Viewing entries in the Interviews category
A chat with Stevie Dance
Photos by Stu Morely
Yesterday I had the great pleasure of attending the Dressed Best with Stevie Dance event at Melbourne’s GPO, hosted by Matt Jordan of Style Tyrant fame. I also had the opportunity to sit down with the effortlessly stylish Ms. Dance (check out her Dries Van Noten dip dyed jeans!) who’s recently come on board with MGPO as their official Fashion Ambassador. We chatted about the inspiration behind her famous work as former editor of RUSSH magazine and freelance stylist.
When you’re preparing for a shoot do you look for specific inspiration or do you find just it comes to you ?
If it’s a studio shoot and it’s trend based, then it will really just come on the day when you’re going through, how you man-handle the clothes. But there’s so much preparation that goes into it. I think fashion is irrelevant unless it’s expressing some kind of point of view. There’s always a lot of thought but it will come from anything or anywhere; whatever cultural passings you had that day — the weird woman serving you dumplings who wore her turban in a cool way or some old episode of Seinfeld, you know – it will come from anything, but everything is inspired by something.
Who is your muse?
I have icons, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a muse. My icons are mostly men which is crazy, but I always say that I’m really inspired by Judd Nelson from The Breakfast Club, who is one of my ultimate style inspirations. Keith Richards, Bob Dylan, The Beatles; you know it’s largely music based… then there’s Macauly Culkin circa Home Alone – nobody you would expect. I mean I love a Jane Birkin but so do we all.
If you could have any other career what would it be?
I’d be writing films — I am actually writing films; and I’d be working in cinematography.
What is one item you hate on other women?
Not a big fan of the strapless dress, girls in strapless dresses… or platformed, spike heeled stripper shoes.
What’s one thing you’re obsessed with in your wardrobe right now?
I just got a pair of pants from the 40′s that are amazing; they’re white, high waisted pants that I had tailored and they’re really flared and I love them!
What book, film and album is inspiring you right now?
My favourite book of all time is Joan Didion’s called Slouching Towards Bethlehem; it’s a series of essays she wrote, and she’s a really prolific female prose writer – she’s the first person who wrote about Haight-Ashbury which was a really influential time when all the hippies came out in San Fransisco; she’s my favourite writer. I’m really into Sonic Youth right now, Thurston Moore released a new video clip which I’m just crazy about called “Circulation” which is really dope. My favourite director is Terrence Malick although I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t seen Tree Of Life yet — I feel like I need to dedicate serious time to it and I haven’t really had a moment to sit down and get into it. I’m not as inspired by clothing as much as I’m inspired by stories; I studied cinematography at university, and that’s what I thought I was going to do, so that’s where a lot of the inspiration behind my work comes from.
Does Not Equal
After falling in love with their new look book (shot by one of my favourite local photographers, Zac Steinic), I caught up with androgynous Melbourne-based jewellery label Does Not Equal to learn more about their third collection, Cruce Signati.
What got you into jewellery design? Jewellery design came about fairly organically after a history of working and studying design for a number of years. We were always more interested in what was available for guys, and felt that there weren’t enough options for men’s jewellery in Australia so we started putting our focus into creating an Australian made masculine jewellery label.
Tell us about your design process. For us, the process is really disjointed and sporadic in comparison to how most people would imagine. We don’t really sit down and force it, or have a methodical way of creating a collection. It’s something we have found needs to happen unprovoked. Generally there will be something overwhelmingly inspirational to us at a certain point, and within that we’ll find a source for what will carry the collection. Where, how or when that inspiration hits is a complete unknown. The current collection was a lightening bolt idea while in a meeting – and it made us rush back to the studio for 8 hours straight to get it all onto paper. I think that when it happens like that, you can be more sure of the concept and not have doubts or concerns about whether it will work.
What is the narrative behind your new collection, Cruce Signati? Cruce Signati is a latin term which literally means ‘marked with a cross’. Our inspiration came from the Punk scene during the 70′s and 80′s who were drawn to the idealism of organised religion and in their desire to destroy authoritarian ideologies they made the cross theirs, turning it into a rebellious symbol of youth, and cultural revolt.
We wanted to design a collection based around the cross, but without it having any religious attachments, so we were inspired by the Punk rebellion and wanted to pay homage to it through this release.
