Bespoke Fashion Sydney - William Street Laneway Festival 2011

William St Paddington is Sydney's Fashion Street. I have been coming here for years and years often with a friend or stylist in tow.. These first portraits below are from the William Street Ateliers, yes - fashion made right here, made for you, designed-checked-fitted, and made right here in William Street. Neil Grigg and hats that set mens hearts racing on the head of their favourite filly. Andrew McDonald's fabulous and creatively designed leather shoes and bags; the moment you walk through the door you can smell all that real leather. Sylvia Chan, who (unless you have some kind of magical power of persuasion) only makes a dress once, because why would you do the same thing twice. Can you say Couturier... And I think we can all see what is happening at Matthew Lawrence Bespoke..

That of course is not the end of the handmade on William Street Paddington but if you are in a bit more of a rush, there is no shortage of designers and labels to take your pick from. I'm not going to go crazy trying to describe which-what-wear; you can choose. I do wonder though; even with the sun playing hide-and-seek all day Saturday, if opening up the street to pedestrian traffic in a more full time manner might not be a good idea. Perhaps even if it were simply from 9 till 5... No doubt that will stir the pot a bit; with pros & cons, of dropping things to the door...

And while as with any (or is that every) fashion event there were some DJs DJing. STOP. Listen. There was also the beautiful strains of the Bach Cello Suites floating down and following you along, being played on the street by the equally beautiful Markela Panegyres, who apparently comes all the way from Perth. What are they putting in the water over there.. So here it all is; Lingerie and Shoes, the Casual to what-we-wear when-we-go-out; boutique and bespoke; it's all here. The only real Fashion Street; William Street Paddington in Sydney? Take a trip, take your time; you decide.





















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William Street Paddington

www.sylviachan.com.au
www.neilgriggmillinery.com
andrewmcdonald.com.au

www.jacandjack.com
www.whitesuede.com
www.dportfolio.com.au
www.thecornershop.com.au
www.nudiejeans.com
www.samiandsita.com
www.dearwood.com.au

Markela Panegyres Cello


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Style, You Got it or you Ain't!

Style, yes you've got it or you haven't; and this is cool & laid back style personified. Of course great style is always personal and there are quite a few style quotes about, Fashion being for those without a sense of style... Fashionistas beware!



And so it was while I was playing pool last Saturday at the Carlisle Hotel in Newtown when I spotted this guy with his fabulous man bag phone holster. No problem checking his style he was playing pool on the other table. The whole ensemble is great, just check that vest out too. Speaking of fashion; it seems shooting pool is way way out-of-fashion these days as its now super easy to get a table even on open-table free-pool nights. Which suits me fine; my game needs all the practice I can get, seems my youth was not quite as miss-spent as it should have been.

Mr Bhu Where are You? Marrickville...

Not only do new and different things happen when you leave your house on a wet and blustery day. Even if you didn't want to... "What things happen?" I hear you ask, well all sorts of things. Firstly Street Fashion Sydney is going to perform a community announcement for the first time. Mr Bhu is missing-and it would seem that being a Koala-shaped-Teddy-Bear, it is unlikely that he will be able to make it home all by himself! Please check out image #4 in our series, he's a cute fellow and the contact # is there. If you have seen him and have a lead on his whereabouts, please let the owner know.















Anyway, post seeing the Mr Bhu poster I dropped into my Fav Marrickville 'Vintage' clothing shop. Its run by a lovely lady by the name of Kwan, if you are buying something from her say hello from Street Fashion Sydney, we are becoming great friends. In fact Kwan has such great stuff I wonder why I am letting the cat out of the bag; I have been getting some great shoes and Man-Boots at rock bottom prices!

So post Mr Bhu, and post a trip to SNO & Kwan at YHK Fashion (264 Marrickville Rd) I actually took some Street Fashion in the Street. I know its been a while LOL & everyone is wearing boots! My flatmate from Chile, me in my 'new' man-boots & a charming German girl who just happened along as per Street Fashion's Raison d'être. And if these shots don't keep the Hipsters out of Marrickville I don't know what will !~))

Enjoy.

Zipporra + Love & Luck at The Club!

