Check out all the action from Wednesday and Thursday night’s ABSOLUT Gallery parties. Wednesday saw Australia’s premier Photography, Styling, Hair and Makeup agency DLM entertain the Fashionistas while Thursday saw ABSOLUT host a Be Creative music collaboration with Martini Club Live.
Image Taken at Gazebo
Aje is a creative collaboration between Eddie and Aje. It was spawned not only as a playground of expression for Eddi’s styling passion, Aje’s fine arts flair and sister Bree’s financial wizardry, but more-so, as a product to rival the international designer fashion market in both quality and affordability. The result: a label which strikes a perfect balance between innovation and wearability while still maintaining the elements it is devoted to: quality of fabric and design. It strives to blur the lines between fashion, lifestyle and age making pieces that appeal to everyone, from young girls to chic mothers. Each piece is fresh, luxurious, well-designed, wearable and affordable
How did Aje begin?
Eddie: Aje began with Adrian and Bree deciding that their store in Noosa needed a little something special…a label that no one else had. It has obviously evolved from there and the label has taken on a life of it’s own. I came on board a little over a year ago and I guess basically, our aim with each Aje. collection is to create a pieces that can sit unashamedly beside high end national and international labels without wearing a huge pricetag.
Describe Aje’s style and the girl you design for?
Eddie: The Aje. Woman is ‘effortlessly chic’. She always looks just like she has stepped out of French Vogue but she is completely unique. She is fashionable and trend aware but in no way trend obsessed. Her real obsession lies in he quality of fabric and design. She loves the feel of fabrics against her skin and the way the fabrics fit into the groves of her body. She is quite a contradiction in that she loves anything that is soft and feminine but she needs it to have a tougher edge. It is this contrast that is the essence of her allure. Her taste remains consistent from her youth to her middle age, the only thing that changes is the length of her hemline.
Do you have a fashion muse? Or someone you take great inspiration from while designing?
Eddie: The Aje. woman is constantly changing and evolving: she is elegant whilst tough, flamboyant whilst demure, extravagant whilst humble: a little like an Erin Wasson, Lou Doillon or a Charlotte Gainsbourg. She always maintains an air of elegance and luxury whilst being a little rock and eternally chic; definitely not confused but rather purposely contradictory.
If you won a trip to Disney land and you were only allowed to bring three people who would they be and why?
Eddie: My boyfriend, because I hate being without him and my business partners, Adrian and Bree…we’re already riding a rollercoaster together so I know they would be able to handle the rides!
Adrian: Probably my brother, sister and mum…I’m sure Dad could afford to pay his own way! Just kidding Dad, we would all chip in!
Bree: definitely my brothers, and my boyfriend, I don’t get to see him often, so If I got to go to Disneyland he would definitely have to come, and I cant go anywhere without my brothers!!
What’s playing on your ipod?
Eddie: If I had one, it would probably be Kings of Leon and would be on repeat.
Adrian: Unfortunately my stupid iphone somehow synched with someone else’s computer, don’t ask me how…but I’m now stuck with some bogan’s music collection
Bree: Whitest Boy Alive! Both albums are amazing!
If you could holiday anywhere, where would it be and why?
Eddie: Paris…is there a better place in the world?
Adrian: Venice…I used to live over there and haven’t been back for a little while
Bree: New York, I’ve never been
What is the story behind your new collection?
Eddie: Our initial inspiration for ‘La femme en rose’ actually came from this amazing hand loomed linen we found. We created pieces around it and then the rest of the collection fell into place…it became about a girl roaming through red dust deserts…she’s not lost but purposely wandering. There’s many soft, floaty feminine pieces and as always, some pieces with a tougher edge: lots of matte sequins, studding and leather.
What can we expect in the future from Aje? Where do you see Aje going in 5 years time?
Eddie: Hopefully big things…it’s a tough time at the moment, but fingers crossed we make it throguh and have an Aje Empire by then…we want to branch into retail stores beginning with Australia of course and then obviously overseas.
What is your favourite thing about fashion?
Eddie: the way it is constantly changing and evolving. Just when you think you have it all figured out, a new season begins. There’s never a dull moment…the people are amazing too.
Adrian: Being creative, and living one of the most interesting and enjoyable lives you could imagine
Bree: hmmmm I’m quite new to the fashion industry, but one of the things I enjoy most about this job, is it that I get to work with my best friend and my brother, on something that we all are so passionate about!
