Take it from the experts. From Emma Stone and Janelle Monae, or Kate Moss to Rihanna, the Marilyn Monroe signature is a keeper. And if you’re not feeling yourself, there are no excuses. Cake it until you make it and rouge on up.
But then there is that emerging brand scoring serious goals off the seasonal fashion pitch. Moving the goal posts of ethically-made apparel while playing prints at the top of its game.
As brands go, YEVU fits the bill perfectly. Take a very West African aesthetic, with its circus of wax Ghanaian prints and roaring colours, and curl it tightly around a vision to evoke a yearning for sustainable and ethically produced designs pulsating with cultural heritage right here on Australian turf. This was Anna Robertson’s dream objective, and back in October 2013 on Surrey Hills’ Cleveland Street, in a two-week pop-up store sliced short by a surprisingly ripe demand for prints on prints, it rapidly came true.
If you ask Robertson how Sydney became the perfect backdrop for a taste of Ghana, the tale is a true holiday romance. Venturing to Accra for a year, the traveller fell deeply in love with the West African print world, working as an AusAID ambassador by day and melting over the wax-printed fabrics filling market stalls every minute in between. She frequented local markets chasing a slew of desirable prints. She befriended local seamstresses, challenging them to go against the grain and marry the contemporary with the traditional, stitching her aesthetic into a duffle coat and organically progressing to ‘eighties bomber jackets, high-waisted skirts and matchy-matchy ensembles. Thus, her debut YEVU collection for men and women was spontaneously conceived and finally delivered in Australia, educating Sydney on the grassroots production of West African clothing while colouring the city with a hearty dash of African spirit.
Six years and one swelling deck of prints later, the brand shows no signs of slowing down on a road paved with style and social responsibility. Since the hour of its sartorial birth, Robertson has unleashed a lean strategy with a long-term purpose - to help create income opportunities for women who have limited access to formal employment. What has bloomed is a humble sisterhood that has sparked the ambition, professional development, and income stream of Ghanaian female talent while braving the elements of tough retail waters.
Beyond the designs, the ripple effect is still moving. YEVU has launched an apprenticeship programme sponsoring the training of young women who have left their communities and schooling because of financial hardship, giving them a coveted opportunity to rise through the ranks of design production. Employment is no longer haughty or untouchable. In this brand, leveraging the circular approach to training staff where women learn the craft and share their knowledge with green employees who are hungry to succeed is a USP worth it's salt.
And the prints are at the epicentre. When we talk YEVU, we are speaking of a new vocabulary of dress that is spoken by that cool kid with a daring style appeal and a free-spirited sense of self. It’s a fresh language Robertson is proud of and rightly so. The fusion of colour, myriad of patterns, and raw sense of style confidence that each piece boasts waters a drought down under for wildcard fashion lines with an ethical twist.
YEVU is available online at yevuclothing.com. Also, watch out for the print playground ‘poppin’ up’ in Sydney, Melbourne, and beyond.
The common denominator in this I Heart NY campaign is capturing the sheer beauty of interior and architectural design that this city renownedly boasts. And when you leave Times Square’s commercial technicolor dreamcoat and head off the tourist track, that’s where the magic really happens. Or you just arrive at 76 Greene Street, Soho. Home to The Apartment by The Line - an intimate yet airy, floor-through loft, housing fashion, home, and beauty items alongside original works of art. The open-plan apartment store is a classy nod to quintessential New York, designed to play out like the stylish Manhattan digs that line the Soho district, with sophisticated keepsakes, refined interior products, and racks of fashion’s finest, lovingly curated in the rugged loft nest that shapes your downtown dream.
You know the one. That dream where your street level front door opens onto a personal elevator that whizzes you up to your apartment like an electronic chauffeur. That is a true story at this address. Not for the obvious cool factor alone, but for the aesthetic payoff and context it gives to each and every brand that sweetens this space.
And much like the space itself. Picture corniced high ceilings and stripped wooden floors. Sash windows above ivory panelled walls. A Grecian pillar behind an old-style freestanding bath. Antique vintage radiators sitting atop exposed pipes, surrounded by a fabulous array of high end products stocked by The Line, all perfectly styled to fit the script.
The Gucci code is a standout that should be tried and tested at least once. The frills, the florals and the frocks are the Gucci way, layered up to the nines or just simple and dainty with a scoop of double ‘G'.
