Interview!

Check out my interview with Its Geek Chic!
Special Guest Candice Van Haltren from Perth Fashionista


And find out the answers to:

What gave you the inspiration to set up your blog?
What are your top 5 tips for other bloggers?
What is your top tip for someone just starting out?Has blogging opened up doors for you with new contacts and conversations you may never had otherwise had?

Part of her Project Blogger errr...project I guess.
For all you stalkers out there - get some more goss on your favourite person - ME!
:P

Romance Was Born!

Last night was the second and unfortunately last (Morrison was cancelled) Fashion Talks at Freo arts centre.

For those who don’t know Fremantle, it really is a town in itself, filled with historical buildings and old school architecture. The art centre formerly an asylum was a rather strange venue but it held an intimate gathering upstairs for this event.

Anyway, on to the good stuff. Who? Romance Was Born. Or, more specifically, Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales.

This duo launched their label 5 years ago and have produced ready-to-wear collections for even less. Starting out in Sydney, in fashion school together, the name started as a joke from a badge that was a bad English translation and didn’t really make sense.

Famously, after these guys won the International Support Award in Italy, they declined an internship with Galliano (!). Their label was really just created to enter the competition but they both had a creative vision to take it on a different path.

Both designers (and I'm beginning to see a pattern here, think Alison Cotton of Joveeba) are very down to earth, appearing as almost shy of their success, modest and very humble. Anna is softly spoken, looking down and fiddling with the bottom of her dress, it was comforting to see such a ‘real’ person behind the flamboyant and embellished collections that walk down the runway bearing her name. Luke was chatty and it was also great to see the ‘banter’ between the two of them, laughing, remembering stories, looking more at each other and the host then the audience.

If you are not familiar with their collections, let me tell you a few interesting facts that came out from this interview (btw, props to the host, she was fantastic and it showed she had done her research)

You may recognise this dress; worn By Cate Blanchett

Torn apart at the time my media and bloggers and later dubbed “Cate Blanket’, Anna and Luke can only smile and say ‘well it was a blanket, its crocheted, thats the point. It was meant to be a blanket dress’. The way in which they approach this issue is humourous, they may have been the subject of ridicule but they just laugh back at people who criticise. These two very much see the light of things, often seeing the funny side of things and being able to ‘take the piss’ out of themselves (for want of a better expression). I think its a very Australian trait.

This famous finale to their debut solo show at Australian Fashion Week last year also had an interesting story behind it;

The man underneath was not originally meant to be shown, after this dress still being sewn an hour before the show started! They decided to last-minute to show his face, Anna commenting that he wasn’t bad looking for the reason. He walked out on the runway wearing a plastic garbage bag, which was essentially, a mistake! Now hailed as one of the most breathtaking finale shots they have done. It just goes to show how much these two just ‘run with it’ and let their creative juices flow as they want to flow.

They both had various stories that started as jokes or were mistakes and not much gets to these two, they don’t take themselves too seriously and see the humorous side of fashion, much preferring to make one-off pieces rather than ready wear and have only recently introduces a business adviser to their team. Business plan or no business plan, Anna and Luke have what it takes and find the ultimate compliment and satisfaction in seeing someone wear one of their pieces.

Neither of them were fans of fashion bloggers, finding that the internet often breeds negative comments and pages of people writing pessimistic feedback, which you cant blame them for – if you look at articles that say Paul Smith copied one of their designs, you’ll see it followed by a ton of people who have nothing good to say (probably about anyone). Also, the fact that any old John Doe can write a blog is a bit disheartening.

Anyway, I have gone from being very much in awe of their work, their creativity and the extravagance of their designs to also being very full of respect for the both of them.

p.s. I realise this post is very journalist-y, sorry about that :) I just thought it was such an interesting story!!

Interesting Interview!

I have been wanting to write about this girl for such a long, long time!

If I haven't mentioned somewhere already, I love fashion illustration!

I first stumbled across her work some year or so ago, and through various emails and whatnot, when I originally was going to use some of her work on my website (which still isn’t up yet, sorry) I ended up watching her re-do and update her site etc etc and then finally, got an interview out of her! :D

Let me introduce you to one of my favourites, Olka  Osadzinska.

Olka is from Poland and has worked with various big names such as Nike, Reebok and Jagermeister. She has done great projects and worked with designers and fashion and lifestyle magazines.

