A model makes her mark

So far I have commentated ecstatically about fashion, design, the photographers and even caught a glimpse of the bloggers. What else to write about but the model. The body behind the garment and the face behind an industry so consumed in an aesthetic market of glamour and beauty that the independent, often more realistic and hidden gems in front of the lens are considered editorial exceptions.

One such exception is Tarryn Krysten. The epitome of what beauty really means under the skin as well as on the outside, humble and blissfully modest, Tarryn has kept well grounded between her struggles in the industry.

Tarryn Krysten: epitomising the 'real model'

Almost six years ago, as her 14-year-old self sat at the top of her (then) agent’s high-rise apartment in Melbourne, Tarryn knew what she wanted from the modeling industry and what the industry could offer her.

Now, at 21-years-old, she has taken the steady path to achieve what she says was one of the ‘greatest moments and achievements of my life.’

Melbourne Spring Fashion Festival was a technicolour blur that ended as beautifully on Sunday. But not before Tarryn was able to make her mark on the runway after being one of seven selected in a casting opportunity of 30 finalists.

Amongst the bright lights and hairspray, Tarryn says the competition was an enlightening experience for her. Tarryn was amongst four ‘real-size’ models, two soon-to-be mums and a male model. The environment effortlessly seems to compliment her aura of real beauty both inside and out.

The industry has been Tarryn’s horizon and you would be a fool to think it a simple dream. Rather, she is more than aware of the difficulty of breaking big.

‘I have been trying to break through as a model….I believe it takes one person to believe in you as much as you believe in yourself and the industry,’ says Tarryn.

Tarryn Krysten for BIBA Academy Charity Runway

Even in an industry so hyped on pressure, Tarryn finds the motivation to look ahead.

When asked about how she felt in regards to body image, Tarryn says she believes that beauty simply means being healthy and that ‘keeping the mind, body and soul fit’ is all that should matter.

There is no more silent barrier between model and the public – well perhaps for some. But, the likes of Megan Gale, Miranda Kerr and Jennifer Hawkins have become ambassadors, role models and spokespeople for positivity and well-being.

Tarryn hopes to join her peers and be able to connect with those young adults dreaming of breaking in to the industry.

Tarryn cannot comprehend how people in the industry lose their grounding, ‘having a great attitude towards all you do is the best approach…I guess that’s for any job,’ she says.

She points out the obvious: that staying true to yourself, without the demand for pretentiousness – as she has witnessed – should be the only approach to work.

Tarryn Krysten: 'it was an honour to be part of the competition'

Tarryn embraces the industry with humility and understands that respect and appreciation for those people that are true in the industry will make you seen how honest the work can be.

In her case, being close to home may help with the ‘grounding’ situation, and for Tarryn, Melbourne provides the opportunities that she needs to constantly be inspired.

Through the amazing designers, and passion of creative talent, Tarryn says she’s enamoured by the trends and beauty in expression that flood through the Melbourne market, ‘I want to continue creating history in this beautiful city,’ she says.

Tarryn holds high regard for the work that hides behind an often misunderstood universe. But she has never faltered in hope and face.

Tarryn Krysten portfolio 2011. Images via Tarryn Krysten

Foreseeing the industry has her true calling, Tarryn has the longest and most moving road still ahead.

Like the cliche concept of ‘stepping stones’, Tarryn has flown across many, but they only get brighter on the horizon from here.

Seduction In Melbourne City

If there is one piece of Melbourne fashion news you hear about this season, then make sure it’s Seduction in the City: The birth of shopping. The two part Australian directed SBS documentary re-tells of the one invention of the industrial revolution that radically altered the consumer culture of the nation. Department stores ravished in the success of consumerism, plucking the desirable heart strings of the nations women.

Standing outside the glasshouse of the infamous Myer windows along Bourke Street Mall in Melbourne’s CBD, you cannot help but feel a sense of nostalgia of the recently dazzling and redeveloped building and all its historical glory.

Seduction in the City emulates this history and provides in detail, the history of retail in its greatest and darkest trials. The footage and interviews are enough to spark and enlighten as women crusade through the same experiences this very day.

The crusade of women rich and poor. Seduction in the City aired July 27th on SBS.

Now, with the debate of online shopping versus shopping in store in an ever growing frenzy, I decided to take my chances in observing the shopping habits of Myer city goers and cast this against those that I know as avid online shoppers. My aim is to confirm what men like Myer store creator Sidney Myer and Harry Selfridge (founder of British department store  Selfridges) theorised at the beginning of their revolutionary plans are still being honoured in the 21st century.

