Digital Exposed Seminar

Founders of Young Republic, Andrew Yang and Marianne Sea

The fashion industry is a highly competitive market, with a driving force that is continually pushing it forward into new design territories and trends that come and go in the clink of a stylish stiletto. So for an emerging designer hoping to put their manicured toe into the ring, it can be an extremely daunting and terrifying experience. Not only is it a challenge to come up with something new and fresh to compete with the established fashion brands, they also need to convince retailers to take a chance on an unknown label in their boutiques. It can be tough building exposure and getting face time with the right consumer.

Enter Young Republic – Australia’s first interactive marketplace for fashion, jewellery, homewares, art and lifestyle products from home-grown upcoming and independent designers. The YR website offers new designers a platform to showcase and sell their label as well as unique brand positioning, innovative marketing tools, regular press coverage and incisive management. While YR are handling much of the business and promotional end, the designer can focus on what they do best – designing!

This passion for the emerging future of Australian design inspired us at Fashion Exposed and we are proud to announce Young Republic as an official sponsor of Debut design competition. Debut is considered a successful launch pad for over 135 young Australian labels since its inception in 2006, with past winners including now established brands Alexi Freeman, Limedrop, Trimapee, Subfusco, and Catherine Leon. On top of joining the Debut judging panel, Young Republic have offered an exciting marketing and PR package for each of the winners worth over $4,500 each.

We took five with one of the founders of Young Republic, Marianne Sea to look back at their journey from concept to launch date; how important sites such as YR are to the future of the Australian fashion industry; empowering young Australians; and their scheduled trip to New York

Catherine Leon Move the Air dress

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View from the workshop

Pompoms

In this special post, we follow Creative director and founder of Bombshell Bay, Emily Doig as she travels to Thailand and Cambodia to source fabrics and accessories and sample the Bombshell Bay 2012 Collection “JET SET”. Emily Doig is a finalist in the Debut contest at Fashion Exposed from 1-3 February at the Sydney Exhibition Centre.

South east Asia has always been special to me. I love the sights, sounds and smells, so it made total sense for me to return to Asia to produce my Bombshell Bay collection.
My time in BKK was limited. I had just 36 hours to find what I was looking for, which in a city the size of Bangkok is no easy feat! So, pack your bags and come on a whirlwind tour of Bangkok and Cambodia as we sample our JET SET collection just in time to present it to the judges at Fashion Exposed for the “Debut” program.

Thailand - Day One

Arrived at Hotel, a quick bathroom break and we are straight into the fabric sourcing. First stop is the local fabric market where we will source buttons, zips, fasteners and haberdashery. The market is like a treasure trove, with thousands of amazing bits and pieces. We find some amazing leather, ribbons and pom poms. The market is hot, chaotic and not for the faint hearted. Our colour pallette for SS 12/13 has some amazing and vibrant pinks and oranges along with a few classic blues and a beautiful neutral tone. Finding and matching these colours to our fabric is often tricky, so we buy a little of everything and will spend time matching it later.

Next stop is the India Market which is just around the corner. Here we find a supplier who has the most amazing selection of fabrics. The dyes are very gentle and are the most vibrant colours. We stock up, forcing ourselves to limit our selection to just three prints. Expect to see our new range of kaftans and sarongs in these prints.

Day Two

After a big breakfast we hit the famous weekend markets.We are on the lookout for some of the local talent to manufacture some of our accessories. The market has over 200,000 visitors per day (open only on the weekends) and has over 10, 000 stalls that sell almost everything you can imagine! There are many local designers who sell their wares and we are on the hunt for a local manufacturer who can produce our new beach totes which are a more sturdy and chic version of our 2011/12 beach bags. We find a great supplier and order a few samples before heading home after an epic 6 hours at the market.

Cambodia

We arrive in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh armed with bundles of imported fabrics and head to meet with our manufacturer who is an expat working with local sewers to create a fair trade workshop for marginalised women. We are spending a week here at the workshop to finalise our designs for SS12/13 and to complete as many samples as possible before returning to Australia to present at Fashion Exposed.

