Mother and son

So Myer celebrated its 100th birthday, simultaneously unveiling the A$300million Bourke Street flagship store revamp, with a million dollar party last night. Arguably the biggest star of the night was Melbourne modelling sensation Andrej Pejic accompanied by his proud mum Jadranka Savic, who looked beautiful in a custom-made black Grecian-style gown by Jane Lamerton. Kitted out in embellished gold trousers and tuxedo jacket by Yeojin Bae and towering black platform boots, Pejic's extravagant up-do was inspired, he told The Melbourne Herald Sun, by Helena Bonham Carter's character Bellatrix Lestrange from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Noted Pejic, "I watched it on the plane and I'm like, that's the hair that I want". 

Andrejmania

holly blake for michael wolff

Are you ready for the seven days of Andrej? In his first visit back home downunder since his already burgeoning media profile went into overdrive, thanks to several rather groundbreaking turns on Jean Paul Gaultier’s runways in Paris in January, Serbian Australian modelling superstar Andrej Pejic touched down in Melbourne this morning for what frockwriter understands is a very busy week. We hear today is in fact his only free day. Pejic is in town for Thursday night’s big unveiling of the revamped Bourke Street, Melbourne flagship of Australian department store Myer. In and around that event, one rehearsal, one in-store photocall on Wednesday at 11.45am – not exactly a press conference, but the next best thing – and at least two photoshoots have been squeezed. One of the photoshoots is for an Australian eveningwear label – a womens eveningwear label, just to clarify. And Pejic will of course be catching up with his family, who were first profiled on Seven Network’s Sunday Night program on February 13th. 

The show goes on for David Jones... without sass & bide

 

As per David Jones' famous advertising slogan, there used to be no other department store in Australia for sass & bide. But after days of rumours, it is now confirmed that David Jones' arch rival Myer will become the brand's exclusive Australian department store partner moving forward, having just acquired a 65percent stake for A$42.25million plus a performance bonus based on fiscal 2011 sales results. David Jones, which has winter 2011 sass & bide stock on its hands and features the brand in its winter 2011 "brand book" catalogue (above), has responded with its own Australian Stock Exchange announcement this morning that it is ending its 10 year association with sass & bide following David Jones' decision not to acquire a stake. Oh and it wasn't doing very well anyway, added DJs (at least at DJs - Myer reports that sass & bide overall delivered 50percent year on year sales growth for the past two years). Noted ceo Paul Zahra, “We did the calculations and could not justify the price paid for the business, particularly given the lack of growth in our sass & bide business with sales and gross profit in FY10 at approximately FY05 levels". This is fascinating, given that David Jones gave sass & bide its prestigious finale spot in the Autumn/Winter 2010 show one year ago. What the Myer decision ultimately means for the sass & bide brand remains to be seen. Not surprisingly perhaps, the brand has been yanked altogether from tomorrow's lineup, David Jones has confirmed to frockwriter.

Social (fashion) workers

@mythreads

A quick update on the Myer spring catalogue shoot, which rolled on today in Melbourne. Frockwriter mentioned yesterday that there was some confusion over the social media aspect of the campaign, with representatives of at least one model booked for the campaign, Cassi van den Dungen, surprised at the extent of the coverage. This morning frockwriter received an email from Myer rep Tim Evans, from the DT Digital agency, which is handling the campaign. Evans revealed that this was the first time that Myer had covered a campaign shoot in real time. He also wanted to clear up any “misunderstanding” over yesterday's post and insisted that all permissions were indeed sought from all the agencies – and duly granted. According to the van den Dungen camp, this is "absolutely not" correct. Confusing, it is. Update 11/06/10 @ 1.30pm. Van den Dungen's Melbourne agency, Cameron's, which negotiated the deal, claims that it did know about the social media coverage and did not have a problem with it. Work Agency, van den Dungen's mother agency in Sydney, which manages her career, has a different position.

Every move she makes: Cassi van den Dungen stalked by client paparazzi

stylestalker's Facebook via TFS

You don’t need to wait to see Myer’s spring catalogue starring Cassi van den Dungen and Bambi Northwood-Blythe. Today’s shoot was Tweeted throughout by at least two parties Melbourne blogger Kat George, guest blogging for Myer on the company’s Twitter feed and her personal Twitter feed. Van den Dungen seemed to be a particular focus, with seemingly every nanosecond of her time on set accounted for in a Tweet. From “Cassi in braids” to “Cassi and the amazing legs that go on until forever…” to “Cassi does a balancing act backstage as she has a Cinderella moment with the stylist slipping shoes on her feet!” Beyond actually photographing the catalogue - the principle purpose of the job - Myer’s social media approach to the session apparently was, to use the parlance of Australian television industry, to “shoot the s**t out of it”. Terrific publicity for Myer of course. It’s just a shame they didn’t think to run this by van den Dungen’s agent beforehand - whose express wish, we understand, was for a closed set. Van den Dungen's Melbourne agent, Camerons, which negotiated the deal, claims that it was fully apprised of the social media aspect of the shoot. This information appears not to have been clarified with van den Dungen's mother agent in Sydney. See updated post.

