We’re bursting with excitement at Rescu. over our latest fashion titbit – and it’s hot off the press. Read on about the major coup Aussie model Robyn Lawley’s just scooped, plus trend updates and a shock at Burberry…
She’s been a household name in Australia for a while.
Now Robyn Lawley has broken into the modelling big time – and broken some barriers in the process.
She’s just been announced as the very first plus-size face of American designer Ralph Lauren.
Lauren, which had a notorious Photoshopping scandal a few years ago, is seeking to turn its image around, and has hired Lawley for their new print campaign.
This isn’t just a single editorial or some catwalk work – this is big, and it’s a first for plus-size models as well as Aussie Lawley.
Lawley, who’s 6’2″, made headlines across the world with the announcement, which was so big it was shown live on Good Morning America.
Previously Lawley has been in Vogue and ad campaigns for lingerie, but this marks her first massive campaign for a top-tier designer.
Lawley, a size Australian 12 who became a plus-size model at 19, is one of an increasing guard of plus-sizes who’ve taken on international modelling campaigns. She now ranks alongside Candice Huffine as one of the top-paid plus-size models in the world.
Check out Lawley’s new campaign photo – what do you think?
Image: Robyn Lawley for Ralph Lauren.
Everybody thought the luxury fashion world was almost recession-proof, with China experiencing such a major boom and buying so many Dior handbags.
However, that illusion popped when Burberry, one of China’s most-loved brands, announced that its sales were beginning to stagnate and fall.
Statistics about profit and loss may seem dry and unfashionable, but they’re life or death even to big brands, and control which fashion shows they attend, where they open stores, and who they can afford to employ.
Burberry has been one of the major luxury success stories in recent years, and its show in London this week met with rave reviews – but behind the scenes, the share price of the house dropped 21%.
It’s not a good sign for luxury retailers, who have been struggling to make an impact in the recession-hit world by slashing prices or looking to millionaires to prop them up.
Burberry will still stand to make about $450million this year in profits – but that’s not a boom year for a retailer where a single coat costs thousands.
It’s beginning to seem as if, once the boom in China begins to decrease, a lot of fashion houses might have to shift their focus – or risk going under.
Image: Burberry.
London Fashion Week has been flooded with Aussie designers – but it comes at a price.
Dion Lee, Willow, Antipodium and sass & bide are all showing in London this season – and sass & bide have already earned rave reviews.
However, all the designers showed in London after abandoning the Australian fashion show circuit as unrewarding, some notoriously pulling out at the last minute.
Willow designer Kit Podgornik says that London is much fresher and more directional, and that Australian Fashion Week is badly timed and less attractive to designers.
She says AFW is ‘too late’ for international buyers, “straight after the Paris shows”, and that to get buyers interested Australian designers have to show earlier in the season.
Shows aren’t all about displaying wares for us to coo over – they’re a business demonstration, as international stockists and stores like Net-a-Porter sit front row and determine who they’d like to stock.
However, most buyers only have a limited budget – and once they meet it, that’s it. If you show too late, you risk being excluded from their already-full list.
So Lee, Antipodium and the rest have made the strategic choice and decamped to London for wider exposure and a better shot at international buyers – unpatriotic though it seems.
What do you think – how can Australian Fashion Week position itself better on the landscape?
Image: Dion Lee in London 2013.
London Fashion Week is traditionally the punkish, less elegant younger sister of the big shows in Paris and Milan.
However, this time around the mood was decidedly different: girlish, flirtation-heavy, and decidedly young.
Rescu. covered Vivienne Westwood’s Red Label extravaganza of 1940s demented dresses, but the prevailing mood elsewhere was on short skirts, petticoats and lace.
The shift from last season’s pale, frosted pastels to a more indulgent, detailed girliness is the big fashion story.
Meadham Kirchhoff showed a collection full of polka dots and whimsy, with frills, exposed corsetry and some very Marie Antoinette bodices. We loved the fin de siecle details – luxurious but not heavy.
Jasper Conran, king of Brit minimalism, showed a collection of sweet, delicate, white-and-red tennis skirts and flippy dresses on barefoot models, with lots of broderie anglais and cherry motifs.
Even newer faces like Melissa Diamantidi went the girlish route, incorporating A-line dress silhouettes – the big silhouette of the season – into lashings of tulle and mesh overlays.
And Christopher Kane, who makes his name on the edgier side of fashion, showed a few pieces which were decidedly delicate, including one amazing skirt that used ribbon cut like origami.
So get out your pink-shaded lipsticks and your eyelash curler – spring/summer this year is all about embracing fresh femininity.
Image: Meadham Kirchhoff.
