AUSE01Z01MA - V1
16 THE AUSTRALIAN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2014 FAB FOUR
Colourful cufflinks JEAN SCHLUMBERGER
JOHN HARDY
ALEXANDER McQUEEN
TRIANON
for Tiffany & Co. $4050, tiffany.com / 1800 731 131
$335, au.johnhardy.com
$139.25, farfetch.com
approx $3514, mrporter.com
the buzz glynis TRAILL-NASH Aussie stars really shine BUZZ comes to you this week from New York Fashion Week, where some of our finest Australian talent has been shining very bright indeed. Stellar turns from Zimmermann and Dion Lee, both showing for the third consecutive season at the event, should leave no one in any doubt of their position among the city’s — and the world’s — best. New York-based Australians Ryan Lobo and Ramon Martin sent out an equally polished turn with their label Tome (pictured), this time looking to the work of two female Indian artists, Rukmini Devi and Dayanita Singh, for inspiration. “It’s all about the sari and the pleating and the wrapping and the folding,” Lobo said after the show. “We’re trying to interpret that so it’s modern western women’s clothing.” The duo were one of 10 labels that were finalists in the Council of Fashion Designers of America Fashion Fund last year and, while they didn’t take the top prize, it certainly has helped build their name in the US — and in Australia, where the television show of the competition, The Fashion Fund, is showing on Arena. Lobo tried to play down the huge impact of the competition and the show, saying it was “business as usual” with their core stockists, which includes Myer in Australia, Net-aPorter.com and US department store Saks. In addition, “we’ve finally hit Russia and hit the Middle East. It’s all growing.”
ONE FOR ALL There’s the boyfriend look, and then there is true unisex. We’ll have what he’s having CARLI PHILIPS
Clarke’s new chapter ONE of the highlights of travelling for fashion weeks is catching up with contacts from home and afar. One of those people is Jarrad Clarke, vice-president and global creative director of IMG. Clarke was part of Simon Lock’s team that put together the original Australian event back in 1996 and continued with IMG when it bought the event in 2005. Clarke has been based in New York for the past five years and his life has been a crisscrossing of the globe, overseeing the various fashion weeks owned by IMG, including those started in Berlin, Istanbul and Zurich, as well as playing a role in creatively redesigning Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week New York. During that time he has continued to nurture Australian talent on the world stage, often paving the way for young and established designers to show across the world. But even the best career matches must come to an end so new chapters can begin, and Buzz is delighted to bring you the scoop on that front fresh from New York. Clarke will leave IMG this week to take up the position of senior vice-president production with KCD Worldwide, the New York-based company responsible for some of the world’s most spectacular fashion events, including for Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs and Versace. In a statement released to The Australian, Clarke says: “The fashion industry has evolved so much during my time at IMG, from the proliferation of digital channels to the increasing globalisation of brands, and I’m proud to have played a part in that evolution for nearly the past decade with IMG’s vast global network. “IMG has an amazing team in place around the world who will continue to grow and evolve the vision as I take this next step. I couldn’t be more excited to be joining KCD who have constantly set the benchmark for our industry in creativity and innovation and I am looking forward to the future.” He also has made sure he is locked in to attend Australian Fashion Week’s 20th anniversary next year. That’s one he wouldn’t miss for the world.
