It's three years since Josh Goot last showed in Sydney – and just six years since he launched his brand here, with an unforgettable collection of what he dubbed ‘tailored comfort’, realised in a space age track-and-field silhouette that included jersey trench coats and blazers. After showing for multiple seasons at New York and London Fashion Weeks, Goot has firmly established himself at the vanguard of Australia’s new designer generation. And what international polish he brought to Australian Fashion Week last night. The production, co-signed by The Artist Group and Mr and Mrs Fish, dragged arguably the week’s biggest crowd up six flights of stairs to an abandoned inner-city carpark, transformed for the evening to a futuristic sporting venue. Partially inspired by the German expressionist artist Gerhard Richter, the collection, which was delivered in modern techno silks, sporty neoprene and an eye-popping palette of fluoro pink, cobalt blue, Kelly green, black, silver and white, focussed on a voluminous silhouette. More to come.
Last month Frockwriter mentioned that young Sydney fashion designer Elliot Ward-Fear was about to shoot an Autumn/Winter branding campaign with the upwardly mobile Sunshine Coast model Codie Young. Well here is an exclusive preview of that collaboration, which was shot last week in Brisbane. It was lensed by Thom Kerr, styled by Sarah Babcock, with hair by Shaun Casey, makeup by Becca Gilmartin and graphics courtesy Lekkur Studio. Just a reminder, again, that 22 year-old Ward-Fear only graduated from TAFE NSW's Fashion Design Studio last year and has yet to sell to a single stockist. Although privately he has sold a number of pairs of the 18cm microsuede booties that prompted three models to stumble in the group TAFE show at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week in May this year (note Ward-Fear has upped his own ankle-breaker ante with a pair of 45cm shoes for AW11, see below). And gifted one pair, together with a spectacular spiked Lucite necklace, to blogstar Bryanboy, who has been getting a lot of mileage out of both.
Ward-Fear's second collection, entitled 'Spirit of Clothing', further illustrates his talent for complex tailoring. Just like fellow Fashion Design Studio alumni Dion Lee, Ward-Fear has a penchant for bodyconscious garments that are festooned with intricate seamwork.
Below are the three 'campaign' images, complete with branding. And below those, two images from the accompanying Elliot Ward-Fear lookbook. They show the front and rear views of a fantastic pink and purple acrylic jumpsuit with a cutout heart at the derrière - a variation on McQueen's infamous bumster trousers. We have little doubt that garment will generate a lot of editorial coverage.
After a busy few months, during which she shot a series of editorials and a cover for Vogue Australia under an exclusive arrangement, 18 year-old Young is about to jet off to Europe to embark on her international career. We hear there is already a huge amount of interest in her.
Frockwriter looks forward to tracking Young's movements in 2011 - not to mention Ward-Fear's solo RAFW debut in May. Just like Dion Lee's solo debut at the event this year, it promises to be one of the week's hottest tickets.
all images: thom kerr for elliot ward-fear. supplied exclusively to frockwriter by mother and father pr
And finally, a quick chat with Matt Jordan, who blogs about shoes in character as Imelda Marcos on Imelda: The Despotic Queen of Shoes - recently adding a new mens street-style blog called The Style Tyrant. Would have loved to have done more blogger ivs at last week's RAFW, but in between coverage of the jam-packed schedule, there was only so much time. Hope to do more.
The third interview in frockwriter'sbloggers of RAFW series: a chat with Sassi Sam’s Sam Winter. Sydney-based Winter established her Sassi Sam e-commerce site five years ago - and the Sassi Sam blog 18 months ago.
For those who followed my RAFW coverage on Twitter, this particular video will be a repeat: a quick chat with Auckland’s Hannah McArdle of Aych Blog. It was part of a short series of blogger interviews I shot at last week's event. Given that it only went on frockwriter’s Posterous feed (where it has nevertheless been viewed over 650 times), I wanted to blog the bloggers of RAFW series in order here, so voilà.
