, music, photography, visual arts and visual communication. In addition to a $10,000 prize purse, each category winner scores a mentorship with an Australian creative luminary. They include Rachel Ward (film), Marc Newson (industrial/object design) and Zimmermann, this year's fashion mentor. The competition is open to Australian residents aged 30 or under at the application cutoff date: 31st July 2009. And while previous fashion winners have tended to include ready-to-wear designers, from Antipodium’s Geoffrey J Finch to Friedrich Gray’s Ben Pollitt, some may be unaware that fashion is an open SOYA category, embracing stylists, craftspeople, accessories designers and jewellers. Advice for entrants: provide as much detailed information as possible, from stockists to media coverage. Winners will be announced on November 11 at Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art.

Friedrich Gray SS0910

Short and sharp - unlike my BlackBerry photos unfortunately, however these were aimed primarily at giving the gist of the show on Twitter in real-time - tonight's Friedrich Gray show provided a slick debut to Rosemount Australian Fashion Week, which does not officially kick off until tomorrow morning. A crowd packed into the UTS Atrium on Broadway to see designer Ben Pollitt's eighth collection, with in fact so many people attending, they had to line the Atrium's mezzanines just to get a good view. Inspired by David Lynch's 1984 sci-fi turkey Dune, the collection showed all the hallmarks of Pollitt's early collections: long, linear, androgynous silhouettes, much black and draping, killer patchwork leggings and a striking series of graphic singlet dresses featuring a digital print designed in collaboration with Sydney contemporary artist Scrapwall. Brand new territory for Pollitt: resortwear, albeit of the pitch black variety, in a series of black cutoff shorts with matching bikini tops. Pollitt later quipped he was calling the look "alien beach couture".

Click here to see a backstage portfolio from Sonny Vandevelde.