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 HALO COLLEC TION
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B R I S B A N E | P E R T H K I N G S T. | C L A R E M O N T | A D E L A I D E

GEORGJENSEN.COM
 CONTENTS

September 2018
60 EDITOR’S LETTER
68 CONTRIBUTORS
74 VOGUE VIDEO
76 VOGUE VAULT
84 VOGUE VOICE
86 SNAPSHOT

Viewpoint
88
LEATHER WEATHER
The tactility and warmth of leather is amplified
in new and beguiling incarnations.

100
POWER DRESSING
Empowerment is the captivating directive
to put first this season.

Kylie Jenner wears an
Alexander Wang jacket and
shorts. Beauty note: Kylie
Cosmetics Koko Kollection
Face Palette; make up
artist’s own lip balm and
brow products.
Stylist: Christine Centenera
112
A gripping piece; Fine act; A hand-made tale.
116
IT CROWD
Start the rollcall: the Australian labels whipping
up buzz like no others.
122
LIVING COLOUR
She hails from an esteemed line of artists, but
Camille Olsen-Ormandy has developed a style

V O L L X I I I N O 9 W H O L E N O 6 5 1   * R E CO M M E N D E D P R I C E
Photographer:
Jackie Nickerson of painting that’s very much her own.
Hair: Jenny Kim
Make up: Ariel 126
Manicure:
Modern Pamper Salon WRAP SUPERSTARS
High-sheen fabrics serve as precious patinas
for the season’s best looks.

132
A CULTURE OF CHIC
Sandro is the French go-to label for Parisian
street-wise fashion.

46 SEPTEMBER 2018
 CONTENTS
September 2018
136
TIME TO SHINE
From her formative years in Adelaide to
the runways of Paris, Adut Akech shares her
journey to the top as a young black model.
140
TREASURE SEEKER
Sophie Bille Brahe is the first homegrown
creative to design for Danish house
Georg Jensen in more than a decade.
144
CLIQUE TO BUY
Want in on autumn/winter ’18/’19? Discover
instant update pieces that don’t require waiting
for a weather change.
152
BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE
The disruptive wave that broke over fashion has left
the gilded gates of the industry wide open. So who’s
116 inside, and what have they done to high fashion?
156
HOME AND AWAY
New York-based “non-Australian Australian”
designer Matthew Adams Dolan on why he’s
kicking traditional streetwear to the curb.
Arts
160
SHOW OF STRENGTH
The Australian Ballet’s stunning new production
of Spartacus is a gritty examination of masculinity.
164
FACING FACTS
Ronan Farrow, who shared a Pulitzer Prize for
his reporting of the Harvey Weinstein scandal,
discusses the power of investigative journalism
with New Yorker editor David Remnick.
50
166
CALL ME AUDREY
Meet Audrey Mason-Hyde: a non-binary teenager
who doesn’t identify as a girl or a boy and who is
helping to break down gender identity perceptions.
170
TIME TO MAN UP
Writer Richard Clune, who has just released a
book on how to be a modern man, pays tribute to
Father’s Day with a heartfelt letter to his children.
Beauty
176
COLOUR CHAMELEON
As bold as it is empowering, fierce colour took
hold this season via sunset eyes, tattoo-effect
lips and blush that means business.
184
GROUND FORCE
With a renewed focus on the superpower of
natural ingredients, Jurlique’s latest launch
takes seed to skin quite literally.
186
BRAVE NEW WORLD
The beauty missive from the autumn/winter
’18/’19 shows was clear: be unafraid to
experiment with your make-up; the bolder
the better for the season ahead.
192
FIRED UP D A N B E L E U J A K E T E R R E Y E D WA R D U R R U T I A
From this season’s runways to the celebrity
circuit, redheads are red hot.
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SEPTEMBER 2018
 CONTENTS

September 2018

196
UNDER THE INFLUENCE
An entire generation’s obsession with beauty
YouTubers such as teenager James Charles,
is not as shallow as it seems.
200
TOP NOTES
This season’s focus on exposed necklines is a
timely reminder that we need to take care of the
most delicate area of our skin – the décolletage.
Fashion
208
LIFE OF KY
Mother, influencer and almost-billionaire, Kylie
Jenner talks to her sister Kendall about work,
motherhood and what matters to her the most.
224
SHAPE OF YOU
The new season is upon us, all strong shapes,
extreme polish and so much personality – shout
out to yourself.
236
UPSTATE
Flowers mix with fine prints to create a sense
of nostalgia and fading charm in a luscious
garden of earthly delights.
272
THE ROCKAWAYS
New wave is new again, a gutsy glitz of mini-
dresses with lashings of post-punk leather and a
vinyl-slick polish. Pull it all on and play it on repeat.
Features
250
BROTHERS IN BAROQUE
For his final tour, Elton John will wow the
crowds in elaborate looks commissioned from
his “creative twin”, Gucci’s Alessandro Michele.
The admiration, it so happens, is mutual.
268
QUEEN B
Comedian Celeste Barber discusses
conquering the US, her bestie Tom Ford
and the pitfalls and pratfalls of fame.
284
REALITY BYTES
All is not as it seems … Welcome to the world of
the digital supermodel.
290
SUSPICIOUS MINDS
A wave of true-crime podcasts are fascinating
Australians and helping reopen unsolved murders
while reinvigorating investigative journalism.

BL AIR BREITENSTE N SHARIF HAMZA JASON KIBBLER

254
EXTRA, EXTRA
The lone maxim from the autumn/winter ’18/’19
collections to live by: zero in on accessories
dripping in excess; ignore everything else.
292
MEET THE PARENNIALS
What are millennials’ attitudes to parenting
and their hopes for their children’s future?

260 301 VOGUE SOIRÉE

PRESS RESET 305 HOROSCOPES
Fashion’s most iconic staples are suddenly
310 LAST WORD
made fresh again.

54 SEPTEMBER 2018
 Edwina McCann
Editor in Chief editor@vogue.com.au

D eput y E d it or a nd Fe at u re s D i re c t or S OPH I E T E DM A NS ON
features@vogue.com.au

Fa sh ion D i re c t or C H R I ST I N E C E N T E N E R A

Cre at i ve D i re c t or at L a r ge A L I S ON V E N E S S

ART art@vogue.com.au
A r t D i re c t or M A N DY A L E X
D eput y A r t D i re c t or DIJA N A M A DDI S ON D e sig ner A RQU E T T E C O OK E

FASHION fashion@vogue.com.au
S en ior Fa sh ion E d it or K AT E DA RV I L L
Fa sh ion E d it or a nd Ma rket D i re c t or PH I L I PPA MORON E Y
Ju n ior Fa sh ion E d it or PE T TA C H UA Ma rket E d it or K A I L A M AT T H E WS
Ju n ior Ma rket E d it or R E BE C CA S H A L A L A Fa sh ion A s si s t a nt R E BE C CA B ON AV I A

BOOK INGS bookings@vogue.com.au

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FASHION FEATURES vogue@vogue.com.au

Fa sh ion Fe at u re s a nd C ont ent St rat e g y D i re c t or Z A R A WONG
S en ior Fa sh ion Fe at u re s E d it or A L IC E BI R R E L L

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S en ior B e aut y a nd He a lt h E d it or R E M Y R I PP ON
He a lt h E d it or at L a r ge JODY S C O T T B e aut y S p e cia l P roje c t s R IC K Y A L L E N

COPY copy@vogue.com.au
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Su s t a i na bi l it y E d it or at L a r ge C L A R E PR E S S

A r t s Wr it er JA N E A L BE R T

Ma na g i ng E d it or L OU I S E BRYA N T

DIGITA L vogue@vogue.com.au
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CONTRIBUTORS
A L IC E CAVA N AGH ( Pa r i s) V IC T OR I A C OL L I S ON (S p e cia l P roje c t s E d it or) PI PPA HOLT ( L ondon) N ATA S H A I NC H L E Y ( Fa sh ion)

EDITORIA L ADMINISTR ATION AND RIGHTS

D ig it a l A s s et s a nd R ig ht s Ma na ger T RU DY BI E R N AT D ig it a l A s s et s a nd R ig ht s C o ord i nat or J E S S ICA R IC H MON D

Nat iona l S a le s a nd St rat e g y D i re c t or, St y le N IC OL E WAU DBY (02) 8 0 4 5 4 6 61 .

