“Vogue Australia has been saving people from looking ugly for 50 years”
- Damien Woolnough, editor of Vogue.com.au – Australia’s answer to Vogue.co.uk/Style.com.

Where was this gem of a quote said? At the Optus “hAPPlication” event just last week. You see, Optus, an Australian telecommunications company held a series of talks to show the consumer how the Apple iPhone is used by industry professionals in their every day lives. From work to home, in dating and for fashion lovers.

Woolnough was there to talk about how he used it in his Vogue life, and went on to talk about how he just had to have an iPhone because it was pretty and it was a great tool to show his websites features to potential advertisers (money does may the Vogue world go around). And apparently the whole front row at Australian Fashion Week had a iPhone in hand and was Twittering away, and that I must contest. There were a main group of girls and guys who were tweeting from their front row perches, myself included, and there was hardly and iPhone in sight.

Take this as a guide, we were the main tweeting crew at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week, and there is not an iPhone in sight. I count 3 Blackberries, 2 Nokia’s, 1 HTC Dream and a laptop. I’m just saying! And every time I saw him front row, Woolnough himself looked like he couldn’t be caught dead tweeting from the front row. The @VogueOz twitter didn’t fire much from the front row between April 24th and May 1st, instead it was used primarily to promote new content posted up on the Vogue website.

So how do you think Vogue Australia save people from looking ugly? Do they? Perhaps they force Australian women and men into Vogue Australia fashion school and force them to look at pages of their magazine until they’ve been brainwashed. Just like in the movies.

Pictured above, top row: Marian Simms from KAREN, Patty Huntington aka FrockWriter,
Melanie Hicks from The Vine, Matt Jordan aka Imelda, Jade Warne from Marie Claire;
from bottom left, Hannah McArdle aka Aych, Isaac Hindin Miller aka IsaacLikes and me, your “sassy bella”!

This post is long overdue and I just need to say a few things before Rosemount Australian Fashion Week is just a figment in the imagination – after all RAFW ended 2 weeks ago in what seemed like a whirlwind of fashion, blogging and Twittering.

Well that’s how it seemed for me. I started off the week with grand plans to blog full time on ChicReport.com.au as their roaming reporter for the week, blog part time here and tweet from my front row seat (sometimes assigned, sometimes “borrowed”) for SASSYBELLA.com and ChicReportOz.

But even the best laid plans do fall apart.

I met so many amazing people I can not even begin to name here – but I would like to say a special thank you to Graeme at IMG and FrockWriter’s Patty for the experience. Without them I wouldn’t have had such an amazing week full of fashion, laughter and front row experiences.

The most interesting part of RAFW?

Meeting the other bloggers and tweeters who were all diligently sitting in their seats with notepads, cameras and smart phones in hand (which reminds me, I must get a smart phone after I sadly returned the Google HTC dream, loaned to me by Optus). We seemed to cause an interesting stir among some of the old media gang, but what can I say? Bloggers are making waves, so enjoy the ride or jump off.

To celebrate the end of RAFW, we all jumped on the runway after the Fernando Frissoni show and took a group photo which just landed in my inbox and I just had to share with you all.

Smiles and cheers to a fabulous fashion week – New York Fashion Week in September here we (want to) come!

Much has been said about the Twitter influence at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week this week. As the first major fashion week to go through the 140-character comment-fest, I think it’s a refreshing change to the fashion week landscape.

Who wants to send around text messages to some people who may be at a show or hover around forums in hope that some news from a show filters out sooner rather than later? Now you can type in the fashion week abbreviation (i.e. RAFW) into Twitter search and with a click of your mouse, anyone who’s use the abbreviation in their tweets will pop up and you’ll know what’s going on site.

I’m sure my fellow blogger/tweeter’s are quite a sight for other show attendee’s as we juggle typing into smart phones like the Google HTC Dream (me – supplied by Optus) and Blackberries (or their Apple laptops) while watching and even photographing shows and taking notes.

Multi-tasking is in, a whole posse of editors, writers, photographers and seat warmers are over.

Check out 9 of my TwitPics from the last 4 days at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week – last day on Friday, which sadly it means back to the un-fashionable full time job for me on Monday.

Click on one to find out more.

