Photo from Melbourne Leader - Photographer
Steampunk in Melbourne!!!

Eurchonia will be Melbourne's first Steampunk gig. Lots of fashion, music and performance, with a historical bent.

Very visual, fashion focused new years... I will be there, taking pics of the fashionable punters!

"Euchronia is a steampunk / neo-Victorian Year's End Ball taking place in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on the last day of the calendar year of 2008. The event officially opens for general admission at 9pm and proceedings will continue 'til the early hours of the following morning."

Put on by Cass from Lockworks, promises to be a very interesting event (also the setting), Melbourne Trades Hall, is a nice historical venue.

http://www.euchronia.com/

Alternative handbags

Last night was the big handbag research surf. I want to look at Assassinus making handbags, so thought I would spend most of the night doing research and seeing what was out there. I noticed three main types of alternative handbags that grabbed my attention.

These were the ones that really stood out as being different and creative.

Gothy Handbags

I spent last night trying to hunt down alernative handbags. A lot of what are called alterntive handbags are pretty ordinary. Really actually mainstream. Most of the tripped out alternative stuff is gothy, or possibly fetish.

So handbags shaped like batwings, handbags shaped like corsets, and of course, the old faithful coffin shaped handbag. I saw a cute one that was a handbag shaped like a straitjacked.

These were pretty cute when they came out, but a bit old hat now.

Cyber/Tech handbags

There were a few handbags that had in built technological features. One had a TV screen... another had speakers for your MP3 player.

Recycled Rubber Handbags

I quite liked the look of these. GeomMythik has worked with making bags out of Recycled material, as has a couple of other outfits in Australia. A couple of designers are using recylced material to make quite nice looking handbags.
Some go out of their way to indicate their origins....(truck tires!) others look just like your typical handbag. Recyled rubber bags are actually in demand, with some of the better ones being quite pricey, and month long waiting periods.

Roboglove!

Beyonce has started wearing a robot like metal glove as part of her performance. it is made by her jeweller who otherwise makes rings and more standard stuff, and apparently is made of titanium, so quite light (and no doubt, quite expensive). As a jeweller, I wouldn't mind having her as a client!

Glove was made by Lorraine Schwarze.
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/fashion/2008/11/06/2008-11-06_robobeyonce_knowles_models_metal_glove_a-2.html
Schwartz seems to normally make more standard jewellery, from what I can tell.
Including Beyonce's Beyonce’s $5-million, 18-carat diamond wedding ring.

Funny enough, the metal glove thing has already been done by another black singer, though someone in a very different area of music (and someone I personally am more likely to see), Maxim from The Prodigy.

Daphne Guiness (model, designer and likely inheritor of awful beer factories) also has an obssession with armour.
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/fashion/article2300331.ece

Alternative Modelling Agency Launch

Went to the Alternative Modelling Agency's launch last night, which featured a few of the Circa designers, who the AMA had very kindly included to help them with a bit of promotion. The AMA are a great sponsor for Circa, and even before that, Peter has always supported the show and helped out with photography.

Models were great.....there was only one or two outfits from each designer, so there was a lot of variety and it was quick. They are amazing looking things, AMA have the most interesting models in Australia, so visually superb.

Lots of photographers with some good gear shooting there, and Peter's Hasselblad was in action, so there should be some good shots.
I took mine along, but the re charge time on the flash took too long for me to get many good pics, and I wasn't in a good position. Even though I've tried it a couple of times now, catwalk photography is hard! Next time I do it I will make sure I have a bigger flash with a better re-charge rate.

I had the new Assassinus (www.assassinus.com) corset in it - though being made of perspex I think some people didn't notice it! However the model came out later and wore it around, which gave people more of a chance to check it out. Anyways, a few comments on it and my finisheing is getting better now. I'm doing the course, which is great for teaching you to do things properly.

...and great cocktails!

Congrats to Samantha and Peter on a job well done.

If you hadn't seen it, they got an amazing article in the age yesterday as well

http://www.theage.com.au/news/lifeandstyle/fashion/le-freak-cest-chic-for-models/2008/11/27/1227491783217.html

Website - http://alternativemodellingagency.com/

Alternative Modelling Agency!!

The Alternative Modelling Agency are a relativelynew modelling agency, doing some kickarse work with alternative types for promotions. They have some *Amazing* people on their books, a few friends of mine. In the past some agencies have been a bit dodge with how they treat their models, so its good to know that there is a good agency out there who has the complete interest of the models at heart. One of the two co-directers is gothy, so she can talk the talk and knows the alternative community as well.