Myer backstage at RSFF

sonny vandevelde

Herewith an exclusive preview of Sonny Vandevelde's backstage portfolio from Myer's SS0910 show last night in Sydney, in which we saw a lot of colour, a lot of dresses, "statement shoulders", as Myer face Jennifer Hawkins referred to the silhouette in our video chat - even if 'the Balenciaga shoulder' is what we called it at RAFW four months ago - and rather a lot of eveningwear. The show commenced with an eveningwear medley from various designers and closed with Aurelio Costarella, the Perth eveningwear specialist who has spent the past few years showing at New York Fashion Week. And who told frockwriter last night that, GFC notwithstanding, there are still plenty of Australian women who think of nothing of spending $2500 on a special dress. Costarella also observed that showing in New York is "less stressful" than showing in Sydney.

Toni Maticevski's new Maticevski Sweethearts line also enjoyed an outing. That's Maticevksi's new bridesmaid-skewed line of dresses that is fully customizable up to a size 24. Did any plus size models get a guernsey in that section? Not a chance. After making such a song and dance about including plus size models in Myer's suburban shows, it seemed like a lost opportunity at last night's high-profile launch event.

The cast included Australian haute couture queen Alexandra Agoston, fresh from the Paris couture shows, ANTM Cycle 5 winner Tahnee Atkinson, Rachel Rutt, Simone Kerr, runway veteran Tanya G and Tallulah Morton.

For more pics from the show head to Sonny Photos.










all photos: sonny vandevelde

A chat with Tahnee Atkinson at Myer

Also on deck at Myer's SS0910 show last night was Tahnee Atkinson, the winner of Australia's Next Top Model Cycle 5. Here is the quick chat we had just prior to the show kickoff. On the agenda: her upcoming gigs and how she is finding the real world of modelling vis-à-vis the ANTM modelling hothouse. We also briefly touched on the recent Facebook imbroglio, which saw show co-hosts Charlotte Dawson and Alex Perry lambast Cycle 5 runnerup Cassi van den Dungen after the cameras had stopped rolling, over her decision to decline contract offers from Priscillas and Elite New York.

A chat with Jennifer Hawkins at Myer

A (very brief) chat I had last night with Myer face and former Miss Universe, Jennifer Hawkins. We did the interview in Hawkins' private green room area and look, I'm not quite sure what it is with model green rooms and lights, but after recording Miranda Kerr's interstate press conference in her backstage green room after the David Jones show on August 4 - in near darkness - at one point, one of Hawkins' minders helpfully stood right in front of the only light that we had at our disposal. Only to then have the light disconnected altogether.

Props to Myer for welcoming plus size models onto its SS0910 runways. But why exclude them from the big Sydney media launch?

beth ditto for evans/news.softpedia.com



In addition to semi-regular fashion chats with various radio stations, I am now doing a fortnightly chinwag with the Afternoons with Carole Whitelock show on ABC Adelaide, every second Tuesday at 2.00pm AEST. This week, we discussed the news of the move by Australian department store Myer to incorporate plus-size models in its upcoming Spring/Summer 2009/2010 season launch parades around Australia - and the general subject of fashion and the larger woman. Click the player above to hear the iv. I do hasten to add here, however, that the plus-size models will be appearing everywhere other than the Sydney launch on August 19. At the time of the interview, having read several interstate stories, I believed they may also have been due to appear in Sydney. My apologies for the confusion. Myer's plus-size brands – which include Basque Woman, Jane Lamerton, Taking Shape, Nouvelle Woman and Estelle – will only be shown in the consumer parades. Myer spokesman Mitch Catlin told frockwriter that plus-size models will appear in Myer's consumer parades, including the five Sydney downtown parades, but not at the most high profile event on August 19, “Because that [parade] is Australian designer and they don’t make plus size. Also, it’s a media event, not a public event. We decided that all of our public events would reflect what consumers are buying”.

Although the public might not be invited to the Sydney press launch, they will of course be viewing the reports.