Manufacturing garments offshore can tend to attract some negative attention, with terrible working conditions and below average wages for women who are often providing for large families. Our decision to work with a fair trade workshop was an easy one, Emily, the creator and designer at Bombshell Bay had lived in Cambodia and knew that if she was manufacturing outside of Australia then the factory had to provide safe and healthy workplace with fair wages. After almost a week in Phnom Penh working daily with the workshop the samples begin to take shape and we are starting to see a glimpse of what will eventually become our “JET SET” collection.

Our two weeks in Cambodia comes to a close with a meeting with the Aman Hotel group who are stocking pieces from our debut collection “Hollywood Bungalow” The resort is known for its high profile, A list guests and exclusive private villas. We are extremely excited about our new stockist and hope a certain well known Hollywood actress slips into one of our pieces when she is next in the country with her brood of adopted children…

Transporting the fabric

So, that wraps up our sourcing and sampling trip for our SS 12/13 collection. We are so excited to be presenting it to you all at Fashion Exposed, we have some amazing on trend colours in our swimwear, vibrant eye catching pattens in our accessories and a reworked beach tote that you wont want to put away at the end of the summer…

Jatali Summer 2012 Collection Launch Party at Hugo’s


Images via Tito Media and Chic Traveller

Think of Bondi and images usually conjure up of the famous Bondi Beach, eating fish and chips and doing the Bondi to Bronte walk. Shopping, however in Bondi is not something you would normally think of doing perhaps outside the Sunday markets, but in actual fact there is more than meets the eye.

Gould Street in Bondi is one of the more interesting shopping strips in Sydney. Filled with an array of some very successful retailers, it has provided a very unique shopping strip with a real little buzz about it. Gould Street is like finding a little gem amongst some of the neglected areas of Bondi and can hold its head up for being a key destination shopping strip.

Retailer, Tali Jatali, owner of Jatali, claims she was one of the first to enter into Gould Street, which is now filled with interesting independent retailers who are stocking mainly Australian smaller brands and niche overseas labels.

Whilst, Jatali is a tiny square metre shop, make no mistake owner Jatali has been one very clever retailer. While she does stock some very colourful highly affordable jewellery and some of the Totem label, her real claim to fame is making a niche in producing her own line of Jatali swimwear and a small collection of Jatali garments. The Jatali resort wear, runs only two garments of each fabric or print, which creates an element of exclusivity and an element of demand for the consumer.

Recently, Jatali unveiled the Summer 2012 collection of Jatali swimwear to a glamorous crowd at Hugos Lounge in Sydney. Theming the event on a Brazilian theme, Tali Jatali, describes the collection as a “Brazilian inspiration theme of the Rio de Janeiro type of girl who lives at Bondi, lives carefree and doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her”. Whilst describing the fit of the swimwear, she goes on to state “They are a brief swimwear as opposed to the fat bikinis which are much more flattering to the body, but still presentable, yet not asking the girls to wear G-Strings”.

Models emerged dancing, shaking maracas to drums beating with colourful Brazilian head dress pieces wearing the Jatali 2012 summer collection with Tali Jatali and her best friend and daughter Zsa Zsa, also being part of the show.

For more information on Jatali Swimwear, visit their website www.jatali.com.au

Written by Phoebes Garland co-owner of Garland & Garland Fashion with Robert Garland who was described by Ragtrader as a “veteran rag trader” with over 30 years experience in the fashion industry, Whilst Phoebes Garland was nicknamed ‘Powerseller” by Ragtrader on her birthday. Between the two of them, Phoebes & Robert Garland have over 50 years sales experience in fashion, publishing and advertising. Garland & Garland Fashion is a leading fashion agency based in Sydney and they are regularly sought for comment from various media on business fashion topics and issues.

With the cooling reprieve of the sparkling blue water and the glint of the warm sun reflection dancing its way from the water’s edge to kiss your skin, its little wonder we all crave the
carefree outlook and frivolous nature of summer. So when these bright images came through recently from Zayan showcasing their `The About a Bow’ (SS12) collection we couldn’t help but fantasize about how much fun a pool party would be, especially when the said pool is drowned in flowers. It could only make swimming that much sweeter right?