As a member of the booming online hunters my self, I though a comparison in female shopping traits would be an easy type cast. How wrong I was.

I have accounted for unmanageable hours sifting and shifting through virtual aisles on my computer screen. I have heard of ladies loading their online shopping carts and losing held items within the hour.

As I aimlessly browsed between racks with the freshly paved tiles under my online-purchased shoes I witnessed, over the hour, the same pattern of go-choose-and hold with the ladies around me.

There is room for improvement in an unsettling study such as mine. But keep this routine up over three days and trends tend to emerge.

I can respect the convenience of online shopping but cannot argue that women can be intolerably indecisive shoppers, regardless of price, brand or location.

Myer: Everybody's store. Image courtesy of ABC Online

What  Sidney Myer was trying so desperately to recreate was what Harry Selfridge had envisioned as a clever plot and ploy against women. And a missing niche in the market.

But it was not a cunning plan, just a mere play on emotion to spark the light of women’s desire in a decadently sensitive era of the early 1900′s.

Over a century later I stand in front of a department store, much like that at the beginning of its time, still under the charm of sheer delight at the prospects that await inside.

Winning Designs

Exposure within the fashion industry could only mean brighter things for the future of an upcoming Melbourne designer. Being in the public eye can have its perks, and having the designs you have poured heart and soul in to on the runway for the launch of David Jones new Highpoint store could only foresee bigger hopes for the future. This is where we meet Elisa Maree Ferro.

What began as an RMIT project in 2010, saw two evening-dress designs by the 21 year old students win a David Jones collaboration and feature on the David Jones fashion show runway at Highpoint Shopping Centre in July.

Elisa speaking at the David Jones Fashion Show

Promoting talented young designs, Elisa says the show was the perfect opportunity for her to offer the true inspiration behind her designs and promote fashion insight as a university student.

Between high school and Thursday night sewing classes, Elisa showed signs of passion for the industry before long before being accepted to RMIT University in Brunswick.

It wasn’t until her second year in 2010 that she really felt she was able to develop her skills through personal designs. Inspired by British designer, the late Alexander McQueen, she took on the challenge to create racing carnival dresses using re-used garments. What she created was a Queen of Hearts themed dress of desire.

'Queen of Hearts' RMIT re-used projects design

Complete with a structured black collar and red panelling, the dress is the epitome of classic structure and design, something she references as inspiration from couture marvel Valentino. His appreciation for the feminine physique and the dedication in his work through delicate attention to fabric and pattern is an industry trait that Elisa has the utmost respect for.

'Good To Be Bad' winning design

If you look through the dazzle of images and names that Elisa uses as personal inspiration, you will find she almost honours the classic design of femininity. If Chanel were still amongst us, more so than in spirit, Elisa would be her first prodigy; she almost epitomizes the classic appreciation of women in history and their relationship with sophistication and design.

'Good To Be Bad' winning design

But what has won the judges over in this years competition was a bolder and almost more innovative design concept on Elisa’s behalf. She took inspiration from designer Mary Katrantzouwho’s three-dimensional digital print effects on material were an appealing contrast that Elisa then decided to incorporate in to her garments. She says she wanted these ‘fashion forward’ garments to ‘stand out’ by using bright colour and contrasting textures.

Models in Elisa's winning 'Good to be Bad' designs

But behind the blur of colour, fabric and all that inspire, Elisa says it’s her passion for creativity and its beauty that motivate her to create garments that can ‘speak for themselves, that tell a story and make you feel amazing’.

Fashion is about feeling something, and Elisa says that in her case it’s also the feelings that come about when you put on a particular dress. For the women of Melbourne, they can hope to experience this feeling as long as Elisa is inspired to design.

A Fashion Intern’s Story

Where would the designers be without them? Fashion interns are offered some unimaginable opportunities, and with the recent close to Melbourne Spring Fashion Week 2011, all across our city interns are discussing the highs and lows of their experiences alongside some of Melbourne’s most influential designers.

Melbourne fashion student and unique visionary, Domenica Pittito, shares with me in this post all the wonder and insight of interning alongside Melbourne’s up-and-coming designers.  Brilliant at her own craft at 21 years old, she has created masterpieces for herself and friends and is humble in her approach to her own designs and creative nature. Having deferred her final year in Bachelor of Design in Fashion at RMIT she took internships alongside designer Dhini Couture and continues now for Lui Hon.

