RAFW Spring/Summer 2011/2012 live blog - Day One

Hello and welcome to frockwriter’s coverage of the Spring/Summer 2011/2012 Australian collections at Sydney’s Overseas Passenger Terminal. Just a quick headsup about how things are going to work this week... if all goes to plan. Coverage of fashion weeks is always fraught with frustrations, tech hassles and, more often than not, far more material than you wind up with time to produce. Notably when you are a one man/woman band, as is the case with most bloggers – and you don’t have the luxury of a multimedia backup team at head office, as do mainstream journalists. To try and keep things ticking over throughout the day and create a central repository of all my real-time coverage – which I thoroughly appreciate tends to be missed by those who still don’t use Twitter or Facebook - this year I am approaching things a little differently. In addition to photo galleries and selective reviews, I am going to attempt a daily live blog. Please see below for today’s widget. I am hoping it’s easy to follow, pending whether you are viewing on a computer or cellphone (I have tested it on a couple of brands, it looks better on some than others). You can comment via the blog’s regular comments section, below. 

For those who follow me on Twitter/Facebook, no changes there. But please bear in mind that the live blog will likely have additional material that won’t be on Twitter, which of course only ever allows for 140 characters. 
 
So here we go. Romance Was Born's off-schedule show last night was a high energy start to the week. Fantastic location, terrific production and collection (here is our photo gallery and review). Cate Blanchett front row added some international polish. I had a quick chat with Blanchett afterwards. Here’s what she had to say. 

Romance Was Born this way

Romance Was Born unofficially kicked off Australian Fashion Week yesterday with yet another trademark theatrical extravaganza. This time around though, duo Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales skipped the costly staging – in fact, they almost did not show at all this season - and used the magnificent three storey, glass-domed reading room of Sydney’s Mitchell Library as a backdrop, leaving the fabulous styling and clothes of their Spring/Summer 2011/2012 collection, entitled The Oracle, to do all the talking. Styling was courtesy Mark Vassallo, with MAC and GHD doing a superb job interpreting the duo’s theme - Wolfgang Petersen’s 1984 fantasy film, The NeverEnding Story and its much-loved characters and creatures who inhabit the land of Fantasia, fighting The Nothing – in elaborate hair and makeup. Rachel Rutt channelled the Childlike Empress in a sumptuous, tiered shaggy coat that was a little reminiscent of a Maori Korowai feather cloak, while another model sported a massive Rock Biter breastplate (see photo gallery, below). Scattered in amongst the Swarovski crystal- and pearl-encrusted unitards, feathered ballgowns and gargantuan puffa jackets, there were plenty of more commercial pieces: dazzling printed Lycra leggings and unitards; graceful, ankle-grazing georgette skirts and blouses in scarf-like digital prints; embellished jeans and some very pretty evening dresses with ribbon skirts. 

But it’s the over-the-top showpieces which make the brand’s presentations so memorable – and have attracted the interest of clients such as Cate Blanchett, who provided The Sydney Theatre Company as a venue for RWB’s 2009 RAFW show, has commissioned costumes for the upcoming STC production of Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness – and who sat front row last night. 

Plunkett and Sales have carved a career fighting The Nothing of fashion blandness. Long may they do what they dream.  

St Gilda - LMFF 2011

 

So the runway shows are off and running at the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival. Headsup to any internationals unfamiliar with the event: it's an in-season runway showcase that is open to consumers. In addition to other events throughout the schedule, the naming rights sponsor operates seven multibrand runway shows down at the main venue in Melbourne's Docklands precinct, each presented in partnership with a different Australian magazine. First up last night, the Grazia show featuring Carla Zampatti, sass &  bide, Rachel Gilbert, Leona Edmiston, Tina Kalivas, Romance Was Born and Nina Maya. The styling theme was high glamour, with a mix of high ponytails, cascades of Rita Hayworth curls and ultra violet smokey eyes sported by a cast that included two Australia's Next Top Model alumni, Cassi van den Dungen and Sophie van den Akker.   

Nutbush City Limits: Romance Was Born's "granular" film collab with Kris Moyes

Last night in Sydney, Romance Was Born's Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales unveiled City Limits, a short film directed by Kris Moyes. Shot over one day in Sydney and starring local model Tanja Gacic, it's a fantastic - and hilariously camp - little collaboration that was designed to showcase RWB's Autumn/Winter 2010 Nightmare on Wall Street collection (but which will now be shopped to the film festival circuit by production company Revolver Films). A little less Freddy Krueger than you might anticipate - and a little more Blade Runner-meets-Kill Bill-meets-The Rocky Horror Picture Show - City Limits portrays Gacic as a DayGlo Spandex-clad corporate assassin who goes postal at a cocktail party. Best moment: Gacic clubbing Guy Pearce-lookalike Matthew Charleston with a decapitated head. The impressive crew includes cinematographer Danny Ruhlmann (Little Fish) and 1st AD Deb Antoniou (Where The Wind Things Are). Below are a few screen caps. But click here to see frockwriter's Posterous pic gallery of location shots (images courtesy Kris Moyes/Revolver). And click here to watch the film itself.