It wasn’t a question of who did digital prints this Fashion Week (they were everywhere), it was a case of who did them the best. One contender is certainly Adi Setiadi, the designer behind emerging Sydney label An Ode to No One. Working in collaboration with graphic design agency Helm, Adi developed a series of architectural prints derived from photographs of various structures. Printed on wool and silk, the overlapped and mirrored images – at times verging on the kaleidoscopic – were a perfect match for tailored shift-dresses, skirting and shirting.

Ice-blue and cobalt lead the colour palette before moving into cool grey and pastels set against hot orange. The collection title ‘Visions of Symmetry’ manifested itself in both the considered application of the prints and crisp tailoring – most visibly on sharp-shouldered jackets and a pastel pink pant-suit. Miniskirts were explored in tulip shapes but most lengths fell demurely at or just over the knee. There were nods to sportswear in the use of a hot orange stripe and the addition of slouchy tops but it wasn’t the same overt sporty-luxe theme running throughout MBFWA.

Although diffusion line A.D. has a collaboration with Sportsgirl under its belt, with An Ode to No One Adi is chasing a decidedly more grown-up girl. There was softness and a maturity to the collection, making An Ode to No One a very promising one to watch.

Words by Lucinda Burtt Photos by Vanessa Low

In a day dominated by more after-parties than shows, Akira brought a beautiful grace to the end of MBFWA. In the intimate space of The Box, Akira Isogawa led out each of the models by hand beginning with a bridal white dress encrusted with sprays of crystal beading. There were three themes in the collection: soft white, bright kimono dresses and textured block colour accessorised with sculptural wraps reminiscent of coral.

A soft underwater theme continued at Bless’ed Are The Meek, who treated the audience to a spectacular laser show, bringing the models out though the filtering light. Prints of blotchy anenomes peppered the summery collection – think skintight pants, breezy split skirts, button-down dresses – which kept to an oceanic palette of aqua, purple and neutrals.

The Stye Hong Kong show was opened by Harrison Wong whose collection of tailored khakis, black leather, and red accents echoed both military uniforms and the suave alpha male aesthetic. The other collections showed a variety of styles, including a couple of neon bursts at Hei Lau and lots of lace and tiaras for Mondovi lingerie couture. The show ended on a softer note, with Chailie Ho‘s flowing drapery, some pieces billowing down the runway.

Highlight
Akira Isogawa demonstrated why he’s one of the select few to have cracked the tough Paris show circuit. The Box was crowded with photographers eager to snap every considered detail and the floor of scattered hand-cut fabric petals. We bumped into an enthusiastic Bryan Boy on our way out who particularly praised the kimono pieces.

Fashion Moment
In the hectic schedule of Fashion Week, it’s no mean feat to produce a show that takes your breathe away – especially after starting late due to the complex braided hair and earthy make-up. There were audible gasps at Bless’ed Are The Meek as blue beams of light shot through the smoke filled runway creating the effect of an undulating textured roof. The final showpiece dress was also impressively accessorised with a 24 carat gold lace headpiece.

Trend Alert
Akira was one of several collections to explore intricate beadwork this week in sprays of crystal and beaded blossoms. There were also clusters of moon-craters at Tony Maticevski, incredible seed-beading patterns at Christopher Esber and bugle-beads at Magdalena Velevska.

It’s a Wrap!
By Friday we were battling the dreaded fashion flu, fever and fatigue but still determined to see the week out at the Fernando Frisoni Masquerade, the official closing night event. We hope you have enjoyed our coverage of all the action at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia. Stay tuned for selected reviews and galleries.

Words and photos by Lucinda Burtt & Vanessa Low | Masquerade photos by Mark Thompson, Stork Photos

The four limited edition designs – three hightops and one lowtop – feature artworks by Gorillaz co-creator, and comic book artist, Jamie Hewlett. The designs include sketches of the Gorillaz characters and motifs, and in particular the camouflage pattern which appeared on the cover of the band’s self-titled album from 2001.

Simultaneously, Converse has also released the song ‘DoYaThing,’ a collaboration between Gorillaz, Andre 3000 and James Murphy of Outkast. The song follows a legacy of collaboration, instigated as part of Converse’s ‘Three Artists, One Song’ project which has previously involved the likes of Kid Cudi, Kimbra, Mark Foster (Foster the People), and LCD Soundsystem. Furthermore, in the spirit of celebrating collaborations ‘DoYaThing’ (and in fact all songs from the ‘Three Artists, One Song’ project) are free to download.

