To a chic Circa lunch of shiso oysters, bass grouper and muddled pavlova with 40 women of substance best known to London’s Matches fashion house as its premium current and potential online customers. Matchesfashion.com appointed no less than Natalie Frid to arrange this elegant splash into Australia for its styling service, free shipping promotion and wider marketing campaign. This was phase one; Melbourne. For Matches’ delightful visiting executive Catherine West, Voxfrock helpfully explained the distinction between Melbourne and her next destination, Sydney. “In Melbourne, we put clothes on. In Sydney, we take clothes off. It’s a weather thing.” (A more than succinct tale of two cities we can’t imagine.)
Ms. West held formalities to an absorbing three minute minimum, a film-ette of Matches’ curation of world’s best brands. A list here would be futile. Better to simply think of a masterly fashion practitioner; any masterly fashion practitioner: Karl Lagerfeld? Jonathan Saunders? Stella McCartney? and their collection is obtainable on Matchesfashion.com. An impressive rack of Australians, Ms. West assured, is also available for the exclusively antipodean tastes of this editor.
Above:Honor jewelled wool-crepe shift dress from Matches’ “The New Pink” collection $2,410.)
At the end of her presentation, Ms. West turned back to chat with her well-heeled guests over a charming glass menagerie of white roses, sweet peas, hollyhocks and snow drops. Lovely. Charity-slash-social queen Lillian Frank was there, Crown princess Anne Peacock, jewellery designer Susannah Fairley, Mayfield Thoroughbred‘s Naomi Butterss, and a perfumed flock of impeccably groomed Melbourne glamourzons and businessmums.
The disarmingly pretty Ms. Butterss was particularly notable for her neat figure, well-turned ankles and Alexander McQueen velvet and lazer-cut tailored frocklet with fluted flip skirt over white sunray-pleated underlay. It was destined, she said, for Derby Day; “Depending on the weather”, but in the meantime, had been personally tracked from the McQueen atelier by Matches styler Tiffany Fey, before being carefully packaged and flown, fresh from London, and rushed to her in time for lunch.
As you do.
But wait….
Miss Winfrey’s shoes.
Jewelchic jewellery designer Megan Castran was an odd, late arrival in gingham school frock and multi-coloured Tweedledum tights. “I’m doing it in a dress,” she said. “And, I’ve got Oprah’s shoes.” (Well, of course you have, dear.)
In fact, Ms. Castran was indeed, “Doing it in a dress”, a marvellous charity campaign to fund girls’ education in developing countries. The idea is to pick a challenge, muster sponsors, complete it in a school frock, and raise enough funds for thousands of young girls in Sierra Leone to attend school. Girls currently in the tiny African nation are statistically more likely to be sexually assaulted than educated.
Ms. Castran’s friend Oprah Winfrey, a renowned champion of girls’ education, also donated a pair of size 41, purple silk Loubitan platforms to be raffled, $10 a try, for the cause. Money raised so far is around $3000; Ms. Castran is hell bent on that rocketing to $15,000. Soon.
To support Do it in a Dress and reserve a chance to win Miss Winfrey’s Loubitans, signed, blessed and briefly worn by the media doyenne, click here. For more information on the campaign, click here.
Click back to Voxfrock tomorrow for a preview of the Bendigo Art Gallery’s latest fashion exhibition, Modern Love.
Janice Breen Burns, jbb@voxfrock.com.au
