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THE AUSTRALIAN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2013 www.theaustralian.com.au
DEER ARMLESS
HOLLYWOOD CHAIR
By Seyhan Özdemir and Sefer Caglar Autoban spenceandlyda.com.au $970
PERSONAL OZ
COMBACK By Patricia Urquiola Swivel Kartell Flagship 02 9369 3711 $710 (Discounted, limited time)
By Ben McCarthy for Go Home go-home.com.au stylecraft.com.au $485
LIZZ By Piero Lissoni spacefurniture.com $370
FAB FOUR
Home & Fashion THE BUZZ DAMIEN WOOLNOUGH
Main image: Models pose during TOME’s autumn 2013 presentation Inset: Ramon Martin and Ryan Lobo GETTY IMAGES
Get Smart WHAT a difference a year makes. Last year, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia was in transition, with many designers questioning its relevance. This week, home-grown talent has lifted its game and made the new venue, Carriageworks, come to life. This transformation was apparent on day one with standout shows from Camilla & Marc, Alex Perry and Romance Was Born, but it was Ginger & Smart’s runway show yesterday that demonstrated how 12 months is a long time in fashion. Last year, sister act Genevieve and Alexandra Smart’s show was a hot neon mess. But when top model Julia Nobis emerged on the runway yesterday in the first look from the Shapeshifter spring-summer collection, it was clear the deft hand of star stylist and former Vogue Australia fashion director Naomi Smith could be seen. Each look was stripped back to focus on the designers’ strengths. The label focused on dynamic prints and sporty tailoring, skirts were covered with blooming peonies contained within a bold black grid, while the sheer finish of a dress softened colourful geometric patterns at the torso. Boxes, lines and bold colours are Ginger & Smart signatures, but it was the inventive use of lace, bonded to organza like a print, that deserved a second, third and fourth look.
ONCE UPON A TOME
A different view WHEN Carriageworks was announced as the venue for MBFWA the response was a dramatic clutching of pearls. How would the fashion set cope without the views of Circular Quay and proximity to Rockpool, Sailors Thai and Ananas? Quite easily, it seems. ‘‘This is a vast improvement,’’ says international blogger Susie Bubble. ‘‘It certainly works a lot better for the designers and for us. We’re here to look at the fashion, not at the view.’’ It was difficult, then, to understand emerging designer Christopher Esber’s decision to drag the assembled fashion set from Carriageworks to a warehouse space in Marrickville. His inventive use of fabrics would have benefited from closer inspection in an intimate room such as The Box, where Aurelio Costarella showed his couture pieces to great effect, creating a captivating tableau.
The fairytale unfolds for a duo behind a winning label CARLI PHILIPS FASHION
Youthful talent MBFWA is a showcase for emerging labels such as Roopa Pemmaraju and By Johnny. Pemmaraju has already nabbed a David Jones deal and her ingenuity with indigenous prints can’t be denied. Unfortunately, her show lacked focus and was desperately in need of a strong edit. The strongest items were embellished kaftans that should attract Camilla customers and smocks with faded renderings of Aboriginal artwork reminiscent of Marimekko clothing from the sixties. Johnny Schembri is going for girls on the high street with playful renderings of past Prada silhouettes in poppy colours. Expect his blackand-white dresses to ride home on Derby Day during the Spring Carnival.
From top: Ginger & Smart; Aurelio Costarella; Roopa Pemmaraju GETTY IMAGES
LACK of willpower is often cited as the biggest reason for people falling short of their fitness goals. American author Roy Baumeister says most of us have only limited self-control. In his book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, Baumeister suggests every time you resist a slice of pizza you have dipped into a finite pool of self-control that can vanish completely. Kelly McGonigal, a lecturer at Stanford University and author of The Willpower Instinct, says setting a goal such as running a marathon, working out what will stop your progress (eating pizza, for instance) and thinking about why you want the pizza is a process we all should undergo. If you eat pizza when you are stressed, avoid what makes you stressful, she tells The Wall Street Journal.
YOUR child’s room may not be the sanctuary you think it is. According to the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety Queensland, almost 300 children require Emergency Department treatment each year for injuries related to bunk beds, with those aged 4-6 the most commonly hurt, usually while playing. Other danger zones include change tables — almost 100 injuries a year — cots and, outside the bedroom, prams, strollers and trampolines.
So we feel very privileged.’’ Their polished 40-piece New York Fashion Week presentation also prompted encouraging reviews in Style.com, Women’s Wear Daily, Elle, New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Showing their luxe-utilitarian label as part of New York Fashion Week was not in the long-term plan for Lobo and Martin, who confess to being ‘‘very slow movers’’. But last year they were the recipients of the prestigious Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation award, which has previously been given to Alexander Wang, Proenza Schouler, Rodarte and Zac Posen. For the long-time friends, the $US25,000 prize arrived at the perfect time. ‘‘We really have to be forced into things that don’t necessarily happen organically,’’ says Lobo. ‘‘But one of the cash stipulations is that it pays for your presentation. It meant we had to do something.’’ While the generous grant was welcome, the duo was particularly thrilled about the judging panel. ‘‘It was an amazing honour to win,
but when we heard who chose our label — that was the most exciting part,’’ says Martin. The panel included Vogue’s Sally Singer, Neiman Marcus’s Ken Downing and Julie Gilhart from Barneys. ‘‘For us, or anybody, these are very heavy-hitting people in the industry who we’ve always been in awe of,’’ says Lobo, a former fashion buyer, consultant, editor and stylist for Oyster, Russh, Marie Claire and The Sunday Times. ‘‘It’s a great honour.’’
