St Gilda - LMFF 2011

 

So the runway shows are off and running at the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival. Headsup to any internationals unfamiliar with the event: it's an in-season runway showcase that is open to consumers. In addition to other events throughout the schedule, the naming rights sponsor operates seven multibrand runway shows down at the main venue in Melbourne's Docklands precinct, each presented in partnership with a different Australian magazine. First up last night, the Grazia show featuring Carla Zampatti, sass &  bide, Rachel Gilbert, Leona Edmiston, Tina Kalivas, Romance Was Born and Nina Maya. The styling theme was high glamour, with a mix of high ponytails, cascades of Rita Hayworth curls and ultra violet smokey eyes sported by a cast that included two Australia's Next Top Model alumni, Cassi van den Dungen and Sophie van den Akker.   

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.

Caribbean queens: sass & bide Spring/Summer 2011

Sass & bide’s roots lie in London’s Portobello Road, the world’s largest antiques market, where designers Heidi Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke sold their edgy customised jeans to the city’s early fashion adopters back in 1999. Yesterday, for their third season back at London Fashion Week after a few years in the sportswear-nosed wilderness of New York Fashion Week, they returned to slightly more auspicious digs: the Royal Opera House. Entitled Papa Sucre  - French for 'sugar daddy' and possibly named after the 1995 instrumental track by Brit alt rock outfit Supergrass (but with a definite Creole undercurrent) - the collection saw a slight detour from the brand’s trademark heavy embellishment to explore the moment’s digital print trend in a monochrome palette of black, sepia and white, popped with watermelon and a hint of utilitarian khaki. 

sass & bide get their motors running with Range Rover

prestige way

Carla Zampatti once customised a Ford Laser, Collette Dinnigan has had a longstanding relationship with Audi and of course Australian Fashion Week once partnered with Mercedes Benz. Behold Australia's latest fashionable automobile ambassadors: sass & bide's Heidi Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke, who have just hooked up with British luxury marque Range Rover, coincidentally in the same month that Range Rover celebrates its 40th anniversary. And while a liaison with Queen Elizabeth II's preferred wheels option - a car that is fondly referred to in Melbourne circles as the "Toorak Taxi" - might seem a little establishment for this funky downtown fashion brand, whose hero products are sprayed-on jeans and leggings, Middleton and Clarke are for the moment spruiking the virtues of the newer, slightly more compact Range Rover Sport. According to the sass & bide HQ, Middleton has the keys to a white one, while Clarke's is black. Although British-born, Range Rover was acquired by India's Tata Motors for US$2.5billion in 2008, along with its Land Rover parent and Jaguar, and may soon shift manufacturing to China.

sass & bide's cutting edge chic

"A visual collision of nature and industry; an all-consuming collective celebrating the drama of contrast and contradiction" is how sass & bide describes its Fall/Winter 2010/2011 'Tomorrow the Great' collection that was shown at London Fashion Week on Friday night. But it seems there was a little too much drama for some, with the glass shard-like invitation, above (which appeared to be echoed in some intriguing saber tooth-shaped metal clutches), reportedly drawing blood from more than one attendee. Let's hope they didn't get any on the collection, which heavily featured white and ecru.

There was lots of embellishment, as we have of course come to expect from boho de luxe queens Heidi Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke. On this occasion, they added shell and bone to their already well-rehearsed repertoire of metallic sequins and braids, creating a Pasikifa pastiche of ornamental cummerbunds, capelets and breastplates.

Tarty bodycon microdresses - which would be right at home in the fictitious Russian strip club which apparently inspired the accompanying silver vinylite platform shoes - were counterpointed against demure blouses with Victorian necklines, fluid, full-legged trousers and one stellar ivory sheath with a seed-encrusted yoke.

This is sass & bide's second season back in London after a hiatus of several years showing in New York and the city's rich creative/craft heritage, not to mention its far more personalised show schedule, are a much better fit for the label's quirky cool girl vibe.


























collection photos: sass & bide
invitation photo: fashionista

The gaucho club: sass & bide SS10

sass & bide SS10/reuters via daylife


The venue might have been half empty due to a schedule ambush engineered by no less than the British PM – who was staging a fashion reception at Downing Street – but some are hailing sass & bide’s return to London Fashion Week after a six year hiatus, as “totally awesome” and even, the label's "best”. According to the show notes, designers Heidi Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke were inspired by both futurism and Argentinian gaucho cowboys, the latter evidenced in a swathe of full-legged harem pants – short versions of which were dubbed “sharems” by one wag. Teamed with the full lower silhouettes: a suite of heavily-embellished tunics, signature harnesses and singlet-like vests with elongated bretelles, as seen in the top of a male dancer’s leotard. Bodycon enjoyed a lookin via a series of embellished microdresses and a knockout pair of embellished tulle leggings. All up, a dazzling collection, and one that was accompanied by accessories from new hire Pip Edwards, including vertiginous pumps and sandals with chopine platform soles. With a new London store on the agenda, and talk of even moving to London, the duo may never return to the runways of New York. Click here for more images on the LFW website.