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You learn quickly at any fashion show/week that you have to learn to smile and have a laugh. Myf Shepherd hams it up for the cameras backstage after the Ellery summer 2009/10 show yesterday night (where the crowd was packed in like sardines and I tweeted from behind a rather tall threesome).

How stunning is jacket? I also love the drapery in the peach mini dress.

Ellery is such a party girl must-have, move over Sass & Bide, Ellery is here.

P.S. Sorry for the lack of words but all the tweeting I’ve been doing at RAFW means I’ve gone over my 140 character capacity already :)

I have two words for you to remember ladies and gentleman who love fashion. Dion Lee.

Repeat after me, Dion Lee.

Got it? Well remember it, because he is the next big thing to come out of Australia. And we think he’s just as special as Gareth Pugh is at the moment and could grow to design for the likes of Balenciaga should Nicholas Ghesquiere ever depart the fashion house. But that is a few years (ok a year or two) down the track for the young man who is only twenty-two years of age.

We were privileged enough to be invited to is first solo fashion show at Rosemount Australia Fashion Week and we were blown away from the first look.

I just wish my photos turned out better!

Once you’ve check that out, did I mention we asked Margherita Missoni a few questions for Chic Report? Since the burning question from last week was, is Missoni next in line at H&M? After all Angela Missoni said she would love to do one, you would think H&M would jump on it immediately.

See what Margherita said here.

The day opened with Camilla and Marc (pictured above) to a house buzzing – not just from excitement, but from twitters. Anyone with a mobile or a laptop was chattering away on Twitter – including yours truly on @sassybella and @ChicReportOz.

So of course that makes the RAFW trend number 1, Twitters.

Besides myself, can you spot 4 fashion twitters sitting front row at Ginger & Smart? If you guessed @IssacLikes, @ImeldaMatt, @BabbleonbyJbb and @pattyhuntington then you’re 100% right. If you didn’t? Well keep your eyes peels for the Mac-pack (aka Matt and Issac who tote their Mac laptop’s around the Overseas Passenger Terminal) and get to know some fashionable twitters. I’m usually trailing behind because heels slow me down… obvious reasons.
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As you may have read the news broken by Patty over at Frockwriter, I’m Chic Report Australia’s Roaming Reporter for Rosemount Australian Fashion Week beginning April 27th.

There is so much to think about before next Monday I’m already starting to get sleep deprived! Top of my list of things to do is find one more decent outfit. After all, Scott Schuman aka The Sartorialist is flying into town as we speak and while I don’t hold high hopes of being photographed by him, I can’t look completely dowdy when the unofficial photographer of the fashion pack is floating around.

I’ll be blogging for both sites and will definitely be twitter from my perch somewhere in the crowd thanks to Optus loaning me my first ever smart phone, the Google HTC Dream supplied by Optus. So follow us now at www.twitter.com/sassybella and stay tuned to SASSYBELLA.com – we’ll do daily round ups of our favourite shows & interesting tidbits.

Of course on the international fashion news front, well we’ll still keep you informed!

Now here’s some RAFW tibits to keep your appetite whet:

• Interesting shows: Wayne Cooper on Monday and TV’s show on Wednesday. Cooper is rising from the ashes of the abuse allegations, while I wonder what will TV show after the popularity of their trash bag.
• Anticipated shows: Fernando Frissoni’s debut womenswear show with former Mad Cortes designer Mira Vukovic and I’m always a little bias towards Nicola Finetti and Jayson Brunsdon.
• Agent Provocateur model, Tiah Eckhart announced she is 4 months pregnant to model-boyfriend, Patrick Delaney. Keep watch for the sexy redhead at RAFW as Tiah revealed that she’ll be there to cover it an Australian news outlet – thanks to her blogging prowess. [Pedestrian]
• Cate Blanchett not only supports Armani but Australian designer talents, Romance Was Born and will be front row at the Sydney Theatre Company for their Spring 2009/10 show on Wednesday.
• Project Runway Australia winner Juli Garbac is set to unveil her new collection on Thursday – expect Jayson Brunsdon, Kristy Hinze and Henry Roth front row. Will the other finalists make an appearance?
• Oh and a designer muse/model/maybe actress is set to be in town to help out at a certain fashion show… I’ll tell you more when I can ;)

P.S. What do you think of SASSYBELLA.com’s latest nip/tuck?