‘We really have to be forced into things that don’t happen organically’ RYAN LOBO
Lobo and Martin met 15 years ago while studying a bachelor of design at the University of Technology Sydney. ‘‘We briefly talked about starting a label in college, but never really again over the years,’’ says Martin, who went on to work for Alberta Ferretti in
Italy, Jean Paul Gaultier haute couture atelier in Paris and, most recently, as design director for Derek Lam in New York. But last year, just as Martin was about to take a corporate fashion job with a mega-corporation, he hit a crossroads. ‘‘Ryan and I were having that conversation: should we follow these careers or do something for ourselves?’’ he says. ‘‘After years and years of working with and for other people we just really wanted to do our own thing,’’ adds Lobo. ‘‘You get to that point.’’ Now based in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Lobo says the decision to move to New York was commercially motivated. ‘‘There was never a feeling that we had to get out of Australia — we love Australia. Our first stockist was in Australia. It’s just that when you’re dealing with the New York fashion industry it’s ‘the first’ in so many respects. It’s first on the fashion week schedule and the first place that people want to open a shop.’’ Sensitive to the practicalities of the modern working woman (‘‘if
you can’t wear a bra with it then we can’t do it’’), TOME’s sensibility is unfussy and refined, with moments of restrained colour and hints of flesh. There’s a tension between body-conscious, fluid pieces and more structured, cocooning silhouettes. The common thread is the everyday downtown woman who feels comfortable in her own skin and has a penchant for style over trend. ‘‘We live in a time of Project Runway and street style blogs and online shopping — there’s so much to digest and consume in a high-fashion, in-your-face sense,’’ says Lobo. ‘‘But we’re interested in something a little quieter. Something that whispers rather than screams ‘I’m wearing fashion’.’’ Admittedly still honing their form-follows-function aesthetic, the two are averse to compartmentalising TOME and its customer. ‘‘It’s still very early days for us,’’ Martin says. ‘‘The shapes, forms and silhouettes are sometimes unexpected. We’re still discovering, experimenting and evolving what we carry into the next season.’’
HEALTH
FITNESS
SIMON McLOUGHLIN
AUSTRALIAN expats Ryan Lobo and Ramon Martin recently had the ‘‘nerve-racking Vogue experience’’ in which they previewed their autumn-winter 2013-14 womenswear collection with the US edition of the magazine. No mean feat after only two years and four seasons into their fashion label, TOME. Lobo recalls that the magazine ‘‘really liked what we showed them, but one of their responses was, ‘Where’s all the colour?’ ’’ The duo welcomed this ‘‘really good tap on the shoulder’’ and recognised the power of the industry leader. ‘‘A lot of labels had gone very monochrome but Vogue doesn’t care about that,’’ says Lobo. ‘‘Anna (Wintour, US Vogue editor) wants colour. So you have to do colour.’’ The result is a palette with injections of cobalt and bordeaux inspired by artist Georgia O’Keefe’s Americana. ‘‘When US Vogue includes and validates you, everyone takes notice,’’ says Lobo. ‘‘If they had before, they pay even more attention. And if they hadn’t, all of a sudden you’re on their radar.
IT may surprise you, but there’s still a big demand for turntables that play vinyl records — so much so that shipments of the Debut turntable by Austrian firm ProJect Audio Systems have sold like hot singles. Their latest turntable, the RPM 1.3 Genie, is a space-age take on old technology. It has a minimalist design with the turntable belt coupled to a separated drive motor and power supply. Its resonance-optimised platter is made of medium-density fibre and an inverted main bearing and newly designed tone-arm can offer great sound without breaking the bank. A mounted counterweight reduces cantilever forces and ‘‘dynamic wow’’ when playing warped records. $449 from audio specialist retailers.
GADGETS
CHRIS GRIFFITH
SEAN PARNELL
AS the Mexican Wave permeates just about every nook and cranny of Australian eating out, the new (they’re all new) Fonda, in Windsor’s Chapel Street in Melbourne, takes the craze not exactly downmarket but certainly to more egalitarian levels. Prices are cheap, the menu very limited (burritos, quesadillas and tacos), orders are at the counter, the vibe Gen Y heaven. And why not? This is a supertasty, and mostly healthy, introduction to the flavours of Mexico, even if it does ply safe culinary waters. Not quite restaurant, not quite canteen (cantina?), Fonda has a look and accessibility that almost ensure the Wave will continue. fondamexican.com.au
FOOD
JOHN LETHLEAN
TOMORROW IN PERSONAL OZ CARS & GADGETS
OUR national crash test body, ANCAP, released results this week for three of the newest car arrivals, representing a crosssection of vehicle types. The Land Rover Range Rover, a large luxury SUV, the Mercedes A-Class, a small hatchback, and the Toyota 86, a sportscar, all joined the ranks of five-star cars. Add this trio to the Volkswagen Beetle, Toyota RAV4 and Mitsubishi Mirage, which among others, were all declared top-rating this year. In a looming problem of relevancy for ANCAP, it’s now rare to fail to score the maximum, with light commercials and Chinese imports the main exceptions.
THE OrientExpress group has relaunched the historic El Encanto on a hilltop at Santa Barbara in California, on the so-called American Riviera. Once a hideaway during Hollywood’s golden era, the low-rise hotel features 92 luxurious bungalows. A wellness spa offers treatments based on grapes crushed from the region’s famous vineyards. There’s the cloistered privacy once demanded by the likes of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, who would motor up to escape the bright lights of Los Angeles, and, more recently, seclusion-seeking A-listers such as Leonardo DiCaprio.
PHILIP KING
SUSAN KUROSAWA
CARS
Just how smart can a Smart TV be?
TRAVEL