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.

Jayson's New Wave

Every season Jayson Brunsdon mines some bygone hard glamour era for inspiration, more often than not hovering around the mid century. Last night, he made poolside chic his muse and cited a couple of film refs: Jacques Deray’s La Piscine from 1969 and Jean Luc Godard’s 1963 film Le Mépris (Contempt). Both were part of the French New Wave cinema movement, which coincided with a new, futuristic mood in French couture, one that was spearheaded by Pierre Cardin and André Courrèges. Courrèges was Brunsdon’s biggest reference, heralding a new sporty direction for the Sydney fashion illustrator-turned-designer. Beyond the trademark hostess dresses and shirtdresses, was a smart, structured series of trench coats, piped A-line skirts, striped sweaters and knit sheaths, with a cute two-tone, A-line shift in caramel and white. The short, full dirndl skirts and roomy pailletted tanks are sure to appeal to Brunsdon’s more mature customers, which is obviously where the money lies. But there was no shortage of youthful exuberance in pretty wasp-waisted, full-skirted party dresses, which looked tailor-made for the new generation Brigitte Bardots and Jane Birkins. Click here to see frockwriter's Posterous pic gallery of the show. And here for a video of the finale.

Jayson Brunsdon backstage at RSFF

They had ballerina hair and ballerina-inspired footwear. Herewith a backstage portfolio from Kent Vaughan of last night's Jayson Brunsdon Spring/Summer 0910 show, which opened the 2009 Rosemount Sydney Fashion Festival - a consumer event that presents in-season collections. A glamorous, softly-toned collection of silk shirtwaisters, cocktail shorts, embellished halter tops and draped goddess gowns, it was originally inspired by the "classic Australian woman", as epitomised by Brunsdon's mother Dorothy and unveiled at RAFW in May. Frockwriter was busy snapping backstage shots in real-time to upload to Twitter and shooting a live-stream video (below) - to the hilarious commands of "Rock and roll!" from one backstage snapper as the girls exited the runway to head backstage. The show was opened and closed by RSFF face Elyse Taylor, with plenty of other local highprofilers, including Rachel Rutt, Vanessa Milde, Simone Kerr and NZ's Georgia Fowler.
























all photos: kent vaughan

Jayson Brunsdon finale

Backstage with Jayson Brunsdon

Here's to you, Mrs Brunsdon

Jayson Brunsdon's customary illustrated RAFW show invitation has certainly had the fashpack aTwitter, with many scratching their heads trying to ID the subject. "Puzzled by sketch of Lindy Klim on Jayson Brunsdon invite..." noted The Melbourne Age fashion editor Jan Breen Burns. Whilst vogue.com.au editor Damien Woolnough found himself "Wondering why Cruella de Ville is on the front of Jayson Brundson's invite to RAFW". A simple enquiry provided the answer - and it promises to warm the cockles of even the hardest fashion cynics' hearts at Australia's biggest frockfest next week. The portrait is of Brunsdon's septuaganarian mother Dorothy, a retired professional model (see shots, below) who once made all her own clothes and who, hilariously, worked as a retail sales consultant for David Jones for a decade (whilst her son recently migrated from DJs to Myer). Dorothy Brunsdon is the muse for the SS0910 collection.

Noted Brunsdon via email:

"The collection is inspired by my mother Dorothy and the classic Australian woman. It's about a charming simplicity, an easy, pragmatic glamour and an appreciation of suburban ordinariness... barbeques, poolside parties, shirtdresses, shirts, shorts, sundresses. There's a little Revolutionary Road in this collection, a hint of Hitchcockian subversive intrigue in the suburbs".

Both Dorothy and Brunsdon's dad, Malcolm, who live in Ballina, will of course be front row.

What a sweet story.








all images: courtesy jayson brunsdon

"If it doesn't fit, it can never be fashion" - Peter Morrissey

What can I tell you about the fourth episode of Project Runway Australia? That Bryanboy's love child with Suzy Menkes (Mark Antonio) hangs in there, as do the Frocker (Helen Manuell) and the gormless Kiwi (Brent Zaicek). Henry Roth's head doesn't get any smaller. And Peter Morrissey doesn't wear any socks.

At least that's what it looked like on last night's episode.



Meanwhile, several questions remain unanswered.



Were PR contestant Juli Grbac (below) and and Alice McCall separated at birth?



Does Mark Antonio's Pompadour become more Baroque with every passing episode?



And finally, what are the chances of Morrissey, Leona Edmiston and Jayson Brunsdon reforming for a one-off season as Morrissey Edmiston?



Buckley's, presumably.

In the interim, we'll have to placate ourselves with last night's episode on which former collaborators (and erstwhile bfs) Morrissey and Brundson, teamed up to deliver the following fashion platitudes to the PR contestants.