They recently had an article written on them in the Age, so some nice publicity.
Well done guys!




Website - http://alternativemodellingagency.com/

Plastik Wrap Video Interview

New video interivew the designers from Plastik Wrap, great industrial label.
Was shot at the Kinetic Festival.




I love Plastik Wraps stuff, probably one of the most famous industrial/cyber designers and have been going for 7 years.
http://www.plastikwrap.com/

Halloween and the "Gothic: Dark Glamour" exhibit in New York

Bill Cunningham's Halloween fashion piece. New York gets out to celebrate Halloween, and included is pics of some great goth fashion at the opening to the FIT goth exhibition, called "Gothic: Dark Glamour" at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

The Exhibit is curated by Valerie Steele who has written a number of articles on Goth Subcultural and dark influences on fashion

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/11/01/fashion/2008112-street-feature/index.html

Tatoos!!!

Interested article about Tatoos. Where the tatoo was traditionally only sought after by the military, merchant marine and criminals, it is now steadily being adopted by the mainstream.

Traditional areas of the body that have been seem as more radical (the neck, hands etc) are now being used for tatoo adornment. And in Australia, the army has changed it acceptance regulations and will now accept people with tatoos visible above the collar.

Anyways, interesting article on it here - Tatoos gain new visibility

New Book on Goth fashion -

Just read an article that mentioned this new book about Goth fashion.

Gothic: Dark Glamour by authors Valerie Steele and Jennifer Park.

http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300136944

While there has been many books written about the goth subculture generally (Mick Mercer alone has written four) from various viewpoints, this is the first book that mainly focuses on depicting Goth fashion. Its a coffee table book, and its about $50 USD.

Can't say much else as haven't read it yet.... but this is definitely on my to buy list.

Amazon.com most probably, as I can't find a local shop that stocks it.

There also isn't very many books that just focus on the fashion of subcultures, excepting possibly Polhemus's work - Streetstyle: From Sidewalk to Catwalk, Style Surfing: What to Wear in the 3rd Millennium and Fashion & Anti-fashion: Anthropology of Clothing and Adornment.

Polhemus, also a photographer, seems to have cornered the market, and has been writing on this topic for some 20 years now.

Z Entity-

One of my compadre's Miss Steph, is really going places with her new label Z-Entity.
Not quite your typical goth fashion, but more alternate, her work is stylish and quite different.
And a big range!

She also does a good range of Guys stuff, which can be a bit rare in the Goth/metal/rock/alternate market. Some nice photography too.

Lots of interesting fashion coming out of Melbourne, Australia, so it seems.

http://www.zentity.net/

And she's doing a fashion parade/performance thing here, looks like it will be a great event if you are in Melbourne.

www.vnvboutique.com

Circa Nocturna - Designers for 2009 announced

Circa Nocturna, Australia's longest running Fashion show has posted its designers for their 2009 show.

CN 09 will be the biggest show that they have run so far, with 18 Designers.

Assassinus
Bella Rubber (Brisbane/Melbourne)
Bezerk (Brisbane)
Black Cat stretchwear
Clear Concept (Adelaide)
Defence Mechanism
Dolly Q
Dragon's Blood Creations
Dusk Moth Design
Lyris Design
Obsidian Lace
Pale Purpur (Moscow)
Sche
Spook Clothing
Vallina Clothing (Perth)
Vicious Klothing
Vitae (Adelaide)
Yes Mistress

Circa Nocturna
Saturday 28th of February
Fitzroy Town Hall
8 pm

Tickets on sale January 2009

Kera Fashion show

Just saw some shots from the Kera fashion show. Kera is a magazine covering Japanese alt fashion.

Lots of great out there designs. Gotta get myself to Japan.

More info over here at a China Daily article

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2008-08/25/content_6967955.htm

Japanese Subcultures and Fashion

I first heard about Japanese Subcultures from my friend about 4 years ago now. Mr Jan was mainly into the goth scene, but so much more than goth was apparent in Nippon. A lot of the Japanese Subcultural fashion was similiar to Goth, but others were true home grown separate subcultures.... and others were somewhere in between.

More recently, I was helping out organise a shoot for goth fashion for a newspaper in Melbourne town, and I noticed how little the Japanese Sub cultures were understood. All the goths (inlcuding me) in the shoot had assumed that one outfit was Goth lolita. And I thought we knew our stuff. It was only later that someone was commenting on the photo and pointed out that it wasn't goth loli at all (it was Sweet Lolita... I think!) Anyways, in terms of me trying to understand the world of the new goth-like Japanese sub cultures, I thought I would jot a few down here.

