ALEX PERRY

L’Oréal Paris presents Alex Perry, the iconic designer behind the label synonymous with glamour and high-octane sophistication, is proud to present an exclusive preview of his Spring/Summer 2012/13 Ready to Wear Collection. Come and join the fashion industry elite and view this never before seen collection as it is unveiled to the world’s media and buyers in spectacular style.

Friday 9 March at 9:00pm – Presented by L’Oréal Paris – Tickets from $50 (Incl. GST) – BUY NOW

TONI MATECEVSKI

Ending the Festival week on a glamourous high, LMFF Red Carpet Runway presents Toni Maticevski who will showcase signature gowns from his by appointment, couture collection in an opulent one off show. Hauntingly beautiful, timeless and fragile, his clothes are born of emotion for an emotional response.  Celebrated for his exploration of design, silhouette, technique and his ability to elevate classic modes into modern statements, Toni Maticevski’s extravagence knows no bounds.

Thursday 15 March at 7:30pm – Tickets from $69 (Incl. GST) – BUY NOW

VON FOLLIES BY DITA VON TEESE FOR TARGET

Global fashion icon Dita Von Teese will be returning to Australia to showcase her new lingerie collection in collaboration with Target Australia.  In a world first, Dita Von Teese will take to the runway to showcase her favourite designs from the new Von Follies by Dita Von Teese range. Bringing a touch of sophistication and glamour to Australian women of all shapes and sizes, the collection is inspired by Dita’s long-time love of lingerie and will bring the essence of the sultry 1950s glamour girl to this not to be missed show.

Saturday 10 March at 8:30pm – Tickets from $49.95 (Incl. GST) – BUY NOW

Image credits: 1 & 2 - Backstage Alex Perry LMFF 2011, photos by Fernando Barazza, 3 & 4 – Toni Maticevski LMFF 2011, photos by Lucas Dawson, 5 - Backstage Toni Maticevski LMFF 2011, photo by Fernando Barazza, 6 & 7 – Von Follies Collection for Target featuring Dita Von Teese.

All tickets available now through Ticketek.com.au.

Images courtesy of our friend Monty Coles, to view more of his amazing shots visit theloupe.org.

On a trip to WA earlier this year, LMFF were lucky enough to catch up with Kristy and John from Flannel at their new space in a converted chapel. The space is as light and airy as a Flannel collection and we couldn’t help but get excited for the cooler months ahead as we took a look at their autumn/winter 2012 collection.

Thank you for showing us around your anjelic studio. Visit Flannel.

Photos by Britt Singleton.

Fenella peacock greets us at her beautiful store, Nells Emporium, on a bright sunny Perth day and welcomes us inside for some deliciousness (of the fashion & food variety)!  Packed with whimsical jewelleryand floaty frocks just made for escapism, Nells is a little slice of heaven for foodies and fashionistas alike. We recommend a silk Fenella Peacock dress for a breezy getaway and a tall glass of nell’s homemade lemonade with your lunch!

A big thank you to Fenella for welcoming LMFF to getaway and share your beautiful surrounds. Visit Fenella Peacock.

More studio visits to come on the LMFF blog.

Post courtesy  of Brittany Singleton.

The full campaign will be revealed on December 1st and we can’t wait to share it with you.

Photography courtesy of Woodrow.

The Limedrop duo, Nathan & Clea, welcome us into their Fitzroy studio space on a cool Melbourne day and the cherry blossoms dotted along the window sill instantly brighten the mood!  The team show us around their studio where they work (alongside a small team of skilled and loyal interns) and catch us up on what’s happening in the world of Limedrop.

Thank’s Nathan & Clea for letting us hang in your studio – we love it! Visit Limedrop.

Photos by Britt Singleton

We’re welcomed to Rosemary Masic’s whitewashed Fitzroy studio space by her energetic puppy, Stella, who definitely rules the roost in this studio space.  A light and airy space filled with colourful samples, embellished trims and bookshelves bursting with fashion magazines, the studio is a warm and inviting space where the Nevenka team develops the gypsy-luxe collections that have developed a cult following.  While we catch up with Rosemary on all things Nevenka, Stella roams the room and investigates the visitors.

Big thanks to Rosemary (and Stella) for letting us snoop around your studio! Visit Nevenka.

Photos by Britt Singleton.

Gwendolynne Burkin welcomes us into her Fitzroy studio, which sits directly above her store space just off Brunswick street, with a warm smile and the offer of a cup of Milo.  Bubbling over with ideas and excitement about some developments for the Gwendolynne label that are in the pipeline, Ms Burkin shows us around her studio – a treasure trove of beads, lace and heavenly trims.  Hand-finished gowns hang from the ceiling, reflecting the cool winter light streaming through the windows.

