Elliot Ward-Fear's bottom line

Elliot Ward-Fear’s profile is completely disproportionate to the size of his business. In fact the 22 year-old Sydneysider has yet to snag a single stockist. Given that he only graduated from TAFE NSW last year, that’s not so hard to grasp. But that hasn’t stopped pieces from his spectacular 'Beauty In Exile' debut collection, which was unveiled at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week in May, finding their way into two episodes of Australia’s Next Top Model, this month's ARIA awards and even an audience with Miuccia Prada. When your stocks-in-trade are 18cm microsuede booties and gargantuan, stalactite-like Lucite jewellery, people tend to notice you. Having a publicist doesn’t hurt of course - and he's had one of those since June. Next week Ward-Fear is going to be flat chat. First up, he will unveil his Autumn/Winter 2011 ‘Spirit of Clothing’ collection at press showings in Sydney. Here is an exclusive preview of that collection, which includes some quite beautiful dresses, such as this pretty, deconstructed tennis dress in fondant pink and white and the intricately-seamed caramel wool bodycon dress, above and below, which boasts a curious cutaway panel at the derrière. The latter is designed to be worn, we are told, with a full, flesh-coloured brief - as white hot new Australian model Codie Young will discover later next week when the Vogue Australia September covergirl shoots Ward-Fear's first lookbook in Brisbane with Thom Kerr. 

Young will also be negotiating the, by all accounts, equally extreme accessories of Ward-Fear's AW11 collection. They include a handbag with a detachable glove, a pair of sunglasses cut from one piece of Perspex and a pair of 45cm platforms.  

Just what is the Prada connection?

Manila-based blogstar Bryanboy was sent some Elliot Ward-Fear pieces in the leadup to the Spring/Summer 2011 shows in Europe. 

On October 7th, the final day of the season, he wore both the 18cm booties and a spiked Lucite necklace to the show of Prada's diffusion line Miu Miu in Paris (and continues to be photographed in the booties). 

Of his attempt to greet Miuccia Prada after the show in the necklace, Bryanboy later noted on Twitter:

"Took a miracle to exchange kisses with mrs prada with my extreme elliott ward-fear necklace".

As for comments that have since been attributed to Prada regarding Bryanboy's outfit, we have it on good authority that the sum total of her commentary was “you look beautiful” – which is not quite the way Grazia Australia spun it in this piece.

Nevertheless most definitely one to watch from Australia, Ward-Fear hails from highly creative lineage.

He is the latest big buzz graduate of the TAFE NSW Fashion Design Studio, whose alumni include a roll call of this country's best known fashion names, from rising star Dion Lee to Akira Isogawa, Michelle Jank, Nicky Zimmermann, Gary Bigeni and Alex Perry. His father is set designer David Ward-Fear, who worked on films such as The Shining, Mad Max, Aliens and and The Matrix triology. 

Check the Elliot Ward-Fear website for more examples of earlier work.

 

all images: supplied exclusively to frockwriter by elliot ward-fear/mother & father PR

Thugs & Roses: TAFE SA's gangstarr graduates

 
Saturday night’s TAFE SA graduate show was a class act. It was staged in a brand new auditorium at Prince Alfred College and all the models were from Finesse Models, which we mentioned on Friday in our post about brand new Adelaide face Melissa Johannsen. But before Johannsen even has her portfolio together, Ashleigh Pietersma (below, in the black ballgown) is likely to be the next Finesse star. Seventeen years old and just about to finish Year 12, the Dutch native, who has been in Australia for three years, has been signed to IMG's Paris Development board and heads to Paris in January, just in time for the haute couture. We joked backstage that the mad scramble of dressers that it took to get her into her finale ballgown was good prep for the latter shows. Also in the lineup: Jane Williamson, who made six weeks of Australia’s Next Top Model Cycle 3. This was a well-produced, high energy show and there were some extremely cute collections. As with any student parade you are going to get some play-it-safe eveningwear (headsup: guys this is your chance to show how creative you can be, make the most of it). But there were a couple of standouts. 

I loved Petricia Marinos’ rose-festooned ballgowns and cocktail dresses; Hannah Buchanan’s bold, armour-plated bodysuits; Ashlee Dawson’s embellished, colourblocked bodycon series and Emma Tapp’s futuristic racewear. 

But the absolute standout just had to be Carly Heinrich and her Thug Nation brand, whose Chain Gangstarr capsule collection jumped off the runway. Heinrich told me that she hopes to work in costume design. But if she is able to put these pieces into production, there's probably a market for her paint-splodged parkas, rainbow Michelin Man chubbies, chain-embellished boydsuits and digital print legwarmers. 

Here are a few shots, but head to frockwriter's Posterous (here) for a complete backstage gallery of 59 images shot during the show. 

Dion Lee's fashion analysis

To those who may have been wondering whether Dion Lee was going to be able to pull off a second blockbuster collection fresh out of design school – in his case, the seminal NSW TAFE, this country’s equivalent to London's Central Saint Martins – the answer was delivered yesterday morning at approximately 9.30am. Yes, he did. Set against arguably the most iconic of Australian backdrops, Sydney Harbour, by way of the northern foyer of one of the world’s most beautiful buildings, the Sydney Opera House, the twenty-four year-old Sydneysider mesmerised his audience with a small, but perfectly formed collection entitled Façade.

It began with a dose of the complex, razor-cut, yet deconstructed, tailoring with which Lee has quickly established his name. The collection quickly moved into a series of bodycon microdresses with a honeycomb effect, created by the layering of synthetic mesh. These segued into yet more microdresses, this time in a sheer stretch georgette, splattered with a striking, ultraviolet Rorscharch inkblot effect print.

If asked by a fashion shrink what you saw in the patterns, you might well say Josh Goot and Michael Angel, coincidentally, two other Australians. Unlike Lee, Goot and Angel are both self-taught. They have nevertheless been at the vanguard of the recent digital print power trend. In Goot’s case, as far back as his Spring/Summer 2008 collection presented at New York Fashion Week.

Lee closed with a breathtakingly beautiful series of draped crepe microdresses in soft duck egg blue and taupe. Their skirts consisted of layered micropleated panels, with the bodices crafted from soft ropes of the same fabric, meticulously draped, knotted and interlaced.

The "drapé" was effectively trademarked by Madame Grès in Paris last century. Dion Lee just deconstructed it. If anyone is planning to revive that haute couture house, you know who to call.

Click here to see frockwriter's Posterous pic gallery of the show.