Something (really) Lovely

VoxFrocker Theadora Violet drops in on Something Blue, a collaboration between two visionary fashion designers and one of the Melbourne Fashion Festival’s most enchanting little runways. Scroll down to meet Theadora and click back here and there for daily updates from the VoxFrock Rookie Crew pulled together just for you.

Words and photographs: Theadora Violet

Set against the backdrop of Abbotsford Convent’s grand architecture and tranquil gardens, Something Blue reminded us how an evocative sense of history and hand-crafted artistry can add a sense of heirloom elegance to contemporary fashion.

Guests arrived for Something Blue on a warm Saturday afternoon and sipped champagne before moving into the convent’s Good Shepherd Chapel Gallery for the intimate showcase.

Designer Anneliese Bridgman, founder of Asher and Archer, presented a collection of custom-made garments designed without boundaries, suitable for all regardless of gender, age, body shape.

Since launching her label in January 2021, Anneliese says she has focused on a slow fashion approach, creating seasonless collections renowned for their fine craftsmanship and transparent, on-site manufacturing.

Artist and designer Sarah Anderson founded Silent Dove on similar principles, showcasing spectacular one-of-a-kind couture jewelery, each piece meticulously handcrafted over countless hours.

Designs incorporate heirloom fabric preserved in resin discs anchoring long and short looped cascades of hand-wired beading. The collection reflects Sarah’s 20 years of dedication to intricate, storytelling-driven craftsmanship. She says her pieces are created as couture works, designed for the runway, stage, and “life’s defining moments”.

Following the runway, models milled about, mixing with guests to enable their closer view of the beauty and craftsmanship of every garment and jewel as conversations inevitably turned to the brands’ backstories of sustainability and the designers’ passion for blending traditional techniques with contemporary innovation.

Meet the VoxFrocker: Theadora Violet

Theadora is a photographer and videographer increasingly in-demand for fashion, commercial event and private client projects. She is a science graduate and studied film animation and photography at Deakin University. Theadora is also a seasoned traveller, equally passionate about photographing fashion as exotic locations and far-off destinations. Her fashion photography is nuanced, narrative-driven and tends to reportage. This is Theadora’s third tour on the VoxFrock Rookie Crew.

THE VOXFROCK ROOKIES

The Voxfrock Rookie Crew is a selective industry-based mentoring programme for tertiary graduates of journalism, photography and related study majors who have a genuine interest in developing high quality strategies to report, write and photograph fashion as a complex and inspiring social construct. Crews have been run for more than a decade by veteran fashion editor Janice Breen Burns (mentoring journalism) and legendary VogueAustralia shooter Monty Coles (mentoring photography). Star graduates of the Voxfrock Rookie programme, Chrissy Dore and Tilly Parsons, have also been appointed crew mentors. Many VoxFrock Rookie Crew alumni – too many to list here – have progressed to stellar careers in fashion, media and related industries. In 2023, the VoxFrock Rookie Crew was folded into the mentoring programme run by FashLab, Melbourne’s community of independent small brands and related creative professionals and craftspeople working in all categories of Victoria’s fashion industry.