Photography Vanessa Low
Model JJF (currently unrepresented)

Converse Chuck Taylor All Star Gorillaz collection is available at GLUE store and Converse online.

Whether channeling kistch and dressing in the colours of bean cans (read lower for further details), wearing a helmet in mosh pits, or reading Kundera in Hungarian, Zsuzsanna’s style is entirely her own. Her eyes light up when she speaks about something that she’s passionate about – of which there is a lot – and ever since we shared our first conversation about National Geographic adoration, Zsuzsanna has never ceased to inspire me.

What inspires you? I guess the most inspirational thing is anything that breathes, so the living world and all its complexities are quite inspirational to me. But I guess, anything that has kind of an extraterrestrial element, that is foreign and I haven’t really grasped it yet… so from Gregg Araki films which are just, you know, an aneurysm of vibrantness, to British wildflowers – I guess anything that I can soak up and submerge myself in.

Who do you admire? Who don’t I admire?! I guess, I have a strange kind of peculiar niche for admiring strangers, people who I just observe on the street and I see them, you know, do little things… like admire a particular building and then I’ll admire them for kind of noticing what I haven’t. I think I admire strangers who make me believe that there is a certain kind of appreciation for beauty left and an appreciation for life.

Do you have a signature style quirk? Well basically… I usually go to convenience stores and just look up the colour and try to reciprocate particular shelves. Last week I based my whole outfit on bean cans. I just thought those bean cans right there (see picture above) – I bought them because they’re so beautiful and they’re so quirky and kitsch…

If you were reincarnated into any era, which one would you want it to be any why? I wish I could go back [to] 1988 and I wish I could be in a Soviet school room learning about the expired Socialist system and knowing that a change is in the air and that it’s so close – it’s a year away. I think that would be great.

Top three songs/musicians at the moment? Any song by Sleep Party People who are, like, my favourite band at the moment. Then I’ve been listening to a lot of songs by Plastic Girl In Closet – it’s this really cute Japanese girl who sings shoegaze and it’s just… it’s lovely. And my last one would be Queen Adreena because the lead singer is a fierce goddess of good old punk rock.

What was the most daring thing you’ve ever worn? I once made a dress out of just a Woolworth’s plastic bag and I forgot how translucent it would be and it was just not even daring it was just uncomfortable…

 Top three treasured possessions? (see images above)
1. My cult of instruments – (left to right) Ziggy, my bass guitar; then there’s my mandolin; and my zither who is a new prized possession and is yet to be  named.  And then I have Theo, my electric guitar with the solar system on it, and it’s back glowing and shining. This is my little toy box and it [contains] all my effect pedals, so I basically can disguise my playing and make everything sound as if it’s in outer space.

2. This is an Eastern European bark doll that my grandmother made me when I was around six, I think, and it’s just a beautiful reminder  of where I came from and also the kind of lifestyle where you had to dig into  your resources and make beauty out of it.

3. These are my most adored books that I would carry to the ends of the earth. I’ve got Henry David Thoreau’s Walden which is just a beautiful little book that describes so many different  perspectives to look at the world through and I carried it all through my trips to Europe and it’s really inspirational. Then I have a little book which is quite peculiar – it’s The Observer’s Book of Wildflowers and I guess I just appreciate the precious care that goes into documenting something so small and so petite as wildflowers. Then I have Caesar, the Gallic War… I think it’s a 1920′s book – 1924 – and it’s actually [from] Dymocks, George st – and it was just such a rare find and I think it brought a little bit of joy because it’s this unknown nostalgia for a time I never lived in… and it has Latin verses which really helps my Italian skill come along. And then I got this for Christmas – The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin and I think it’s just a great view on Darwin’s  perspectives on other factors than evolution per se,  so it really reveals his kind of scientific, philosophical notions. And my last favourite book was my mother’s – we’re a family of Kundera fans – and it’s the Hungarian version of one of his greatest books and it’s called A Lét Elviselhetetlen Könnyûsége – which is The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

What is your favourite item in your wardrobe? My favourite is my Korean textile dress (see above) – which is just, you know, [a] factory produced dress but it has such character to it… I feel like I’m wearing a skin; a vibrant skin of floral arrangements and it’s great.