He ad of Bra nd St rat e g y, St y le M E R RY N DH A M I (02) 92 8 8 10 9 0. He ad of D ig it a l C om mercia l St rat e g y, St y le A M A N DA S PAC K M A N (02) 8 0 4 5 4 6 5 8 .  
NS W Group S a le s Ma n a ger C H E Y N E H A L L (02) 8 0 45 4 6 67.
NS W Key Ac c ou nt Ma n a ger s K AT E C OR BE T T (02) 8 0 4 5 47 3 7. CAT H E R I N E PAT R IC K (02) 8 0 4 5 4 613 .
D ig it a l Bra nd Ma na ger K R I ST I N A K A R A S S OU L I S (02) 92 8 8 1743 . Bra nd St rat eg y Ma na ger T E S SA DI XON (02) 8 0 4 5 474 4 .
He ad of St rat e g ic Pa r t ner sh ip s H A N N A H DAV I D W R IGH T (02) 8 0 4 5 49 8 6 . P roje c t Ma n a ger Pa r t ner sh ip s K AT E DW Y E R (02) 92 8 8 10 0 9.
S en ior C a mpa ig n I mplement at ion Ma na ger S OPH I E G A L L AGH E R (02) 92 8 8 3 92 9. NS W Ac c ou nt E xe c ut i ve s , St y le E L I Z A C ON NOR (02) 92 8 8 132 4 . G A R I N E H T ORO S S I A N (02) 8 0 4 5 4 6 5 3 .
Vic t or ia S a le s D i re c t or, St y le K A R E N C L E M E N T S (0 3) 92 92 32 02 . Vic t or ia He ad of S a le s E L I S E DE S A N T O (0 3) 92 92 162 1 . Vic t or ia Group B u si ne s s Ma n a ger N A DI N E DE N I S ON (0 3) 92 92 32 2 4 .
Vic t or ia He ad of D i re c t S a le s & Pa r t ner sh ip s JO C ONSTA BL E (0 3) 92 92 32 0 3 . Vic t or ia C a mpa ig n I mplement at ion Ma n a ger R E BE C CA RODE L L (0 3) 92 92 195 1 .
Q ue en sla nd C om mercia l D i re c t or, L i fe s t y le RO S E W E GN E R (0 7) 3 6 6 6 69 0 3 . Vic t or ia Ac c ou nt E xe c ut i ve S A R A H JA N E BAC ON (0 3) 92 92 32 0 8 .
C la s si f ie d Ad ver t i si ng R E BE C CA W H I T E 13 0 0 13 9 3 0 5 . A sia : K I M K E NC H I NGT ON , Me d iawork s A sia (8 52) 2 8 82 1 10 6 .

Ad ver t i si ng Cre at i ve D i re c t or R IC H A R D M C AU L I F F E Ad ver t i si ng Cre at i ve Ma n a ger E VA C HOW N

Ad ver t i si ng Cre at i ve P ro duc er S A R A H M U RY
Cre at i ve S er v ic e s S en ior A r t D i re c t or s A M A N DA A N DE R S ON CA RY N I S E M A N N
Ad ver t i si ng C opy E d it or s A N N E T T E FA R NS WOR T H BRO OK E L E W I S ROB BA DM A N

P ro duc t ion Ma n a ger M IC H E L L E O ’ BR I E N Ad ver t i si ng P ro duc t ion C o ord i n at or ROBY N N E BE AVA N

G enera l Ma n a ger, R et a i l S a le s a nd Ci rc u lat ion BR E T T W I L L I S Su b s c r ipt ion s Ac q u i sit ion Ma n a ger GR A N T DU R I E Su b s c r ipt ion s R et ent ion Ma n a ger C RYSTA L E W I NS

G enera l Ma na ger, D ig it a l ST UA R T FAG G

He ad of P ro duc t D e sig n A L E X FAW DR AY D ig it a l D e sig ner Y E A R A C H A H A M

Ma rket i ng D i re c t or DI A N A K AY D ig it a l Ma rket i ng Ma n a ger S H A N NON W Y L I E Bra nd Ma n a ger R AC H E L C H R I ST I A N

Event s Ma rket i ng Ma n a ger N ATA L I E H E A DL A N D Event s Ma n a ger GE N E V I E V E M C CA S K I L L Ma rket i ng C o ord i n at or S H E L BY A L L E N

D i re c t or of C om mu n ic at ion s S H A RY N W H I T T E N
G enera l Ma n a ger, New s P re s t ige Net work A N DR E W C O OK
Publisher, News Prestige Network NICHOLAS GR AY

VO GU E AUST R A L I A m a ga z i ne i s pu bl i she d by New sL i feMe d ia P t y Lt d (AC N 0 8 8 92 3 9 0 6). I S S N 0 0 4 2 8 019. New sL i feMe d ia P t y Lt d i s a w hol l y ow ne d s u b sid ia r y
of New s L i m it e d (AC N 0 0 7 8 7 1 178). C opy r ig ht 2 018 by New sL i feMe d ia P t y Lt d . A l l r ig ht s re s er ve d . 2 Holt St re et , Su r r y H i l l s , NS W 2 010. Tel : (02) 92 8 8 3 0 0 0.
Po s t a l add re s s: Vog ue A u s t ra l ia , New sL i feMe d ia , L evel 1 , L o cke d B a g 5 0 3 0, A lex a nd r ia , NS W 2 015 . E m a i l : e d it vog ue au s t @ vog ue .c om . au .
Melb ou r ne of f ic e : H W T Tower, L evel 5 , 4 0 Cit y R oad , S out h ba n k , Vic t or ia 3 0 0 6 . Tel : (0 3) 92 92 2 0 0 0. Fa x : (0 3) 92 92 32 9 9.
Br i sba ne of f ic e : 4 1 C a mpb el l St re et , B owen H i l l s , Q ue en sla nd 4 0 0 6 . Tel : (0 7) 3 6 6 6 6910. Fa x : (0 7) 3 62 0 2 0 01 .

Su b s c r ipt ion s: w it h i n A u s t ra l ia , 13 0 0 6 5 6 93 3 ; over s e a s: (61 2) 92 82 8 02 3 . E m a i l : s u b s @ m a g s on l i ne .c om . au .

Su b s c r ipt ion s m a i l : Ma g s on l i ne , R epl y Pa id 8 70 5 0, Syd ney, NS W 2 0 01 (no s t a mp re q u i re d). We b sit e : w w w.vog ue .c om . au .

C ondé Na s t I nt er n at ion a l JON AT H A N N E W HOUS E C ha i r m a n a nd C h ief E xe c ut i ve WOL F G A NG BL AU P re sident

P r i nt e d by PM P L i m it e d . Pa p er f ibre i s f rom s u s t a i n a bl y m a n a ge d fore s t s a nd c ont rol le d s ou rc e s .

