Richard Nicoll to launch his own eyewear line

ksubi x richard nicoll SS08/hintmag

Over the past five years, London-based, Aussie-raised fashion star Richard Nicoll whet the appetite of the sunglasses-buying public with two tantalising, limited edition eyewear ranges designed in tandem with his mates at cult Sydney denim and streetwear brand Ksubi - most recently for Spring/Summer 2012. Earlier this week in Sydney, he told frockwriter he is about to launch his own line.

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. 

Ruby Jean Wilson is wearing a pair of bright orange running shorts at Karen Walker

How do we know? Because here she is backstage just before Walker’s show, shot a matter of minutes ago by Sonny Vandevelde (who clearly, had access to wifi). Wilson is another antipodian at New York Fashion Week and so far she’s walked in Lacoste. Just on Sunster FYI, his second exhibition at New York’s Tribeca Grand Hotel opened on Monday and runs until 12th October. Then from September 15-19, a new exhibition, ‘Sonny Vandevelde – Backstage Life’, will run in Paris as part of the Rives de la Beauté festival. That will make his fourth exhibition this year, after the Mars Gallery show during the L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival in March and the ‘Crazy Beautiful’ group show of backstage Rosemount Australian Fashion Week photography, which just wrapped at Sydney's Queen Victoria Building. Having just added V Magazine this season to his client list, dude’s on a roll...

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.

The trompe l'oeil necklace trend - it never ends!

lutefisk


On Sunday, sparked by Karen Walker’s reedition of the broken string of pearls print from her own archive for her FW0910 show, frockwriter showed a trompe l'oeil necklace trend chronology, showing which big fashion names picked up the look after Walker first showed it for Resort 2000. Well apparently Givenchy has also hopped on board. Because here is Bryanboy, just snapped outside - and also backstage - at Marc by Marc Jacobs in a Givenchy T-shirt – part of what he reports was a limited edition run done for the luxury e-tailer Luisa Via Roma and based on the heavy multi-chain necklaces from Givenchy’s FW0809 show. Click here to see the Marc by Marc Jacobs collection on wwd.com - the show featured two Australian models, newcomer Bridget Malcolm (look #21, contrary to reports, Malcolm did not walk in Monday's Marc Jacobs main line show) and Myf Shepherd (#40). How’s Bryanboy doing in New York BTW?

As revealed by WWD, Bryanboy is in New York filming a 25-minute documentary on Marc Jacobs' FW0910 season for the Japanese market.

Commissioned by Marc Jacobs Japan (with Stephen Schible, co-producer of Lost In Translation producing), Bryanboy has been filming at both the Marc Jacobs and Marc by Marc Jacobs shows.

Head to Bryanboy's blog to see two of the fashion world’s best-known figures, Paris Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld and US Vogue's Hamish Bowles, in uncharacteristically goofy happy snaps with BB.

Then there is Marc Jacobs himself, who named a handbag from his FW0809 collection after Bryanboy following a series of video/photo/email exchanges.

Here's Sonny Vandevelde's backstage shot of the pair shortly after they finally met in person backstage on Monday night:


bryanboy

Bryanboy told frockwriter:

“The only word to describe my experience here – it’s been magical. I’ve met so many people. And I’m really enjoying my time. It’s just a blogger’s dream come true. I saw Myf. I met Jeanne Beker [host of Canada's Fashion Television], I met Carine again and Anna Della Russo [Vogue Nippon]. But I was so scared to meet Anna Wintour. I was too scared to go up to her. She has this invisible force field around her. I wouldn’t dare”.

Karen Walker's pearl protocol

karen walker FW0910/wwd

Well one of two solitary antipodians who trekked all the way from downunder to this cash-forsaken NYFW has shown overnight: New Zealand’s Karen Walker. Entitled 'She’s Cracked', it was a pretty-enough, dress-heavy, ‘80s-nosed collection whose strongest points included a series of intriguing blazers with sharply-puffed sleeves, both zipper-articulated in tweed and compass-cut in tuxedo fabric. There were slouchy peg trousers, in highshine wovens and also grey knit marle. Sweet long-sleeved Ts with draped shoulders. And a series of balloon- and puff-sleeved knit dresses with interesting graphics. Walker’s prints are the leitmotivs of her collections. On this occasion, the central theme was a cracked ice graphic which spilled down the front of knit Ts and dresses. In addition to reprising her trademark tiered Opera House sleeve in some of the cocktail dresses, Walker also delivered a shorter version of a dress from her own archives, which was originally presented for the Resort 2000 season: the famous string of pearls dress.