Peter Morrissey:

"If it doesn't fit, it can never be fashion"

Jayson Brunsdon:

"It's elegant, modern, deconstructed glamour. To me it's quite brave"

Peter Morrissey:

"To me it isn't groundbreaking"

Jayson Brunsdon:

"The bust area is a nightmare"

Peter Morrissey:

"If you're going to attempt that, you'd better pull it off. If you're going to wear that, then stay at home"

morrissey edmiston catalogue autumn/winter 1993

Brunsdon on Project Runway, the Brana factor - and schedule stress

Tonight, as I type, Jayson Brunsdon and business partner Aaron Elias are in Singapore toasting the launch of their first international boutique - which is located on the city's famous Orchard Road. I mention in today's story in WWD that the boutique is in fact sandwiched in between Lanvin and BCBG Max Azria. Not bad company.

I chatted with Brunsdon before he flew out about the Asian move, his recent cancer diagnosis and the Australian series of Project Runway in which he plays a judge (1st episode screen grab above). Here are a few extra bits and pieces which did not make it into the story.

The PR contestant who calls herself "the frocker", some may be interested (or irritated) to know, "keeps going" according to Brunsdon. The cast, including nine eliminated contestants and the three finalists, will reassemble in August for the finale.

Brunsdon on the contestants:

"It’s a lot of fun. There’s some really good talent. There’s some great talent. There’s some bad talent. But I think that’s what makes it entertaining. You’ve got a bit of both going on. The thing I love about it is that it’s not a show about shoving a few people who are really about nothing into a house. It’s about craft and it’s about, you know, their talent really. It’s about them pulling it all together. There’s no way I could do what they do".

On who in fact clinched his decision to do the series after he was first approached:

"I was a bit reticent at first. I was sort of thinking, ‘Oh I don’t know if I want to do reality television’. But I love the American one. I thought it was really fantastic. And I spoke to [well-connected New York-based Australian stylist] Brana Wolf. She said, ‘Just do it’. Because she’s best friends with Michael Kors - and she said, ‘You know, it’s been great for Michael, he loved doing it and he’s really enjoyed it and it’s been very good for him’. So I said, ‘OK’".

On the fact that he is the second high profile Australian designer to have been diagnosed with cancer within a year (after sass & bide's Heidi Middleton):

"The last month has been very restful, all I’ve done is lie on my back. I kind of needed that. I needed a good rest. This fashion schedule is just too intense for human beings. And I think the only people that can really adhere to it are the ones who are comforted by enormous backing from luxury groups. I think it’s very hard for independent, smaller designers to really try and keep up with this schedule. I think it’s way too demanding".

Veni Vidi Varga: Brunsdon's pinup girls and Vogue's advertiser-friendly TV

Sitting here waiting for the Jayson Brunsdon show to start. It's the same upstairs "OPT" venue as the Lisa Ho, Anna Thomas and Melanie Cutfield shows yesterday - the one that looks a lot like The Salon tent at Bryant Park in New York. Given that that's precisely the tent in which Brunsdon showed in New York in February, this time it really, really feels like deja vu.

Strangely enough however, given the big fish in a small pond factor, I'd say Brunsdon's New York show was fuller than this. There are a few people standing around here due to the seats filling up - but in February, they were standing shoulder-to-shoulder in lines around the walls.

The big difference between the two shows is that this one is happening in the throes of a very warm Sydney autumn, while the other was staged during a bitterly cold New York winter - and gripped by a dreadful gastric flu, I recall sitting through Brunsdon's show wishing that they had not given me a front row seat, because frankly I felt like I was going to have to run out the door at any moment.

I could just envisage The Daily's headline the following day:"Chunder from Downunder!" or, perish the thought, the entry on Kelly Cutrone's www.fashionweekdaily.com blog. So far noone has been able to answer the following question: has anyone, in the history of fashion presentations, ever thrown up on a runway during a show? On that frigid New York evening, I prayed that the first recorded sighting was not going to be me.

Anyhow, to my left, about three seats up, is Dita Von Teese. Two seats to my right, expat Australian model - and newly-minted Victoria's Secret "Angel" - Miranda Kerr. Photographers on the other side of the runway keep training their lenses on both. Sandwiched in between them, as I am, it's a somewhat disconcerting feeling. This is what celebs live for of course - the photo op. Only to later bitterly complain when they can't switch that media interest off at inconvenient times.
Jbrundson1B.jpg

As for the collection, I have to hand it to Brunsdon - as I do also to Josh Goot, Alice McCall and anyone else who is currently juggling runway commitments in two hemispheres. Brunsdon's first show in New York was just three months ago. And yet here he is again with a complete - but very tightly-edited - resort range.

No, Brunsdon is not reinventing the design wheel but he has managed in a very short space of time (three years) to carve a smart niche for himself in the Australian womens classic eveningwear category. Yes his pencil-thin, beaded, tailored cocktail dresses and boleros with built-in corsets owe as much to Roland Mouret as they do to his stated collection inspiration - the 40s Varga Girl - but there were a couple of knockout dresses, both of them in burnt orange silk. Perhaps I have been bamboozled by Brunsdon's New York buzz factor, but I can't help seeing this collection snapped up by a few Manhattan princesses.

Walking backstage afterwards I do a double-take when I spot a woman with dead straight, platinum-blonde hair, wearing a pink smock dress, interviewing Brunsdon in front of a television camera. I can't help thinking that the woman looks alarmingly like David Jones' group general manager for apparel, footwear, accessories and cosmetics, Colette Garnsey.

