(Stick this in your book.)
Voxfrockians love winter.
Social whirls may freeze a little in its middle, but winter is unarguably A Most Glorious Time For Fashion. In winter, girls ditch their knicker-flashers, string straps and nuclear tans for proper frocks with collars, pockets and sleeves in fabrics with more elegant sway than perky flutter in their weft-n-warpy DNA. Voxfrock loves that. In the chilliest cities, the chicest girls pile on wintry textured coats and wraps and hose and bulls-eye boots or closed-toe shoes. And boys – don’t get us started – in their fresh-shucked skins of tailored wool, thin-knit cashmere and layers and layers and…
What boy does not look smashing with a soft textured twist of wintry stuff at his throat? (Rhetorical question alert.)
We all look smashing in winter. From June through August, we pile fashion on. In summer, we take it off. We may be sexier in summer, but we look endlessly more sophisticated and intriguing in winter.
Jot that down if you feel the urge and here, while you’re at it, are some places to go and things to do, in order that your fanciest wintry ensembles enjoy maximum exposure, compliments of your Voxfrock team:
MELBOURNE
Walter Walter
Melbourne’s newest architectural gob-smacker, the RMIT Design Hub, will host a retrospective of works by Antwerpian fashion maverick Walter Van Beirendonck entitled “Dream the World Awake” as its first major international exhibition, from July 17 to october 5. Mr. Van Beirendonck is a rebel, rager and consummate artist whose editted archive was presented by the Antwerp Fashion Museum in 2011. It travels to Australia courtesy of arts and fashion philanthropist and businesswoman Naomi Milgrom AO.
(Feature picture above: Walter Van Beirendonck Portrait with frog by photographer, Jean-Baptiste Mondino, 1996)
The RMIT University Design Hub includes 10 genuinely amazing creative zones and is open to everyone for learning, experiment, invention and exchange, from 11 am. to 6 pm. Mondays to Fridays, Cnr. Victoria and Swanston Streets, Carlton, www.designhub@rmit.edu.au. For the curious, eminent Melbourne photographer Monty Coles features a detailed pictorial essay of this marvellous building on his website www.theloupe.org.
PERTH
Good Glamour
The WA AIDS Council (WAAC) annual fundraising extravaganza and STYLEAID, will be staged Friday, August 9, from 7 pm., in the Grand Ballroom, Crown, Perth. The night will revolve around a lavish three course dinner to be presented by chefs from Nobu, Bistro Guillaume and Modo Mio with selected Margaret River wines. Entertainment will include performances by Collective Live, WA Ballet, WA Opera and the usual, hotly anticipated fashion runway featuring spring summer 13/14 collections by Aurelio Costarella, Ae’lkemi, Flannel, Morrison, One Fell Swoop, Bikini Atoll, Zhivago, Zsadar, Empire Rose, Salasai, Nikki Loueza, Fenella Peacock, S2 and Dilettante.
In its 16 years, STYLEAID has raised more than $1 million for WAAC and become a bright and vital blip on Perth’s social calendar. This year, its theme is CONNECT, to highlight STYLEAID’s close relations with people, fashion, culture, charitable projects and the media. The theme is also reflected in its campaign imagery (pictured) by creative director Aly May and team, who graphically blurred lines between common perceptions of male and female. Photographer Richard Jefferson’s androgynous imagery represent the WAAC’s connections with people affected with HIV, and the non-discriminatory nature of their plight.
Left: One Fell Swoop, bustier, $470, blouse, $510 and drawn pant, $395, from Ricarda, S2 and Dilettante.
Aurelio Costarella silk rose corsage $135 from Post Emporium, North Perth. www.aureliocostarella.com
Right: Yang Li flagtop, $1900, and full skirt, $645, from Dilettante, Perth. www.dilettante.net
Pictured, scheduled for show at Styleaid: ZSADAR, Bamboo t-shirt, $130, from www.zsadar.com
Tickets are on sale now and include luxury options: “The Peroni VIP experience” at $400, or $4000 for tables of 10, and “The Black Tie Ticket” at $275 or $2750 for tables of 10. All guests also receive the generous gift bag typical of the heavily sponsored event. Book with Mark Reid, (08) 9482 0014, mreid@waaids.com.au, www.styleaid.com.au
MELBOURNE
What Elli Liona and Glen did next
“Connectedness” is also the theme of “Sans Toujours, Without Always”, a collaborative exhibition showing from June 12 to 18 at Vaults 15-19, Federation Wharf (otherwise known as Princes Walk), Federation Square, Cnr. Swanston and Flinders Streets, Melbourne. Three creative friends have had a crack at the theme including the gifted photomedia artist, fashion photographer and video director Elli Ioannou (www.elliiphotography.com), multi-media and graphic artist Glen Guillou (www.eandedesign.com.au) and fashion designer, illustrator and portrait artist Lionia Singh (www.lionia.com.au)
MELBOURNE
Marvellous Mr. Murphy’s swunmissable Swan Lake returns for a new generation.
Graeme Murphy’s multi-award winning 2002 reinterpretation of Swan Lake, performed by the Australian Ballet for more than a decade since its debut and billed as “a pas de trois with no happily ever after”, returns to Melbourne’s Art Centre, State Theatre, for 11 performances from June 21 to July 1. The much loved, off-beat re-hash was inspired by the “scandal, betrayal and heartbreak” of royal British cad Prince Charles’ adulterous love affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles during his marriage to the hapless Princess Diana. Orchestra Victoria will render the gorgeous Tchaikovsky score. Set and costume designs by Kristian Fredrikson include this spectacular white wedding gown (pictured), with train mobilised by Mr. Murphy’s memorable choreography.
The ballet has played to packed houses, received standing ovations and clocked up a swag of awards since 2003 when the Australian Ballet began touring it to London, Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai and New York.
www.australianballet.com.au, 1300 369 741
BRISBANE
Under your quilt.
The extraordinary and absorbing exhibition, “Quilts 1700 -1945” opens at Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, Stanley Place, Southbank from June 15 to September 22. (Pictured, highlight exhibit by an unknown craftswoman, is a cotton patchwork quilt with central panel rendering of King George III and his troops, dated 1803-05, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.) The collection of more than 50 pieces, created by women (and one man) for a rich list of personal, political, historic motives potent in their time, arcs over 250 years of British history. “Quilts” was flown from London’s Victoria and Albert Museum but also features the rare “Rajah quilt” sewn by women on board the Rajah convict ship during their journey to Van Diemen’s Land (ie: Tasmania) in 1841 and lent to the exhibition by the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
Quilts has linked discounted dining, interstate travel and accomodation packages, www.visitbrisbane.com.au and www.qagoma.qld.gov.au. Basic tickets $8 to $15 at the Quilts Ticket Desk, or 136 246.
Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, Stanley Place, South Bank, Brisbane.
Compiled by Janice Breen Burns with Terry Carruthers, Candice Burke and Emily Wilson: intern@voxfrock.com.au