Two Hot hot, New new labels paraded their stuff together at 'The Club' in Sydney's Kings Cross last night. I know they are hot and I know they are new because-I have just finished shooting the Fashion Campaign for Love & Luck and our model Rochelle is part of the Zipporra team-as I understand it. Actually you can check out the BTS Video from the L&L shoot Here. This was a very pleasantly chilled out evening thanks in part to the Chambord & Champagne drinkie poos. You all know by now I love the Chambord since first trying it out at the Carl Kapp show last year, and there have been some big Chambord nights since...

And, the parade was spot on with models who can walk and a sizzling DJ set of heavy 70s classics, Hedrix, The Doors-like a scene, fuck no; like being-there, in the boat, "Appocalypse Now" style, very trippy...



















Love & Luck styled the Accessories and Bags from their new ranges while Zipporra sent out Swimwear and Summer 10. Enjoy the besy of the blurry shots as ony Street Fashion Sydney can do them!

I can't wait to see more for both of these lables they are both off to a superb start.

Zipporra

Love & Luck Blog

Esprit Icon Store - Sydney Opening

The terms Icon, Iconic, Classic, (and even ironic) seem to have sadly been rather beaten about about for some time now. One only need to think of the popular term 'instant classic' to know language has taken a real beating. Lets face it, 'instant classic' is an oxymoron! It takes time to become a classic and no matter how you may feeel about something new; only the passage of time and society's take on that thing; film, art, fashion, architecture, song, whatever-will reveal if something becomes a classic or not.

Now the word Icon also follows all the same rules as for the word Classic. It takes time to build an Icon just as it does to create a true Classic, it doesn't happen overnight. So as you can imagine it was with a little trepidation that I attended the launch of the brand new Esprit Icon store at Wesfield in the Sydney CBD last week. Whilst in my minds eye I knew the new Esprit store would be a fabulous shop front opening onto the mall, the still continuing construction work, lolly-pop-people-&-cement-trucks nature of the Pitt St Mall forced me off of Pitt St and directly into the bowels of the new New NEW Wesfield in the city. Not such a bad thing really as whilst wandering about looking for the Esprit store I did get to see just how BIG this new shopping development in Sydney really is. Its HUGE, but as I soon found a touch screen directory it was not long before I was standing before the lower ground entrance to Esprit and a solitary security person who, as a veteran of many many nights of Night Clubbing, I chose to completely ignore as I strode towards the small gap of an entrance before me. Well I am clearly losing my touch as I was stopped and asked if I had been in here before... "No, but I am on the list". I was required to make my way back up to the Pitt St entrance where surprise surprise a red carpet arrival awaited 'me'.

I won't say much about my arrival other than to say that to everyone I met who remembered me from the Ford Connect launch party; I apologised to and promised I would behave myself tonight!

The good news is that it seems the people at Esprit really do know what the word Icon means. They know that you cannot become an Icon overnight and that it takes time and effort-that to be an Icon means raising the bar to a particularly high place, a place well above and beyond what you would expect and more than that as well. This was immediately born out Vis-à-vis by experiencing just how nice everyone was at the store. If it was not that I know every stop on the train ride from Marrickville to St James station where I alighted my trip, I could have sworn I had slipped into some sort of space-time-continuum-vortex and emerged at a store opening in Melbourne! Yes, people were so nice I almost forgot I was in Sydney & thought, "my god, its just like I am in Melbourne"!

The press release said that the launch would have something for everyone-kids welcome! And I must say that I did think that was a pretty big call; and yet they delivered. Apart from topless male models strolling around the store, yes there is for-the-first-time-in-Australia an Esprit menswear section (on the third floor). The fashion show had both teen and kid dancers who also doubled as models, doing their thing kitted out head-to-toe in Esprit.  Between the dance routines came your more typical runway show; all in all it there was something for everyone and everyone in attendance seem to be like-me having a pretty good time.