all images: reuters via daylife

London Fashion Week snags sass & bide

getty by daylife

So it’s official. Confirming an August 7 report in frockwriter that sass & bide was close to securing a slot on the SS10 London Fashion Week schedule, the British Fashion Council has just confirmed the brand will show on day one of its 25th anniversary event: Friday 18th September at 7.15pm. Sass & bide also celebrates a milestone this year: 2009 marks 10 years since Heidi Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke first launched the brand, and coincidentally, in London. The duo then returned to Australia, debuting at Mercedes Australian Fashion Week in May 2000 in a group show, before making their solo runway debut the following year at the event. In 2002 they began showing at London Fashion Week and in February 2004, joined the New York Fashion Week schedule. London sales have been particularly good and the city is to be the location of the brand’s first offshore boutique, Middleton recently told frockwriter.

Four Australians to show in New York

anthony adamson

New York Fashion Week runs from September 9-17 and after several quiet seasons on the Oz front – with Toni Maticevski making the pilgrimage alone last season - things look to be picking up. Which is interesting, given the ongoing problems of the US retail sector. WWD reports that 4,600 retail outlets are tipped to close this year, on top of 6,913 closures last year, in what the paper has dubbed “the Great Retail Rationalization of the Great Recession”. Nevertheless, as frockwriter can reveal, four Australians will be showing in New York next month. Joining Kit Willow Podgornik, Toni Maticevski and New York-based Michael Angel is Sydney’s Anaessia, designed by Lisa Vanikiotis (pictured above) – first spotted at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week in May. Maticevski, Podgornik and Vanikiotis are in fact showing on the same day: Tuesday 15th September.

Anaessia’s romantic cocktail dresses and embellished skull print sheath – which we dared sheath otaku Michelle Obama to wear – were in fact this journalist’s pick of brands in RAFW’s group shows.



Sold in Australia exclusively through its own boutique at the Sofitel Wentworth hotel and, from October, a second boutique in The Strand, the five year-old highend label, whose Australian retail prices range from A$800-3500, has been wholesaling for just over a year.

Anaessia has 10 international stockists so far, from the US to Jakarta to Kuwait.

The brand’s first US client, interestingly, was the head of wardrobe for ABC TV, who has purchased outfits from three collections for All My Children’s Susan Lucci – and according to Vanikiotis, to wear on the show.

Anaessia will show in New York as part of an umbrella event called Nolcha Fashion Week.

London Fashion Week, which runs September 18-22, also looks to be shaping up as a major Australian fashion showcase.

Josh Goot will show at LFW for the third consecutive season, on September 21st at 3.30pm, venue TBC.

It also seems likely that sass & bide will return to the event after numerous seasons showing in New York

At the David Jones show on Tuesday morning, Sarah-Jane Clarke told frockwriter that she was awaiting confirmation on a time slot from LFW organisers, who have a bumper season on their hands due to the event’s 25th anniversary. Burberry and Clements Ribeiro, among others, are returning to the London runways to help celebrate the milestone.

A second show venue has just been announced for the event, 180 The Strand - which is located adjacent to LFW's brand new main venue this season, Somerset House.

The second venue will house, among other initiatives, On|Off, LFW's regular off-schedule showcase.

According to a series of reports about the new venue, Ksubi is planning to show at 180 The Strand.

At the same venue, the Robinson Pfeffer Showroom is also due to showcase a number of Australian brands, including Tina Kalivas, Alpha 60 and Arnsdorf.



For your reference, here are the Australasian shows at New York Fashion Week:

September 10 at 09.00 – Michael Angel, The Salon, Bryant Park
September 12 at 16.00 – Karen Walker, the Altman Building
September 15 at 12.00 – Toni Maticevski, the Altman Building
September 15 at 18.00 – Willow, The Salon, Bryant Park
September 15 at 19.30 – Anaessia, Bohemian National Hall

Also, a first draft of New York's Fashion Calendar:


fashion calendar via COACD

Here is the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week schedule (to be opened for the second time by Angel).

And here, the London Fashion Week provisional schedule.