As we already know moreover, one of Myer's best-known designer brands, Leona Edmiston, does in fact cater up to a size 24. Same goes for Toni Maticevski who, from this month in 20 Myer stores, will offer a custom-make bridesmaids range called Maticevski Sweethearts that also caters up to a size 24.

So that's two of Myer's headline designers who will be featured in the August 19 show, who already cater to the plus-size market. Why on earth not show some of their merchandise?

I wrote about Edmiston's decision to upsize to 24 on my Fully Chic blog at NEWS.com.au.

Fully Chic readers who migrated to frockwriter may recall that the Leona Edmiston post prompted quite some debate – not to mention vitriol. And from both sides; that is, from both fat and skinny bashers.

Many larger women applauded Edmiston's decision to finally cater to their needs, while some criticised her decision to sell the larger sizes in the online boutique only. Others claimed the move was "normalising" obesity.

One commenter attracted a lot of attention - from not just blog readers, but also from the hosts of 10 Australian radio shows that wound up talking about the post - when she noted that she would hate turning up to a party in exactly the same dress that a size 24 was wearing.

Edmiston's decision to make larger sizes available exclusively online was based on the company's market research that indicated many larger women feel uncomfortable in designer boutiques - something that was certainly borne out in comments on the Fully Chic post.

Several months later, I did an interview with Paris-based American plus-size model Velvet d’Amour, who says she has been criticised for "ruining" the plus-size modelling industry because she is so much bigger than the plus-size norm.

I had originally interviewed Velvet in October 2006, when she was modelling in Jean Paul Gaultier's Spring/Summer 2007 show in Paris. It was her first full-length interview and it attracted quite a lot of attention at the time, notably from the US.

Last year's Fully Chic interview also prompted heated debate amongst NEWS.com.au readers – and yet more vitriol. Although Velvet encouraged me to publish some of the harshest comments, to demonstrate the vilification that is often faced by larger people, there were many, many comments which just could not see the light of day because they were so disgusting.

Damn those larger ladies and their propensity to hog the fashion spotlight. Can’t they just stick to muumuus? Don't they know their place?

Apparently not. As Velvet noted in the latter interview, there is a “quiet, fat revolution” underway, spearheaded by larger-than-life high-profilers such as Beth Ditto.

Ditto, the frontwoman of American indie rock outfit Gossip, has no fear of fashion, pouring herself into Hervé Leger and Alexander McQueen – among other brands - all of it presumably custom-made by designers who don’t mind high-profile larger women wearing their clothes. Which is, one has to say, pretty unusual. Although truth be told, the designer brands worn by Ditto would be hard pressed to cater to even a size 16 in their regular offerings.

At the same time Ditto, alongside other larger celebrities, stands accused by medical authorities of helping normalise obesity, which of course many believe is rising at alarming levels around the world.

While others believe the obesity epidemic has been overstated.

Earlier this year Ditto made the inaugural cover - and naked - of Katie Grand’s new magazine LOVE.

Last month she unveiled a collab line with British plus-size highstreet chain Evans.

Forget store wars, now it's a social media skirmish

Sydney’s so-called “store wars” - a biannual fashion faceoff between Australia's two department store chains - kicks off tomorrow morning with the David Jones Spring/Summer 2009/2010 launch parade. David Jones has been feeding stories to the traditional press over the past few weeks, as the company has done for many years. Myer meanwhile, whose show is not until the 19th August, has decided to dive into the social media arena. Not only is Myer already on Twitter, unlike David Jones, Myer has also just revamped its website. There is as yet no direct two-way communication via blog or other on the site however three video profiles that were uploaded to YouTube over the past 24 hours (see below) do have a comment component, so you could say that Myer is edging towards giving its online audience a genuine Web 2.0 experience. David Jones does have a YouTube video channel however it does not appear to be integrated to the David Jones website, which is stuck in the Web 1.0 dark ages. In fact the most exciting brand message currently being communicated by DJs website is its offer of a 25percent discount.

Tom and Suri cruise into Myer - and a Twitter storm

hot30 twitpic

Well Australian department stores Myer and David Jones might have abysmal Web 1.0 websites – and snub indie bloggers when it comes to their fashion shows. But it’s never too late to embrace social media and it looks like Myer is off to a flying start. Overnight the net has been abuzz with news that Tom Cruise shopped at Myer Melbourne yesterday with daughter Suri in tow. And furthermore, that he purchased a lipgloss from Australian beauty brand Bloom. How do we know? Well checking Twitter Search – and online time stamps – the news was first broken on Twitter by "Court Robbo" at approximately 5.23pm, noting, “Have only lovely things to say about Tom and Suri Cruise ...who i just met in myer melbourne!” We don’t know much about Court Robbo, other than the fact that he/she both follows, and is followed by, people with advertising industry connections. At the same time, Miranda Malaniuk chimed in on Twitter with the following observation: “Tom Cruise spotted shopping at Myer. Bought a $15 stick horse from toys. On sale. Tightarse.."