Thank you very much Gwendolynne for letting us take a peek into your studio! Visit Gwendolynne.

…More Studio Visits to come on the LMFF blog.

Photography by Brittany Singleton.

Alex and Georgie Cleary of Alpha60 welcome us to their industrial Fitzroy loft-office on a chilly Melbourne afternoon as their team work on the development of their Winter 2012 collection.  Just a stone’s throw from their Brunswick Street store, the Alpha60 team work in a vast open-plan space that functions as office, photographic studio, meeting place, sample room and more.  We catch up with the guys and meet their zoo of Taxidermy friends, including a pair of magpies and a double-headed duck.

Huge thanks to Alex and Goergie for letting LMFF into your studio!  More studio visits to come. Visit Alpha60.

Photos by Britt Singleton.

Dear LMFF team,

Hope you’re having a great week. Just wanted to shoot you a quick email to give you some updates as I promised!

We just returned from our Singapore trip and I’m happy to say that the show was a huge success! We were given the honour to close the five-day event where more than 1500 people came to attend our show and we were awarded with the Men’s Fashion Week ‘Young Designer of the Year’ award.

The surprise came at the end of the show when the chairman of the event, Frank Cintamani appeared on stage with famous aesthetician Dr Georgia Lee to announce that the doctor will be covering the cost of all the garments we made for the Singapore show including all airfares and accommodation related to trip as well as sponsoring our entire next collection for Spring/Summer 2012 which we are taking to Paris in June.

Thank you again for your never-ending support. We appreciate everything that you have done for us and I look forward to catching up with you back in Australia.

Best Regards,
Melvin

We are so proud of their achievements since LMFF and can’t wait to see what their next collection brings.  Song for the Mute will also be doing something exciting during RAFW in May so keep your eyes peeled to the LMFF blog for the latest news on that!

Visit www.songforthemute.com for stockists lists and more information.

Images: Chris McGrath/Getty Images

We recieved a high calibre of entries and are happy to congratulate the following winners who got to hang out and explore their talent with us on the red carpet, backstage and front row at LMFF’s Opening Runway, Fashion Full Stop!  The prize also includes enrollment to the Nikon School Editorial Fashion Photography Course (valued at $349 RRP) with renowned fashion photographer and Nikon School lecturer Christian Blanchard.

Below are our three winners with just a couple of their best shots, please visit their websites to see more from this talented and lovely bunch!

Aleisha Zoumaras

SEE MORE ON ALEISHA’S WEBSITE

Jeremy Kid

SEE MORE ON JEREMY’S WEBSITE

Damien Loverso

SEE MORE ON DAMIEN’S WEBSITE

Read more about the winners and view all entries at the Nikon website www.mynikonlife.com.au/lmff.

Did you love the retro vintage featured on the Fashion Full Stop runway? Want to know where you can find the best vintage in Melbourne? Shag is your answer.

The owners of Shag, Grant Francis and Jeremy Valentine have a manic obsession in collecting all things “old and interesting.” Jeremy’s love for vintage developed at an early age, “as a young lad with little pocket money, I found that I could buy amazing things in op shops and still have enough change for lollies at the corner store.”

Today Shag boys are buying up estates from insanely wealthy people, socialites, hoarders and collectors. Most of the vintage is sourced locally, as Jeremy confesses: “Melbourne has such an amazing wealth of fantastic vintage, secretly locked away in peoples’ cupboards.”

The Shag owners have no rules when it comes to buying store product, just so long as the things they discover inspire and excite them.

Stylist Michelle Jank was thrilled to feature some of Shag’s iconic Australian designer pieces in the opening runway show – in particular the museum Kate Durham jewellery and archive surf Mambo shirts.

Take on the Shag attitude as Jeremy explains “one’s wardrobe should be rich and diverse. To dress stylishly is to combine new, vintage and designer.”

Shop at Shag- a treasure-trove of vintage wonders and a haven of archive designer fashion.

To find your nearest Shag, visit www.shagshop.com.au/locations.

Photography by Fernando Barraza.

Great design is conceptually driven and this year’s LMFF Business Seminar, featuring future-forward speakers such as Dazed Group founder Jefferson Hack and the CEO of ACNE, Mikael Schiller, certainly promised conceptual fuel to burn.  When LMFF kindly invited us at Qualia Creative to design this year’s set, we were therefore delighted to dive in and seize the challenge of creating something beautiful and meaningful for Melbourne’s premier fashion event.

Pictured: Jan Nord & Jorgen Andersson from ESPRIT speaking at the LMFF Business Seminar.