56 SEPTEMBER 2018
 VOGUE
Editor’s letter
I
t has been eight years since we lost Alexander McQueen, but with
the release of the documentary McQueen this month putting him
back in the spotlight, fellow Celt, friend and colleague Godfrey
Deeny remembers the man, his extraordinary talents and his
contribution to fashion in ‘Alexander the great’.
As Deeny points out, in the age of Instagram influencers who post live
feeds from shows, it’s hard to appreciate how much influence McQueen
wielded at the time, and just how coveted tickets were to see his artistry
first – and first-hand.
The lines at his shows resembled queues for rock concerts, although
street-style photographers weren’t yet on hand to capture the perfectly
dressed attendees. The scene often descended into an uncontrollable
crush, with those in the crowd brought to tears if they failed to get in.
So, as we celebrate Alexander McQueen in a social media-dominated
world, which he might not have imagined but would undoubtedly have
adapted to, we also highlight one of its greats, Kylie Jenner.
Captured in beautiful images by regular contributor Jackie Nickerson
and styled by Christine Centenera, here is Kylie as you haven’t seen her,
triumphant in Alexander Wang’s collection (which was somewhat of
60
a comeback from a dear friend of hers) on our cover, and in conversation
with her sister Kendall in the accompanying feature story. She is a
successful businesswoman who has turned the beauty world on its
head, and a perfect candidate for this season’s new power dressing.
Ushered in by a third wave of feminism (see Alice Cavanagh’s story
‘Power dressing’), the prevailing mood on the runways was an
unapologetic nod to Time’s Up and a battle cry for donning armour in a
brave new world. That manifested in a proliferation of protective
materials being used in everything from PVC boots to gloves, and huge
parkas to combat unpredictable weather. Elsewhere on the runways,
designers grappled with the concept of luxury. What is being challenged
is not the concept of exclusivity, craftsmanship or quality, but the right
to play taste-maker (as Alice Birrell writes in ‘Burning down the house’).
While you ponder these sometimes complex ideas (including the rise of
avatar influencers – see our story ‘Reality bytes’), take time out with this
JACKIE NICKERSON
issue to celebrate our wonderful Australian talent, too. We highlight the
best young designers in our Vogue Viewpoint pages, and you can’t go
past the hysterical Celeste Barber (Tom Ford’s latest social media muse),
who Vogue was entertained by while getting a mani – what else? ¤
SEPTEMBER 2018
r a l p h l a u r e n . c o m / 5 0
 VOGUE
Editor’s letter
September isn’t just a big month in terms of our bumper spring issue,
though, with this year’s huge Vogue American Express Fashion’s Night
Out (VAEFNO) returning to Melbourne on Friday, August 31 and to
Sydney on Thursday, September 6. Here’s a rundown of the event …
Join the Vogue team, your favourite Australian designers, celebrities
and special guest performer Starley for the official kick-off at midday in
Bourke Street Mall in Melbourne and Pitt Street Mall in Sydney. Then
after the launch moment, keep your eyes on the Vogue stage for live
music, celebrity Q&As and beauty how-tos.
American Express will be giving shoppers a great excuse to spend on
the night, offering card members $20 back when they spend $50 on their
American Express cards, up to three times on the night at participating
retailers; while the American Express luxe lounge pop-up allows card
members to recharge, relax and refresh with bespoke Gordon’s
Premium Pink Gin and delicious treats. Plus, spend more than $250 on
your American Express card and be eligible to spin-to-win on Vogue’s
wheel of prizes. Even if you’re not an American Express card member,
you still get to try the free soft-serve ice-cream the company is giving
away all day and night.
David Jones will bring shoppers a night of style and entertainment
with fashion shows, pop-up bars, styling, guest DJs, exclusive fashion
offers, complimentary beauty treatments and much more. The ‘man
cave’, a space for all male attendees, will also be back on the night.
For the first time, VAEFNO will be launching the Vogue Beauty Hub,
showcasing the best of beauty from brands including Carolina Herrera
Fragrance, Estée Lauder and Olay. Visit for treatments and advice and to
meet some of the brands’ friends and ambassadors. For your chance to get
up close and personal with Australia’s most popular beauty influencers,
62
Model Jessica Gomes
with Edwina McCann at
last year’s Vogue American
Express Fashion’s Night.
stop by the MAXCONNECTORS Talent Lab Live in Sydney to meet your
favourite YouTuber or beauty Instagrammer and grab a photo with the
hottest social squad in the digital beauty world.
To celebrate the start of the spring racing season, Vogue Australia is
inviting shoppers to visit the Gordon’s Premium Pink Gin Bar and
runway to savour a new Gordon’s Pink & Soda while taking in the best
Vogue spring racing fashion and beauty trends showcased on a live
pink runway.
Bassike has once again collaborated with the Vogue team on the design
of the official 2018 Vogue T-shirt. The covetable VAEFNO T-shirt ($100)
will be available in two colours at select Bassike and David Jones stores
and online from www.davidjones.com.au. New Era Caps has also
released limited-edition Vogue caps, which can be bought (and
personalised) from its pop-up and from David Jones, while Stylerunner
will have limited-edition Vogue bike shorts up for grabs from its hub on
the night.
Don’t miss your chance for additional prizes and special offers via the
fabulous Vogue vending machines in the city. And finally, my thanks to
the support of the City of Melbourne and City of Sydney, both of which
have made our special annual event possible.
For event updates and information, go to FNO.vogue.com.au and follow
@vogueaustralia.
GET T Y IMAGES
EDWINA MCCANN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
SEPTEMBER 2018
House of Spring 2018
VOGUE
Contributors
KENDALL JENNER
As one of the most famous sister
duos in the world, it doesn’t get
more captivating than Kendall
and Kylie Jenner. Interviewing her
younger sister for our cover story,
Kendall offers us an intimate
glimpse inside the Kardashian/
Jenner world and the sisters’ close
bond. Citing her favourite part of
being Kylie’s sister as “always
having a friend to turn to”,
Kendall adds she is most proud
of her sister for “being a boss”.
Which, considering Kylie is about
to become a billionaire, is a fair
call. As for conducting the cover
interview, the model says she
enjoyed the role reversal.
“Being able to interview for
Vogue is cool; usually I’m on
the other side of that.”
68
SHARIF HAMZA
While photographing ‘Upstate’,
Sharif Hamza was working
against the elements, battling
with rain most of the day to get
the perfect shot. “We wanted to
shoot during a warm and bright
day, but it unfortunately rained
all morning until 3pm, so we did
the entire shoot from 3pm to
7pm,” he says. On his favourite
aspect about the images from
the day, Hamza says he’s
proud of the variation of beauty
represented. “It’s a celebration of
Chinese beauty,” he says. “The
girls have very different features
and are very diverse from each
other, which is something I don’t
think is often acknowledged
within Asian beauty.”
AMELIA LESTER
When researching for her essay
‘Meet the parennials’, then
pregnant writer Amelia Lester
learnt a little along the way, too.
Speaking to millennial parents,
Lester was enlightened to all the
new forms of parenting popping
up in 2018, one being an ability to
future-proof. “I picked up a lot of
ideas, including setting up a Gmail
address for my newborn son to use
later in his life. More than that,
though, I got a sense of the varied
challenges parents face when they
embark on this journey at different
ages,” she said. “Becoming a
parent very young is no harder
than doing it older and vice-versa;
it’s just different.” Another major
takeaway? “Parennials love
to share Google docs.”
CAMERON
JAMES–WILSON
As the creator of Shudu, a
virtual-reality model initially
conceived as an art project and
now applied as an avatar in this
month’s story ‘Reality bytes’,
Cameron James-Wilson says he
drew inspiration for his construct
from the beauty icons he admired
during his childhood. “I was very
much inspired by Iman, Grace
Jones, Alek Wek and Naomi
Campbell. Growing up, these
incredible women were influential
in how I would come to view
beauty.” As for the future of
virtual models, James-Wilson is
sure we’ll see a lot more of them.
“Virtual models have the potential
to go in so many different
directions. I think we are on the
knife-edge of change and very
soon this will be a point we look
P H OTO G R A P H : I N S TA G R A M . CO M / K Y L I E J E N N E R
back on as a pivot in the industry.”
W O R D S : F R A N C E S C A WA L L A C E
SEPTEMBER 2 0 1 8
VOGUE
Contributors
GODFREY DEENY
As a close friend of designer
Alexander ‘Lee’ McQueen,
Godfrey Deeny’s poignant essay
in this month’s issue reflects
on the life of the influential
designer. Sharing his favourite
memories, Deeny thinks back
on his time spent with Lee with
happiness. “I enjoyed a close
friendship [with McQueen] from
his early days drinking in
London until a final dinner in
Milan three weeks before he
died,” he says. “My favourite
memories of him were his brutal
frankness and cackling laugh
after his shows in Milan, when he
would let his hair down and free-
associate about his diverse and
bizarre sources of inspiration.”
72
HORNSBY RSL BAGPIPE BAND
As key participants in ‘Highland fling’, the Hornsby RSL bagpipe band
members took their jobs on set very seriously. Amazed they had been
approached by Vogue, the band rose to the challenge, enjoying the chance
to share their favourite instrument. “The bagpipes are right up there as far
GRACE BOL as an instrument that can really draw out people’s emotions,” says Drum
Being on set for Vogue was Major Brian Thompson. “It’s extremely versatile and can adapt to a broad
practically a party for Grace Bol. range of genres – there is simply nothing like it.” Despite the bagpipes
The Sudanese-American model, initially being the centre of attention at the shoot, an unexpected visitor
who counts Victoria’s Secret, managed to steal the day. “One of the funniest moments was when
Oscar de la Renta and Erdem a gentleman was walking his Scottish terrier, and next thing the dog
as recent runways she’s walked, was in the photo shoot! We were all upstaged by the dog!”
worked with stylist Natasha Royt
and photographer Jason Kibbler
for ‘Shape of you’, leaping and
dancing her way through the day.
“My favourite part was jumping
from side to side,” she tells us,
sharing how she got carried away
at one point. “I jumped up too
high and missed the pictures.
[My] underwear was showing
… which wasn’t the part of
the styling!” I N S TA G R A M . CO M /G R A C E B O L J A K E T E R R E Y
SEPTEMBER 2 0 1 8
 Watch