Based high above the bustling Flinders Lane in Melbourne, self-labelled Lui Hon is establishing himself as a bold, structural and technically unique designer. His vision of story, harmony and philosophy combines to produce visually dynamic, simple, yet innovative designs. A past Honours graduate from Fashion Design at RMIT, Lui was a favourite amongst the first season of Project Runway Australia and is the workings of his latest collection.

Lui Hon 'Noise In My Head' Collection

Lui Hon 'Noise In My Head' Collection

His vision is the workings of the future, yet hold subtle detail and appreciation of history. The masculine feel of his female designs are still structurally flowing and leave you wondering how it’s possible that he imagined the world he created.

I had the honour of visiting Lui’s studio and photographing and speaking with Domenica who has been interning with him this year. She shares details of her working relationship with Lui, his designs and what the future holds for her and student fashion interns alike.

Secondhand Scavenging

The boom of vintage inspired fashion can no longer be denied. With inspiration sweeping through from the 80′s punk to the 50′s rockabilly trend and beyond. If you have paid some close attention to trends of late you will find some 90′s staple items seeping back in to the markets. Tapered trousers with high-waist pleats, midi and maxi skirts and buttons up shirts with simple and small knits and cardigans to match.

Recycled clothing – or so called ‘op-shopping’ derived from ‘opportunity’ shops – are no longer affordable alternatives for simple garments. They are gold mines for the thriving population of vintage lovers and hunters, second-hand clothing enthusiasts, and fashionistas alike.

In this post we visit one of the largest secondhand clothing retailers in the state and the first of its kind in Australia. Brunswick Savers has been operating as head quarters for 12 years and with one of the highest turnovers in store there’s no denying that the fad is stronger then ever. I caught with Dee Varel who has worked at Savers for the past five years. In the video below Dee takes us around store, gives us some insight on the latest looks and offers tips for how Melbourne girls can get on the trend.

An op-shop lover, textile design student and self-made stylist, Dee gets to first chance to rummage through the rags to find the treasure.

When Bloggers Become Models

What happens when business statures flip right around?

When the starlit and chaotic scene of the fashion industry is in search of ‘real people’ to promote labels and trends to the world rather then hunting through modeling agencies?

Gone are the days of self promoting through Facebook with terribly pixelated mirror shots. These ‘real people’ are the upcoming and booming contributors to the fashion industry and – in a very public world wide web – almost icons to their many supporters. They are strutting along and the world is with their every footstep.

Self-taught, unique, talented, hard working and hard marketing they are rising celebrities in a booming online frenzy.

They are fashion bloggers, and they’re blooming right here at home, and the concept of ‘bloggers as models’ is taking off in Melbourne.

Photographer and blogger Lee Oliviera

Australian street-style fashion photographer and blogger Lee Oliveira in collaboration with Melbourne fashion brand Sarah Conners has delivered a beautiful concept: ‘When bloggers become models’.

Lee’s vision, like much of his work, is a bright movement in the right direction.

Selecting three Melbourne based fashion bloggers (Bianca from il etait une fois, Jess from What Would Karl Do and Jasmin from Friend In Fashion) for a photo shoot in April this year, the collaboration broadens exposure and accredits the skills of fashion bloggers that are assimilating more frequently into media, marketing and fashion industries.

The project received deserving praise. Lee said the exposure and feedback was something that he was never expecting.

‘…their (bloggers) knowledge is overwhelming and this contributed to the success of the shoot’ he said.

With the likes of Andy Torres (Stylescrapbook), Mexican fashion blogger from Amsterdam now fashion label MANGO’s new ‘it girl’ and Sydney blogger Nicole Warne (Gary Pepper Vintage) for General Pants Co. and Westfield, there is an apparent gap in the market that the industry is catching on to and rightfully filling.

Bianca for iletaitunefois

From vintage to high street fashion, couture to DIY projects, these bloggers and many alike are creative influences in their own right; with a flashing SLR Camera in one hand and the knowledge of a demanding industry in the other.

So, are we in the making of the new future of our fashion industries? Promoting fashion through real fashion enthusiasts?

Jasmin for Friendinfashion

Lee invites any brand to collaborate with bloggers and with loyal followings and  support, fashion bloggers are taking on a market of celebrity endorsements, product placement and re-known photographers.

Jess for whatwouldkarldo

In return they create fresh insight, vibrant detail and direct opinions on scaling trends and personal lifestyle; a new and independent universe available to the public.

The future of the fashion industry should aim to relate the public to the product and image, hence, finding relatable bloggers – real people in the world – is a brilliant agency to begin the hunt.