The Australian Fashion Week Transseasonal shows scheduled for October have been moved interstate to Sydney, home of the Spring Summer shows.

“This decision has been made following detailed discussions with the industry, Rousemount Australian Fashion Week partners and also internally with IMG’s global offices,” said Simon P. Lock, IMG Fashion Asia Pacific’s managing director. “The overwhelming view is that, for the future growth and development of the event and the Asia Pacific industry as a whole, the Transeasonal Collections should move to Sydney.”

The transseasonal shows are scheduled to run from October 9 to 11, at the location where the Spring summer shows were held this May – at Sydney’s International Passenger’s terminal.

P.S. For everyone who’s wondering why the ‘Fall/Winter’ shows are called ‘Transseasonal’, it is because winter in Australia isn’t as freezing as it gets in other parts of the world, so many Australian’s don’t respond as well to it.

No doubt this moves comes as the Transseasonal collections don’t have as many designers or media attending. Though Toni Maticevski did show last year in Melbourne, albeit to a smaller audience than usual.

[Via: AFW.com.au]

– Covering Australian fashion because we’re an Australian fashion blog

As we reported last month, Sunsilk are releasing a limited edition collection of fashion shampoo and conditioner in collaboration with Australian designers Bettina Liano, Wayne Cooper and Akira Isogawa.

The launch was held last week at swish Italian restaurant, La Sala, with the who’s who of Sydney in attendance. Which basically meant a lot of photos were snapped, and the canapés were extra yummy. The event was hosted by TV host, Sophie Falkiner, and featured a small fashion show featuring the Summer 2007 collection from Liano, Cooper and Isogawa (none of which showed their collections at Australian Fashion Week, instead hosting show rooms together instead).

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The Alice McCall show was always going to be a highlight of Australian Fashion Week, even though she’s pregnant, she knows she’s found a niche in the market and how to design for it. The collection was called Welcome to the Dollhouse – which just makes me flash back to the Devil Wears Prada (the book) where one of the characters said it to Andrea on her first day.

Alice used her usual old hand craft embellishments like lace and crochet appliqué and mixed it with modern fabrics for something a little more modern and futuristic than usual. Neon accents were used like most other designers this week, but she did it with accents and trimmings on the clothes and shoes. The collection was full of her signature cute little mini dresses but missing were her usual array of prints. Instead a striped pieces were popular, as well as dresses trimmed with silver glomesh or neon green crochet.

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Covering Australian Fashion Week for two different blogs is starting to buuuuug me. It really can be fashion week over kill and all the designer pieces and collections are blurring into one pretty and dress filled show. I’ve tried not to cross over coverage, but sometimes you love the pretty dresses so much you have to blog twice about them.

Take Fleur Wood for instance, it was so modern Jane Austen novel-like that you really must watch this video.

And instead of me saying the same thing I said on CQ, I should just quote myself. Gosh that just sounds weird.

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I’m taking a break out of my Australian Fashion Week coverage. Standing in line for hours has officially gotten old. You see, unless a PR/seating people want to, you end up being stuck with General Admission seating which means you’re standing in watching fashion editors and buyers and so forth swan past you (late of course) after their inbetween show drinks. Needless to say I stopped wearing heels after my allocated seating from some lovely PR people, had run its course.

Enough whining about fashion week, at least I get to go right?

What do you think of Gemma Ward on the upcoming May 2007 Vogue Italia cover? Shot by Steven Meisel, I think Gemma is looking more mature and her look is evolving to one that is very sophisticated. Compare her to the older covers she’s done and you can really notice the difference.

See below the fold for the Catherin McNeil / V Magazine cover

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Seems that Stephanie Conley can do no wrong, after breaking up her one time designer partner Stephanie Cranford on their Stephanie label, Conley has produced a few collections of very pretty dresses. Her solo Rosemount Australian Fashion Week runway debut featured 1950s inspired A-line dresses in vintage print with something for every occasion. From adorable cotton sundresses with puff or bell sleeves, to fitted satin cocktail dresses in buttercup yellow complete with a belted waist. Conley’s designs are very wearable and fast becoming a fashion favourite, I especially loved the sweet bows adorning the model’s heads.

But like the other shows this week, the hemline was short, thankfully not micro mini short. See the show video below the fold.

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