PREVIEW A/W15: ROOM 17

Ok, so it’s 2 weeks until the leaves and the temp start falling and everyone in Melbourne prepares to start every conversation for the next 6 months with… What happened to Summer? I’m sorry, but this has to be the coldest one in YEARS etc, etc.
That’s cool with us, we don’t mind, because we LIVE for the A/W season.

Anything involving jacketing, knitwear and denim is a win for us, we LOVE it. It’s by far our strongest season and creatively we come to life when we design and develop the range.

The range this season is all about shell dressing and loungewear with a 90’s move on. We have a few forward denim pieces and will be launching a new jean profile we designed in collaboration with our local factory, DENIMSMITH.

We are excited to be developing unique shapes and leg profiles for plus. Using our newly branded rose gold hardware and luxe denim cloth, these styles will be a move forward into a premium space. And we are looking forward to the reception.

To pull everything together we needed a killer shoot to launch the season -let the stress of booking our secret/not-so-secret crush begin -waaaah

Can’t act cool on this one, WE LOVE SOPHIE. She’s one of the most professional models we have worked with, her depth of understanding and talent is so right on. She does everything we ask of her and there isn’t a seedy hotel bed, Hollywood tape versus fake tan moment or home made ring necklace malfunction she isn’t OK with.

Sophie looks at the range and has an initial fitting, then we take her through the creative and explain the narrative for the shoot. She finds the face we need, the body shapes we want and then .. well she just tells the story.

One of the best in the business and we pretty much want to do everything with her all the time. Go to the movies, button up her shirts, put her shoes on for her, tape her into garments, you know… Just everything…

Then there was Lily, LILY CUMMINGS.

So Lililand is a little bit high end, a little bit punk and ordering vodka and soda is outlawed. I mean, what can be said about her that isn’t said through her images. I’ve never been on a shoot with a photographer like her. We had been desperate to secure her since Soph showed us her work a year ago.

It was a privilege to finally be able to collaborate with a true artist and visionary. I can’t imagine shooting with anyone else now that our Lililand cherry has been popped. Melbourne definitely became a lot less cool and a bit more grey when she left (literally, it was raining)

It took us weeks to find the perfect location.. but thanks to Claudes, we found the dream motel room. We were given a key.. an actual key on a key ring with the room number on it. To me, that basically says really good baaaad things are about to happen. I was right. I’m not going to lie, the location was perfectly trash.

Everything was just as it should be, from the tiled in spa in the bedroom to the 80’s hairdryer chained to the wall of the bathroom. The artwork was perfect and the colour palette was exactly what we had spent weeks sifting through cheap, late 90’s renovated motel rooms to find. So anyway then we get a fruit platter and a Polaroid camera and the rest will be revealed when we launch the season.

Fashion is a visual language and the story told, out in this trashy little motel room in the country pretty much sums it all up really… It was killer.

Could never have done this without the usual team of amazing people that work so hard to make sure everything is stellar and know where my car keys are at all times. Chanel Fucile – the baddest makeup and hair babe in Melbourne. Em, Suze, Nikala and especially Claudia, who in between apologising for life every 5 seconds was invaluable. Thanks, Claudes. Enjoy the BTS shots and a few preview images