Culture

We fashionistas are still ever so slightly affected by overtures of the iD high, which means glorious insights of “the week that was” are still steamrolling along. This week Eloise Callister-Baker shares the down low on the über cool fashion-meets-photography Blue Oyster gig while Libby Fraser dishes the dirt on some licentious linguistic fashion. Babes and books. Who would have thought? Bravo Dunedin Public Library, you saucy minx.
Fashion comes to the Blue Oyster
ID fashion week, held in Dunedin every year, is an event which pulls together the different style tribes in appreciation of styles, designers and this fluid concept which is fashion. Unfortunately because of that forever-present education entity called university, I could only attend a few events during the weekend, one of which was the fashion photography discussion held on Sunday at the small and hip Blue Oyster Gallery.

A four-person panel consisting of Simon Swale, Max Oettli, Emily Godthorpe and Emily Hlavac Green chatted amongst themselves and to the audience for a fairly casual but interesting hour or so. To the right of their table a fashion photography slideshow had been set up to which they referred to throughout and which provided the audience with a visual base. We saw iconic images of Kate Moss’s very early days, grand images from different issues of Vogue and even some historical photos. The panel discussed the meanings these images carried both at the time they were created and for a contemporary audience, and also how a photoshoot’s narrative story is constructed. The discussion made clear just how broad the topic “fashion photography” really is.

In the audience were some terrifyingly educated people as well as those people who obviously had very pent-up views on art and were anxious to release them, hence the occasional “what is YOUR definition of art?” question My eyes rolled, rolled, rolled. Nevertheless I loved this format as it’s both accessible and educational. References were made to The September Issue, the brilliant Sixties film Blow-Up (a must-see for anyone interested in photography/fashion/art films), famous photographers and the “well-known” figures of the New Zealand art world.

The sugary Lipton Ice Tea (which was a giveaway) perked up the mood, but after the discussion my friends and I were decidedly concerned about the lack of discussion about the model's role in fashion photography. It’s impossible to have a focused one-hour talk on such a HUGE topic (especially one that trips over ideas about the subconscious, philosophy and everything transparent). Despite this, the panel discussion was an interesting and compact bite of what must have been a wonderful ID fashion week.
 
GEEK to Chic – a la Modern Miss
There was rather intriguing about the idea of a fashion show involving real librarians dressed in vintage clothing. It was a treat on a wet windy night. Around sixty people who were obviously friends and supporters of the librarians were seated around the makeshift catwalk with our complimentary Lipton Iced Teas in anticipation of a very entertaining show. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I hoped it would showcase some of the cool gear that Modern Miss, situated on Moray Place along from Rialto Cinema, has to offer.

 
The first “geek” was dressed in a Seventies disco-style flared jumpsuit, the next in an elegant Eighties power-suit. Then came a few Fifties style dresses on very self-conscious and uncomfortable middle-aged librarians. Most smiled and walked with confidence, waving at their husbands in the front row, but some clearly couldn’t wait to get out of there.  One babe-ish afro haired young thing in a wine-coloured evening jumpsuit looked nothing like a librarian. Perhaps they just slotted a real model in to keep the audience on their toes. The most shocking, and slightly disturbing, moment was an only slightly geeky male librarian in some vintage Speedos. Children in the audience giggled.
 

It was all over in about twenty minutes and I was a tad let down. There were a few nice evening gowns but not the exciting display I had hoped for. In short, a very entertaining concept and a rather random way to finish the day. Aspiring models may want to try the Dunedin City Library for their big break. You might just get spotted.
 

Felicitaciones to the lovely Misses Ines Shennan and Melissa Letica for their Madame Hawke competition style submissions which will be going to print in forthcoming editions. A couple of these beauties are still up for grabs so flick me a blurb about anything you fancy and score a jem of a journal! fashion@critic.co.nz