TOMBOY style and the boyfriend fit have been mainstream trends for the past few years, with women adopting an oversized look that suggests we’ve been borrowing from the guys. While the reverse idea has been slower to emerge (and, let’s face it, may never really take off), a new breed of designers is challenging conventional notions of gendered fashion in a quite revolutionary way — with ranges that are truly unisex. The arrival of Bosnian-born Australian model Andreja Pejic on the international modelling scene in 2011 marked a significant turning point, with the effeminate male (who has since undergone sex reassignment surgery to become a woman) walking the catwalk as a bride for Gaultier. “It was a time where fashion editors were bored with the same formulaic models,” says Matthew Anderson of model agency Chadwicks, who discovered Pejic. “Andreja just never was going to fit into a box. We had to create a new one.” A host of designers followed suit, dressing a new breed of famously androgynous models including Saskia de Brauw, Elliot Sailors and Casey Legler, the first woman to sign exclusively with the men’s arm of Ford modelling agency. Now many designers are extending ideas of gender-neutrality into their collections. Whether it be through dedicated unisex ranges or the blurring of gender lines, fashion is being decidedly mashed-up as women dress like men, men dress like women and the two walk side-by-side on the catwalk. Such was the case at Saint Laurent’s menswear show in June,
THE most successful roadster of all time, Mazda’s MX-5, enters its fourth generation with a fresh design unveiled simultaneously in Japan, the US and Europe. Mazda says this iteration is the most compact version of the car yet, and 100kg lighter than the outgoing model despite more stringent environmental and safety regulations. The new car brings engines developed using Mazda’s Skyactiv approach to maximise efficiency yet stays true to the original’s promise of “pure driving fun”. In the quarter-century since it first appeared, more than 940,000 MX-5s have been sold, making it the world’s bestselling twoseater sports car.
CARS
PHILIP KING
SNARING a flight upgrade for a couple of hundred dollars on top of the economy fare should put a gleam in the eye of any traveller, but beware the pitfalls of trying to organise a better seat on the run. Airline ground staff in Abu Dhabi suggested I request an upgrade once on board an Alitalia flight heading to Rome recently. Alitalia’s chief stewardess was only too happy to comply, offering to upgrade me to premium economy for the princely sum of €200 ($276) for the six-hour Abu Dhabi to Rome flight. I was comfortably ensconced in the premium economy cabin with a glass of prosecco and an Alitalia amenities kit in hand a
TRAVEL
LOEWE
with designer Hedi Slimane’s “psych rock” boys and girls dressed in similar embellished skinny silhouettes, caftans, layered necklaces and wide-brimmed hats. At Bottega Veneta men were in headbands, while Vivienne Westwood presented leggings, totes and puffers as part of her new unisex line. In February, emerging “genderless” cult label Hood By Air had women and brawny male models in thigh-high boots, tunics and long wigs. “Mixing gender is modern, that’s what is happening in the fashion world today,” says designer JW Anderson, who was made creative director of luxury Spanish house Loewe in 2012. “I love the relationship between men and women — that coupling. Men with men, women with women, women and men, that kind of mixture of sex and sharing of garments — I think it’s normal. “It’s about wearing clothes that tell a story and an emotion; it’s not so much about gender.” For his debut collection in June, Anderson created a classic, clean menswear range accompanied by
a fashion campaign with both sexes styled alike. The young designer is also making waves with his eponymous label, citing “the personality of the bourgeois woman” as the inspiration for SS15, “perverting classic men’s shapes” in the form of one-size-fits-all tabards, one-shouldered and midriff-skimming tops. Until now, pushing gender boundaries has been largely the domain of avant-garde deconstructionists such as Rick Owens, Comme des Garcons, Ann Demeulemeester and Dries van Noten, who employ monochromatic palettes and layered, draped silhouettes. Hiromi Yu of Melbourne luxury boutique Marais says Owens is one of the finest “gender benders” of the 21st century. “His his ’n’ hers classic leather biker jackets differ only in the finish of hardware, which is fairly gender-neutral anyway as it’s brushed brass,” Yu says. “His jackets also have underarm jersey inserts all through the sleeves, making it more versatile for both men’s and women’s arms.”
couple of hours into the flight when the flight attendant asked for my credit card and ticket to process the upgrade. But unfortunately she could not process the upgrade because I had not booked the flight with Alitalia initially — I would have to fly economy. And so the flight attendant and a male colleague escorted me, with glass of bubbly in hand and cabin luggage, to the rear of the cabin, much to the amusement of several passengers. Alitalia’s Romebased media office had no comment to make.
