Despite all the air-kissing and too-eager
stamps of approval, the fashion media is starting to tell us what it really
thinks.
Australian Fashion Week founder
Simon Lock penned a
refreshingly frank opinion piece for The Australian this week; an analysis on the relative
successes and failures of this year’s five day affair.
In particular, Lock’s succinct and forward
comments about show production and venue choice jumped out at me. Not only did
they ring true and loud for the week that was, but the rumblings of similar
sentiment from media leaders was enough to convince me that the issue was about
more than glitter and smoke machines.
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| Hello ELLE Australia / photo: Zimbio |
Daytime
shows on location should be given only to designers who have the capability and
talent to add something really special to the event. Camilla Franks, who
produced a most amazing show experience, complete with a teepee and llamas
camped in Centennial Park, is a shining example of a designer who should be
given a location show during the day. There is no point travelling from Carriageworks
during the day to go to a similar warehouse venue.
Carriageworks is a great venue, and its
industrial inclination allowed both the necessary space (including a lobby, two
separate runways and a presentation ‘box’) and the creative ‘blank canvas’ to
cover almost any type of show. Industrial, concreted warehouses seem to be the
fashion venue du jour, and for two
very good reasons: the starkness will either be the perfect foil to a collection,
or it will be the ultimate empty space for creative reinvention.
Lock’s frustration was shared by Glynis
Traill-Nash (who has since been appointed fashion editor of The Australian.)
She summed the issue up twitter-perfect on Day Two, asking “The questions is,
why do offsite shows in industrial venues, when Carriageworks is an industrial
venue?”
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| Twitter: @GlynisTN |
That came after Christopher Esber at an
offsite warehouse, although it did feature a bright blue and orange matrix of
scaffolding. Similarly, the Ellery runway was set up inside an abandoned
building in the Sydney CBD. Of course, you cannot take any credit from Kym Ellery's collection, or any power bestowed by big-time model trio Julia Nobis, Ruby-Jean
Wilson and Hanne Gaby Odiele. But the question for both shows, and a handful of
others, still remains: why go to an offsite venue that is much the same as the
one you left?
Consider that other designers took the
official space and tricked it up a helluva lot more. We saw the extreme in the
unstoppable Romance Was Born, who created a magical, perverse wonderland that
had every second fashion journo dropping the words ‘mushroom trip’ like they
knew how that felt. Then there were more
moderate, but still heavily decorated, shows like Hello ELLE Australia; with
its gold glitter catwalk, champagne waiters and giant E-L-L-E balloons. And finally,
the shows that incorporated only the subtlest of touches – think Ginger &
Smart’s runway featuring only graphic black lines, creating the same geometric
print as their garments.
There was an entire spectrum of production,
which acts as proof that the venue has the versatility to cover just about
every level of embellishment.
Of course, that is not to say that none of the shows should be held
offsite. There were certainly venues that brought something extra to the table.
Lock is 115% right in crowning Camilla Franks the Queen of the Offsite Show. It
was an all-encompassing experience, with laughing hippie children playing on
wooden swings, llamas wearing Camilla-typical prints, and the ‘runway’ itself
housed inside the most glamorous teepee ever.
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| Georgia May Jagger and Camilla Franks / photo: News.com |
And Lisa Ho, whose collection was my
favourite of the week, showed in the cavernous foyer of the Art
Gallery of NSW. Although the aesthetic opposite of Camilla, it was
impossible to deny the grandeur of the marble venue as the morning light
streamed in through giant windows.
At the end of the day, it needs to be about
necessity. What is it about a collection that means it
needs to be shown somewhere offsite, and what will that venue add?
Where is the extra showmanship?
Lock calls for a collaborative effort; that
we need to work together to achieve the best possible program. And that means
being realistic. If it is just about four more concrete walls, the taxi fares
might not be worth it.
