fall from grace

style.com

The magic of a runway show is the transportation that it affords, the life it breathes into the clothes, and the ideas that it inspires. Clothes are meant to be worn, they look better that way - whether on rail thin models or fleshed out women - and being worn is to be active, to move around, to watch skirts flick, arms flay and to hear shoe clack. Perhaps not all real life can be as spectacular as runway shows (although Lady Gaga must have a thing or two to say about that), but think, your dress swishes on you the same way it does on the runway, when you roll your sleeves up the model, with all her hours of make up, hair and prep, did that too.

I was lucky enough to attend the Toni Maticevski show on Thursday, invited by FactoryPR. It was a beautiful show by a most talented Australian designer, and it was incredibly heart-warming for me to sit in my wonderful seat (second row, behind Australian Vogue!) and hear australian accents swarm all around me as i sipped on a bottle of fiji water. The runway was exposed concrete, the only adornments huge lighting fixtures that were rusted over and casting ugly yet engaging shadows on the white walls. Even with the chatter filling up the space it felt eerie.

This was only compunded on when the show started - I titled this fall from grace because this is how I felt the show was, a beautiful, graceful girl tumbling down into the rough and rumble. The soundtrack was single string instruments with street noise. The girls hair were in tight buns, fixed with shiny embellishment pieces but the severity of the hair styles contrasted against the clothes. Rough luxury is what i wrote in my notebook - chiffon gowns were slashed and hems exposed, trains ran behind gowns like an afterthought.

This was mixed up with the embellishment, exciting pops of sequins and sparkle behind sheer panels or harder bodices of them on a dress or a little bra-let. there was some tapestry as well and beautifully sourced fabrics. I heard the whole thing described as moody and romantic by an editor exiting in front of me and I agree. The luxury and the romance was there, but it was dark and rough, moody, unpredictable - it was beautiful all right, but the beauty was a fierce and serene one (concurrently, i know). It was that kind of Victorian romance that was tempered by the grim environment and morbid popular culture. I imagine the clothes are going to sell well to that 30 something woman with an eye for the beautiful yet too world-weary to still wear the saccharine slips of their 20s.

There were 2 moments for me - the first was a gorgeous, liquid gold skirt in the most arrestign shade of amber or saffron yellow that rippled around the model as she walked, and even as she grasped it in one hand (so effortlessly graceful and alluring, i love it when wearing a long skirt i hike it up on one side as i walk). The skirt was such a gorgeous colour and cut i could not take my eyes off it. The second moment was a look - the floatiest of chiffon dresses, ethereal and chic, topped with a belt and a cashmere cardigan, sleeves rolled up. I felt this idea summed up the collection - rough luxury - and this idea of the graceful girl covering up with the simplest, most banal of thigns to keep warm. This is the look I will be tryign to convey in my dressing from now on, that alluring and beguilign mix of the luxe and the raw, the dressed up and dressed down. A gorgeous party dress under a plain cardigan.

UTILITY and EXTRAVAGANCE.

Contrast in fashion is my everyday goal. I always try to make my outfits contain some little bit of contrast in them juts to make them interesting. Sticking to the same thing all the time is boring. Maticevski knows this -that's why amidst all the sparkles, the silks and the slips he threw in cardigans, tweed jackets and tee shirts (and vice versa). I loved the show, and am assured that he is one of Australia's great international design talents.

To make the day even more exciting for me I was shot by a street style photographer back at the tents. I had been given a whole heap of magazines and materials at the Ports show I had just attended and I was clutching them excitedly in my hands. I asked the photographer if he wanted me to put them down but he said that he liked it, he said I held my magazines as if they were university text books. I must have looked like such an eager, bright-eyed little thing. I hope the photo turns out ok! The past few days have just been incredible, i'm a lucky girl to be able to have this experience. I will never forget it, and can't wait for the rest of the week to come!

much love and anything else i can send you in a new york minute.

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