Check out the lookbook from their SS09/10 collection “La Femme En Rose” below…
Incongruous as it sounds, grimey garage rock meets grimier gangsta rap in an unlikely collaboration between Atlanta four-piece The Black Lips and one of Staten Island’s favourite sons - GZA of The Wu Tang Clan.
Titled “The Drop I Hold” the two parties first hinted at an unlikely kinship through a highly publicized (and apparently incoherent) live set together at this year’s South By South West festival. On record though, it’s an entirely different story.
Speaking with about rap/rock combos with Spinner The Black Lips’ Jared Swilley offered this: “[It's a] bad idea…It’s led to some of the worst music of all-time. It can be done tastefully, but there is a very fine line to be tread.”
Thankfully GZA and The Lips tread on the non-cheesy side, though one good track does little to erase half a decade of nu-metal (Fred Durst I’m looking at you).
Stylist, editor and fashion designer Kym Ellery held her post show party in the ABSOLUT Gallery on Tuesday night and attracted a fashion forward flock of pretty girls and prettier boys. If you happened to miss it you can check out all the action from the ABSOLUT Gallery here!
Alexa Chung is many things. The object of many a girl crush (see any blog that covets femininity, tulle or tea), a style icon responsible in part for the rise of nerd chic, serial band dater, owner of a killer set of pins and now the host of her very own MTV program.
The Associated Press reports: “The Alexa Chung Show” will be a mix of celebrity talk, music and online interaction with viewers. The stakes are high; it’s the most important of nine new series the slumping MTV has in the works. The midday series begins June 15.”
“We just all really fell for her,” said David Sirulnick, MTV’s executive vice president for news and production.
“The show will air one hour a day,” Sirulnick said. “but for the other 23 hours we want viewers to be engaged with Alexa and what is on the show.”
For those unfamiliar with Chung’s work, watch and learn below…
Proving she’s as capable designing clothes as she is wearing them, “Luci in the Sky” is a Swimwear label headed by model Lucinda Taffs who you may recognize from the ABSOLUT Gallery as she DJ’d for Pedestrian’s party last Saturday.
Taffs studied Fashion Design and Textiles at the University of Technology Sydney whilst simultaneously conducting a successful modeling career working in cities such as Milan, London and Japan. Putting her two worlds together Lucinda came up with Luci in the Sky, a brand that brings a youthful sexiness to Aussie swimwear. For Fashion week Taffs collaborated with Tara Williams of handbag label William Phillips to put on a joint show that will have you wishing it was Summer again.
Terry Richardson is no stranger to capturing pinks bits in his work (sorry), but in his new campaign for Japanese brand IceB, the salacious lensman negotiates pink flesh of an entirely different kind.
Entitled “Girls Love the Pink Panther”, IceB’s Summer 2009 imagery combines the coquettish confidence of model Ali Stephens with the cool nonchalance of the iconic cartoon character for interesting and slightly bizarre results. I can’t help but imagine Richardson coaxing the Pink Panther (weeping slightly) into taking off all his clothes, feeling the music and going with the flow.
“Material Brow” the latest collection from all girl art collective The Kingpins (under their fashion label moniker Birthday Suit) takes its name and inspiration from two disparate female icons of the 20th Century - Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and the material girl herself Madonna.
The resulting retina scorching mish mash looks like the colourful ensemble cast of a Pedro Almodovar film (with as much gender realignment) tripping on acid at a 90’s themed rave on Mars. From intergalactic hoodies, matador silhouettes, Frankie Goes To Hollywood references, colourful psychedelic prints, and pieces emblazoned with their monobrowed muse the collection is a fantasitcal exploration of character driven club wear fit for gender bending ex-Boomboxers and Fashionista princesses alike. No wonder larger than life celebrities (Kanye west, Beth Ditto, Lady Gaga and Sia) boast Birthday Suit pieces in their wardrobe, if only we were confident enough to wear them ourselves.
UK five-piece Hot Chip have enlisted members of the Skylight homeless program to recreate the video for their 2006 smash hit “Over And Over”.
The band’s guitarist and sometime LCD Soundsystem member Al Doyle introduces the video as part of their involvement in the Crisis Hidden Gigs campaign. The video was recorded at the Crisis headquarters in central London and features members of the Skylight program who have all experienced homelessness and received support from Crisis. Kudos to Hot Chip for taking time out to support a good cause.