Conceptually, our objective was to create a set that not only supported the speakers, their histories and their projects, but also reflected the narrative of fashion’s progress and its function in shaping individual identities.  Practically, the set’s content needed to be derived from the LMFF’s master creative (Daniela Federici’s gorgeous photographs of Melissa George) without detracting from the conceptual considerations.

The thematic basis of exploded frames was chosen as an allusion to the traditional fashion vernacular of iconic print publications and photography.  However, given the nature of the speakers and the new directions and opportunities offered by the contemporary flow of digital information, we also felt it important to reference electronic culture as well.  Recognising the ubiquity of digital imagery and its growing importance within the fashion industry, the individual frames were scattered and overlayed like pixels to form a larger master image, while the components exploding beyond the frames’ borders acknowledged the unconstrained flow of information in the post-digital age.

Pictured: Jefferson Hack takes to the stage.

Also conceptually crucial was recognition of the idiosyncratic use of fashion by individuals in crafting their unique identities.  Each person is bound to have a distinct perception of fashion and current digital technologies give greater voice to the individual than ever before.  By layering exploded frames, each suspended alone in space, our set invited multiple perspectives and experiences.  Depending on where members of the audience were situated they were offered unique access to otherwise hidden details, creating real personal engagement with each viewer’s perspective.

The materials themselves were also chosen to support the overall concept. Comprised of clear pine and mirrored vinyl, the natural grain of the wooden elements offered distinct personal textures—a unique identity—impossible to mimic synthetically.  The mirrored highlights, for their part, served as a dynamic counterpoint to the static wood, echoing the glow of digital screens and the constant flow of information as well as reflecting the ever-changing ways in which we view ourselves through fashion.

Ultimately, our mission straddled the need to meet strategic brand objectives while providing a creative, beautiful, and (hopefully) somewhat meaningful platform for the speakers to present their messages throughout the LMFF Business Seminar.  In this regard we think it worked out pretty well.  With any luck, the audience enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed collaborating with Yolanda, Caroline and the rest of the wonderful team behind the LMFF.

Stay tuned at o see what else we get up to this year.

Thanks to Brett, David & Dave from the Qualia Creative team for this amazing design – for the record, we loved it! Visit Qualia Creative’s website www.qualiacreative.com.au to stay tuned and see what else they get up to this year.

Photos by: Lucas Dawson Photography

Another tough day at LMFF…

Photography by Monty Coles www.theloupe.org.

The LMFF Menswear Runway will feature;

Arthur Galan

Alpha 60

Autonomy

Campaign

From Britten

Farage

Vanishing Elephant

This will certainly be one of our highlights for the week!!

_______________________________

LMFF Menswear Runway

Thursday March 17, 2011 at 10pm, Peninsula, Central Pier, Docklands

Tickets available through Ticketmaster or phone 136 100.

Photography by Monty Coles.

To see more behind the scenes images visit www.theloupe.org.

LMFF were thrilled to learn recently about the smashing success Melbourne label LIFEwithBIRD has experienced as a result of Festival involvement in 2010, reconnecting with Malcolm Carfrae and Francisco Costa (Creative Director of Calvin Klein) who attended LMFF as a speakers at the 2010 LMFF Business Seminar.

This week, Francisco hosted a private industry dinner in New York in honour of  LIFEwithBIRD and its designers Bridget McCall and Nicholas Van Messner. American fashion industry heavy hitters such as Anamaria Wilson (Harpers Bazaar US), Meredith Melling Burke (Vogue US), Michael Carl (Allure), Colleen Sherin (SAKS Fifth Ave) and Roopal Patel (Neiman Marcus) turned out in support of the talented Australian duo.

Of the experience, Bridget tells LMFF “We have made some wonderful contacts from the event and have some wonderful press opportunites and department store interest for the upcoming season. Its very exciting!!”

Nick told us earlier this week about the impact the connection has had on the LIFEwithBIRD business: ”We’d like to thank LMFF so much for bringing them (Malcolm and Francisco) out, because what ensued was a great night and we ended up catching up with Francisco almost every night until he left for NYC!  Francisco and Malcolm really loved what we were doing at LIFEwithBIRD and both wanted to help open up the NYC world to us and they suggested throwing us a dinner with all of the top editors and buyers. We met some incredible people and now have so many contacts and appointments with buyers and media.  It’s been an amazing adventure and we’ve made some great friends. This definitely would not have happened without LMFF….thank you!”

Pictured above, from left: Francisco Costa, Bridget McCall, Nick Van Messner

Author: Britt Singleton, LMFF Designer & Creative Liaison

What:              Melbourne Open House

When:             23 & 24 July, 2010

Where:            All around our fair city

The Wrap:

On a crisp Melbourne Sunday there’s nothing better than heading out with metcard in hand, iPod in back pocket, no fixed schedule and a sense of curiosity.  The Melbourne Open House program provided just such a Sunday plan, and being an activity that people have raved about over the last two years of its existence, I jotted down the directions to my first stop and started out.