One hour later, Myer’s official Twitter feed retweeted (re-posted) both Tweets.

One hour after that, Bloom cosmetics provided the following information by Twitter:

“News just in - TOM CRUISE buys Lip Gloss Amore from Myer Melbourne. EXCITING”

At exactly the same time that Bloom was Tweeting, Hot30 Countdown - the 2Day FM radio program hosted weeknights from 7-10pm by Tim Lee and Carla “Biggzy” Bignasca, and yes out of Sydney – posted the following on its Twitter feed:

“Tom Cruise & Suri shopping at Myer!”

The Tweet was accompanied by the above image of Cruise and daughter with, conveniently, a Myer shopping bag. The shot looks to have been taken from a cameraphone.

Within minutes, Australia blogger Helen Lee spotted the Bloom Tweet and penned a blog post about Cruise’s lip gloss purchase on her Sassybella blog.

Two hours later, at 9.25pm, The Melbourne Herald Sun reported that Cruise and Suri were in Myer, but that Suri had merely "played" with Bloom's products.

Lee might be in Sydney, but evidently her intel is better than The Herald Sun's.

Apart from numerous other Cruise/Myer/Bloom tweets and retweets, overnight New York magazine’s The Cut blog picked up on the Sassybella story and off it went across the net – until Marie Claire Australia and sundry other locals got to work this morning to discover that it was news.

All up, a great PR get for both Myer and Bloom. While the normally reclusive Cruise may feel a little played – and soiled.

It's a great example of how marketers are using social media to flog their products.

But just how well are they using it? Is Court Robbo, for example, connected to Myer advertising in any way? And did Myer supply the photo?

According to a 2Day FM spokeswoman, the shot of Cruise was emailed to the station by a Melbourne woman called "Marie" from Pascoe Vale, Victoria. She received a prize for emailing the photo.

The spokeswoman noted, “They spoke to her on air, she sounded like she was in her early 20s”.

The listener had originally phoned in to 2Day FM’s Melbourne affiliate, Fox FM, which has been running a competition to find Tom Cruise.

The spokeswoman said she was unaware of any connection between the listener and Myer - but confirmed that Myer is an advertiser with 2DayFM and, she assumes, nationally as well.

"Sydney Fashion Week" video a mystery to Sydney Fashion Week

Sydney
by videos22

Anyone scratching their head about this "Sydney Fashion Week" video that has just started doing a net whiparound, purportedly authored by UK-based creative director James Warfield, rest assured, you are not alone. Although picked up by Kanye West and a swag of other bloggers, the film did not ring any bells to frockwriter – or, for that matter, Australian Fashion Week founder Simon Lock who, you’d figure, would have a clue. “Maybe he’s got his fashion timings and his Fashion Weeks mixed up” said Lock. As it turns out, the film was created by a Sydney-based film production company called Engine for a February 2005 fashion show staged by Australian department store Myer - at a time when Warfield was working for Engine as an animator. The extent of Warfield's involvement in the film remains to be seen.

UPDATE 21/12 @ 9.30AM The video has since been removed by Warfield from his Vimeo and other accounts, but obviously not quickly enough to avoid reproduction on other online video services, such as the one used by Kanye West (linked above). Although the comments have now also been removed, in two separate web forums yesterday Warfield mentioned that he worked on the video at Engine for two weeks, including weekends.

Warfield describes himself as a creative director of the Leicester, UK-based creative agency Un.Titled.

On his personal website, Warfield lists the video under the banner of “Sydney Fashion Week”, with accompanying graphics describing it as:

“Fashion Week Launch Film Sydney”

A quick glance at what appears to be Warfield’s Vimeo video account provides the following additional information about the video:

—Challenge
Open the Sydney Autumn/Winter fashion show.

—Solution
Blizzards, glass trees and people dressed in snow geese outfits. This film created to open the catwalk extravaganza fitted right in. After presenting initial concepts to the client, I pulled together eclectic footage, abstract elements and music in a restrictive time frame.

—Results
The film set the scene for one of the most glamorous events in the Sydney couture calendar.

In fact, the video was initially created as a backdrop for Myer’s autumn/winter 05 fashion show in February 2005, to coincide with the release of the new winter merchandise in-store.

