An eclectic duet of Voxshots cherry-picked from Friday’s Frockosphere just for you
TURTLES, FUNNELS, COWLS AND ROLLS
It’s bitter cold in Melbourne now – the Voxfrockers’ hands-down heart-pumpingly favorite weather – and winter’s frocky shop stocks are dropping thick and fast as snow on the nearby hills. But, the Voxfrockers are a tad perplexed. Where are the turtles? Where are the cowls, funnels and roll necks? So few designers have ramped their necklines to chin-height for winter 2015, we are genuinely confused. The trend is past due for breaking into the mainstream (check), the market is champing for it (check), the high neck’s potential for flattery is well proven (check), as a frame for pretty faces and striking hair dos (check , check), and – most marvellous of all – as an elegant disguise for the woman of a certain age’s least favorite bit of personal real estate, between the clavicle and larynx (check, check, and glorious, flatteringly elegant, check!). Yet, so few are racked for winter; it’s a source of some small heartbreak in the Voxoffice. (Yes indeedydoody, we’re a highly strung band of frockers) Are the turtles delayed? Are they due for racking any heartbeat? Or, are they forsaken by an explicable bandwidth of shortsighted brandelopers? On a more positive note (yes!) we have clocked a thin smattering of visionary brands bucking the lethargy around turtles and cowls, bless their slouchy mo-derne aesthetics. And, you can clock them too. Trek the mall longer, fossick deeper, trawl the racks till your brain bleeds; they’re there. Here are two to kick you off, coincidentally from two of the Voxfrockers’ fave labels. Don’t thank us. (No, really.)
Pictured, top of this page, is The Remembrance ribbed high neck knit by Oskar The Label, $110, available online in June, www.oskarthelabel.com and, pictured below, the Farrin knit $180 (styled most fetchingly with another Voxfrocker fave, the sugarbag skirt)by Alpha 60, available in all stores and online now www.alpha60.com.au
LAST CHANCE FOR A SQUIZ AT THIS RARE GOLDEN ROCK
Eighty-odd years ago this gobsmacking knuckleduster (pictured below) was spotted in its raw, rocky form at a remote outpost called Willows Field, 340 klicks outside of Rockhampton in Central Queensland. (Imagine the moment.) Today it’s nestled in its pendant setting, for your perusal, in a cabinet at Sotheby’s Melbourne headquarters ahead of the firm’s Important Jewels auction early next week. The rare – and rather gorgeous n’est pas? – golden yellow sapphire known as the Willows Sapphire, weighs in at a fat fabulous 35.73 carats and is the largest of four gems cut in 1947, from that original dusty stone. “Sotheby’s Australia is honoured to be entrusted with this extremely rare and magnificent golden yellow sapphire,” says Geoffrey Smith, chairman of Sotheby’s Australia. “This formidable stone is a unique part of Australia’s mining history and reflects the superior quality of gems found in this country.” Nicely put, though, we’re more gobsmacked by its sparklyarkly loveliness than its status as an historic plug. But, that’s us. Sotheby’s also reports the Willows Sapphire has been variously described as “magnificent” and “unrivaled”, especially by the American Gemological Laboratories, all reasonable fodder for its estimated auction value of $100,000 to $150,000. More than 250 lots including rare gemstones, watches and jewellery with a possible total value up to $4.2 million, will be offered at Sotheby’s Important Jewels auction from 5.30 pm., next Tuesday, May 12. In the meantime, schedule a squiz anytime from 10 am. to 5 pm. until Monday May 11, at Sotheby’s on Level 9, 41 Exhibition Street, Melbourne, or tour the catalogue and register to bid online here .
Bon’ winter till next week!
Compiled by Terry Carruthers, info@voxfrock.com.au with Janice Breen Burns, jbb@voxfrock.com.au