Let’s get real and cut to the closet. Contrary to industry belief, my name is Freddi and my wardrobe is wild. Popping with the best of leopard prints and classy Kira Kira it is not. Try a hot, jam-packed, stiletto jungle whereby my tagged creased attire is seeking revenge for cramming it into its new home like a tin of sartorial sardines.
My style dial is currently stuck at the trusted trio: blue jeans, white tee, black blazer, and just for the record, I’m writing this copy perched atop Bag Mountain. Can’t picture it? I’ll send you a postcard.
Nobody’s perfect, but for the love of self-love, somebody throw me a style line because this closet confidential just got desperate. As my brain has given up on my couture complex and convinced me I have nothing to wear, I’ve come to blame my morning post-shower scandal on anything but myself. But those self-help bibles? Those bad boys? They’re on to something, and sadly, yours truly ain’t gonna like it.
They call it decluttering. That’s the euphemism they use for parting with your clothes when you don’t want to until your closet organisation skills are crisp and your style is a catch. In the words of Carrie Bradshaw and the queen of the closet craze herself, I couldn’t help but wonder: What are they thinking?
All the good stuff, it seems. Increased productivity, more fun playing dress up, and an extra 10 to get in a Matcha Matcha Pumpkin Banana Pork Latte to be exact. Looking to declutter your life and streamline your style? Me too. Here’s my plan of action and a little word to the wise:
Step Inside
No, I mean actually open the door and face the music. Get intimate with your sartorial stash and mentally be prepared to toss and accept the loss. If your mind’s on board, you’re already fifty percent done, they say. #horroremoji? Trust me, I know.
Take Stock
Time to take stock. Turn on that mental timelapse and power throw The Unwanted and Not So Necessary out of the door like you’re Roadrunner preparing for takeoff. All while considering the essentials in 30 seconds max: Do you need it? Have you worn it in the last month? Have you ever worn it at all? Are you even aware it’s yours? And before you ask, that twentieth black dress? Negative. You are not going to wear it to the 2020 Christmas party.
The world won’t be wearing it in 2020.
Let it go.
Housekeeping
A spot of housekeeping may be in order. With quality hangers, new shelf dividers and cute boxes galore, things just look fresher, prettier and happier - including you.
Seasonal Switch
When the sun is up, the winter warmers are out. Kiss goodbye to your winter stock along with the cold for a season. Tap into your new box obsession and pack your coats et al. away until the sun sets on summer. If summer actually came at all.
Code It
All that stylish residue left in your closet that you didn’t know you had and you didn’t know you loved? Colour code it. Take it all out, re-hang pieces with similar coloured garments, get your rainbow on and make art.
Non-Negotiables
Folding and hanging are the non-negotiable rules of the roost. And not just on January 1. Throw in the three hundred and sixty-four days after that. Yes, your calendar is watching.
Colour Coordinate
Feeling brave? Take one for team Monica and colour coordinate the help. Go all out grey velvet with your hangers. Shimmer and shine with your box stack. Don’t be shy. Merchandise the manic.
Lose The Shoes
And finally, that beast of a last but not least? Lose the shoes. That’s what I said. Wack on Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata if you have to but audit your foot apparel with care. Pack away the mid weights, park the old, and polish the best of the rest. Ms. Monroe says a good shoe can conquer the world. I say a good shoe rack can conquer Monday morning. Baby steps.
After long riding the corporate train - two parts office, one part home - I’ve made such a case for suit pants and PJs they’re beyond ready for the runway. Time to step into my new secret showroom and renew my style. On a scale of all-black-everything to crazy neon, here's to red. It’s been a minute.
As Resort 2019 percolates through my newsfeed, I have stopped my scroll at the shows that are going back down the rabbit hole of their roots, remixing the present with a lesson of what once was. Of late, Valentino’s pre-season story has been told with a certain hipster x hip hop cool, but this year, things just got real.
“Rome is layers and layers,” Pierpaolo Piccioli told WWD. “I wanted to capture the life of the street but in a very personal way. Rome isn’t only a postcard, it’s the harmony of many layers together — Baroque, paganism, angels, industrial, the churches, all of it. When you think street, you think New York. But Rome also has a contemporary street life.”