The funny thing is, or was, although this was a great big opening of a great big store. Something has stuck with me over the past week. And it kind of goes without saying that if I had posted a story about this opening next-day, well... I have been mentioning to friends that this opening was a lot like dropping into your fav small boutique where they know you, they offer you a glass of champagne. I thought those days were gone but my friends assure me they are still alive and well.  The opening, no; the store felt personal. And that is something special; if you want to be an Icon store, that has to be a truly great start. Anyway, enough of my blather, if you have read this much of such a long post even if you are on a slow connection all the pictures must have loaded by now. Enjoy!

CARLiTOS Presents, Estilo at Soho

Well I nearly didn't make it to this event, what with doing what I do on Friday day and then heading home and settling in with a few beers... But then Kat from Design Federation txt'd me that she will be there at Nine... Well I just had to sort myself out and make my way to Kings X lickity split!
Anyway, or as American educated young blogging people say, anyways... It was clearly a great opportunity for me to slip into my newly acquired (new!) circa 1983 quarter silk lined baggy pleated Grey Flannel woolen trousers and team them with my circa 1983 New Romantic Full-Catastrophe leather jacket. Yes I was on my way to another fashion parade and free drinks.
Of course catching the train to Kings X is thirsty business and so the first thing I did after getting my name ticked off at the door was head to the bar and my free Smirnoff Black Label No.55 cocktail that had been promised in the promotional material. "Smirnoff Black Label No.55, the alcohol sponsor for the event will have their gorgeous promo girls to ensure that all guests have a French Martini in their hand to help party the night away." You can no doubt imagine my utter horror when I was told at the bar that I needed a card to receive my complimentary drink. "But they took my card at the door". "No you need a black one". Fortunately Carlos the promoter was on hand and kicked in with a 'Black Card' for Street Fashion Sydney and my first Vodka Cocktail of the night was mine.








It was a Nine O'Clock start for an 11 PM fashion show; Kat and Michael settled in with a couple of Vodka drinks from the bar and played 'where's the iPhone reception' (see how happy they were when they found it) while we waited for the mysterious Smirnoff Girls to appear. This however was not such a bad thing. As the club filled up, the temperature rose as well. On my way back from a ciggie break upstairs I discovered one of the rarest of rare things in Sydney this side of the Sydney Opera House itself... A cloak room! Well rather than risk having my oh-so-cool, New Romantic Full-Catastrophe leather jacket slip off my bag and be lost forever I checked it into the cloak room for the tiny tiny fee of $3! We need more of these in Sydney people, are you listening!
Finally the Smirnoff Girls did at last appear and we relieved them of three very tasty Pink Vodka Cocktails in Martini glasses. The Pink bit was Chambord and I have to say I think their marketing is really working and its only a matter of time before I crack the Chambord miniature I received in my Carl Kapp goodie bag last November and start mixing Chambord Cocktails at home myself.
But on with the show. The parade actually started pretty much on-time. I had been warned that fashion shows in night clubs in Kings X routinely started at least an hour late. This was not the case last night.
The crowd crushed in, the music played, the MC MC'd, the girls walked, the photographers fired their flashes & I waved my camera around over my head in my oh-so-inimitable-style to bring you only the best blurry fashion shots from the back of the room that several free cocktails can buy!























A lot of pictures this time I know! I am not really sure how well these night club fashion shows do in terms of promoting fashion but; if the name of the game is entertainment I think they are doing very well indeed. The crowd certainly had a great time and I did too. So by way of helping the designers and promoter out I am going to paste another line from the press release in here now and if you can see anything you like you can play cut-&-paste into Google and check the individual designers out.
"The highlight of the evening will be the runway fashion show that will showcase the latest collections from designers Thulie and Pennie M, who were both a part of Australian Fashion Week. Maria De Guzman, who showed in Fashion Forward Festival and Underwear of Sweden, who are launching there new shoe range, Sunday Shoes.

J Models will provide the models for the fashion show, makeup by the Academy of Makeup and hair styling by Christopher Hanna Platinum Stylists."

Thanks to all who made the night happen in such a big way. Till next time, enjoy!


Telling Stories in Pictures all over..

Kent Johnson, Sydney, Australia.

0433 796 863

kent@artcommunication.com.au

www.kentjohnsonphotography.com.au

www.fashionphotographysydney.blogspot.com/

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