For more on the Zayan label, head over to Fashion Exposed Online. To see the collection, register for Fashion Exposed where you will find Zayan on Stand 1420.

Nothing quite compares to a man who owns his look. He walks with a slightly more confident swagger, his stare is often more intense and burrowed in deep thought (or at least it appears that way), he exudes power in a very nonchalent `I always look like this’ manner, he often comes across as a nicer person and a man who has wealth and is successful. All of this from clothing? Yes, presentation is everything. It can be a tad intimidating sometimes but it’s always incredibly attractive. Dashing good looks are secondary in this instance, because the old saying really does run true – `the clothes doth maketh the man’.

The menswear industry has grown exponentially, recent reports and surveys via WWD have seen a significant increase in `men starting to appreciate and pay attention to trends more than ever’. This is why menswear labels such as The Fresh Brand has seen their company become more popular than ever before. This stylish casual menswear brand has been specifically designed for the active and powerful individual who wants to achieve that seemingly effortless appeal. It’s vintage-inspired prints and colour ways embody the all-American lifestyle with a European point of view for that perfect combination of comfort and luxury.

To read more on The Fresh Brand head over to Fashion Exposed Online. You can also register for Fashion Exposed and visit The Fresh Brand at Stand 3024.
To register, visit www.fashionexposed.com

LMFF 2012 Ambassadors model Nicole Trunfio, and blogger/stylist Micah Gianneli.

As the world’s largest consumer fashion event, L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival has put the Victorian precinct on the global map. The LMFF primary focus is to make fashion accessible to the public, break down the usual elite A-list barriers that are usually associated with a fashion show and open it directly to the end-user which also happens to be the most important person of all in the fashion industry – the consumer. This shift in focus is more relevant than ever as retailers feel the strain of rising rent, the perpetual sale cycle, an Aussie dollar that has hit parity with the greenback and continues to climb, and the online vs bricks and mortar phenomenon.

In a bid to continually evolve the festival and move with the needs of Australian fashion designers, retailers and consumers, in 2012 the Festival will show its ongoing commitment to support the industry through an exciting new tool that will allow consumers to act on their retail desires immediately after their LMFF runway experience. In a user friendly format both online and via mobile (ASOS have a total of 10% of their sales coming from their newly launched mobile app) the development of this unique “Shop the Runway‟ platform will enable customers to access imagery, video and stockist information post-show and share their favourite looks across social media.

This “Shop the Runway‟ tool will launch for the first time at LMFF 2012 in March and will continue to evolve in coming years to serve a multitude of “bricks and mortar‟ and online retailers.

For more information on Shop the Runway at LMFF visit, www.lmff.com.au

We have previously expressed our love for Brisbane-based accessories label Jessica T on Fashion Exposed Blog, so it comes as no surprise to learn that the talented designers was recently featured on one of the UK’s top fashion trend forecasting sites, Mud Pie. Creative design director and local Red Hill resident Jessica Russ said the exposure had come from her display at the Fashion Exposed trade event in Melbourne last year.
“The trend researchers and photography team were impressed by our visual display and our unique products, especially considering it is our first collection,” Jessica says.

The bag and accessories report for the site included an individual brand profile on Jessica T, as well as product feature in each category break-down. When asked what this kind of coverage means, Jessica explains, “This kind of exposure is priceless for us, as it has the potential to reach thousands of people both internationally and domestically.”

Jessica, who graduated from QUT’s BFA Fashion degree in 2004 as part of the inaugural year, has just completed the collection for Winter 2012 under the Jessica T brand. It will be the follow up collection to the debut range, which was received extremely well both here in Australia and New Zealand.

She was joined by several other accessories designers and established brands including Banjara Jewellery and Estilo Emporio who also featured at Fashion Exposed trade show.

Congratulations!. Another Fashion Exposed success story.