THE AUSTRALIAN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2011 www.theaustralian.com.au
FASHION 19
THE BUZZ DAMIEN WOOLNOUGH Christian values
RICHARD DOBSON
HOUSE OF LOVE
JULIE KIRIACOUDIS
Stout style
Mixing business with pleasure is no drawback for today’s professional and personal partners, who discover such shared relationships can encourage a closer creative rapport CARLI PHILIPS TEN years ago Bridget McCall and Nicholas Van Messner were brainstorming potential names for their fashion label. Newly dating, the couple endured a lengthy process that involved trawling through cute, commercial and catchy names before they agreed on LIFEwithBIRD. ‘‘We wanted it to reflect the two of us,’’ says McCall, whose family nickname is Bird. ‘‘When I suddenly scribbled down LIFEwithBIRD we both went: ‘Yep, love it.’ It was a no-brainer. It’s Nicholas’s life with me so we both feel represented in it.’’ A decade later LIFEwithBIRD is still going strong privately and professionally. The pair married in 2009, and LIFEwithBIRD now wholesales globally and recently opened its third store on Melbourne’s Chapel Street. While the adage ‘‘do not mix business with pleasure’’ advocates a clear delineation between personal and work life, there are many fashion-designer duos who successfully combine both. Designer Miuccia Prada may have more visibility as the public face of the Prada brand but her husband, Patrizio Bertelli, is credited with the house’s commercial success. Nicole and Michael Colovos of Helmut Lang, Lubov and Max Azria (the Max Azria group and Herve Leger), Andy and Kate
Spade, and Inacio Ribeiro and Suzanne Clements of Clements Ribeiro also manage to combine passion and fashion. McCall and Van Messner admit that balancing the personal and professional hasn’t been easy. In the early days, insecurities and relationship-building on top of the responsibility of running a business in their 20s were a struggle. ‘‘In the beginning we did absolutely everything ourselves and worked five jobs to pay for it: retail,
‘[It] can be an emotional rollercoaster, but that’s where having your partner is a bonus’ NICHOLAS VAN MESSNER LIFEwithBIRD
call centres after hours, freelance design, whatever we could do to get the label off the ground,’’ Van Messner says. Both agree, however, that the experience formed a rock-solid base for their business and marriage. ‘‘Fashion is an expression of what you do creatively so there’s always an element of self-doubt because what you put out is a little piece of yourself. It’s a fickle industry and can be an emotional rollercoaster, but that’s where having
your partner is a real bonus: together you can push each other on,’’ Van Messner says. ‘‘We didn’t think too long and hard about being a couple and starting a business together,’’ McCall says. ‘‘So I guess we were slightly naive, which was a good thing. Our parents thought we were mad.’’ Husband-and-wife team Arthur and Mimi Galan — who wed in 1998, the same year they started their label, Arthur Galan AG — were similarly naive. ‘‘Now, every time we open a new store we do a risk analysis, but back then we never thought failure was an option,’’ Mimi Galan says. ‘‘We were so busy and so loved what we were doing that we never stopped to think about it. It was like, well, why wouldn’t it be successful?’’ Arthur Galan AG now has 16 menswear and womenswear stores Australia-wide and is sold at Myer. ‘‘Apart from a few hours taken up by family commitments we’re together almost all of the time,’’ Mimi Galan says. ‘‘I don’t really think about it unless someone brings it up but, you know, it’s really amazing.’’ Similarly, McCall and Van Messner are separated by one desk in their Abbotsford, Victoria, office. ‘‘We get up in the morning, go to the same workplace, do 10-hour days there and then go
home and spend most evenings together,’’ McCall says. ‘‘It’s a lot of time but it’s all we’ve ever known so it doesn’t seem strange.’’ Both couples attribute professional success to having very defined business roles. ‘‘Very quickly within starting our business we found the niche of what we could both offer,’’ says McCall, who already had experience in London collaborating on magazine shoots for The Face and i-D. ‘‘We both design, but Nicholas does the production and technical side while I shoot the lookbooks and style.’’ Having complementary skills also serves the Galans well. While Mimi Galan focuses on product and sales, Arthur Galan’s role is creative production. Both couples’ professional and personal lives are inextricably linked. Although switching off from the office is nearly impossible, it has never been a problem. ‘‘If we didn’t work together we’d discuss our day anyway because once you get home it’s a different mind-frame,’’ Arthur Galan says. ‘‘You sit, have dinner and chat. It’s a relaxed environment that can offer perspective.’’ While having such a close personal relationship inevitably encourages a more open business rapport, McCall admits there’s a risk to sharing a working and personal partnership.
Aussies turn back on New York
‘‘You can absolutely speak your mind more but also be more emotional, which can be a negative,’’ she says. ‘‘LIFEwithBIRD is the two of us combined. It’s what it is because of the passion and different angles we both come from. We have to live and breathe it but, without the other, I don’t think we could do it.’’
