Friday, September 25, 2009

Spoke + Spool Launch & Art Collabo

What a difference a week makes and what a week its been. South Australia decided to share its top soil with the whole of the eastern seaboard of Australia and New Zealand too. I got lucky with two of my dust storm shots being published in a magazine in the States called Strange Light, and last night I stepped out to the launch of Spoke + Spool, a new range of retro inspired lycra-less cycling clothes (In the shots below these "Street Fashion" portraits taken at the opening) at Frasers Studio in Chippendale Sydney.

Portrait, Handy Cam Artist, Spoke + Spool Launch

Portrait Two Girls, Spoke + Spool Launch

As I mentioned last week, if you are going to launch a commercial product in an art gallery space it is probably a good idea to get some artists involved too by way of collaboration. Now this is exactly what happened at the Spoke + Spool launch under the banner of “Where To From Here?” Though to be honest I am not sure if Spoke + Spool is really a commercial product or an Art Project designed to look like a commercial product, however the clothes do look really nice. But I digress.

Portrait, Bike Kit, Spoke + Spool Launch

Portrait, Jacket VeeTee & runners, Spoke + Spool Launch

As someone who gets from point A to point B by bike (and who's current fav blog is Bike Snob NYC) I was very excited at the prospect of attending an event that fused Fashion with Bikes & Installation Art & Performance not to mention Free Beer! And speaking of free beer, as I also said last week, usually the “promotion” is for the beer and so it was this week with a beer I had never heard of before called RAW beer.

Room & Clothes @ Spoke + Spool Launch

People, Room & Clothes @ Spoke + Spool Launch

Musos performing, Frasers Studio, Spoke + Spool launch

Hanging Bike & shoes.

In fact every photographer that I spoke to that evening (and there were quite a few) could not help but make the connection between RAW files and RAW beer & what with the beers being kept cold and served from a filing cabinet... No doubt with a few RAW beers under the belt “Batch” processing may never be the same again!

Filing cabinet full of beer

A table of empty beer bottles

Spilt Beer, AKA, Messy Camera JPEGs

But as I was saying my current fav blog is BSNYC which has helped me make sense of a whole raft of "things" I have been noticing around the city of late such as people walking their shiny track bikes or “Fixies” around Newtown & Darlinghurst/Surry Hills. I for one would never ride a fixed wheel bike around Newtown or in traffic in general (it was bad enough doing it for one off-season on the Camperdown Velodrome RIP) so I think these dudes walking their bikes are quite smart really. And so it seems are Spoke + Spool who are creating stylish clothes for cycling from vintage clothing and fabrics with tricky reversible bits and fashion details in reflector strips; so you don't get run-down heading home at night when you realise your flashers are tucked away in your other bag.

Bikes and Courier Bags

Red Jacket & Bike Locking

Outside view Frasers Studio

From Spoke + Spool, “The aim is to use as little factory-new products as humanly possible, which results in one off low-tech pieces forming a collection of unique concoctions that are unusual in style, as well as comfortable, practical and durable.”

Portrait of designer Alia Parker

But back to Free Beer and art openings, one of the barometers of success I use for judging if an Opening has really "gone-off" or "not" is how long the free beer lasts. As I reported last week, at the Sneaker Freaker headphone launch the Becks never ran out. Oh happy days (or happy nights) I hear you say. No, that is not quite right although it does allow one to “enjoy beer responsibly” for-free for-longer. Sadly if the free beer does not run out, the launch/opening/promotion has not been a success! So I am pleased to say that even though RAW beer appears to be a new form of that Aussie sure-fire hangover-rendering “Classic” beer VB, in the fullness of time the RAW beer finally did run out; and after an enjoyable and informative night out so then did we.

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