She has been featured in several magazines, with her works fast becoming known as some of the best digital fashion illustration. Her style of art is very  eclectic with lots of cheeky expressions and playfulness of the subjects. 

She has a ‘news’ link on her site as well – a sort of mini-blog where she posts what she is doing And side notes, to get an insight into the workings of this great mind.

If you want to check out her site, have a look here. Otherwise, see below for my exclusive interview with her!

5 words I would use to describe myself are....
 Stubborn but understanding, hard-working, observing, talentless!

3 things you will always find in my fridge...
 Milk, redbull light, watermelon.

My days start at about....
 It depeneds. It used to start very early, around 6-7am, now I have
problems getting up at 8, so it's usually around 9am. But I still love
working early in the morning.

My fashion sense can be described as...
 I have never thought of this, but I guess simple, modern, sensual. I
like to wear monochrome.
I like a few basic colors with only a few exceptions for each season,
my favorites are black, gray, white, camel, pale blue, navy blue,
grayish shades of pink. And simple forms.
I love Ania Kuczyńska's designs. She's the best Polish fashion designer.

My works are described as...
Colorful? Feminine/girly? Once I've heard shallow, and this is all true I guess.
I don't really know what people say. I would say pop.

I first was interested in fashion illustration / graphic design.....
 I was always interested in all the things you would put under the name
"art", even at the time when I was a medicine student. I just never
thought I could be a part of it, I had no talent and didn't really
know that you don't need to be talented to do this, sometimes hard
work can do the job.

My favourite piece of work is.....
It varies of course. And it's hard for me to like any particular work,
cause I get bored with them or - after the first moments of joy - I
see what I could have done better. But in the last two years two
projects still make me smile - the Jaegermeister advertorial and the
Reebok World Tour drawing series. And I liked the Nite Stories
painting series, but I've sold everything.

I have recently finished.... So many different things.. Jeremy Scott portrait, Lady Gaga drawing,
some fashion illustrations for Fujitsu notebooks and for a cool book
that will be released in September, first aid drawings for a telephone
application (sic!) for the biggest mobile network provider in Poland.
I'm finishing the last compositions for a fashion illustration
exhibition that will take place in Warsaw in August. There's loads of
stuff going on.

In 5 years I hope to be....
That's a hard question, but I hope I'll be in NYC in my beautiful
white loft studio.

Fashion in Warsaw, Poland is.....
 The word "fashion" in Warsaw applies to very few people and places,
which is a shame. It's cool to see all the young kids though - wearing
cool clothes and experimenting with fashion.
The saddest thing is that Polish celebrities are the worst dressed
people you could imagine. I just recently looked thru hundreds of red
carpet photos from all around the world, as a research, and you really
don't need to know faces to know you're looking at Polish stars.

The last movie I saw was....
Whatever works, An Education and Lie to me tv series, but I'm always
late with the movies due to my work.

The magazine I am subscribed to at the moment is....
Monocle.

My favourite thing about the work I do is....
There are only favorite things about this work, and this is why I love
it and do it.
I like working on my own, in my apartment, with no people around. I
like being concentrated and calm, this work is almost like trimming a
bonsai tree.

Last place I travelled was.....
 I was so busy in the last few weeks that I went swimming in the river
near Warsaw, but this will change now, I'm going to Budapest next
weekend, then probably London, Berlin in September, LA for three weeks
in October. My last foreign travels were to Berlin and Milan.

Something that always inspires me is...
Fashion. Pop art in it's core - Warhol, Lichtenstein, Katz, Kelly.
Vintage illustration and vintage children book illustration. Not much
of this gets into my works but I'm always enchanted with this.

My favourite curse word is....
Obvioulsy KURWA. It's the most popular Polish curse word..

The last thing I bought was...
 Melissa balerinas and short wellingtons by Vivienne Westwood for
Melissa. I love shopping though, I buy things all the time.

When I was younger I wanted to be....
A doctor. Later I realised I didn't really want to treat and cure
people, I wanted to tell them "We did it/ We've made it", which I can
do in any other job as well.

My favourite place to shop is....
 New York! In Warsaw: Ania Kuczyńska's Mokotowska 61 store, she has the
most beautiful bags. For the everyday stuff COS and Zara.