Garance Doré for Westfield

It's been a busy day in Sydney today, with three off-schedule Australian Fashion Week events on - five days before the main event kicks off down at the Overseas Passenger Terminal. First up this morning was an unveiling of eight illustrations done by French illustrator/photographer/blogger Garance Doré for Westfield's winter launch at its Bondi Junction mall. I was on deck earlier than most, because I had been asked to conduct a Q&A with Doré on a small podium*. Here is Westfield's short video recap, below. The event was staged in the atrium behind Kam Fook on level 6, with light streaming through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows. It was obviously a little hard for me to take notes at the same time, but Doré's interesting, and heartfelt, commentary about blogging included mention of the fact that representatives from brands whose shows she now attends have been known to call asking where their coverage is - to which she replies (words to the effect), that she'll put on the blog what she damn well likes. "I'm not their friend" noted Doré - which was interesting, following her earlier comment that "bloggers are not journalists".







Doré's partner, blogger/photographer Scott The Sartorialist Schuman, was also in attendance. It was hard not to notice how affectionate they were to each other. Schuman also appeared to be giving Doré notes as she posed for local photographers.

Had a quick chat to Schuman, during the course of which we broached the subject of Twitter. Some may be surprised to hear that that's not Schuman currently Tweeting under the handle of @Sartorialist - just a fan, who has nevertheless managed to amass 42,000 clueless followers. Schuman is planning to get into Twitter soon, he said.

As mentioned elsewhere, there is also a tv show in the works. It's based on Schuman - with Doré involved, according to Schuman.

The series is currently in development with the production company of a major director - think ambitious epics - whose identity Schuman did not want to reveal just yet.

Tomorrow there is a second launch at the Doncaster store in Victoria.







* Just to clarify, this was done on a strictly voluntary basis. Although Westfield's PR arm did very kindly offer to remunerate me to host the event in Sydney and Melbourne. It's a little difficult to write about the retail industry - which I do for WWD and other business-focussed publications - and be on its payroll at the same time.