Click here to see the complete Karen Walker FW0910 collection on wwd.com.

It’s interesting that Walker has redone this print at this moment, because frockwriter recently toyed with the idea of a blog post on the Walker link to the first piece of merchandise that is being offered by the Michelle Obama style fan blog Mrs O.

That's the blog which, as it subsequently emerged several months after launch, is in fact operated by a new business division of the multinational advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty.

The site's writers say the shirt was inspired by an outfit worn by Michelle Obama to the presidential debate in late 2008: a blue Maria Pinto dress, teamed with three Erickson Beamon floral brooches pinned to a single-strand pearl necklace.


mrs o

Although the trompe l’oeil necklace print trend has been around for at least eight years, trompe l’oeil is by no means a new fashion invention.

Trompe l'oeil became a signature of the legendary 30s couturière Elsa Schiaparelli.

Deployed in the years since by a variety of designers and clothing manufacturers, Walker certainly put her own imprimatur on the look at the beginning of this decade via the innovative trompe l’oeil triple-strand pearl necklace print which appeared on several garments in her Resort 2000 ‘Etiquette’ collection, shown at Australian Fashion Week in Sydney.

In spite of the fact that the collection garnered some international coverage, including a multi-page feature in The Financial Times of London, Walker was at the time still very much under the radar as a young emerging designer from New Zealand.

Call it a coincidence - or just the evolution of a trend - however no less than three major international fashion brands picked up strikingly similar versions of the print in subsequent seasons.

Matthew Williamson:


matthew williamson SS2001/style.com

Cacharel:


Cacharel FW0102/style.com

And Roberto Cavalli:


robert cavalli FW0203/style.com

In June 2002 I spoke with Walker for a story about plagiarism for the (now defunct) Australian business magazine The Bulletin.

According to Walker, who was at the time showing at London Fashion Week (where she initially participated in a group NZ show in 1999, followed by her first solo effort in 2000):

“Information is the key in this business. It's like the new wheel - the most valuable commodity. And it's so readily available.... In this business it's who shouts loudest. Because nobody gives a fuck if somebody from New Zealand did a pearl dress.

“If they see something there [off circuit] they like, they'll feel quite comfortable doing it, whether it's some nasty little Chinese ragtrader or a big chain store in Australia or Cacharel in Paris. Because they don't think anyone's going to ever notice and if they do, what the hell?”

Allan Powell, fashionisto

karen walker via mintshop.com.au


Designers the world over love to spruik the names of celebs who wear their clothes. Just how much of that is the result of PR, paid product placement or of course ‘gifting - the means via which fashion companies get their products seen on opinion leaders via freebies – is frequently very hard to gauge. But here is one example of designer fandom that has nothing to do with any spin or graft. On Saturday night I attended a quite memorable birthday party in Melbourne for a very dear friend (Randal Marsh). Of the plethora of other architects and artistes in attendance, I was seated next to Allan Powell.

Powell is a distinguished Melbourne architect whose award-winning oeuvre includes Monash University’s Performing Arts Precinct, The TAFE School of Design at RMIT, The TarraWarra Museum of Art and a slew of high profile residential and restaurant projects, from Crigan House to The Prince of Wales Hotel, The Albert Park Hotel, Caffé Maximus, Café di Stasio and DiStasio Vineyard.

As it turns out, Powell is quite the fashionisto as well. And I don’t mean that he was wearing a Dior Homme suit (as was Melbourne galeriste, Murray White). Powell’s sartorial style - at least as observed by frockwriter on Saturday evening - could be described as old-school elegance. In other words he was wearing a classic, conservative men’s suit.

Imagine my surprise then, when, during our dinner chit-chat, Powell recounted with some enthusiasm how he had recently spotted an image of a particular pair of Karen Walker sunglasses - and became so enamoured with the product, he hunted down a stockist to snap up a pair for himself. I got the impression that this process had taken quite some time. The sunglasses boasted pink frames in what Powell described as a “Wayfarer” style.

