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

Bloggers on the runway at New York Fashion Week?

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Well they made it to the front row, where else is there for the fashion media’s new celebrities to go but the runway and advertising campaigns? Bryanboy is currently at New York Fashion Week and recently hinted that he just signed his first advertising campaign. No word yet on what that is. But one might easily speculate that Marc Jacobs seems an obvious (and yes, perhaps far too obvious) fit, given that over the past two years Bryanboy has become an unofficial online ambassador for the brand. Frockwriter was fascinated to just learn via The Imagist (aka models.com’s editorial director Wayne Sterling) that Marc Jacobs may be using an element of street casting for Monday’s show. Then came word from Wikifashion co-founder Madeline Veenstra, an Australian covering Chictopia10, the Fashion 2.0 conference that’s on right now in New York (by proxy), that two YouTube beauty bloggers are due to walk in an as yet unnamed New York Fashion Week show.

On closer inspection they are sisters Blair (top) and Elle Fowler. According to a video update just posted by 21 year-old Elle, the two are indeed due to walk in one show and her 16 year-old sister Blair was the youngest makeup artist to have ever worked as makeup director at a New York Fashion Week show: Minnie Mortimer. The latter being one of a score of low profile labels that show at New York Fashion Week which is yes, a leviathan event.

Bloggers who appear either on runways or in ad campaigns are unlikely to win favour with the fashion media establishment, which has accused bloggers of becoming the butt boys and girls of fashion advertisers.

The fash blogosphere’s riposte: those in graft houses shouldn’t throw stones.

Lady Melbourne fronts Peppermint

Yes bloggers are so hot right now. You only have to check out Bryanboy’s new rabbit-in-headlights masthead pic taken at the SS10 Dolce e Gabbana show – for which he, The Sartorialist, Garance Doré and Tommy Ton were plonked frow alongside fash industry stalwarts Suzy Menkes, Anna Wintour and co, complete with laptops. Blogger collab windows kicked off with The Sartorialist and Saks Fifth Avenue back in October 2006, but reached critical mass this year, with Holt Renfrew hooking up with BB and others and Brisbane’s own Jean Brown dedicating an entire installation to Imelda. Well frockwriter can reveal that in the recent SM tradition of hot net babes who are rucking up not only traffic, but modeling tie-ins (eg Julia Frakes and Fashiontoast's Rumi Neely now repped by NY's Next Models), Phoebe Montague, aka Lady Melbourne, is due to appear on the cover of Oz eco magazine Peppermint. If some (if not many) fash mag slags are picking up content from the blogosphere, good to see a little credit finally being given where credit's due.