Vogue

Australia

on

YouTube.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel Vogue Australia,

home to exclusive celebrity interviews,

behind-the-scenes access,

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www.youtube.com/vogueaustralia
74 SEPTEMBER 2018
 VO G U E VAU LT

Young hearts Condé Nast Internationa l

Cha irma n a nd Chief Executive: Jonatha n Newhouse
President: Wolfga ng Blau
Half a century ago, in one of the first September issues of Vogue Australia,
The Condé Nast Internationa l Group of Bra nds
we were just as obsessed with finding the best new young thing. includes:
UK
Vog ue, House & Ga rden, Brides, Tatler,
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Fra nce
Vog ue, Vog ue Hom mes, A D, Gla mou r, Vog ue Col lections,
G Q , A D Col lector, Va n it y Fa i r, G Q Le Ma nuel du St yle,
Gla mou r St yle
Ita ly
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Va n it y Fa i r, Wi red, La Cuci na It a l ia na
Germa ny
Vog ue, G Q , A D, Gla mou r, G Q St yle, Wi red
Spa in
Vog ue, G Q , Vog ue Nov ias, Vog ue Ni ños,
Condé Nast Traveler, Vog ue Colecciones,
Vog ue Bel leza , Gla mou r, A D, Va n it y Fa i r
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Ta iwa n
Vog ue, G Q , I ntercu lt u re
Mex ico a nd Latin A merica
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A D Mexico, GQ Mexico and Latin A merica,
Vanity Fair Mexico
India
Vog ue, G Q , Condé Nast Travel ler, A D

Published under Joint Venture:

Bra zil: Vog ue, Casa Vog ue, G Q , Gla mou r
Russia: Vog ue, G Q , A D, Gla mou r, G Q St yle, Tatler,
Gla mou r St yle Book

Published under License or Copy rig ht Cooperation:

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Brides, Condé Nast Center of Fash ion & Desig n, Vog ue Me
Czech Republic a nd Slova k ia: La Cuci na Ita lia na
Hunga r y: Gla mou r
Icela nd: Gla mou r
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Pola nd: Gla mou r
Por tuga l: Vog ue, G Q
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Russia: Vog ue Ca fé Moscow, Tatler Club Moscow
South A frica: House & Ga rden, G Q , Gla mou r,
House & Ga rden Gou rmet, G Q St yle, Gla mou r Ha i r
The Netherla nds: Vog ue, Gla mou r, Vog ue T he Book ,
Vog ue Ma n, Vog ue L iv i ng
Tha ila nd: Vog ue, G Q , Vog ue Lou nge Ba ng kok
Turkey: Vog ue, G Q
U k ra ine: Vog ue, Vog ue Ca fé K iev

Condé Nast USA

President a nd Chief Executive Of f icer:

W O R D S : F R A N C E S C A WA L L A C E P H OTO G R A P H : DAV I D H E W I S O N
Rober t A . Sauerberg, Jr.
A r tistic Director: A n na Wi ntou r

Vog ue, Va n it y Fa i r, Gla mou r, Brides, Self, G Q , G Q St yle,

T he New Yorker, Condé Nast Traveler, A l lu re, A D,
Bon Appétit, Epicu rious, Wi red, W, Golf Digest,
Golf World, Teen Vog ue, A rs Tech n ica , T he Scene,

A s the hemlines got shorter and the parties longer, Vogue in September of 1965 was Pitch fork , Backcha n nel

celebrating all things youthful. Just as we are now, more than 50 years later, Vogue
was the pinnacle of what’s next and the barometer of what’s considered chic.
Youthquake, a term adopted for the issue by then-editor Sheila Scotter (the founding editor
of Vogue Australia, who reigned until 1971), was all about pinning down what was described
as the ‘young idea’ – or which designers were making waves. Naming the likes of Prue Acton,
Frank Mitchell, Sue Furze and Trent Nathan in the 14-page spread, we charted the rise of the
‘no-longer-silent generation’ – all of whom would go on to shape the Australian fashion
Vog ue Austra lia
Subscription rate for 12 issues post pa id is $82 (w ith i n
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the exclusive rig ht to use those t radema rk s i n relation to
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Dist ributed by Gordon a nd Gotch Aust ra lia P t y Ltd,
tel 1300 650 666.

industry as we know it today.