The woman turns towards me and voila, it is indeed Garnsey - doing a few quick backstage ivs, I am informed by a David Jones spokeswoman, for a video story for Vogue Australia's online division, vogue.com.au. Apparently Garnsey's debut vogue.com.au iv was at last night's Alex Perry show.

Presumably, Garnsey won't be doing any interviews with non-DJs designers. But the question remains, should she be doing any interviews at all? I wonder to myself whether the end piece will be clearly advertised as a David Jones advertisement, whether it will masquerade as some sort of daft industry type-on-industry type interview - or whether perhaps there is any delineation between anything these days at Vogue. It should be noted that the magazine found itself on Media Watch on two occasions recently.

"So do we [the media] get our turn to play buyers now?" I joke, in Garnsey's direction.

"No!" snaps Garnsey.

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"Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching": JB's High Fives in NYC

That Big Apple is starting to show quite a few bite marks. On Thursday night Sydney's Jayson Brundson became the eighth Australian designer to debut his label on a New York runway. For his first season Brunsdon pulled off an impressive coup: packing Bryant Park's second-largest venue, the 'Salon', with
400 people, dozens of them having to stand at the back due to a lack of seats.

Inspired by the 1920s Polish artist Tamara de Lempicka, it was a confident, if restrained, debut which included some very pretty eveningwear, notably the closing series of bias-cut, silk satin columns festooned with georgette ribbons.

Also of note, Brunsdon's luxurious quilted, metallic-look belted coats in Swarovski crystal-embellished stretch merino wool and a series of smart Little Black Dresses, the best a sinuous draped cocktail dress with long sleeves.

The jewellery was specially commissioned from rising Australian star Jenny Manik Mercian - who recently worked on her second consecutive Victoria's Secret show and in fact collaborated with a second Fall 0708 show in New York, Tommy Hilfiger's.

Not all the collection worked - Brunsdon should have edited out some of the plainer satin cocktail dresses which looked dull. Then again, young New York fashion hotshot Zac Posen, who packed the biggest tent right next door in the time slot immediately preceding Brunsdon, should take the same advice.

The silly 'dinosaur' dress which closed Posen's show - a black silk taffeta cocktail dress with plisse "fin" at the back - was nevertheless greeted with a roar from Posen's clearly easy-to-please audience, including celebrities actress Rachel Bilson and singer Rihanna.

"I feel really elated, I feel really happy - amazing turnout" said Brunsdon afterwards. [High profile New York-based Australian stylist] Brana Wolf came running backstage and said, 'Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching'".

But in a town which is quick to praise you to your face - only to bitch about you behind your back (a case in point, some reactions to Marc Jacobs' Monday night show as reported in Fashion Season) - the only real measure of success here is money in the till.

In his first season with upscale department store Saks Fifth Avenue, Brunsdon's gowns not only made Saks' recent Christmas front window, but hang alongside established, high profile American eveningwear names Vera Wang and Bagdley Mischka. Brunsdon is currently the only Australian brand stocked by the retailer.

"He's our one and only Australian star" said Saks Fifth Avenue associate buyer Twakniqua Morgan. "I loved the flapper inspiration, I loved the sequinned mini and I also loved the wool with the Lurex, the metal treatment over it. He packed the room and to be an unknown Australian designer it's the product that's selling and not the name and that speaks a lot for his work".

Saks' head womenswear buyer night not have been there, but he sent Morgan as his rep. Also in attendance, Neiman Marcus, Henri Bendel and the Jeffrey boutiques, in addition to media outlets such as US Harpers Bazaar, Vogue and Style.com.

Australian supporters included David Jones' womenswear buyer Damien Burke, RM Williams creative director Jonathan Ward, Toni Maticevski, Ray Costarella, Brunsdon's former bf of seven years Jarrad Clark (who produced the show - and has now confirmed he is definitely going to be working for IMG, based out of Hong Kong), Michael Murphy, recently headhunted from the New York PR department of Ralph Lauren to Victoria's Secret and Jamie Durie.

Durie was fresh from negotiations with a series of US media outlets on future projects (including, as already widely reported, Oprah Winfrey). One just-confirmed gig will be two seasons hosting a 38 year-old gardening program called The Victory Garden, on PBS.

On the so-called 'Australian invasion' of not just Hollywood, but New York's runways and media scene, Durie noted, "We get out there. We kind of come out punching and I think there's a lot to be said for that. I think Australians have always been really aggressive in the foreign marketplace and no matter where you go - and I work in many different countries at the moment - you'll always find an Australian in the background kind of fighting and going for it.

"We're very hardworking, we're down to earth, we're no bullshit, we don't like wankers and we just get on with it".

With most of the industry working at shows all day, news of the death of Anna Nicole Smith had only just started to trickle through by the time of Brunsdon's show.

"I think she may have gotten caught up in it here and there" noted Durie, on the downside of America's obsession with celebrity. "It's very easy to do. You've got to hold on tight to that character".

He added, "I think the secret to celebrity is never call yourself a celebrity".

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