Saturday, May 7, 2011

snark snark snark

In 1998 Vogue Australia's then-editor, Marion Hume provided side-by-side comparisons of the work of Australian fashion labels at Fashion Week and that of the international designers who had - ahem - inspired them.

Also in Australian Fashion Week's early years, the event's indomitable founder, Simon Lock often boasted that we had the advantage of showing the first of the international Spring/ Summer collections. Going by the calender year this may indeed be the case, but as anyone with an awareness of fashion trends will know, Australia is seldom the source of directional collections. Perhaps it is because of this that I often approach AFW with my rip-off radar on high alert. Personally I think that it's just as well that these days local magazines maintain the general policy of, 'if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all'. Better to leave the snarkiness to broadsheets and bloggers.

On that note...

It was in October 2009 that Phoebe Philo sent this leather blouse down the catwalk for Céline.

It is simply disappointing that Gary Bigeni would bring down the tone of his otherwise stellar collection with a style of garment that has long-since hit the High Street sales racks.

What's the point?

Similarly there was a whiff of Lanvin's Fall 2011 greyscale roses in one of Limedrop's prints:

Limedrop

Image from fashionising

Lanvin

In fact I don't think Limedrop's print is terribly problematic - yes they have taken inspiration from an international look, but they've also brought something new to the table via the painterly zig zags. I can't help think, nevertheless, that there are more than a few Australian designers who would do well to put in place a self-imposed ban on viewing international collections. We can do better.

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