Goth Lolita

19th century style, cutesy, young dress. Lots of lace. Think victorian childrens dresses/ clothing, with short skirts worn by young girls. Elements as well from the Rococo period, and elements of trad goth. Very unique, a sophisticated look


Visual Kei

Androgogenous dress, glam, glitz, often soft focus photos. Heralded by the band Malice Mizer
Quite sophisticated, very aesthetic. Colourful, and 80's influence.






Ganguro

Seemingly a parody of westerners, white eyeshadow, dark tans, and blonde or light hair, died. Hmmm......

Elegant Gothic Aristocrat (EGA) or Elegant Gothic Lolita (EGL)

A subset of Goth Loli fashion. I really like this stuff, the sort of thing I could/should wear.
Very stylish, Victorian possibly androgenous. EGAs wear long skirts, tailored and streamlined jackets, as well as tight-fitting long shirts and sleeves. Looks like the period when goth was doing a lot of Victorian, and reminds me of the Viona Lellagems Belgian/German current fascination with elegance and historical influence... possibly related?

The term was coined by Mana (singer from Malice Mizer), and was used to describe his own brand of clothing carried in his store Moi-même-Moitié.

Steampunk in the NY times

Looks like Steampunk Fashion is getting a bit of notice...... just saw a big article in the NY times
fashion section.

Steampunk moves between two worlds



Interesting a bit of focus on some very stylish black guys, and up until now I had thought that Steampunk fashion had been very white orientated.

A big win for steampunk, not a bad article. Press for alt fashion often goes wrong, but I think the pics and write up are fairly sympathetic. Also lots of links to interesting sites, including some alt fash steampunky fashion sources.


Steampunk guys looking stylish

My little review on the Subcultural Fashion Article in the Melbourne Newspaper, The Age today. (Go buy a copy to have a look) :-)

The Age featured a subcultural fashion article today, written as part of their series on Alternative fashion and subcultures, Melbourne Tribes by The Age Fashion editor Janice Breen Burns. Breen-Burns does a pretty good job of delving into subcultures, getting at what makes them work, while still treating them with respect..... not something that every journalist writing on subcultures has been known to do! In this the second series on Melbourne's fashion trubes, she looks at Deathrock, Mods and Reggae. Breen-Burns also does a great job of helping out the people she is interviewing by listing their clubs, bands and includes their URLs in the article, and links on the website version of the article, something that is very important to small scale subcultural events.

Deathrock.

Some great pics of the Deathrock crew, and the text about them was well written, didn't notice any major errors. The Deathrock pics were probably the most artistic (though I may be biased!), and the fashion is probably the most sophisticated and visual out of the three subcultures. Deathrock fashion is more DIY than a lot of Subculture fashion, parralleling the original punk scene DIY fash in the late 1970's....you made your own fashion because there was nothing to buy. In the interview, Lyle Blakemore makes a point about Deathrock being more about dressing up and having fun...which interestingly contrasts with a lot of the seriousness of traditional goth, and other subcultures. Some well deserved focus on the Blakemore's being the driving forces behind Deathrock in Melbourne, with their club 1334.

Mod fashion

The mod stuff is very visual, and brings with it the tradition of pop art, 60's photography style, and fashions experimentation with new colours and materials. The article discusses the 60's scene in Melbourne, which seems relatively lively with at least 5 club nights and a radio show, and a number of live bands. However, to an extent, the article doesn't differentiate between 60's, 70's and true British mid 1960's Mod fashion. A fair bit of the article discusses Tim Stoekle's experience with Dandyism, which I find interesting in that it actually transcends the mod era, dandyism being a broader concept that can be a part of many different era's of fashion.


Reggae Girls

The reggae girls are probably more into their music than their fashion, so the article delves into their music and subculture which interestingly discusses the influence of rasta philosophy on their group. While they are not necessarily rastas, as a subculture (?) the reggae girls are influenced by religion, which is very rare. While there are a few influences from Reggae branding (eg the Ethiopian flag, and its colours) the fashion they wear is pretty much mainstream streetwear, with camo colouring, with the Ethiopian colours tossed in....and one of the girls looked suspiciously goth (once again highlighting the borrowing nature of subcultural fashion). The interviewees are all girls, which was interesting in that it gave a gender based perspective on subcultures and subcultural fashion, which isn't too often addressed in discussion about subcultures.


Edward - Pic by Simon Schulter from the Age website


Rachael - Pic by Simon Schulter from the Age website



Clint - Pic by Simon Schulter from the Age website

Article printed in The Age, A2, Saturday April 12, 2008.