Melbourne Open House takes place annually and offers the public the chance to discover the city’s built environment.   The whole program is free and the buildings whose doors were thrown open included offices, civic buildings, garden rooftops, churches, shopping arcades, places of recreation, philanthropy, culture, worship and industry and span the historic, the modern, the environmentally friendly…a lot to cover in just two days!

I went for a sticky beak inspired by my love of architecture, interior design, an insatiable desire to see into spaces whose doors are usually closed and the perennial eager hope of every event professional – to stumble upon hidden venues to give a home to new event ideas.  All these I saw, but I was even more fascinated by the unexpected discoveries inside each door – the industry of so many people towards a multitude of ambitions and how the spaces in which their toils are housed can genuinely shape what they do and can achieve.  It was a fairly potent lesson in the power of design.

I wished I had spent the whole weekend exploring the Melbourne Open House program, but even one day spent paying full attention to the city in which I live and work, both its buildings and its people, showed me just how much more notice I should pay every day.

For more information visit: www.moh.org.au

Author: Yolanda Finch, Creative & Production Advisor

LMFF strolled down to the Long Room on Tuesday night to check out the Melbourne heat of the Chambord Shine Awards. We descended into the dark mood lit chamber and took our seats on velvet lounges with French Manhattans in hand. Host Gracie Otto introduced the collections of emerging and semi-established Australian fashion design  entrants, featuring feminine twists and flowing shapes to grace the Runway.

Congratulations to Melbourne winners Anna Campbell and Jolet, and a well-deserved People’s Choice finalist, cult Melbourne brand Limedrop, who will be moving onto the finals in Sydney on August 31.

We wish all entrants the best of luck and can’t wait to see the winning design worn by a celebrity at the Spring Racing Carnival and we’re even more excited about hosting the winning collection during LMFF 2011, thanks to our friends at Chambord.

“I’m feeling really inspired after the LMFF Body Image forum. It was such a positive night that resulted in some wonderfully constructive ideas to help promote positive body image within the fashion industry and community at large.

It was really refreshing to hear from modelling casting agents, professionals who work with men and women affected by eating disorders and magazine editors that they’re are all eager to do more to promote positive body image within their fields.

One idea that I suggested is a national ‘I love my body day’ . It could be a day when men and women embrace their bodies and write down what they love about them. I’d love to push this day in schools and get young people to accept their differences, and realise that this is what makes them unique. We also spoke about a ‘Body journal’ where young people could express their concerns, write down what they love about their body and paste in cuttings of what they think a positive body image is.

Hopefully this forum has started the process of change in promoting a healthy body image in Australia, and our fashion industry could lead the world by initiating a much needed re-focus. I applaud the LMFF and Karen Webster for being brave and tackling this important issue.”

Author/pictured: Gorgi Coghlan

At only 24 and with just four finished collections to his fast growing reputation, the Sydney based designer took out the highly coveted LMFF Designer Award at an invitation only event during LMFF 2010.

Dion was amongst a high starndard of finalists, including Gary Bigeni, Dhini, Therese Rawsthorne, Konstantina Mittas, Lui Hon and Gail Sorronda.

Most recently Dion hosted a solo show, Facade, as part of the RAFW schedule which was supported by Woolmark. Facade showcased Dion’s Spring Summer 2010/2011 collection at the Sydney Opera House to rave reviews from both local and global media. It’s mind-blowing to think that only two years ago Dion Lee showed his graduate collection with three other students from Sydney TAFE.

By winning the LMFF Designer Award, Dion Lee will receive assistance from Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) to ensure his fashion career reaches new heights. His creative and technical genius, coupled with AWI’s support in implementing exciting wool and wool blend textiles is expected to lead to cutting edge garments worthy of international acclaim.

AWI has revealed to LMFF that it’s anticipated that Dion’s work will carry the Woolmark swing tickets and sew labels in future collections.

The LMFF Designer Award prize includes $10,000 cash plus an AWI-hosted trip to either the Pitti Filati fashion fair in Florence or the Première Vision trade event in Paris with introductions to AWI’s global supply chain network of spinners, knitters and mills.  Dion recently told LMFF that he has decided to go to Première Vision trade event in Paris. We can’t wait to hear what this trip full of creative musings will deliver in his next collection.

LMFF wishes Dion the very best and looks forward to watching his bright star continue to shine both on our shores and off.

Photographer: Dion Lee after winning the LMFF Designer Award, photographer: Lucas Dawson.