76 SEPTEMBER 2018
MELBOURNE FASHION WEEK
31 AUG – 7 SEPT

Alexander the great
Eight years on from Alexander McQueen’s passing, fashion critic Godfrey Deeny reflects on the designer’s legacy.
F ashion is full of hyperbole. So this will sound like a
very tall statement. Before before Alexander ‘Lee’
McQueen exploded into fashion, designers were
seen to have occasional artistic moments; after him, the
truly great creators are reasonably regarded as fine artists.
Prior to McQueen, great designers like Coco Chanel or
Yves Saint Laurent collaborated with great artists like
Picasso or Jean Cocteau. But after McQueen had enthralled,
enraged and exhilarated the world with his shows and
clothes that referenced war, destruction, surrealism and
sexual perversity, designers were left with little choice.
Their shows have to be artistic statements: anything less is
regarded as purely merchandising.
In our instant internet era, when wannabe bloggers in
standing put live feeds on Instagram, it’s hard to appreciate
how much influence and power McQueen once wielded.
But for some 15 years, his were the most anticipated shows
on the international calendar. Huge crowds would appear
at obscure locations – his favourite site in Paris was a dirty
underground boxing ring – with scores of fans breaking
into tears when they failed to cadge their way in.
I first met him backstage at a late-90s show, staged in a
garbage disposal plant on the Thames, and we bonded via
our Celtic roots, beginning a series of drinking sessions and
meals over the next decade in various fashion capitals all the
way to his final remarkable Paris show in October 2009,
named Plato’s Atlantis, though looking more like an
intergalactic space trip. In the show, H.R. Giger imagery
combined with photography of the Great Barrier Reef – in
fabrics that looked biologically grown in some lab. Praying
mantis crawling across a series of remarkable dresses, before
a Nick Knight film of a woman morphing into a bizarre
aquatic creature. A giant caged animal growled on the
soundtrack as the speakers hissed and sparkled. All looks
anchored by lobster-shaped footwear – biotechnology chic.
The final applause was always deafening. I recall one
particularly vivid standing ovation for his Barry Lyndon
show in the great Paris circus, Cirque d’hiver, with a
chamber orchestra and harpsichordist punching out
Handel’s Sarabande, the soundtrack of Stanley Kubrick’s
1975 film. McQueen’s ability to rifle through literally
centuries of fashion and instil each piece with his own
signature was uncanny. Whether it was a Regency vixen,
sophisticated 30s socialite or Victorian grand dame lace,
McQueen’s perverse dark side was essentially transparent.
Ultimately, Lee’s greatest source of pleasure and inspiration
was nature – jumbled up with technology. His Creationist
collection in October 2009 came after he read Darwin’s
Voyage of the Beagle. He built a menagerie of wild stuffed
animals for his set and blew the audience’s mind when Lily
Donaldson appeared in a mesh-covered cocktail dress of
84
VOGUE VOICE
a potpourri of fabric flowers. In effect, he led the whole
fashion movement into poetic romanticism and fashion
escapism as the 2008 economic crisis bit. It was best expressed
by Lee’s broken diamond and glass-print cocktails or stencil-
cut corsets, climaxing with a glass bead jumpsuit into which
model Jourdan Dunn must have been poured. He made
sneakers for Adidas in the shape of a black panther human
cat; his high-tech and gothic luggage for Samsonite in
black crocodile was moulded from a real human torso.
1. He had an erratic career: soaring to prominence right out of
Central Saint Martins when Isabella Blow bought his entire
first collection in 1992; designing David Bowie’s legendary
Union Jack tour coat; and landing the plum job of Givenchy
couturier in 1996, aged just 27. However, he stormed out of
Givenchy after a huge row with its owners, LVMH – and
some poisonous reviews by the French press – and then
stunned the industry by selling 51 per cent of his house to
rival conglomerate Kering, enticed over by Tom Ford, who
regarded Lee as the world’s most inventive designer.
And he did have his demons. Lee would go on wild
2. binges with his crew, downing ecstasy, MDMA and worse.
Fashion often kills its young. In May 2007, it claimed Lee’s
great champion Isabella Blow. In July this year came the
sad news of the death of Annabelle Neilson, his best pal.
Born the son of a London taxi driver, Lee loved an exotic
vacation, diving in the Maldives or skiing in Val-d’Isère,
where he spent his last Christmas with Neilson.
McQueen was always more focused on the Celtic periphery
than English centre. From his 1995 Highland Rape show to
his 2010 men’s show with an Irish title, An Bailitheoir
Cnamh, inspired by whalers and seafarers. That proved to be
his last bow. The Sunday night before, January 17, 2010, I had
dinner with Lee in Milan’s Four Seasons, his last interview.
He was in an irascible mood, complaining bitterly about
being dumped by a lover. “The bastard who went back to
Australia, and I was left looking at his name,” he grimaced,
pointing to a name tattooed on his right arm. But he
delighted in describing his home, PG Wodehouse’s Victorian
house in Mayfair, and how he had put giant flat-screen TVs
in every room, so he could watch nature documentaries
continually. In person, he managed to combine a salty
4. tongue with a gentle manner. He could ‘f’ and blind like a
Neapolitan gangster, called designers he didn’t like “stitch
1. McQueen with bitches”, yet had courtly manners. His most famous look
Magdalena Frackowiak
before his spring/ was a bumster, but he wore quite classic dark suits.
summer ’10 show. 2. Erin Quite frankly, since Lee’s death, no-one has really replaced
O’Connor backstage at
him. But one sees his influence in an entire generation of
Alexander McQueen
spring/summer ’01. 3. designers – from Jonathan Anderson and Demna Gvasalia
The designer in London, to Riccardo Tisci and Romance Was Born, to name just a few.
2000. 4. McQueen
A N N R AY
with Kate Moss for Sadly, like Icarus, Lee flew too close to the sun.
spring/summer ’01. McQueen the documentary is in cinemas September 6.
SEPTEMBER 2 0 1 8
VOGUE SNAPSHOT

Highland
fling
ST YLING PE T TA CH UA
PHOTOG R APH JAKE TER R E Y

F ollow the leaders: Miuccia Prada,

Donatella Versace and Gucci's
Alessandro Michele. What a clan to
join! They’re mighty frontrunners who won’t
lead you astray in the new-season versions of
tartan. A return to heritage fabrics isn’t new,
but wearing them as a statement print is. The
tartan that is singing out to us now is
90s-meets-Scottish-tradition, but reimagined
and re-coloured in new chromatic
combinations or blown up and made larger
than life, as in Miu Miu’s floor-skimmer. The
likes of Gucci, Erdem and Simone Rocha just
gave you permission to rummage through
grandma’s wardrobe. Waste no time and
get rifling. Alice Birrell

Lilla wears a Miu Miu jacket, $5,670, and shorts, $1,150.

Saint Laurent boots, $1,920. Members of the Hornsby
RSL Pipe Band wear their own Maclaine of Lochbuie
tartan uniforms.

86
 H A I R : P E T E L E N N O N M A K E- U P: P E T E R B E A R D M O D E L : L I L L A M O L N A R
A L L P R I C E S A P P R OX I M AT E D E TA I L S AT VO G U E .CO M . A U/ W T B

SEPTEMBER 2018 87
V O G U E

V I E W
LEATHER
WEATHER
Ever crave a soft touch? The
tactility and warmth of leather
is amplified in new and
beguiling incarnations.
By Alice Birrell.

ST YLING PH I LI PPA M O RO N E Y
PHOTOG R APHS JAKE TER R E Y

P O I N T
90
VOGUE V IEW POINT

JAKE TERREY
A L L P R I C E S A P P R OX I M AT E D E TA I L S AT VO G U E .CO M . A U/ W T B
YOUR FAN
Sunray pleats fanning out
from a focal point give
leather softness and levity,
taking it soundly into
the domain of down time.
Loewe dress, $4,990,
and shoes, $990.
IN-GRAINED
The buttery feel of a
luxurious day bag never
goes out of style, but select
an unexpected shade, like
Burberry’s smoke white.
Aje jacket, $695, and skirt, $395.
Burberry bag, $3,650.
SEPTEMBER 2018 91
VOGUE V IEW POINT

ALL PRICE S APPR OXIMATE DE TAIL S AT VO GUE .CO M . AU/ W TB

DAILY DOSE WEAVE A STORY

The sumptuous texture of Craftsmen can show off their skills

leather adds drama, even with this pliant material, as seen here
if the silhouette of an in this woven Chanel jacket. The best
everyday top and tailored part? In time it will mould ever so subtly
JAKE TERREY

slacks doesn’t change. to the wearer’s own shape.

Cos top, $350. Bally pants, $5,540, and shoes, $1,120. Chanel jacket, $21,670, from the Chanel
Albus Lumen head scarf, $280, worn on neck. boutiques. Scanlan Theodore belt, $260.

