Despite not having tickets or passes today i ended up at two shows, Camilla and Marc and Ginger and Smart, both Australian designers whom i respect, especially G&S, and both of whom lived up to my high expectations.
Basically i was at the park hyatt visiting my second cousin before she goes back to hong kong, and was walking towards circular quay to go to uni when i ran into a girl i used to work with, who used to regale me with tales of when she was a freelance stylist and designer before freaking out, packing her bags and travelling for 2 years. I hadn't seen her since i left the shop where we both worked, and it was great to see her again, and apparently she is a stylist once more. When she learnt i was going to go to uni early and sit in the library like the nerd i am before class started she grabbed me and dragged me, kicking and screaming, naturally, into the shows, where i got my first taste of fashion week!
And let me tell you, it was delicious.
Camilla and Marc, a deliciously girly label that offers up concoctions of sinful romance and innocence, was a feast for the eyes in mostly pastels (pinks and blues in particular) and beautiful pale greys. It borrowed quite heavily from Stella Mccartney with these cuffed trews and oversized pastel blazers, and then from Balmain when it sent out some inextricable distressed denim shorts and exaggerated shoulder-ed jacket in gold lame, but there was also some moments of original brilliance in the, long, loose, languid dresses and skirts in pale blue semi-sheer crepe de chine underneath the hard macs and trench coats partnered with chloe/marni esque patent leather wedges or leopard skin booties.
The only problem for me, after this feast of softly draped and exquisitely fluid clothes for the chic Parisian (or parisian-phile), came a series of dresses in black with, quite frankly, some tacky stripes across them and paired with, of all things, charcoal leggings. The whole thing was such a departure from the quiet beauty of what had come before i was shocked, and when paired with the leopard skin booties it all became too much. But aside from that it was a lovely collection filled with covetable pieces.
After this i saw Garance and the Sartorialist shooting a gorgeous kate lanphear-ite complete with bleached crop, distressed tee and blazer in front of the opera house. I had a bit of a starstruck moment and stared for a bit and then continued to dip my champagne cocktail on the observation deck haha. It was very surreal, but wonderful to see Garance in person, she is so stunning. She had these awesome stiletto heels on and a pair of cuffed loose trousers with a blazer and grey scarf, and all this beautiful curly hair. I'm so jealous!
Then came ginger and smart, Caz smuggled me into the third row with her, where i was sandwiched by her buyer friend and stylist boyfriend. It was all crazy, but they were lovely if slightly intimidatingly beautiful/stylish people, all making me wish i had a working camera. Anyway, we waited for a while in the darkened room, and then out comes these sheer harem pants or whatever and i was like... oh dear... but the collection as a whole was quite nice.
It was desperately trying to be hip and tough with these leather-look leggings, biker embellishments and black black black (the editors will love it! more on that later), but there were some lovely josh goot-esque prints in there, and one particularly stunning maxi dress in a rainbow of colours with this kite/diamond print (go colour! see below). In fact all of the dresses at the close of the show in a Dries Van Noten like colour blend in unbelievably light silks were just gorgeous. The collection didn't really pull together as a whole, it was a bit over the shop, but if you pared away some of the over-the-top pieces, and the downright ugly (sheer harem pants, i ask you!) you were left with some beautifully constructed dresses with exposed zips on the front, and of course, great shoes and bags (not a leopard bootie in sight!)
The thing i love most about ginger and smart is that they ultimately design for themselves (Alexandra and Genevieve Smart) and they aren't really swayed too much by trends. They are pushing for the rock chick thing because they like it, they've been trying to reach a level of hard and soft that has eluded them for about 4 seasons now. It's not so much about what overseas designers are doing, like at C&M with the broad shoulder, it's about designing beautiful, interesting clothes.
Anyway, to end i'll just say that i did feel like the odd one out, and not just because i technically didn't have a ticket. Thinking that i would be going on Friday i had reserved lots of my outfit for then (haha) and so was wearing my h&m duster trench as a skirt, teal stella mccartney for target top and a hot pink overshirt from nicola waite, with the marni bag (it's my uni bag haha).
I was different, firstly because i wasn't in heels, but also because i wasn't in all black. Everyone, and i mean everyone, that i saw there was decked in head to toe black, high high high heels, lots of leather, studs, short hemlines, low necklines, a bit of fur (it's not that cold!), blazers/vests, a few hats, black knits, aviators and a bevvy of brightly coloured bags from YSL, Fendi, Marc Jacobs and i definitely saw at least one blood red birkin.
They looked great, the opaque opaque tights all of them were wearing made their legs look sky high, as did their louboutin stilettos, and they all looked like they could have worked for vogue paris. But after seeing look after look of black roll past it tended to get very monotonous. I was excited when i saw someone dressed in colour, even if it was neutrals, greys and browns.
Clearly none of these fashion editors and buyers read my post about colour. :)
So it's resolved me for Friday, as well as taking some of the edge off. Since i was there in a less-than perfect outfit without heels i'm not so fussed anymore about what to wear for the shows on Friday (we're now going to the early morning young designer shows too woohoo!). I do know that i will wear colour though, specifically my Mad Cortes Jacket/Top/Overshirt thing (it defies description haha). I think i'm going to wear it over the long zimmerman negligee and josh goot skirt underneath. I'm still undecided as to the top to go underneath it. I'm tossing up between stripes, block colour in grey or green, or black. Hmmm... decisions decisions decisions.
Anyway, my outfit non-black outfit for today and my accidental shows:
I'll try and do some outfit posts with my possible fashion week outfits for friday and saturday. But right now i have lots of uni work and i have to calm down from today's accidental excitement haha. Hope you are all well!
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