Josh Sparks up Thom Browne

thom browne FW0809/nytimes

According to WWD, 35 year-old Australian Josh Sparks has just been appointed the president and CEO of one of America's most high profile designer menswear brands, Thom Browne. Menswear is a change of pace for Sparks who, some may recall, was once the ceo of Australia’s own sass & bide. Indeed, as has been reported pretty much in every US story about Sparks in the interim, during his tenure from 2002-2006, he took sass & bide's sales from $4million to $30million (US$ we assume). Curiously, no mention ever seems to be made of US retailer complaints to the Australian press in 2006, about the brand's performance and management in the US market.

Post sass & bide, Sparks headed to New York, where he founded the Rockwood Consulting Group, aimed at the younger end of the designer fashion market.

While at RCG, Sparks launched Imitation, a diffusion line for Tara Subkoff’s edgy Imitation of Christ brand.

In October 2007, Sparks bought both of Subkoff’s brands for a reported US$2.5million. Then in December last year, he closed them down - along with RCG.

Sparks then headed to HL Group as vice president, administering business and branding advice to clients including Thom Browne, who, WWD reports, has just sold a minority stake to the Japan-based Cross Company.

No word on whether or not Sparks will instruct Browne to tone down his trademark runway theatrics. But let’s hope not.

sass & bide returns to RAFW, opens five new stores

deborah pauwwe


On Monday, frockwriter mentioned that sass & bide has been mooting a return to RAFW to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Well now it’s official. Today, just as sass & bide announced that former Mimco CEO and sass & bide consultant, David Briskin, has been appointed sass & bide CEO, and that Briskin and Daniel Besen have taken a strategic stake in the company, sass & bide confirmed to frockwriter that it will definitely take part in RAFW’s SS0910 schedule – in a format that is yet to be determined. It could be a runway presentation, with the SS09 collection the most likely to showcase, given that it was not shown at New York Fashion Week in September. Alternatively, a party. “But it’s definitely on the schedule” noted spokeswoman Nicci Hunter.

Regarding rumours floated elsewhere today that sass & bide was desperately in need of a cash injection to stay afloat, sass & bide is one Australian fashion company about which frockwriter has not heard a negative financial peep of late.

In fact in talking with retail architect Kelvin Ho last week, it emerged that the company is preparing to roll out new stores.

Frockwriter could not mention it then but we can now also reveal that sass & bide will open three new stores within the next month: in Adelaide, Bondi Junction and Melbourne’s GPO, with an additional two to open by September/October, in Chadstone and Chatswood Chase. That brings sass & bide’s store tally to ten - doubling its local store count.

Founders Heidi Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke, who insist that they retain a controlling stake, are also currently mooting their return to the northern hemisphere runways for September’s SS10 shows – at either New York Fashion Week, or perhaps London Fashion Week.

Given that a London flagship is also on their retail wishlist, frockwriter would put money on it being the latter sooner rather than later.

Legs 7-Eleven

purple diary

One of the biggest FW0910 trends is, surprise, surprise, something that has been hovering on the fashion horizon for at least four seasons now. Call it an evolution of the skinny jean trend or a biproduct of fashion's bodycon '80s resurgence, leggings have been omnipresent at the FW0910 shows. The myriad variations included studded, distressed – and, picking up Miu Miu’s recent biker short reboot, also biker short - at Alexander Wang; Day Glo florals at Marc Jacobs; zippered at Alexander McQueen for Target; Anna Sui's velvet versions; in leather at Tory Burch; black suede at Max Azria; high-waisted and seamed at Coventry; Terence Koh's gold sequinned versions and knitted at Richard Chai. One of the week's more intriguing takes on the trend was offered on Tuesday, via those remarkable, rumpled Nicholas Kirkwood legging boots at Rodarte. Many described them as "over the kneee" but in reality, they reached almost to the hip. Here's a backstage shot by Purple mag's Olivier Zahm (above), which gives a closer look at the convoluted strapwork. You don't get into or out of these boots in a hurry.



marc jacobs FW0910/wwd.com


alexander wang FW0910/wwd.com

Sydney’s own sass & bide saw the megatrend coming this time last year, with the launch of their ‘new jean’, the ruched black silk/acetate Black Rats leggings, which generated record orders for the company.

Pack Rats: sass & bide’s new rodent hero product running out the door

Yesterday British newspaper The Independent reported that one London boutique has a rather long waitlist for sass & bide’s new Black Rats leggings – and the paper included the garment on its must-have list for the Fall/Winter 0809 season.

