Fashion news

Darling Town is alive and kicking up her sexy French heels in the streets of Melbourne. A beautiful boutique stocking a range fine and fancy Australian made and vintage/retro women's clothing, shoes and accessories, Darling Town opened in Spring 2007, and is fast captivating Melbourne’s Chapel Street style vixens with its heady mix of vintage, contemporary, sultry and punk-chic styles.

I especially love this dress from owner Audra’s own label Red Orchid…rock n roll baby.

Check out Darling Town on myspace or in the flesh at 190 High St, Prahran 3181.

Fashion week is over in Melbourne and we’re all a little bit sad. Actually, make that super sad because now all we hear about is the Grand Prix and their grid girls in their tiny, tiny clothes. But now we can live our fashion dreams again, and make it a little bit more long term, as in, get a job! Prospect 360 is a company run by Greta Donaldson which regularly holds seminars for young people wanting to break into the media industry (notoriously hard at its best). The Fashion Media Seminar on Sunday April 13 is perfect for YEN readers hoping to one day have a career in fashion journalism. There will be a tour of a photography studio, as well as watching a shoot going on. Then THE experts in fashion journalism will be there to discuss work experience as well as take questions. The gurus are Mia Freedman (my personal idol), Rachel Wells (fashion reporter, The Age), Melly Dee (editor, Fashion Journal) and Julie McCartin (fashion reporter, Leader Newspaper Group). So, get those stilettos and race to their website like a cheapskate to the goodie bags at a fashion show, and buy your tickets NOW!

Erin Fetherston makes clothes for sylvan lovelies and pixie girls; the 25 year old's collections are frequently described as whimsy, kooky and oh so girly and her clique of friends and devoted fans includes Kirsten Dunst and living fairy, Zooey Deschanel. Fetherston is also friends with famed photographer Ellen Von Unwerth and the two are known for producing fittingly whimsical and feminine short films that often accompany Fetherston's runway shows. The latest was launched just prio to L.A fashion  week and features Deschanel wearing Erin's dresses and frolicking around the woods as "a tramp who eats a magic mushroom and finds herself with a group of fairies." The video isn't up on the web for us mere mortals to view yet  - but in the meantime here's Wendybird; a film Fetherston made with Kirsten Dunst for a collection back in 2006.

On Thursday night, over 500 of Auckland's apostles of fashion teetered into an inner city church to catch a preview of the winter collection from local cool kid, Mala Brajkovic and menswear label, Little Brother. Brajkovic - whose almost cult-like following in Auckland is beginning to be mirrored in Sydney - brought the caliente to proceedings with "Pepe's Revenge"; a collection that showed off the volume-tinkering and quirk that have built Brajkovic's aforementioned following, albeit with a brassy, south-of-the-border semblance to it. (How amazing is the skirt on your left?! I want to wear it and do little dances around my room). Little Brother, meanwhile, sent a yearbook of high school stereotypes down the runway with "Riff Raff'. Starting with nerds in sweater-sets and coke-bottle glasses, the range moved through to bike-shed dwellers cocooned in sloppy hoods and shirts that were left un-tucked over Little Brother's popular tee's, and finished up with private school brats in sharp-suiting and scarves. Phew. The little brother models were also rocking the socks and roman sandals combo that I remember being a sharp post-PE look during my school days. Team this with Brajkovic’s corn-rowed ladies and it would seem that wrong is very, very much right.
Image: Petrice Rhodes

Here is the first image from the Keith Richards for Louis Vuitton camapaign. Really, is any celebrity endorsement that surprising anymore? Especially for Louis Vuitton, who have featured soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, iconic actress Catherine Deneuve and tennis players Andre Agassi and Stefanie Graf in previous camapigns. A spokesperson for Vuitton claims the use of the world's most high profile drunk in spruiking leather bags (aside from the aesthetically, and deliciously ironic, obvious) was borne from the fact that "Keith Richards is timeless and ageless. He's lived his life on the edge, but he's not a sleazebag. He's lean and mean, and he's still current." Hmmm, could the "sleazebag" quip be in reference to another fossilized stone? The ad was of course shot by Annie Leibovitz, who sought to capture the tagline "Some journeys cannot be put into words." Here here.

There is something about the Olympic uniforms the Australian athletes wore in ‘92 that is timeless. Perhaps it’s the strange way it transforms every female into Colleen from Home and Away or maybe it’s the fawn socks with brown lace-ups that really put us at the fashion forefront. It’s hard to put your finger on, but still I’d rather step back to ’92 Back To The Future style than wear the newly released Olympic uniforms for Beijing 2008. Not only does it seem like they should be pointing to the nearest exits on a budget airline flight it’s just a little bit too boring. I’ll be the first to say green and gold tracksuits definitely don’t suit everyone, but you know the fashion department has gone more than a little wrong when you would prefer to wear unflattering waist high cargo shorts than the newly designed uniforms by Sportscraft.

Alexander Wang makes outfits that models wear. I don't mean on the catwalk but in those backstage/off-duty snaps of models in which they're attired in some "I just threw this together" wonder - a little bit scruffy, a little bit chic and very much effortless. That's the kind of clothing Alexander wang makes - which isn't really surprising given the California native has worked for Marc Jacobs, Derek lam and Vogue and that that his stylist and muse is model Erin Wasson; who, as anyone who saw her during last years Australian Fashion Week can attest, is stylistically as well as genetically blessed. Above is a look from Wang's current collection which i love love love - think blazers with sleeves bunched at the elbow, sloppy knits, cut-off denims and crisp, white cotton.