92
SEPTEMBER 2018 93
 96
VOGUE V IEW POINT

SEPTEMBER 2018
JAKE TERREY
A L L P R I C E S A P P R OX I M AT E D E TA I L S AT VO G U E .CO M . A U/ W T B
VOGUE V IEW POINT
TREND REPORT
Power dressing
Empowerment is the captivating directive to
put first this season, writes Alice Cavanagh.
W
hat a time to be a woman. As we ride the crest
of third-wave feminism, propelled forward
by the resounding shouts of ‘Time’s Up’ and
‘MeToo’, there is a new sense of solidarity among females.
We’re ‘woke’, as they say, to a pervading sense of awareness
and it infiltrates our everyday thoughts, words, actions
and the way we dress. This is ultimately about women
dressing for themselves. Be it subtle – the start of a new
chapter for the monarchy as the new royal Meghan Markle
bares her shoulders on her wedding day – or out there, as
when Cate Blanchett so unapologetically put it as she
accepted a style award during the post-Weinstein news
cycle. “For me, the true icons of style are always those
women who’ve been utterly themselves without apology,”
she said, adding: “I mean, you know we all like looking
sexy, but it doesn’t mean we want to fuck you …”
Dressing for this new era was the prevailing mood of the
autumn/winter ’18/’19 collections, which suggested that
this season, women, more empowered than ever, will
answer the battle cry by donning armour before they head
out into this brave new world. Some of the season’s strongest
propositions – Calvin Klein, Prada, Balenciaga and Maison
Margiela – made a case for this idea by bundling models up
in layers upon layers and larger-than-life outerwear. At
Balenciaga, I lost count of the number of parkas styled in
any one look, while at Calvin Klein, Raf Simons sent out the
girls in high-vis firefighter suits and jackets, PVC wading
boots and silver foil protection gloves. The look was mashed
up with austere, yet sheer, Little-House-on-the-Prairie dresses,
his staple cowboy shirts and a line-up of oversized coats in
checks and tweeds, along with knitted balaclavas. It was
a strange mix, but it worked, and this haphazard approach
to styling reverberated throughout the season.
Take John Galliano at Maison Margiela, another designer
who saw fit to pile it all on, although his girl was in such a
hurry to leave the house that she dressed in reverse: trench
coats were layered under dresses, a jumper thrown on over
a blazer. There were also PVC hoods, puffer jackets and
tailored overcoats in Yves Klein Blue and yellow – a look
that was topped off with the chunky kicks he calls Security
Margiela sneakers. It was a far cry from the romanticism
Galliano was long known for, but this reflects the whole
new life he has created for himself at Margiela.
To be clear, the trend is not about covering up so we can
tiptoe around unnoticed, nor is it a reflection of a pessimistic
mood. Instead, it was the idea of freedom that inspired
Miuccia Prada and Simons et al – and the new, layered look
is not for a wallflower. It is loud and colourful – shiny and
happy, even. At Balenciaga, Prada – where a Day-Glo palette
100
was cleverly spliced with a patchwork of techno tweeds,
plaids and trippy prints – Balmain and Sonia Rykiel, the
models looked ready to rave in a mishmash of acid hues. At
Margiela, the collection was awash with iridescent,
BALENCIAGA A/W ’18/’19
reflective, flash-sensitive and hologram fabrics – worn with
lips to match. The same goes for Paco Rabanne, where chain-
mail slip dresses shimmied down the runway, and Givenchy,
where evening dresses dripped with silver paillettes. If this
season’s woman is protected against anything, it is from a
need to overthink the way we dress, and whom we dress
for. “My dream,” Prada told the press backstage, “is for
women to be able to go out in the street and not be afraid.
I wanted to have the freedom exaggerated.”
Despite the abundance of padded outerwear, femininity
is still resolutely in the picture. At Prada, the silhouette
was ladylike: shift dresses, swathed in tulle, worn with
fluorescent evening gloves that stretched past the elbow. At
Fendi, too, the girls were readying for battle in subtler ways.
Here, it was a suggestion in the shoulder, which was neat
and boxy on tailored dresses, and flattering coats that were
SONIA RYKIEL A/W ’18/’19
imbued with a perfect mix of the masculine-feminine:
suiting fabrics on the body, topped off with what looked like
collars fashioned from antique lace. “A romantic uniform for
a strong and powerful woman of today,” said Silvia Venturi
Fendi. At Givenchy, a well-defined shoulder also gave
eveningwear more backbone than usual.
At Christian Dior, a touch of the homespun and artisanal
appeared in the form of patchwork skirts, jackets and
dresses (also, with lace collars). The craftiness of this
collection – a boho mix of crochet and flower-power
embroidery – called to mind the French student riots of 1968,
when, like today, an incensed population took to the streets.
Maria Grazia Chiuri has used her collections as a mouthpiece
for feminism in the past, but this season, by avoiding the
desire to spell it out, the message was much more inspiring.
Elsewhere, that mood of free-spiritedness rolled on, at
Chloé, Isabel Marant, Jacquemus and Hermès, where a
nomadic mood took over via folkloric details and earthy,
desert hues. Jacquemus took us to the Moroccan souk, while
Chloé’s eternally romantic wanderer continues to evolve
with the talent of Natacha Ramsay-Levi. For her second
collection, Ramsay-Levi – a soul sister if ever there was one
– presented dresses and handkerchief skirts in lengths that
whirled around the knees with necklines that plunged
down to the navel. It was a silhouette purpose-built for
confidence – subtly sexy and beautifully embellished with
embroidery, sequins, lace panelling and even fringing.
On a fringing note, I’m willing to bet you’ll seek out
a garment or accessory with fringing this season, as it was
seen everywhere from Valentino and Alexander McQueen
– to punctuate sleeves and hemlines – to Dries Van Noten,
where it gave form and movement to simple draped skirts
and evening dresses. The reference to movement here is
everything, because that’s what fringing does so nicely: it
quivers, shimmies and sways along with the wearer. It’s not
an adornment for those who sit still, or sit back – it embraces
a woman on the move. Onwards and upwards.
 ALL
BRIGHT
ALL

MARNI A/W ’18/’19

RIGHT
“IT’S THE
CONSTANT
STRUGGLE
BETWEEN
RETAINING
FEMININITY AND
BEING STRONG,”
SAID MIUCCIA
PRADA, SUMMING
UP THE VISUAL
PUNCH OF THE
NEW NEONS.
DULLING DOWN
EQUATES NOW

PRADA A/W ’18/’19

TO FADING AWAY,
SO TREAD THE
ELECTRIC WAY.
MOSCHINO A/W ’18/’19
JEREMY SCOTT A/W ’18/’19

PRADA A/W ’18/’19

PRADA A/W ’18/’19
 VOGUE V IEW POINT

THE
FLASH
ROCKETING THE
SEASON INTO
SPACE WERE
AUDACIOUSLY
FOILED FEMME
FATALES ALL
PAINTED WITH A
SILVER-PLATED
BRUSH FROM
BALMAIN TO
CHRISTOPHER KANE A/W ’18/’19

GIVENCHY.
SEETHING AND
SIMMERING INTO

ISABEL MARANT A/W ’18/’19

A SINUOUS MIX,
THE NEW SILVER
HAS FLASH
FOR DAYS.
BALMAIN A/W ’18/’19
GIVENCHY A/W ’18/’19

I N D I G I TA L
TAYLOR HILL S T. C O L L I N S L A N E , E M P O R I U M , C H A D S T O N E ,
FA L L / W I N T E R 18-19 CH ATS WOOD CH A SE , PACIFIC FA IR .
SA NDRO-PA R IS.COM S E L E C T E D DAV I D J O N E S S T O R E S
VOGUE V IEW POINT

BALMAIN A/W ’18/’19

LOUIS VUITTON A/W ’18/’19

PROTECT
ME
HAZMAT-
REFLECTIVE AND
MAISON MARGIELA A/W ’18/’19

ACID ORANGE
SPELT AN
END-OF-DAYS
STATE OF MIND.
HEED DESIGNERS’
WARNINGS:
WE’RE HEADED TO
AN UNCERTAIN
FUTURE, SO SUIT
UP IN YOUR
PROTECTIVE BEST. I N D I G I TA L

104
 A WORLD OF OROTON
-
C E L E B R AT I N G 8 0 Y E A R S
SINCE 1938
VOGUE V IEW POINT
PURE
GLORY
FOAMY ORGANZA,
PRECIOUS
OPENWORK AND
AERATED SKIRTS TO
TRAIL THE FLOOR
INHABITED THE
DREAMIER PORTION
OF THE SEASON AS
AN ANTIDOTE
TO BRASSIER
PALETTES. STICK
TO MILK WHITE,
CUSTARD
AND PALEST
STRAWBERRY.
C

I N D I G I TA L

106 SEPTEMBER 2 0 1 8
 A WORLD OF OROTON
-
C E L E B R AT I N G 8 0 Y E A R S
SINCE 1938
VOGUE V IEW POINT

MARNI A/W ’18/’19

ALEXANDER MCQUEEN A/W ’18/’19

BALENCIAGA A/W ’18/’19

CHRISTIAN DIOR A/W ’18/’19

L AY
P L AY R
WHERE TO GO NE
AFTER THE OODLES
OF VOLUME OF
LATE? LAYERS, OF
COURSE, PILED ON
GUCCI A/W ’18/’19

WITH MEASURED
MESSINESS.
IT’S ABOUT A
HAPHAZARD MOOD
AND A FEELING OF
COMFORTABLE
SWADDLING
I N D I G I TA L

AGAINST THE
ELEMENTS.