What is the best present you’ve ever received? We were travelling through Croatia and I was on the brink of dehydration and I got a glass of water, which was the best present because I avoided death – it was lifesaving.

If you were to wake up tomorrow in a different country, where would you want it to be? I would want to wake up in a different world, Asteroid B-612 so I could be with the Little Prince and spend my time drinking from petite teacups and admiring the baobab trees.

Any words of wisdom that have stuck with you? “Nothing reminds you more of the future than the smell of gasoline, so breathe it up kid.” It was my uncle who said that gasoline was the smell of the future, he also subsequently works for a gasoline company so I think that there was a bit of propaganda in there – but it worked!

 
Zsuzsanna’s works

If you could bring a fictional character to life, who would you want it to be? Henry from Eraserhead, just so I can frighten him even more with real life because it’s even more peculiar than the life portrayed in the films so I think I would just scare him to his wit’s end and make him even more mad than he is and confused about his sexuality.

Where do you hope to be in five years time? I want to be in an infomercial for bean cans, or studying anthropology in Reykjavik.

What do you think it means to have style? It’s resonating yourself, your internal world, with the external world… I think style is chemistry based, there’s interactions, responses, reactions, and I think style is just resonating with who you are, who you want to be and who you were.

DIY steps
1. Choose your colours
2. Arrange the shape you want on a plastic grid
3. Lay a piece of baking paper on top of the grid and iron to melt the beads
4. Get creative using wire, ribbons and whatever else takes your fancy!

Photography Vanessa Low
Model Miranda Fagan

Stockist PYSSLA beads and grids can be bought from IKEA

What was on your mind when you chose your outfit? “I was just getting dressed for exams at uni” – Jara, student

Shirt Ben Sherman

The chilly season has just begun however as we pull out the extra blankets, get the kettle ready for the boil and find ourselves sentimentally listening to ‘Here Comes the Sun’ by the Beatles whilst it buckets down outside, it doesn’t mean that colour has to go into hibernation the same way we want to join the bears and sleep in until Spring comes around. Winter is a time for the most delectable colours to emerge – of fireplaces and berry preserves, of mulberry and strawberry jams; orange marmalade; honey with cinnamon sticks and currents and gooseberries. So as the days grow colder, and before you grab the black coat and navy scarf, why not consider embracing the colours of the winter season?

Look 01

Dress – Minty Meets Munt “Draped Saddle Dress” in rust, $119.95 | Shoes – Gorman “Afro Heel”, $299 | Ring – Sportsgirl “Sparrow Ring”, $19.95 | Scarf – stylists own

Look 02

Top 1 – This is Genevieve red silk shirt POA | Top 2 – Sportsgirl “Mimmy Lace Tank”, $89.95 | Pants Sportsgirl “Jasmine Jeanie Pant” in berry, $79.95 | Socks – stylists own | Shoes – Gorman “Afro Heel”, $299

Look 03

Top - Sportsgirl “Ribbon Cami” in cobalt, $89.95 | Cardigan – Gorman “7 Seas Knit Cardigan”, $199 | Pants – Neuw “Girls Vintage Skinny” in purple, $169.96 | Belt – Sportsgirl “Sued Plait Belt”, $24.95 | Necklace – Sportsgirl, $16.95 | Beret – stylists own | Socks – Laurel Burch “Wild Cat Socks”, US$9.50

Stockists
Gorman
Laurel Burch
Minty Meets Munt
Neuw
Sportsgirl
This is Genevieve

Team
Stylist Vanessa Low
Photographer Rachel Kara
Hair & Make-up Sarah Scott
Model Xanthe from Priscillas

What were you thinking when you got dressed? “Not a lot – stressed and tired” – Dane, publicist

Shirt Cheap Monday
Pants Cheap Monday
Backpack Libertine-Libertine

What inspired your outfit? “Vintage, black and I just wanted to be really tall” – Lizzie, student

Skirt Carla Zampatti
Top Cue
Bag vintage

Rachel, a student, as seen on Elle.com’s Global Street Style feature that we here at On The Streets of Sydney collaborated on.

Top Vintage
Shorts Lee
Scarf Kirrily Johnston
Shoes Zu
Bracelets Mimco