The event had nothing to do with Australian Fashion Week, the high profile wholesale collections showcase, whose spring/summer edition takes place at Sydney's Overseas Passenger Terminal each May.

The video production was sub-contracted to Engine by the Myer show's production team, helmed by creative director Tony Assness, in collaboration with Victoria and Robert Fisher.

According to Victoria Fisher, Tony Assness sourced the music and directed the clip, which was produced by Engine executive producer Alastair Stephen and creative director Finnegan Spencer. The video is included on Engine's website, as well as that of the Fishers' company, Production Stuff.

Warfield was part a team that worked on the video and may have used footage from his own showreel, said Fisher, who added that Warfield did not liaise with Myer.

Warfield was uncontactable at time of filing.

On Warfield's above-linked Vimeo account, a poster who goes by the name of "Robert Fisher" has just left the following comment:

"Nice animation James to bad it's not for Fashion Week, it was for Myer, I'd love to know which client you spoke to. What about all the other people who worked on this job from Engine they made you look good".

Meanwhile, although this Myer video and AFW might not be connected, there is as it happens a connection between Myer, the Assness/Fisher amalgam and AFW – the bitter history of which makes the mistaken attribution of the video to "Sydney Fashion Week" all the more amusing.

Assness and the Fishers mounted a series of on-schedule, off-site AFW fashion shows from 2002-2005.

Although amongst the most spectacular shows ever witnessed at the event, the trio's off-site show schedule, eventually staged at the Wharf 3 container terminal, became mired in controversy over sponsorship issues.

In 2003, advertising collateral for Volkswagon proved problematic with the main event's naming rights sponsor Mercedes.

In one hilarious incident, Lock was accused of diverting a busload of delegates who were en route between the two venues, until the Volkswagon signage was removed.

Champagne sponsor Moet later jumped ship to the off-site event.

After calling crisis talks with the industry in early 2004 over the future of his eight year-old - and by that stage, cash-strapped - main event (which was acquired by IMG in October 2005), Lock eventually forced Assness and the Fishers off-schedule that year.

Initially proposed as the principle sponsor of the 2004 Wharf 3 shows, Myer got cold feet and plans for a full-scale off-site show schedule collapsed.

The trio continued to work on Myer's season launch shows.

Their last AFW show was Michelle Jank's off-schedule, off-site show in May 2005 - they did not work on Jank's AFW homecoming show in May this year, which coincidentally, had its own spectacular video backdrop, produced by Daniel Askill:



But Jank recently talked about her efforts to hook Assness up in Europe...

Gladiators of the high-low shoe biz, Myer salutes you!

givenchy backstage, paris, 03/10/07

I thought something looked awfully familiar about the fetish footwear on Myer's runway on Wednesday night. And look, yes I know, every man and his dog has been doing some sort of gladiator shoe or boot of late. It's definitely a trend with, er, legs. One that's been running in fact for several years now.

But something really resonated with me vis-a-vis that specific gladiator shoe boot which appeared in several early sections of the show. Including the opener, Jennifer Hawkins' pretty new Cozi swimwear collection:


news.com.au/charlie brewer

According to the show program (and confirmed by one of the show's stylists) the shoe in question was made by Sachi, the budget Australian shoe brand.

The reason why it looked so familiar was not just because of the omnipresent gladiator trend. There were some quite specific design features.

The heavy ankle cuff with a chunky ankle strap.

The oversized buckle.

The intricate, interwoven straps covering the front of the foot.

The cone heel.

Then I had an epiphany. It started with the letter G.

The Sachi shoe bore an uncanny resemblance to a gladiator shoe boot presented last October in Paris by French luxury brand Givenchy for Spring/Summer 2008:



I had eyeballed the Givenchy shoe, alongside numerous other gladiator boots, at close range backstage during the show.

I photographed the shoes and then blogged a post on Givenchy's gladiator-inspired footwear.




As for the Sachi shoe, you can just see the details in Charlie Brewer's Myer runway pic above. However I managed to find a close-up of what I believe could be the shoe in question on the blog of Oz shoe guru Imelda, who previewed Sachi's SS0809 collection:


imelda

Givenchy’s gladiatorial SS08 shoe collection has proven a celeb hit over the northern summer, snapped on everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow to Charlize Theron and Rihanna.

Outside Australia, Barneys and Shopbop were selling Givenchy's gladiator shoe boot for US$995-1000. According to Imelda, nothing in the Sachi collection is over A$219.95.

Sachi's prices are of course a far cry from those of the European luxury brands which Myer also offers its customers. A case in point Givenchy. Which, funnily enough, Myer also sells.