108 SEPTEMBER 2 0 1 8
 The Ultimate Luxury Jewellery
& Swiss Watch Destination®

Official stockists of

Doncaster Shopping Centre | Chadstone Shopping Centre | +61 3 9569 1000 | antonjewellery.com
VOGU VIEWPOINT
DOLCE & GABBANA A/W ’18/’19

TOM FORD A/W ’18/’19

VICTORIA BECKHAM A/W ’18/’19

GIVENCHY A/W ’18/’19

BOTTEGA VENETA A/W ’18/’19

R13 A/W ’18/’19

GET
WILD
TOM FORD’S
LEOPARD PRINT
WAS SNARLINGLY
SEXY, DOLCE AND
GABBANA’S
ZEBRA WASN’T
LOOKING TO BE
CAMOUFLAGED,
AND PROENZA
PROENZA SCHOULER A/W ’18/’19

SCHOULER’S
TIGER IS NOT
ONE FOR
CROUCHING. TH
CALL OF THE
I N D I G I TA L

WILD IS LOUD
THIS SEASON.

110
 The Ultimate Luxury Jewellery
& Swiss Watch Destination®

Official stockists of

Doncaster Shopping Centre | Chadstone Shopping Centre | +61 3 9569 1000 | antonjewellery.com
VOGUE V IEW POINT

It crowd
labels whipping up buzz like no others.
Delve into their worlds, follow their next
moves, join their tribes. By Alice Birrell.
ST YLING K AI L A MAT TH E WS
PHOTOG R APHS JAKE TER R E Y

ALBUS LUMEN
Editing ruthlessly is the sign of a good
fashion editor and has been the basis
of stylist Marina Afonina’s stripped-back
summer aesthetic that is going global,
despite its baby age of three. Her followers
– refined, restrained and more likely to
be on holidays than not – appreciate the
sun-worshipper vibe emanating through
her palettes of baked terracotta, navy and
clotted cream. Afonina too is ever on the
move. “We just got back from Paris for sales
and are on to New York for the Woolmark
semi-finals,” she says. Tailoring and
eveningwear are joining in on evergreen
summer pieces, so don’t stop watching.
From left: Albus Lumen
dress, $950, swim bra, $150,
and swim briefs, $150;
Albus Lumen jacket, $2,500.
Albus Lumen x Helen
Kaminski headscarf, $280.
Albus Lumen x Ryan Storer
earrings, $274 per pair.
St. Agni shoes, $259; Albus
Lumen dress, $890. Albus
Lumen x Ryan Storer
earrings, $249 per pair.
St. Agni shoes, $259.

116
H A R : P E T E L E N N O N M A K E- U P: M O L LY WA R K E N T N M O D E L S : F E R G U S B A L E Y R U BY C A M P B E L L
PA U L N A F R A N KO W S K A L A U R A K LÜ N T E R KO N K E R M A LU A L M A R A VA R G A
A L L P R I C E S A P P R OX I M AT E D E TA I L S AT VO G U E .CO M . A U/ W T B
DOUBLE RAINBOUU
“Puglia, Ibiza, Hvar, Barcelona, Hawaii, Sicily, Coachella, Sónar, Fuji
Rock …” It’s not a bucket list, but the boltholes Mikey Nolan and Toby
Jones of Double Rainbouu imagine their girls and guys enjoying
while they capitalise on the buzz generated after their resort ’19
outing in May. Part of that is threading the vivid light, loud and diverse
landscapes and “something raw” about Australia into their street/
beach mash-up for everyday dressing as they build their two-year-old
business. The one common quality for everything they make? It must
factor in “the chance of a swim”.
From left: Double Rainbouu shirt, $195, shorts, $115, and sneakers, $150,
worn by all. Topman socks, $20, for a pack, worn by all. His own earring, worn
throughout; Double Rainbouu shirt, $195, pants, $230, jacket, $270,
worn around waist, and hat, $49. Dinosaur Designs earrings, $125;
Double Rainbouu jacket, $270, and dress, $195. Reliquia necklace,
$159; Double Rainbouu sweater, $400, shorts, $65, and hat, $65.
Dinosaur Designs earrings, $185; Double Rainbouu dress, $195, and
shirt, $220; Double Rainbouu sweater, $385, and shorts, $135.
SEPTEMBER 2018 117
VOGUE V IEW POINT

LEE MATHEWS
There are a couple of things breezing through the collections of Lee

A L L P R I C E S A P P R OX I M AT E D E TA I L S AT VO G U E .CO M . A U/ W T B
Mathews currently: a puff of summer air that lifted the tissue-weight
sundresses in picnic-blanket gingham and summer blooms, and the winds
of change. New designer Natalia Grzybowski has come on board as an
invigorating creative force. “Having a sounding board is so important in
design, as is someone who brings a fresh perspective,” says Mathews,
who has stewarded the brand thus far and now toward international
expansion with Browns, Matches and Net-A-Porter stockists. The future
will be based on their mutual admiration and respect for the label’s
down-to-earth feel and sustainable practice. “The use of high-quality
fabrics is a core part of the brand, as is longevity in design – two traits
I resonate with deeply,” says Grzybowski. Join the summer love-in.
JAKE TERREY

From left: Lee Mathews dress, $899; Lee Mathews shirt, $599, and dress,
$599, worn underneath; Lee Mathews dress, $759; Lee Mathews dress, $999.

118
ANNA QUAN
“It’s interesting that a shirt I designed
four years ago became such a strong
product category for me … the entire
label became synonymous with
shirting. However, it was deliberate,”
Anna Quan is saying. Like the healthy
cohort of women who don her tailored
pieces to work and to play, what she
does is considered and ambitious. The
pleating she introduces that drew on
her tailoring core, for example, cutting
the subtly scrunched white fabric
minimally to avoid excess seams that
would weigh it down. “Every line had
to really matter,” she explains. Her
purposeful pieces she imagines on her
own tribe of family, friends and muses
… who would be? “Successful, creative
entrepreneurs.” Naturally.
From left: Anna Quan shirt, $340,
and skirt, $425. Holly Ryan x The Undone
earrings, $380; Anna Quan coat,
$750. Holly Ryan x The Undone earrings,
$360; Anna Quan jacket $650, and
shorts, $350. Extraordinary Ordinary
Day shoes, $519 per pair.

SEPTEMBER 2018 119

VOGUE V IEW POINT
AJE
Edwina Forest and Adrian Norris are still reeling. So big was
the coup in gaining the trust of Brett Whiteley’s former wife and
guardian of his legacy Wendy Whiteley to use the late artist’s works
in their collection for their 10th anniversary, they snuck a flash
break post resort ’19. “The collaboration was humbling, challenging
and soul-fulfilling, so we needed to breathe for a little time post
show,” says Forest. Art, the discipline in which Norris trained, has
120
A L L P R I C E S A P P R OX I M AT E D E TA I L S AT VO G U E .CO M . A U/ W T B
leant their woman – a modern dream girl who embraces the label’s
abbreviated hemlines, ultra-romantic cascades of ruffles and airy
blouses that don’t come over frivolous – an extra edge of late.
“[Art] isn’t constrained by commercial confines. In a way it presents
JAKE TERREY
a freedom,” says Forest.
From left: Aje top, $355, and pants, $475; Aje dress, $895; Aje vest, $245,
shirt, $225, and pants, $475; Aje dress, $895, and scarf, $255.
BLAIR ARCHIBALD
“It’s a little like that feeling when you’ve graduated high school; you’ve
pushed and exhausted yourself to get everything done and once it’s over
you’re in this parallel state,” says Blair Archibald who, if he was back in
school, would be your deep-thinking classmate, diligently working at the
back, though cogitating solutions to fashion’s major problems, including
its environmental impacts. “I started my brand to educate clients on the
fundamentals of what goes into a garment: the engineering, the precision,
the supply chain.” It plays out in his award-winning clothing from the
five-year-old label: unisex, overblown tailoring with a hint of American
Gigolo-era Armani slouch, made from re-used fabric waste. Is it a wonder
then, the muses he prizes for their minds and “thought processes”? “Marina
Abramović and Edward de Bono; people with uncompromising style.”
Blair Archibald coat, $610, coveralls, $900, and top, $280. Dr. Marten boots,
$249; Blair Archibald jacket, $650, shorts, $350, and shoes, $740; Blair
Archibald jacket, $1,200. Running Bare shorts, $65. Dr. Marten boots,
$249; Blair Archibald jacket, $720, top, $320, pants, $420, and shoes, $740.