Article here
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/04/10/1207420589360.html

Multimedia here
http://www.theage.com.au/flash/fashiontribes2/

Black in Fashion

Black in Fashion exhibition, which is interestingly spread over the two National Gallery of Victoria's ..NGV International (the big one) and The Sir Harry Potter (in Fed Square), with the recently defined as elven, Adina.

Not suprsingly, its all black. Quite interesting, it details the place of black in the history of fashion. Suprisingly little goth fashion in it, considering, however there is a soundtrack that plays in the background that is largely gothy music.

But the Victorian stuff. There are a number of brilliant Victorian outfits, and there is a lot of the show dedicated to death and mourning, and the corresponding use of black in that.

Well worth a look. Free to get in.

Goth Photography - Bloody Marie

Some more goth photography. 18 year old Tog from Germany called Bloodymarie. Saw her stuff on Deviantart. I like!.







Website here: (though in German)

http://www.bloodymarie.redio.de/

Cosplay fashion

Cosplay is basically getting dressed up in outfits from Manga and Anime. The big event in Melbourne, Manifest, gets thousands of people apparently.
While some of the costumes are a bit naf, there is some quite amazing work done. Interestingly, its quite challenging, as the designs
are originally done for 2 dimensional artwork, and then have to be turned into a 3d piece, even if the original was unrealistic and impractical.

Carly from Lyris does quite a bit of this, she is one of the most talented designers I know... just a natural at it.

I have very limited knowledg eof Manga, but there is so many characters in Manga/anime that I have no idea. I'm a fan of obvious stuff like Akira and Ghost in the Shell....after that I'm lost.


Here is some video from a gaming convention (Blizzcon) ..... this stuff is all costume, not fashion, but it does share a certain fantastic edge that some alternative fashion has....methinks.

Serious Metal High heels......

Oooh....fuck! Sabbatons crossed with high heels.... brilliant concept. Not sure what sort of metal they are made out of.

from http://www.swordandstone.com

Steam fashion pics

Some of the most stylish steampunk pics I've seen.

Photographer Roy Cox Photography (who is not an alternative tog, but does some very nice stuff)

really got to get me some Victorian stuff.....



Nicked from steamfashion Livejournal Group
Model cavenessity

Circa Nocturna

Best things about the Circa Nocturna Fashion show...

Going to the after party and people asking me for me ID (when you're older...this is a good thing!)

Seeing new designers straight after the show, so happy that there designs have been on the catwalk

Getting amazing pictures back from the promo shoot

Looking around at a venue packed with amazing people

Sleeping in the day after its finished!

Having great people in the goth community volunteer to help out

Realising, that despite all the flack it cops, the goth and alternative community is a vastly creative one, that can do amazing things, and there's really no reason for the world to be the goddam awfully boring place that it is!

www.CircaNocturna.com

And of course, our sponsors the Alt Modelling Agency, DV8 and Lockworks...all our models.....and most importantly, all the amazing designers who put so much effort into the show. Huzzah!

Gala Nocturna

A Goth Ball and fashion show in Belgium - Gala Nocturna. Of Interest to me because it has Viona Lelegems designs in it. Looks a tad gothy, but quite historical. Apparently a ball and a Fashion parade, has been running since 2006.

Shame its in Belgium, I would love to go.... amazing, elegant work.

http://users.telenet.be/gala-nocturna/





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Circa Nocturna Alternative Fashion Show

Some links to pics taken at Circa Nocturna
Note all photos copyrighted to their respective copyright holders - if you wish to purchase or use any of these photos, please contact the photographer.

Circa Nocturna is Australia's longest running and largest Alternative Fashion show.
It occurs as part of the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival - Culture program.

It showcases the best of Australian Alternative fashion, featuring established and new designers in two different sections, plus performers. This is the fourth year for CN, and plans are underway to run it bigger next year

Please respect the work of our photographers and contact them if you wish to use their work.

This year's sponsors were the Alternative Modelling Agency, Lockworks Hair and DV8 nightclub.


Koukei Photography
http://www.koukei.com.au/circa

Jeff - Photograjph
http://www.photograjph.com/circa2008/

Dogmatic

http://flickr.com/photos/dogmatic/sets/72157604017857345/

Brad Hicks 666 Photography

http://www.six6photography.com.au/Fashion08/lmff2008/lmff2008.html

Note Brads pics are $44 each tp purchase - if you with to purchase these, please arrange this with him direct via his website

Paul Ward - Dark Reflection

http://darkreflection.org/CN08/