Even funnier are the following Myer program credits which accompanied other segments of Wednesday's show.

The dresses in the Nevenka and Arabella Ramsay sections were teamed with a "Givenchy demi wedge".

Accompanying Wayne Cooper's white tuxedo suit was a, wait for it:

"Givenchy gladiator flat"

Front-of-house Myer

While David Jones looks to be hoping for a trapeze-led recovery for spring/summer 0809, Myer is banking on maxi dresses, marigolds and Maximus. As in Gladiator (sandals). Oh, and a bit of feng shui. Centre stage at last night's show was a giant, revolving "sun disc", as Myer dubbed it. It reminded frockwriter of a gargantuan gold coin - and the Chinese penchant for taping good luck coins to cash registers. With Australian consumer confidence recently dropping to a 16 year-low, hell, you can't blame Myer for trying every trick in the book, can you?

I liked Myer's last spring/summer show, with its state-of-the-art staircase backdrop. Of the two department store presentations that season, Myer's earned my vote for best show.



But in my personal opinion, for what it's worth, the staging of this Myer show was daft. And the lack of good quality photos of the show seems to be testament to that.

A giant, revolving disc covered in metallic strips which reflect spotlights back into camera lenses as the disc turns, obviously seemed like a brilliant idea to someone for a show backdrop [Alistair Thomson and Amanda Henderson, according to the show credits - from memory, the same team responsible for the SS0708 show].



The worst aspect was however the choreography.

Instead of walking down a traditional runway, or a version thereof [even Versace is using a circular runway these days], models were constantly battling Myer's spinning sun disc for runway visibility.

There was no clear "end" of runway in front of the photographer's pit - just a patch facing the pit, on which models seemed to be left to their own posing devices.

The pros - like Alexandra Agoston - knew exactly what they were doing. The others, did as best as they could.



Sometimes the models stopped, but more often than not they just kept on walking. Kate Sylvester and Yeojin Bae are two of the labels whose clothes were almost impossible to photograph for this reason.

And it wasn't just amateur photographers such as yours truly who were complaining.

"Don't get me started" fumed the photo editor of one of Australia's biggest media outlets immediately after the show.

"It was like trying to shoot an Olympic event" lamented another snapper.

As for the clothes, the dress still reigns supreme. Some of the prettiest were from Rosemary Masic's folkloric-nosed Nevenka label:



There were a lot of maxidresses, the best from Mad Cortes, Yeojin Bae, Charlie Brown and Leona Edmiston, the latter two labels bursting with vivid colour and florals, another big SS0809 trend.



Whether the maxi dress trend completely maxed out last summer remains to be seen. Maxi dresses were all over the streets of Australian cities over summer, offered at highend boutiques right down to Supre, which had scores of cheap floral jersey versions.





Myer also had some smock and trapeze dresses, although not nearly as many as David Jones (at least on the runway). Karen Walker is still apparently offering them, both in her signature line and the Hi There diffusion line she is doing with Myer. Wayne Cooper had some pretty versions.

Some of the eveningwear looked drab, which is bizarre given the calibre of the designers, three cases in point Nicola Finetti, Maticevski and Jayson Brunsdon. I can't help thinking that this had more to do with the Tony Bartuccio staging (and styling - sunglasses with eveningwear?), than the clothes themselves.

Brunsdon:



Hugo Boss did look good however. As did Carla Zampatti:



Notable first-timers to Myer's show included Armani Jeans ("As of today it's in Myer - tell me what you think after the show" noted Giorgio Armani Australia general manager Mary Chiew, en route into the venue).

Also, Little Joe by Gail Elliott - who has just migrated from what Elliott described to me last night as a nondescript "rack" of her clothes at David Jones, to a Little Joe by Gail Elliott concept boutique within Myer.

Not to mention Melbourne It girl Arabella Ramsay. It was great to see Ramsay's collection on Myer's runway last night:



Ramsay is one of my favourite new Australian labels and I was disappointed to see her miss Australian Fashion Week's SS0809 season earlier this year.

Ramsay's summer offerings include sweet floral shorts, blouses and dresses, worked back with sultry leather vests and gilets.



Kate Moss would probably love this label if she knew about it.

Backstage @ Myer

Long time no post.... Apologies, I've been tied up with deadlines. But I did pop into the second 'store wars' salvo of the Australian SS0809 season launch: last night's Myer show. No Miranda Kerr of course, but in her place Jennifer 'Hawko' Hawkins. Also, top Oz catwalkers Alexandra Agoston, who we saw at David Jones three weeks ago and Tallulah Morton (^) - who we saw at DJs' AW08 show in February, but not the spring/summer show because, in the interim, under-18s were given their marching orders by DJs.