AMERICAN researchers say they have resolved a chickenand-egg question about asthma and obesity. Doctors have been unsure whether the constricting of airways caused by asthma discourages kids from exercising or whether being overweight tightens the airways and triggers asthma. Now, US allergists say obesity is the root problem. Perdita Permaul, lead author of a paper in the journal Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, says there is significant evidence among adults that being overweight can precede the onset of asthma. “There isn’t as much evidence for children but the progression from obesity to asthma — rather than the other way around — seems probable.”
LISA ALLEN
SERPENT & THE SWAN But for the past 30 years the most provocative of the gender benders has been Jean Paul Gaultier, with his theatrical men in skirts, conical corsets and this year’s bearded lady. “I don’t believe that fabrics have a gender, any more than certain garments do,” says Gaultier. In the mid-2000s, international behemoth American Apparel reached the height of its popularity, launching retail stores based on its founding principles of its accessible unisex basics. Sydney-
based brand Bassike introduced a premium model of this ethic in 2006. “The Bassike brand foundations were built on the philosophy of unisex jersey styles,” says cofounder Deborah Sams. “There was a market waiting for it and we found our audience instantly.” Although the label has branched into ready-to-wear, “the aesthetic has always been subtly androgynous and our design signature always comes back to that”. Alongside his architectural, ready-to-wear “classics” range, Paris-based 32-year-old Rad Hourani is gaining attention as the first designer to create unisex couture. Hourani says his objective is challenging social constructs by “erasing the codes of men’s and women’s dressing”. It’s a subject that actress and writer Lena Dunham explores in her upcoming documentary charting the rise of gender non-conformity. While it’s unlikely Owens’s notorious “medges” (identical wedges for men and women) will gain mainstream appeal, brands such as Sydney-based Serpent & the Swan, with its customisable
HEALTH
JOHN ROSS
HOOD BY AIR
unisex “Sculpt It” collection, are gaining popularity. Co-founder Lauri Smith concedes sizing has proved challenging. “There’s obvious differences in terms of things like arm lengths, but we ended up tweaking men’s patterns and size ranges. It took a while to get our head around creating unisex patterns that would work for both. But because our pieces aren’t form fitting, it’s easier. “Menswear is definitely changing but it’s probably a bit more adventurous overseas,” adds Smith, whose unisex range, like most of its kind in Australia, features dropcrotch trousers, dresses doubling as long singlets, tunics and leggings in block colours. Bassike’s Mary Lou Ryan says the label’s “universal” denim, jersey and selected knitwear styles are “open to the interpretation of our customers”. “We try to ensure the fits can be worn slouchy or slim. It’s really incredible how one style and cut of a jean can fit and wear so well on different shapes. It is designed and tailored in a way that fits both the male and female form.”
IS the rise of Victoria Beckham to fully fledged international designer finally complete? At Posh Spice’s spring-summer 2015 show for New York Fashion Week, there was less focus on the media brouhaha surrounding the outfit choices of a three-yearold (fashion editors were sad to miss out on seeing Harper Beckham) and more on the clothes. But what really set iPhones flashing were the shoes — high, block-heeled platform sandals in a rich, dense velvet (as far away as you might possibly imagine from the tacky patent variety Beckham would have worn in her Spice Girls days), alongside pointed, leather and leopard-print loafers. “I wanted to design my own shoes because shoes really finish off an outfit,” Beckham says.
FASHION
THE rumour mill is spinning again, but this time it’s not about Apple’s iPhone. It’s Microsoft’s turn with what’s believed to be a leak from China about an upcoming Windows 9 and a preview release around September 30. “Microsoft’s latest OS Windows 9 is coming soon, do you think the start menu at the left bottom will make a comeback?” a now-deleted Microsoft China post teased. We don’t know what Windows 9 comprises, but there are rumours that on PCs the charms bar will go, the start menu will return and the OS will natively support virtual desktops. A tablet variant, on the other hand, would continue with enhancements for the metro interface. We’ll see.
TECH
CHRIS GRIFFITH
IN PERSONAL OZ TOMORROW CARS & GADGETS
Smart watches: a smart buy?
THE TIMES