FRONT-ROW whispers at New York Fashion Week focus on French label Christian Dior. Tense salary negotiations are rumoured to be holding up the announcement of Marc Jacobs as John Galliano’s replacement at the couture house. Jacobs and his business partner, Robert Duffy, already among the highest paid people in fashion in their present roles at Louis Vuitton, are reported to be asking for a substantial pay rise to move to Dior. With two couture collections on top of two ready-to-wear shows and pre-collections, the Dior position is a much more demanding job than that at Louis Vuitton. Jacobs is also rumoured to be concerned about the impact on his own eponymous label, which has received critical and commercial acclaim in recent years. Most people see Jacobs’s appointment as inevitable, even though Nina Ricci designer Peter Copping, Haider Ackermann, Proenza Schouler’s Jack McCollough and Lazaro Herandes, Hedi Slimane and Alexander McQueen’s Sarah Burton have been considered for the role. If the negotiations are successful Jacobs’s move will start a chain reaction of designer defections, starting with Phoebe Philo, already tipped to leave Celine for Louis Vuitton.
Top left, Bridget McCall (second from left) and Nicholas Van Messner at a show of their summer 2011 range; Arthur and Mimi Galan at Myer’s 100th birthday celebration in March
BLOCKBUSTER exhibitions dedicated to fashion designers have become popular at museums. But Daphne Guinness, opening on Friday at New York’s Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, has a different focus: one stylish customer. The show will present about 100 garments, shoes and accessories belonging to Daphne Guinness, a London and New York-based socialite known for her risk-taking ensembles, her towering high heels and her close friendships with many of the designers whose clothes she
wears. Guinness, 43, whose family founded the eponymous Irish brewery, threw herself into the field wholeheartedly after her 1999 divorce from Greek shipping heir Spyros Niarchos. She has worn many hats since — model, muse and designer among them — but also has emerged as a prominent collector of contemporary haute couture. The FIT exhibition includes pieces by a wide swath of the designers that Guinness has patronised during the past
GETTY IMAGES
Daphne Guinness decade — Alexander McQueen, Karl Lagerfeld, Gareth Pugh and Valentino — as well as several of Guinness’s own creations. The looks on view range from the everyday (striped leggings paired with a white button-down shirt and a fitted black velvet military style jacket) to objects of pure spectacle and whimsy (a multicoloured silk kimono emblazoned with a black dragon by McQueen; a hooded metallic mini-dress by Pugh). There are some everyday items Guinness will miss during the run of the show, but she had no problem giving the museum carte blanche to raid her closet. ‘‘If you do not lay yourself on the line, for better or for worse,’’ she says via email, ‘‘it is not an authentic process.’’ CONTRIBUTION BY RACHEL WOLFF, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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AUSTRALIAN designers have gone sour on the Big Apple, abandoning New York Fashion Week, which started last week. Only three years ago Sass & Bide, Willow, Jayson Brunsdon, Toni Maticevski and Josh Goot showed at US fashion’s premier event but today New York-based designer Michael Angel is the only Australian on the official schedule. ‘‘New York is an expensive city to do a show in and there is a lot of competition,’’ says Malcolm Carfrae, the co-founder of Australians in New York Fashion Foundation and the vice-president of communications for Calvin Klein. ‘‘The return on investment is not always assured. You need to make sure you have a good time slot, a good venue and that the right press and buyers are present.’’ Goot feels there is too much pressure put on Australian designers to make their mark internationally before they are ready. ‘‘You can get caught up in the excitement of putting on a show in New York,’’ he says. ‘‘But then you have to be ready for the orders that come in and start thinking about the next show. It can be too much, too soon.’’ After pulling out of New York, Goot showed in London, before returning to Australia to focus on the local market. ‘‘You can be just as creative working at home,’’ Goot said. ‘‘I am now designing for the Australian seasons. I am not ruling out show-
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JEREMY PIPER
ing overseas in the future. I just want to be ready for it.’’ Maticevski and Brunsdon are also concentrating on the Australian market while Sass & Bide and Willow have turned their attention to London. ‘‘With the Australian dollar now stronger than the US dollar, Willow has become more expensive than some American designer brands,’’ says Willow creative director Kit Willow Podgornik. ‘‘It’s too much risk for too large an investment into the US.’’ The strong Australian dollar is a turn-off for many US buyers but Carfrae says a good product will overcome all obstacles.
‘‘I think the Australian design sensibility makes a lot of sense in New York,’’ he says. ‘‘Australians do clean, sexy and commercial well. If there was more financial support for young designers it would make a lot of sense for them to show here.’’ Formerly of Melbourne, Angel now considers himself a New York designer and showed yesterday. ‘‘I’m excited to see Michael Angel,’’ Carfrae says. ‘‘He is representing Australian fashion in New York well this season, along with myriad Australian models, model bookers, designers, producers and other professionals who are based here.’’
‘You can be just as creative working at home. I am now designing for the Australian seasons’ JOSH GOOT
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Designer Josh Goot with models at David Jones in Sydney
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