Sandwiched in between entries on The Independent's "A-Z of the season" list, which includes “Anglomania”, “British style genius”, “Comme des Garçons for H&M”, “First Lady Chic”, “manbags”, “Gareth Pugh”, “lace”, “jackets” and “YSL”, is the following, curious, listing under “W” for “wrinkle”:

“Sass & Bide's ruched and crinkled ‘rat’ leggings already have a waiting list of over 100 people at Browns Focus. Despite the unfortunate name”.

heidi middleton & sarah-jane clarke at the DJs show, august 5

Indeed the Browns Focus experience is not unusual in the UK according to the sass & bide HQ, which reports that the Selfridges, Harveys Nichols and Harrods department stores and net-a-porter-com have all reordered Black Rats (and several times, in more than one case).

The Black Rats success should not come as that much of a surprise, given the strength of the leggings trend, notably Latex-look leggings and skinny leather pants – and sass & bide’s brand equity in the skinny jeans business.

Black Rats in fact hit the ground running at the New York FW0809 shows. Backstage after sass & bide’s May 1st show in Sydney, co-designer Heidi Middleton told me that the product was their “new jean” and had already scored what she described as a record order for the business.

Middleton told me:

“We’ve just done our first order of 3000. They’re all pre-sold. Globally, that’s the first order. It’s a very big indication that it’s going to be a hero product for us. Because normally we might do 1500 in our first order for a really strong product”.

Bryanboy also gave Black Rats a blog boost when he wore (to death) a pair which sass & bide gifted him during Australian Fashion Week.

Black Rats fans will be interested to hear that a new hot-off-the-press version is due to hit the domestic Australian market this week (a little later overseas).

Frockwriter can reveal that, whereas the original Black Rats were a latex-look legging in ruched, high-shine Lycra acetate (A$175), the new version is shinier still, made from a PVC Lycra ($A220) - as sported by sass & bide PR gal Nicci Hunter at the David Jones show in Sydney two weeks ago (above).

As we reported, sass & bide are sitting out the SS09 New York season.

The duo is focussing on September’s seven-style sass & bide TopShop jeans launch at TopShop UK, TopShop's new US division and also TopShop online.

Also in September, Middleton and Clarke are due to unveil a new Aesop concept store within their Fortitude Valley, Brisbane boutique – their first collaboration with the cult Australian beauty brand.

And then there were two: sass & bide pull out of New York Fashion Week

sarah-jane clarke and heidi middleton/vogue.com.au


Last week frockwriter revealed that just three Australians would be showing at New York Fashion Week’s Spring Summer 2009 season, which kicks off on September 4: NYFW rookie Alice McCall, Aurelio Costarella and sass & bide. That’s compared to six Australian brands in NY two years ago. The sass & bide show news, I also mentioned, came as a surprise, given that I had previously heard they might not be showing at all. Overnight on The Daily – whose parent company IMG operates the NYFW schedule shows – comes word that sass & bide has pulled out of the event altogether.

Although sass & bide's name was certainly listed on New York's Fashion Calendar a week ago, yesterday Heidi Middleton told The Daily:

"After such an exciting year, we've decided to take a break from New York's Fashion Week this season, and focus our energies on a couple of new projects happening over the coming months. We look forward to the next".

In spite of the fact that Perth-based Aurelio Costarella will not only be showing for the third time in New York next month, but he will be showing on the official IMG schedule for the first time – with his show time now listed on the updated NY Fashion Calendar – that news does not appear to have trickled through to The Daily, which also reports:

“Sass and Bide's absence leaves Alice McCall, who is showing for the first time in New York, as the only Australian designer at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week”.

One assumes The Daily has confused McCall with Costarella.

According to McCall, she is not showing on schedule at all - ie in the IMG-operated "Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week" component of NYFW - but off-schedule at the Altman building.

Costarella is the only Australian now confirmed to show on-schedule in New York. And given that he has apparently already paid monies to IMG for the privilege of so doing, it's a bit of an awkward slipup really.

Times are tough at the moment - but particularly in the US.

The sass & bide news comes one day after my story in WWD about the new diffusion label from another stellar Australian jeans brand - 18th Amendment.

Called The Beautiful and Damned, the line launched exclusively in Sportsgirl in Australia this week – and WWD revealed that 18th Amendment owners Rachel and James Rose are currently in negotiations with Topshop for a similar deal in the UK.

There has been plenty of positive press on The Beautiful and Damned launch in Australia.

But as the Roses have found over the past eight months - along with many other fashion players - the US retail climate has been anything but positive.

Rachel Rose told WWD that her company recently pulled out of over 100 US stores and is now attempting to claw back a half million dollar debt out of that market.

Rose told WWD:

“Retail is dire [in the U.S.]. We’re spread across 20 markets, but a lot of Australian labels who may only export to the U.S., I’d hate to think what situation they’re in”.

In a July 18 story about his Singapore store launch, Jayson Brunsdon told WWD that his US store numbers have halved from 60 to 30.

Noted Brundson, of the US retail climate:

"It's pretty bad".