What a romp Marnie Skillings ‘Strangelove’ show was last night. Inspired, Skillings told frockwriter backstage, by “a woman who had travelled the globe and grabbed things, tattoos, albums, prints, feathers..”, the concept was fully enabled by renowned fashion magpies, stylists Michelle Jank and David Bonney, and showcased a fabulous collection of dresses. From innocent, flower-embellished white party dresses to shirtwaisters, button-up lace halter dresses and a myriad of maxidresses, maxidresses, maxidresses, they were rendered in a mad clash of florals, animal prints and candy stripes and tarted up with feather shrugs, '70s-look floppy felt pimp hats by Jonathan Howard Hatmaker and tapestry clutch purses with Punk spikes. Full-length dresses and skirts have been seen on many showgoers this week and they are Jank’s uniform du jour. It’s going to be one long summer.
Frockwriter hears that Carla Zampatti had to have her arm twisted to use the basement of her Kent Street headquarters as a show venue on Thursday. Originally used in the late 1800s as a carriageway for horse-drawn vehicles, but now serving as Zampatti's garage, presumably the Australian fashion industry veteran figured the crumbling industrial interior was not sufficiently chi-chi for her classic, uptown designs. Celebrating her 46th year of business this year, good to see Zampatti take advice from a younger creative generation. The space was not unlike many edgy show venues that you would see at London Fashion Week. And stylist Michelle Jank made full use of the 19th century brickwork, using it as the backdrop for a model tableau that was choreographed at the end of the show. Wearing the strikingly elegant eveningwear from Zampatti’s 'Strength of Simplicity' Spring/Summer 2011/2012 collection, which included columns with sporty necklines in tangerine, cobalt, black and ivory and a pretty short shell pink taffeta puffball dress - all teamed with beautiful, Beaton-esque picture hat-like silk georgette headpieces from Jonathan Howard ‘Hatmaker’ - the models draped themselves over chairs and ladders at the end of the runway. The image evoked the iconic Cecil Beaton photograph of models in Christian Dior’s 1957 collection, which has been copied a number of times by fashion magazines - one example of which we spotted backstage as reference.