As this blog has been pointing out for the past month, Morton has much bigger fashion fish to fry than David Jones.

Such as Jean Paul Gaultier, the Cobrasnake, the NY model hype machine, not to mention the spring/summer 2009 runway shows, which kick off Friday week in New York.

Indeed judging by her "PARI$" T-shirt last night, Morton seems to know only too well where the big fashion money lies.

Here are a few shots I managed to snap in between sneaking in backstage before the show started - and being ushered out the back door.

More to come.

Dirty Snakes and ponies: Myer's 16-step program for fashion success

Some of the interesting titbits that one gleans from venturing backstage at fashion shows are the model cue cards that designers so often install there. Yes, models have cue cards, just like newsreaders.

Instead of reading words off auto-cue, these are a little more akin to choreographic instructions - although without dance moves - to put the models into the designated designer mood.

It’s a walk, a look, a vibe, that the designer hopes to clinch for the show.

“Own it” is a common command. Ditto “Strong and sexy”.

I’ve also often seen “DO NOT smile” - the latter very much a reflection of the modern modelling mandate to walk po-faced, ditching the cheesy smiles of previous eras. They could do with more of these particular cue cards backstage at Armani.

But I didn’t have to go backstage at Myer to find out what was going on because the organisers had very kindly provided a pre-show preview.

I had asked for a garment runlist – what you usually see in the programs – however what wound up being sent was in fact a production runlist, complete with model cues for each designer segment.

There was the requisite “STRONG/SEXY” (camilla & marc, Cheetah), but also “FAST/WARM, VICTORIA’S SECRET CUTE SMILE” (Leona Edmiston, Cue), “HEAVY STRUT” (Wayne Cooper, TL Wood, Karen Walker) and “GORGEOUS SENSUAL SOPHISTICATED ROMANTIC” (the clearly terribly demanding Matthew Eager and Stretsis).

Then came the bombshell.

A model cue so exotic I do believe it may have had its world premier last night.

Forget Zoolander’s “Blue Steel”, Myer’s model cue for the Arabella Ramsay section read, I kid you not:

“DIRTY SNAKE”

I was intrigued.

And needless to say spent the rest of the evening trying to find out what the hell it meant.

Our snapper Charlie was primed to capture the Dirty Snake the second it appeared.

We couldn’t find out much backstage however beforehand – the Dirty Snake seemed to be complete news to Jennifer Hawkins when we had a quick video chat before the show – and she’s Myer’s six figure spokesperson. Then again Hawko wasn’t due to be in the Ramsay section so perhaps it’s understandable that she wouldn’t have been any the wiser during rehearsals.

Hawkins did nevertheless manage to do a terrific, spontaneous Dirty Snake interpretation however – scrunching up her face in a minx-like scowl. Presumably Hawko has seen more than her fair share of dirty snakes on her Miss Universe travels.

In the actual show show however - unless some modelling union had stepped in to slap a stopstrut on the Ramsay section – there was no face-scrunching or minx-like moves, just Ramsay’s models weaving their way diagonally across the runway, from one side to the other, instead of walking straight down the barrel. Damn!

THE SHOW

Dirty Snakes aside, the Myer show was no letdown, in fact it gets my vote for this season’s Store Wars victor.

David Jones had a constellation of high-profile runway names, a stylish and no doubt terribly expensive, French Riviera-inspired set and multimedia presentation and of course some terrific clothes from some of Australia’s best-known fashion brands, from Collette Dinnigan to sass & bide, Zimmermann, Akira, Scanlan & Theodore and Ginger & Smart.

What Myer had over DJs was the ‘wow’ factor. It was slick, it was simple, at the same time boasting state-of-the-art technology imported from London – and previously used in the Athens Olympics opening ceremony.

Far from overshadowing the production with bells and whistles however, it provided a dramatic backdrop to the clothes on show. Sixteen, metre-wide, illuminated white plinths were suspended over the runway like a canopy – only to be magically moved up and down via wires to form the “staircase” motif of Myer’s SS0708 campaign. Far more like a modern theatrical stage production than a fashion show.

IMPRESSIVE

While DJs has of course some great Australian fashion names, Myer is starting to collect its own very impressive designer stable.

Adding to its existing lineup that includes New Zealand’s Karen Walker and Kate Sylvester, our own Toni Maticevski, Leona Edmiston, Azzollini, Jets, the recently-defected-from DJs Jayson Brunsdon and hot new Thai brand Stretsis, Myer scored Australia’s top two new fashion scalps this season: Josh Goot and Yeojin Bae.

