Kate Sylvester's mothwoman prophecies

Inspired by moths and motocross, Kate Sylvester’s Spring/Summer 2011/2012 collection is called ‘Into the light’. Due to the awkward lighting of her show at the Newmarket saleyard in Randwick last night, however, ironically many have complained that didn’t get to see it. In an uncharacteristically abrasive spray, even Vogue Australia’s Damien Woolnough complained today, “If I want to sit in a dark room filled with smoke I'll visit the share house of my university friends”. Frockwriter stayed backstage for the duration and had a much better view. It was a fantastic, if macabre, collection, with two motifs at its centrifuge: moth markings, which included a full death’s head moth motif used on T-shirts; and then a flame graphic, which doubled up on the revhead theme, as seen on coats, dresses and several fantastic sheer jumpsuits, shown with the tops worn both up and down – on the latter occasion, teamed with a lacy brassiere. 

Frankie's gold class - LMFF 2011

Frockwriter’s last LMFF was Friday night’s L’Oréal Paris Runway 6 showcase presented by Frankie magazine. Fantastic, upbeat show featuring some great Australasian brands, from Alice McCall to Karen Walker, Kate Sylvester, Alpha60, Dhini, Limedrop and Nevenka, with cool girl styling that perfectly reflected Frankie’s fresh-faced readership, courtesy Jolyon Mason. Not to mention some new faces, notably 17 year-old Gracie Holt (above), who opened the show and walked in four other shows last week. Modelling for just three months, Holt hails from Alice Springs – making her the second great new girl to emerge from the Red Centre in five months, after 16 year-old Melissa 'MJ' Johannsen, who made an impressive debut at New York Fashion Week last month. Expect to see a lot more of both. Click (here) to see frockwriter's Posterous pic gallery shot backstage during the show. 

Dempsey Stewart and Ella Verberne charm the pants off Kate Sylvester

Frockwriter shot backstage and front-of-house at Kate Sylvester’s Spring/Summer 2010/2011 show at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week. And now here is a preview of the new SS1011 campaign for her curiously titled “This Charming Man” collection, which is rocking Viviens face Dempsey Stewart (right, above) and Ella Verberne from New Zealand's Clyne Models and includes this fetching little caramel leather microshorts, bustier and bomber combo of which Lady GaGa would no doubt wholly approve. Stewart might be Australian, but she has been romantically linked to a Kiwi – model (and brother of Zippora) Jasper Seven. Verberne, meanwhile, was recently the subject of a profile on models.com, apparently just two days after arriving on Clyne’s website. Verberne joins other recent antipodian MDC inductees Andrej Pejic and Codie Young.

Kate Sylvester's charming summer

The collection was called ‘This Charming Man’, but there was no sign of Morrissey the muso (or the Australian designer for that matter, who has nevertheless been flitting in and out of shows for the past two days). Auckland’s Kate Sylvester did however deliver yet another charming collection of her signature discreet chic. If you had tapped leather as an emerging trend of this antipodian summer season, you are not wrong. Several collections have included leather, among them yesterday’s hot newcomer Flannel and Sylvester one hour ago. Her caramel leather series included a mid calf length A-line skirt, bomber jacket and matching bustier and knickers. Also of note, soft Liberty-like florals on sweet pinafore dresses and roomy trousers – another emerging trend in Sydney – and her knit twin sets, swapping a cable knit bodysuit for a regular sweater with one pair. A little more subdued than usual - the autumn/winter 2010 collection shown in Auckland had much more attitude - but there is more than enough to keep Sylvester’s cult fan base happy. Click here to see frockwriter's Posterous pic gallery of the show. And keep up to date with our real-time coverage of RAFW via Twitter and Facebook.

Kate Sylvester once had a mohawk

Or so she told me at the conclusion of this video, below, recorded after her Diamond Dogs AW10 show in Auckland on Wednesday night. The collection was inspired by a 1980s Auckland punk-turned-gossip writer by the name of Judith Baragwanath, aka Black Lips, due to her signature black lipstick. Baragwanath was in fact the second local show muse to emerge in as many days, after Annah Stretton dedicated her show to 1940s Auckland burlesque dancer Freda Stark. All the Sylvester hallmarks were there - masculine tailoring, lingerie, sporty grey marle, swans - but this collection was particularly well pulled together, from the hometown theme to the disused industrial warehouse venue, punk styling and the edgy Horrors/Crocodiles/Stranglers soundtrack. Considering the boxy tweed boyfriend jackets, the smart ciré trenchcoat, military-nosed suiting, bodycon microdresses with exposed, articulated seamwork, punk hardware and faux fur chubbies, little wonder that US glamour blogger Rumi Neely later noted she could see herself in the entire collection.