Rather than the subversiveness of collections past, nothing compares to clothes that tap well and truly into the beauty of a bygone era. Piccioli ticked off the Seventies checklist with every piece. Form-fitting silhouettes and the all important mini skirt and midi dress staples, all reinterpreted with Valentino flair? Check. A boho colour palette elevated with audacious florals and fabrics splashed with clever ‘Valentino’ graphics as a nod to logomania? Check. And eclectic-patterned head scarves styled with oversized sunnies that clearly give away his muse of choice? Check. Adding the Jackie O touch throughout the collection shaken with a contemporary twist, and shooting the lookbook in the unconventional corners of Rome well declares Piccioli’s pre-season code for the brand. There are the intricacies of the Valentino thumbprint - the sharp cuts in blazers and classic outerwear alongside flowing gowns sweetened with embroidered detail. But the overall take home of this pre-season drop is Piccioli’s desire to design a real-life wardrobe of clothes that can truly be lived in and I’m not mad about it.
This line takes us back to the Seventies that screamed freedom of expression and an unchained sense of style. The bootlegged jeans and metallic-striped shirt dress. The box-pleated tunic with a collar layered over a square neckline. The peasant gown emblazoned with Art Deco beading. Beautiful clothes that have that pret-a-porter finesse.
Many a millennial may view the collection as intense, but it is smart and versatile clothing with elements that can be paired together or blend well into any personal style story. Needless to say, myself and my imaginary shopping cart can report we’re already on board.
Where Gucci is concerned, this notion can be ceremoniously ousted. Alessandro Michele is the Godfather of designing to millimetre perfection and sending his art down a runway that’s a little left-of-centre. But, let’s give it to him. After his Cruise 2019 show, every designer is scratching their heads with the imaginary thought bubble that reads: “Email subject: Calling a Resort 20 Roundtable. Step it up. And fast.”
In a league of its own, the scene said it all. Four hundred people took to their seats in the Promenade Des Alyscamps, a famous, ancient Roman cemetery that lines the historical French city grid of Arles. The setting was thickly glazed with a fiery enchantment, the stuff of ballet stage backdrops that pull you into their eerie landscape with rendered curiosity. Only this was real; a dark and chilling runway alive with a wall of burning candelabras that stretched for miles. Dense smoke that clogged the venue ruins, wrapping itself around blush spot-lit tombs like pink velvet. The discordant tolls of a bell resonating through the necropolis while running flames erupted from the ground and divided the runway, making way for a slow-moving procession of models wearing retro clothes that spanned eras as if they were arriving for a rock seance to summon the dead.
They were not. But, from the lace to the location, the dress code of the hour called loudly upon the rituals of death to deliver its message. While the neons and the old Hollywood and the Eighties and the English tailoring are those signature Gucci-fied elements of the Michele reign, the references to religion and to Gothic romanticism took them for a walk on the dark side. There were crosses on chokers and chains and toga robes. There were monastic veils and full black looks among velvet dresses, with one sporting the bedazzled embroidery of a skeletal thorax. Elizabethan wigs capped long dresses propped with flower bouquets ready to be placed on a grave. As sequins and fringe twinkled through the fog, two-toned sunglasses brought us back to the present day and beyond, while zebra prints and acid-washed denim unleashed the Eighties on the runway in all its subversive glory.
Yet, taken out of the ghoulish setting and free from the sepulchral owl hoots, there are staples that are extremely wearable and standalone. A leather or varsity jacket paired with jeans or a Chateau Marmont tee. A black bomber could potentially fare well over electric red pants. Or a blush pink toga dress could very well wow after dark.
The show did wrap, however, with a Victorian flowing wedding dress that resembled the peasant nightgown worn by a ghost who has overstayed her welcome in a haunted house - bouquet and all. But this was unsurprising. Despite the theatrics, the code of Gucci has been set and seems to be working and adored by many to date, and it is this versatility that plays to Michele’s strengths and his mysterious mental mood board that never fails to deliver.
Bell bottoms. That 70’s staple that does a lap around the sartorial circuit only to return refreshingly on trend or seriously retro. Here’s a beautiful case in point by Ellery. Take it from Jayne Min: the trick is go big or go home.
discoholicmusic
yousharknotpass
origamiaround
andulkaphoto
janainaart