Goot opened the show with an impressive, abridged lineup from his collection shown three months ago in exactly the same venue (Redfern’s stark, industrial-look CarriageWorks – a decommissioned railway workshop).

These colour-blocked dresses and leggings looked sensational – the leggings shown off to their best advantage on the seemingly endless pins of another hot new Australian modelling star now working the international runways, Alexandra Agoston-O’Connor.

Bae’s sequence, by contrast, unfortunately did not maximise her best assets – even though that tuxedo jacket and microshorts looked sharp. This Melbourne-based Korean Australian, who sold to Barneys New York and London’s Selfridges in her first season last year, is in fact a dress specialist – it’s the only thing she started with last year and the dress remains the fulcrum of her subsequent collections.

Myer’s stylist instead chose a series of figure-hugging Yeojin Bae skirts and bustier tops, and one corset dress – baffling even Bae herself, who later told me that if she had styled it she would have layered the garments. We’ll get a chance to see Bae properly on Tuesday at a presentation inside Belinda Seper’s Corner Shop.

DRESS FOR SUCCESS

The trends? Yes of course more of the dress, the dress, the dress.

You have to ask, just how long can this trend continue? Well into our approaching summer and, according to northern hemisphere signs at least, through to next summer as well.

Myer has invested heavily in shift dresses, smock dresses and babydoll dresses – most in micro lengths – as well as plenty of maxi dresses.

My personal highlights were Goot’s colour-blocked body dresses (Goot has just picked up Lycra as a sponsor – so we’re going to be seeing a whole lotta Lycra his way very soon), Karen Walker’s ultra fresh shift dresses in poppy red and cobalt blue, Kate Sylvester’s micro-stripe corset dress, Nevenka’s retro-print, lace-trimmed smock dresses and Charlie Brown’s turquoise evening gowns. The brightly-coloured, cute-girl shorts and separates at Gorman and Arabella Ramsay looked hot. Manning Cartel’s futuristic, vinyl-embellished microdresses looked unfortunately like terribly cheap imitations of Burberry’s white-hot SS07 collection - one particular crystal-studded dress from which has appeared in countless editorial spreads internationally and on at least three covers.

RUNWAY STYLINGS

Ponies got quite a big airing.

“Both shows had high ponies (read: ponytails) but Myer’s really bobbed around as they walked - DJs’ ponies were kind of sprayed to their heads” noted Sydney restaurateur Toby Osmond in a cab later.

“Look at that pony! That’s old-school!” squealed Sydney Confidential TV/Australia’s Next Top Model co-host, Jonathan Pease, throughout the show – referring quite specifically to Jennifer Hawkins’ highstepping runway style, commonly referred to as the “pony walk”.

“But you know, she’s not a real runway model – she’s a model model” I suggested politely.

“Well OBVIOUSLY” came Pease’s retort.

“What do you call that walk?” I asked Pease, pointing to one girl in the Azzollini swimwear section, who appeared to have major issues with the (clearly in some cases too-generous) shoe size and sauntered along like she had just emerged from some bizarre chiropractic manipulation session - or else was in dire need of same.

“Brokeback model” he replied.

A few other Pease reportage gems included “She’s going to pop a sneaker - shoes are too big!” (Matthew Eager) and “Eboni walks like she’s going to a fight” (Karen Walker).

As at DJs, the platform wedge was everywhere but unlike at the OS shows, which witnessed many a model stumble in these clodhoppers, no one missed a beat on this (or DJs) runway. Great to see that fabulous space-age silver cutout Pucci wedge that drifted right in front of my nose in Milan in September (I managed to sneak into a vacant front-row seat at the last minute). Whether Myer’s customers buy it, well, that’s the fourth piece of the fashion puzzle that we’ve yet to see.

BLOWING IT

Which brings me to a very interesting point about the differential between what designers show, what fashion writers report, what retailers actually buy – and after retailers have blown their budgets by backing particular trends and items, what the customer actually puts down money for. Or what goes onto the sale racks.

Over the past two nights we saw a lot of metallics, blue, white and black on both DJs and Myer’s runways, with some other vibrant shots of colour – including yellow. What we didn’t see a lot of was acid lime. Although all over Australian Fashion Week’s runways in May, acid lime only appeared once – in the Kirrily Johnston section at DJs.

Retailer reluctance to back this particular “hot” trend may perhaps have been best summed up by Mark Werts in Sydney in May.

Werts, the owner of US fashion chain American Rag, told me at the time:

“After 30 years in retail I can tell you one thing - lime just won’t sell”.

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