The Detail is in the Retail

Ok, on Tuesday i attended the industry form 1: Retail Detail. ohh-em-gee,  seriously so worth going! It was held at the beautiful BMW auditorium at fed square, so if the talk was not your cup of tea, you could still enjoy the views of the Yarra river and/or the geometric architecture and snazzy wood panelling. Lucky for me i actually loved the talk and didn't have to rely on the ambiance for entertainment.
As i entered the venue i was greeted with a (this time opened) bottle of chinotto. As you all know I'm quite clumsy and naturally also struggled with this. As i sit down at my seat (4 rows behind Grant Pearce) I manage to knock over the opened bottle of delicious beverage. The contents cascade out and onto the polished wooden floor to my despair. Not only is it a waste of chinotto, but i look like a dick... so the entire talk i sat in a puddle. I got a tad concerned when the drink started traveling to the row behind me, the girl was frantically moving her bags around trying to save them. Awkward.
Anyway, there were four speakers, the first was Mark Ritson, Consultant & Associate Professor of Marketing for University of Melbourne & consultant to LVMH. His presentation was predominantly about brand identity. Australia is a very stable country, he was saying, and that our market is controlled by oligopolies, only 2 major competitors ie. Coles and Woolworths, meaning that companies like that are totally unprepared for competition from other countries. He was also talking about the importance of knowing your brand and who the target market it is. This means market research and analysis. Exclusivity means it has to exclude. The example he used was brand Abercrombie & Fitch and their iconic 'all American' college hunk, which quite frankly isn't that many of us.
The next speaker was Erin Mullaney, Founder & Director at ECM Fashion Consulting. Talked mostly about her experiences as a buyer for UK department giants Brown's, Selfridges and Harrods as well as well as a brand consultant for Christian Louboutin. She was saying that it is important to have a good team. Designers often don't have the business brains and may make the wrong decisions, this underlines the necessity for a business partner who can make the right decisions. People need to stick to their strengths. Erin also talked about the need to be forward thinking and innovative, she spoke about all the projects she did, ie. collaborations with designers or pop up stores and how all that is important for a company to stay relevant in a fast moving fashion world.
Peter Harris, President of the Pedder Group, Hong Kong, was the third speaker. His talk was about the importance of details. The devil is in the detail. He started with a personal anecdote about how he received a hand written birthday note when boarding a long flight and receiving a selection of macaroons in his hotel suite upon arrival after a 5 hour flight delay. His point was that personal touches like that can make an experience memorable and create consumer loyalty. He was telling us about the Lane Crawford Hong Kong flagship store, saying that the reason why it is the highest performing store is because of 6 reasons:
- Great store design
- Shopping suites
- Concierge desk
- Service teams
- Edited Product Offer
- Visual Merchandising
The last speaker for the afternoon was David Bush, the General Manager of Womenswear for David Jones. He spoke about the importance of a brand. He called it 'a collection of memories that make a purchase'. The first experience of a brand is always memorable, weather its good or bad. He also talked about how a brand must differentiate between its competitors and stay relevant to the time for it to be successful. Making long term decisions that are calculated and smart means that a brand can evolve as it needs to.
So as a whole, not too shabby...
Here are the pics.

Fashion Full STOP

Bonjour,
On Monday night was the 'fashion full stop'-decades of fashion and music show. As you can imagine I made it my mission to attend. It was definitely an interesting event. It was held at the Exhibition building, for those of you who don't know, its a massive beast of a space with the classic stage and ascending half-circular seating (a fun little fact for you guys).The show was a retrospective of Australian fashion from the 60's till today. Every iconic fashion statement throughout the past 50 years was shown, and in between spurts of runway fashion was either a song from our idol Guy Sebastian, Mark Seymour, Russell Morris, Josh Abrahams, Metals, Owl Eyes, Marcia Hines and much much more or dance performances from groups: The Squared Division and the Australian Ballet.
I was seated in some side section, and the more i squinted the more i could see. Then i realised that i am media (woo!) which qualified me to move around freely to capture great moments as they occurred. Now they kept telling us that we must move around... HA! this was not the case. i managed to park myself directly at the end of the stage at the side and did not budge. My shitty little camera was not coping with the  distance from my original stealthy paparazzi position. And from the new pap spot i got great views of the stage, models and the dancers crotch as she was pelvic thrusting to Olivia Newton John's 'lets get physical'. It was a beautiful moment. I was also kicking myself because i decided to wear my white Ombre Margiela jeans that night, and well crawling around on all fours as to not obstruct the view of others can be a nightmare. God bless Napysan. 
Anywho, here are the pictures:













ps. Jenny Kee is launching her new scarf range

Mouse House Pent

So Docklands is the biggest urban development fail here in melbourne, we got lost. Wandered around for half an hour, took the scenic root to Penthouse Mouse at shed 4 you might say. Once finally there we were greeted with so much art, fashion and alcohol, it was great! The space was huge and filled to the brim with the wacky works of art and the wacky people that make the art as well as the wacky visitors. Having bought a jacket that same day, i was in no financial position to drink, i relied on the kindness of others, lucky Jac from Upper Left Arm gave me a drink card. <3<3<3<3<3 after that i would have tipples from other peoples drinks, when they weren't looking... hehehe
anyway here are the pictures:















Johnny's outfit <3

ULA in Tula

hey guys!!
on Thursday night was the Upper Left Arm launch at Comeback Kid, i unfortunately had a delightfully long studio class at uni from 1:30-9:30... AT NIGHT!!!! 8 hours of continuous pattern making and sewing. By the time the clock ticked over to the 7pm mark, i was already a distant memory in class, just a light breeze tailing my elaborate exit strategy. (i left my stuff on the table, so they would think i just ducked out to the toilet or something). Ingenious!
what i had planned to a be a drive-by shooting, turned out to be just over an hour of socialising. i tried to look at the clothing but it was difficult because of the sheer volume of people. From the glimpses the clothing looked great. I'm digging the ULA hats!
These types of events can be so intimidating, everyone had a camera, and not like a little shitty digital camera like me, but a bloody professional SLR, with a variety of paparazzi lenses and flashes. i felt like i was a character in those hideous early 80's 'Porkey's' movies, where the guys typically compare their private parts in the locker rooms, and unfortunately my Samsung L210 definitely didn't rise to the challenge... no pun intended!
Other than that the ULA launch was fun i then ran back to uni, slipped back into class and pretended i was never out. the perfect crime!
Afterwards the party continued at the Carlton club. I had a few drinks with my friends and just as i was about to leave, a giant group of incredibly well dressed and quite intoxicated people popped up the stairs. The Comeback kid crew managed to persuade me to stay for one more drink:
Pat "vlad stay for one more drink"
me "ok!"    
*Gretta and i wet kiss*
clearly they worked hard to persuade me... hahaha
I had such a great chat with Jean from stud farm, it really nice to see beautiful, talented and above all genuinely nice people.  
1 beer and 3 shots later i was walking back to Flinders St station in a much more cheery disposition.
all in all, a good night!
here are the pictures from my wonderful camera:

 
  
 

14-20.3.2011

Hello there!
Welcome back to the wild and wacky world of shifting identities *cracks whip as lion jumps through a flaming hoop*, its been a long time my good friend, but I'm back with a vengeance.(I can almost hear the one hand clapping in anticipation and excitement)
I had my cousin and uncle visiting from Russia for a month so I've had my hands full. It's true what they say about old people, they become like children. My uncle has just hit his terrible twos again and was out of control. I wanted to put him on a leash, doesn't speak a word of English and an absolute menus in public. More about that in another post. They flew out on Sunday and i couldn't be happier! *cracks open a bottle of Moet...* OK, I'm not totally heartless. I will miss them. But at the moment all i can think about is having my bed back! No more saggy fold out couch/bed.
Now that hey have gone back to the old country I can concentrate on uni and this blog! WOO!
Today I attended the LMFF media and blogger conference/briefing. Yes, its that time of year. Fashion week is basically on our doorstep, knocking politely. I swing the door open and with a warm embrace the madness and excitement begins, or so I hope... (I can't quite tell you why I imagined it to happen like that.) I thought I was running late so I was power walking to the LMFF HQ FYI...  burned off half a calorie. This exercise proved that I am unfit, the one flight of stairs I scaled took more out of me than it should have, but luckily i was greeted with a welcoming and thirst quenching chinotto.
After the briefing I am so excited about this one, first of all because we may all die in 2012, so it may be our last, but mainly because of the events planned by the LMFF team. Grant Pearce creative director of the festival and Editorial director of GQ explained the role LMFF plays in the Australian fashion industry and how unique it is in regards to other fashion weeks around the world. I kept getting distracted by the beautiful lapels of his incredibly sharp suit... (I die for a good bit of tailoring. D.I.E.), so my recollection of the talk is a bit hazy, but what I do remember is that there will be dancers, and lots of Australian fashion. One of the most interesting events during the week will be the business seminar. Guys, if you can score a ticket I highly recommend going to that. The speakers sound incredible: Graeme Fidler and Michael Herz, creative directors of BALLY!!! Jefferson Hack, editorial director of THE DAZED GROUP!!!! Mikael Schiller the CEO of ACNE STUDIOS!!! and Jan Nord and Jörgen Anderson from ESPRIT!!! not bad for li'l ol' Melbourne, eh? By the amount of capital letters I've used it sounds like an ad for Dimmies and Forgers... haha, but seriously it's an opportunity not to be missed.
The opening to the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival 'Fashion Full Stop.' promises to be a party in the pants. Created by designer and stylist Michelle Jank, 'Fashion Full Stop.' is a retrospective look at Australian fashion from the 60's to now. The colossal hall of clothing was amazing. It was like Dame Edna had exploded onto about a bajillion racks. No words. Just pictures.




Di$count <3<3<3