Talking the talk: Fashion Torque, Live in the Studio and Insight

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Have always been a big believer in fashion forums. In my brief incarnation as editor of Australian industry newsmagazine Ragtrader, I initiated a (very short-lived) series called “Breakfast with Ragtrader”, inviting various fashion players to have a yack about industry issues. In the many and varied fashion panels in which I have been invited to be involved in recent years (including FGI, New Zealand Fashion Week, the L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival and a talk series hosted by the State Library of NSW during last year’s Rosemount Sydney Fashion Festival), I have always walked away thinking that if anyone were to initiate an ongoing in-the-round fashion series in this country, it would probably be a hit. Social media conversations are fine, but nothing beats a live event. Interesting to see more and more activity in this regard. Fashion Torque was initiated a couple of months ago by Melbourne stylist Philip Boon and designer Jenny Bannister with various guest panellists. It runs every Thursday at 6.30pm at the Globe Café in Prahran and is free to attend. 

The Australian Centre for the Moving Image [ACMI] in Melbourne's Federation Square is running a (ticketed) panel series called Live in the Studio hosted by award-winning Melbourne-based UK animators/designers Ian Gouldstone and David Surman. Tomorrow night’s event at 7pm is dedicated to fashion and the small screen, notably Project Runway Australia and the guest speakers are Project Runway Australia series 2 winner Anthony Capon and yours truly. Click (here) for more details. 

The good folks at Australian creative portal Australian INfront have just launched their own talk series at Sydney’s Apple store on George Street called Insight, focussed on people working in the digital domain. Again, the series per se is not dedicated to fashion, but the third installment on April 27th just happens to be.

I was honoured (and somewhat gobsmacked) to be invited to present this third edition of Insight. Australian INfront editor Damien Aistrope was interested in my personal trajectory as a fashion journalist moving from print into digital, so that’s what I’ll be talking about for anyone who happens to be interested. 

The event was not deliberately timed to synchronise with Rosemount Australian Fashion Week, which runs from May 2-6 not too far down the road at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, but it’s serendipitous. These talks are free. Click (here) for the full blurb. Thanks to Sonny Vandevelde for the promo portrait.