Although Walker has made a few different styles of sunglasses with pink frames, frockwriter understands that only the Deep Freeze style, which does include a “milky pink” colourway, has a Wayfarer look (pictured above).

Sadly Powell’s Karen Walker love affair ended all too abruptly.

Shortly after the glasses were delivered, the sunglasses were snaffled up by Powell’s 20 year-old son Hugo - who is studying architecture.

“I just loved them” noted Powell, wistfully.

Karen Walker's fashion belief system

getty

Australian model Skye Stracke works a faded leopard print shift dress in Karen Walker's The Believers SS09 collection in New York yesterday.


getty

Androgyny is a key component of Karen Walker’s brand DNA – the first garments she made for market back in 1988 were not dresses, but two shirts. And although inspired by cults and voodoo, such was the androgyny factor of this collection, it often seemed a little more Annie Hall, than Amish.

Oversized boyfriend jackets were teamed with baggy bermudas, long shirts with clerical collars were layered over slouchy, cropped chinos and XL, fine-gauge T-shirts bearing ram’s head graphics hung over loose-fit pencil skirts.

The cultish puritannical streak kicked in via high-necked, folkloric smock tops layered over wide-legged pants, with the pretty white lace shift dresses seemingly a nod to the symbolically 'pure' white peasant dresses that are seen in Creole voodoo - ditto the grey/black madras check theme, which was used in bermudas and even a trouser suit with shrunken blazer.

I read that Walker hoped at one stage to make the entire collection blue – another significant voodoo hue.

She certainly used a lot of it in, among a myriad of other blue-on-blue looks, one sweet microfloral blouse worn over electric blue slouch pants. And not forgetting a series of striking cobalt blue silk cocktail dresses. Walker might pander to androgyny - but she makes a wicked party frock.

Click here to see the full collection on wwd.com.
Click here to see Sonny Vandevelde's backstage shots.

Seat wars #2: The highs and lows of Karen Walker’s front rows

Yes and well some designers send out press releases describing their collections. And some send out press releases about the celebrities who were on hand to see the collections pony-walk past. Then there's Karen Walker, who sends out press releases detailing the minutiae of her seating arrangements.

Yesterday I received the following list from Walker's Sydney publicist, with nothing more than an email slug which announced it as "Highlights from front row and second row from Karen Walker's show in NYC".

I'll make an exception to my own general rule on these matters and make the PR industry happy by publishing the release verbatim.

Now, it's probably just a complete coincidence that this list followed hot on the heels of an item in the Herald's Stay In Touch column on Monday, which happened to mention that Walker had seated the Australian and New Zealand media in the second row at her show on Saturday.

Given what one would assume would be the considerable size of the Australian market to Walker's business - I mean she's only selling to the country's biggest retailer, Myer - and the importance of her home market to her profile, it seemed somewhat surprising at the time.

But what an insight this list provided to the machinations of the burgeoning Karen Walker empire. It also spurred me on to check out more KW information.

According to Walker's website, Australia is her largest market in terms of stockists numbers - 47.

Japan is her second biggest market, with 28 stockists - although given the vast size of the Japanese population (127million) and the nature of their shopping habits (they account for almost half of the world's luxury goods market) one could probably surmise that Japan is in fact Walker's biggest cash cow.

As tiny as it is, the New Zealand market is not to be sniffed at, with three of Walker's seven outlets there being in fact her own stores.

All of this compared to just 18 stockists in the US.

A couple of points.

Firstly, as we have to assume this "highlights" list embraces the flashiest names on Walker's RSVP list, just where did she seat the only two Japanese names? Where else? The second row! One of them billed as no less than the president of Japanese department store chain Mitsukoshi.

Secondly, Emma Forest may be nonplussed to see herself described by Walker as "The actress Indira Varma's Friend".

The demotion to the status of Indira Varma's handbag will no doubt also be of interest to the New Zealand government, which invests in New Zealand Fashion Week and which event spent a not inconsiderable sum two years ago flying Forrest in its VIP guest. At the time they billed Forrest as a trans-Atlantic Lit girl, and two-time novelist whose debut oeuvre was called, funnily enough, Namedropper. Was Forrest just making it all up for the junket?