Recommend one book/film/album that is inspiring you right now. Not a book, but Industrie magazine from the UK is the most incredible publication we’ve come across in a long time. We’d recommend it a thousand times over.
What is next for Does Not Equal? If only we knew!! We’re currently in talks with an exciting International store about DNE popping up on a larger scale overseas, and we are also making plans to broaden our range outside of jewellery. But that’s all we can say right now!
Visit the Does Not Equal official website or check out their tumblr.
The Illustrious Mr. Freeman
I first got speaking to Melbourne based designer Alexi Freeman shortly after his AW10 collection was shown in the Independent Runway at LMFF. His easy-going attitude and charming sense of humour took me by surprise in a city where design and designers often take themselves and their work far too seriously.
In light of the poor representation I feel he received at LMFF I asked him if he’d share five minutes to answer some questions and help us learn a little bit more about Alexi Freeman, to which he kindly obliged.
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You have said that all of your designs start with sketching. What influences this process?
Designing is an intuitive process for me so it’s hard to pinpoint precisely what influences it, but I usually begin a collection with some automatic drawings. Meaning I sit down and basically see what comes out. I think this is influenced by pretty much everything that I have seen, heard or felt in the time leading up to that moment; like the music I’m listening too, perhaps some art that I’ve seen, the cracks in the pavement or the clouds that I’ve seen lately…
Your collections appear to evolve organically, signature prints span over several seasons – how do you keep your collections fresh while maintaining your strong aesthetic?
Although my chosen medium is fashion, I don’t really feel the need to reinvent the wheel each season. So despite the fact that I do adhere to the seasonal collection format, I continue to explore concepts, print motifs, fabrications, silhouettes etc according to where I’m at in the progression of my own ideas. So it’s not so much of an ‘out with the old in with the new’ process but more of a redefining of what’s relevant each season. Adding some volume here, losing some pleating there, designing new textile motifs (or reworking existing ones) adding a few new colours into the mix and releasing another collection that is hopefully simultaneously more exciting, relevant and wearable then the last. Each collection is a work in progress I guess…
You are based in Melbourne, a city notorious for fashion that takes itself too seriously. Yet your collection has a very playful and vivacious undertone. Is this in spite of your surroundings or because of them?
I’m serious about what I do, but I don’t take it (fashion) seriously if that makes sense. I’ve always thought that fashion is supposed to fun.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I always wanted to be an artist of some description. Initially a painter, but then I became really interested in sculpture and printmaking at art school. I think this had a lot to do with growing up in Hobart, as there’s quite a strong art culture down there but there’s pretty much no fashion industry per se, so it wasn’t until I moved to Melbourne that I realised it was the medium of fashion that I really wanted to explore.
How did you fall into fashion design?
I was working as an artist late last century, making a few clothes for myself on the side, and I knew some dancers who commissioned me to make some costumes for them. From there, I started getting some requests for made to measure pieces, and I guess it just kinda snow balled from there. I eventually realized that I actually enjoyed designing clothes more then making art, so that was pretty much the genesis of my label.
At what point did you know you wanted to pursue it legitimately as a career and not just as a hobby?
Being creative has never really been a hobby for me, as ever since high school I have devoted myself to creative pursuits, but it wasn’t until I finished my Fine Art Degree in 2004 that I pushed all other creative pursuits aside to pursue my fashion label exclusively.
Where do you turn to for design inspiration?
Perhaps it’s a cliché but the only place I really turn too for inspiration is within. I find if I actively look for inspiration from other sources, be it existing fashion, architecture, music etc… it generally just leaves me more overwhelmed then when I started, but if I sit down and draw, one thing leads to another and I eventually come up with a collection of ideas which I think are worth putting out there.
Recommend one album, book or film/TV program that is inspiring you right now.
The Stooges Raw Power (1973) has to be one of my all time faves… If that doesn’t get your heart pumping nothing will.
If you couldn’t work as a fashion designer and had to pick another career what would it be?
I would probably play drums in a band or take up springboard diving although I think I may have left my run a little late for the latter.
What’s next for Alexi Freeman the brand?
I’ve just finished my SS1011 Diamondiferous collection (which includes collaborative accessories with jeweller Tessa Blazey) so I will be launching that during MSFW in Melbourne in September, 2010
What’s next for Alexi Freeman the man?
Hopefully some excitement… All work and no play makes Alexi a dull boy!
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Visit Alexi Freeman online at http://www.alexifreeman.com/