Backstage with Kate Sylvester

Janka Zachnikova in the Kate Sylvester outfit that Myf Shepherd was supposed to have worn

Drama, drama, drama. According to backstage sources, Shepherd's Australian agency Chic Management threatened to pull her from this morning's Kate Sylvester show 40 minutes from start time, when it emerged that Shepherd was not opening the show. Sylvester wanted Shepherd to close the show in the collection's highlight piece: a microtutu, that was eventually worn by Zachnikova, a 16 year-old Czech model. Those who witnessed the drama unfold report that a Chic Management car was even dispatched to the venue.

Sylvester eventually gave in and Shepherd - who is said to have appeared to have been quite embarrassed by the incident - opened.

According to Chic Management director Kathy Ward, it was Sylvester who changed the terms of the agreement.

Ward told frockwriter:

"Given the exposure that Myf has had in the past year, all the international shows and press, the deal was that she would open the show. And we were just making sure that what we agreed to was actually carried out. At no time was there talk of Myf closing the show. We are just choosing a couple of select shows [this week]. She wants to support Australian Fashion Week, she wants to support Australian designers. But if she is going to walk for a designer, she has to open the show”.

According to the Sylvester camp however, there was no deal. Sylvester's spokeswoman told frockwriter that negotiations with Chic had been going on for two days, with a contract signed yesterday. At no stage during the negotiations, and nowhere in the contract, did Chic stipulate that Shepherd's involvement in the show was contingent on her opening, says the spokeswoman - until 7.30am this morning, when Sylvester's casting director received a call from a Chic Management rep.

This time last year, as has been well documented on this blog, Shepherd was an unknown 17 year-old from Queensland who had only recently been scouted and had in fact been rejected by the producers of Australia's Next Top Model for the 2008 edition of the series.

Shepherd was the most-booked model in Chic Management's stable for the 2008 edition of RAFW.

She would go on to be booked by Prada and Gucci for the Resort 2009 collections in New York in July 2008, followed by a plethora of other major bookings during the SS09 season. From New York to London, Milan and Paris, Shepherd walked in over 50 SS09 shows.

Shepherd's sophomore international RTW season in February and March this year embraced 62 shows. Shepherd has also featured in a number of prestigious international fashion magazines and her campaign bookings include the Gucci FW0910 campaign.

Of those 62 FW0910 shows, Shepherd only opened - or closed - a very small handful.

Kate Sylvester: The grey lady

Kate Sylvester was a notable no-show this week in New Zealand. So frockwriter hiked across town to Sylvester's HQ for an exclusive preview of the designer's autumn/winter 2009 range. Inspired by black roses and black swans, there’s not a war medal in sight.



kate sylvester in her office

Sylvester told me that her point of departure was black flowers and notably, black roses.

One day, after spotting three black swans float past her home, which backs onto Waitemata Harbour, Sylvester added the graceful birds to her collection concept.


sylvester's PA monique saville in a kate sylvester tiara

Although Bjork was widely panned when she emerged on the 2001 Academy Awards red carpet in her now infamous Marjan Pejoski swan dress, Sylvester says that she has always loved the dress.



No, there’s no Bjork homage in this collection, just a white swan head graphic that is draped around the neckline of a T-shirt in the designer's signature grey marle – a fabric for which Sylvester confesses an “obsession”.



The spectacular evening piece in this range is a sculptured “rose bomb” cocktail dress in taffeta silk jacquard, in both a deep crushed berry colour and also signet grey (pictured above ^), which will retail for approximately NZ$1,500.



I loved the Mod-look cyclamen wool flannel car coat, the colourblocked pencil skirt, the iris silk jumpsuit – which Sylvester calls a dungaree – and the stirrup leggings with athletic stripes.



There’s also a balletic sub-plot, as seen in a sweet little black tutu with multicoloured tulle petticoats and a blush mohair waffle knit cardigan with exposed metal zips.



Sylvester is preparing to open a Sydney store – and says that in spite of the war medal fiasco at May’s Australian Fashion Week, she’ll be back on the Sydney runway in May 2009.

Of the medal brouhaha, she noted:

“I’ve got great uncles who died in the war, and on Anzac Day while I was styling outfits with medals on them, Wayne (Conway, her husband and business partner) was back in New Zealand, he took the boys to the Anzac dawn service. We acknolwedge Anzac Day and the importance of it. I have such huge admiration for the tradition of New Zealand and Australian soldiers and their courage and bravery. I was mortified to have caused offence”.

images: studio shots/kate sylvester; still-lifes and portraits/frockwriter