Thirdly, the only direct representative of the New Zealand media was Annabel Davidson - a former journalist who told me she is currently working in PR in New York.

Davidson filed to Stacey Gregg's website, Runway Reporter, claiming - at least in Monday's newsletter - to have been seated in the front row.

Davidson was in fact seated a couple of seats up from me, in the second row, moving to the front row at one stage to fill an awkward gap which emerged when one of Walker's front row highlights failed to show because he/she had more pressing matters to attend to.

And finally, according to New York PR agency People's Revolution, which has been managing the bulk of this week's shows at Walker's off-schedule venue of choice, the Altman Building, that venue boasts a front row of 80.

So, with just 24 front row "highlights" named, just who were the 56 "lowlights" taking up the rest of the seats? And why couldn't, at the very least, the journo from Walker's hometown of Auckland and two very powerful reps from the Japanese market, get squeezed in in place of some of the lowlights?

We do look forward to the next instalment.


Karen Walker show, Saturday 9th September (source: Paul Maloney Fashion Agency)

Front Row

Aya T. Kanai - Seniro Fashion Editor of Nylon
Lauren Peden- Managing Editor of Fashionwiredaily.com
Heidi Bivens- Freelance Stylist
Rayna Cummings- Juniro Fashion Market Editor of Saks Fifth Avenue
Marsha Posner- President of J.P. Associates
Elizabeth Sulcer- Fashion Director of BlackBook
Justin Theroux- Actor
Alessandra Balazs- Socialite
Venessa Lau- Writer for WWD
Victoria Adcock- Stylist / Creative Exchange Agency
Tim Blanks- Contributing Editor of Style.com
Maureen Dempsey- Fashion Features Writer for Marie Claire
Kate Lanphear- Senior Fashion and Style Editor of ELLE
Joann Pailey- Senior Market Editor of ELLE
Emma Forest- The actress Indira Varma's Friend
Indira Varma- Actress
Leven Rambin- Soap Star
Lee Carter- Founder of Hintmag.com and Contributing Editor of V
George Epaminondas- Senior Fashion Features Editor of InStyle
Amri Leever- Market Editor of Cosmopolitan
Danica Lo- Fashion Writer of the NY Post
Suzanna Karotkin- Associate Market Editor of Vogue
Julia Topolski - Senior Fashion Editor - JANE
Cathy Horyn - NY Times

Second Row

Katherine Agger- Fashion Director of Cover Magazine
Joe Berean- Market Director of Nylon
Elizabeth Charles- Owner/Buyer of Elizabeth Charles
Marie Chaix- Associate Editor of Self Service
Susan Joy- Freelance Stylist (NY Times)
Milka Prica- Executive Fashion Editor of Madison
Rebecca Resnick- Senior Accessories Editor of TeenVogue
Tim Rush- Vice President of Public Relations for Bumble and Bumble
Glynis Traill-Nash- Fashion & Style Director of The Sun-Herald Australia
Eri Kurobe- NY Correspondent of Marie Claire Japan
Havana Lafitte- Contributing Fashion Editor for Teen Vogue
Amanda Miller- Junior Fashion Market Editor for Saks Fifth Avenue
Takao Toshikawa- President of Mitsukoshi (USA), Inc.
Lina Kutsovskaya- Art Director of Teen Vogue
Taira Sturvist- Vice President of J.P. Associates
Andi Teran- Writer for City Magazine
Jen Smith- Senior Fashion Editor of Lucky
Karolyn Angel- Shopping Editor of W
Christine Centenera- Market Editor of Harper's Bazaar Australia
Helane Crowell- Fashion News Contributor
Annabel Davidson- Reporter for runwayreporter.com
Jean Godfrey-June- Beauty Director of Lucky
Gina Kelly- Fashion Director of Seventeen
Roseanne Morrison- Fashion Director of The Doneger Group
Mark Vassallo- Contributing Fashion Editor of Harper's Bazaar Australia
Prue Lewington- NY POST Stylist
Joanna Rodgers- Market Editor of Style.com
Christina Turner- Accessories Director of Jane
Patty Huntington- Fashion Reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald
Edward Jowdy- Freelance Stylist
Hisashi Kato- President of Mitsukoshi (Japan), LTD

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