SEPTEMBER 2018 121

 STYLE SYLLABUS

122
Living colour
She hails from an esteemed line of artists, but Camille Olsen-Ormandy has
developed a style of painting that’s very much her own. By Zara Wong.
ST YLING PH I LI PPA M O RO N E Y
PHOTOG R APHS HAN NAH SCOT T-STE VEN SO N
VOGUE V IEW POINT

$3,390 each.
Camille Olsen

$13. Converse
Voodoo tights,

sneakers, $100.
Ormandy wears a

rugs, throughout,
Dinosaur Designs
Sandro top, $305.

earrings, $310, and

Loewe coat, $8,750.
 T
here was that time artist Camille Olsen-Ormandy wore so many clashing
prints on a gallery tour that her art lecturer commented that she matched
the art on the walls; the time she delved deep into wearing Berlin prints, or
last year, when she went Scandi minimalism in her wardrobe. Admittedly, the latter
phase only lasted two days before she returned to her comfort zone of bold colours
and prints. “I still have all those clothes: I just curate it more,” she explains. “One day
I’m wearing glitter and pearls and everything is print and rainbow – I get really
obsessed with it, and then it goes too far and I have to pull it back in.”
As the daughter of artists and Dinosaur Design founders Stephen Ormandy and
Louise Olsen, and the granddaughter of artists John Olsen and Valerie Strong Olsen,
Olsen-Ormandy has grown up among paint and brushes. “They would put them in
front of me for me to splat around,” she remembers. “My parents would say what I did
was great, but my work was never on the walls or fridge.” (Family competition is stiff.)
Rather than be daunted by her family’s legacy, her parents’ assertion of how
creativity enriched their family and their lives kept her secure. “It was more focusing
on the art and celebrating it, and so it’s been quite grounding in that way – with
everyone just so focused on their creative endeavours,” she says.
Growing up at the Dinosaur Designs offices, she went from crawling around the
space as a toddler to making necklaces and bracelets and moisturising the resins.
A L L P R I C E S A P P R OX I M AT E D E TA I L S AT VO G U E .CO M . A U/ W T B
H A R : M C H E L E M C Q U L L A N M A K E- U P: P E T E R B E A R D
“I’ve been really hands-on from a young age, and have
seen this company grow as well,” she says. She still
regularly drops into the offices during the week and also
works in the store. “I know the background of Dinosaur
Designs, I know the processes and the intentions, so it’s
great to be on the receiving end, giving it to people.”
While her family’s art is less figurative than hers – her art
focuses on portraiture – it shares a similarly brave approach
to colour, form and flattened depths. “For me to do
something that is quite literal when everyone else is more
abstract is where I find my own expression. With all of us,
colour is so important in what we do and [was] growing up.
There’s so much colour in my parents’ jewellery and
sculpture and their work, and my grandfather’s abstract
landscapes, and I feel like understanding colour
relationships has also come down to me.”
When Olsen-Ormandy speaks of her art, she is
considerate and articulate, peppering her thoughts with
family anecdotes. “I really like how my dad puts it: it’s
having a conversation,” she explains. “He’s always saying:
‘What is this painting telling you?’ Or: ‘This yellow is
vibrant, it’s pinging, it’s having a fun time, and the brown
here is making it more mellow and calming everything
down.’ Every colour is reflecting and bouncing off each
other.” In her own work, colour is about the dynamic
between skin tones and the background. “They’re
reflecting and bouncing off each other and it’s harmonious,
or it is something that jumps out and there’s conflict –
colour has such lively connotations.”
Although she dabbled in drama and art in high school,
she never set upon making art her career. “I just never
thought of it. It’s always just something in my life that I’ve
done.” She recounts the turning point, though. “I had this
realisation when I was in the car with my parents driving
along the coast of Bronte to Bondi,” she says quietly but
with excitement in her voice of this pivotal moment in her
life. Her parents’ response? “They were like: ‘That’s great!’”
she says, mimicking their clapping and laughing. “Then
they said: ‘Now, get working! Where’s your practice? You
need a studio space, you’ve got to get this going!’”
The studio location was
easily remedied – she took
“For me, over the spare room in the
doing family home, also her
something father’s former studio.
“With the end of
that is quite university for the semester,
literal when painting and focusing on
everyone painting is so meditative
and relaxing,” she says.
else is more Her soundtrack while
abstract is she works includes
where I find music as far-ranging
as Portuguese jazz and
my own French rap to Indian hip-
expression” hop and Korean R&B. ¤
SEPTEMBER 2018 123
VOGUE V IEW POINT

“Anything that’s interesting and different … I love to look

at different countries and see what genres they have going
on there.”
She seeks out subjects to paint on Instagram. “To paint, it
has to be something I feel like I can take as my own and
transform it somehow, change its perspective, better it for
painting it somehow. It’s about playing and having fun.”
She also posts her own work on the platform, and uses
it for inspiration. “There’s a really fun, creative interplay
where you’re painting from Instagram and then posting it
and tagging the photographers you were inspired by, and
the models, and they get excited when they see it as well and
they repost it or put it on their Stories. It’s amazing to have
this conversation with random people around the world,”
she says, showing me her Instagram account. Drawn to bold
accessories like sunglasses and dramatic earrings – much
like her own style – there are folders for fashion and
inspirations filled with unexpected colour combinations, to
other artists’ work. “Anything that is aesthetically pleasing
and tells a story,” she explains.
At 19, Olsen-Ormandy is wise but not precocious,
youthful but not naïve. And as with anyone whose mother
has an enviable closet, she’s bargained with Louise Olsen
to borrow her striped Dries Van Noten coat, a red puffy
jacket from Mango, a Burberry cardigan and jewelled
Marni sandals. “Oh, God, that wardrobe … how could
I not touch it?” she says with awe about her mother’s
clothes. “I find a lot of inspiration from my mother. She’s
constantly looking at fashion shows and runways, so she’s
definitely the one who has shown me style.”
Currently drawn to Japanese and Korean street style,
she’s interested in the various subcultures and how they Valentino shirt,
touch upon their cultural history. Being in art school has $2,755, and skirt,
$4,235, from
pushed her to think about her own personal style more,
Parlour X. Anna
particularly this year. “My style is how I feel at that time or Quan shirt, $400,
on that day, so of course it’s always changing, so it’s more worn underneath.
Dinosaur Designs
chameleon-like. My art is very colourful and that’s a pure earrings, $230.
reflection of myself and my personality.” ■

MAKE IT POP
Tommy Hilfiger
blouse, $180.

A L L P R I C E S A P P R OX I M AT E D E TA I L S AT VO G U E .CO M . A U/ W T B
H A N N A H S COT T-S T E V E N S O N

Cue dress,
$360.

H&M skirt, $119.

Bally sneakers, $610. Valet earrings, $149.

124 SEPTEMBER 2 0 1 8
WHAT IF YOU COULD RESET YOUR SKIN IN

JUST ONE NIGHT?

NEW
OVERNIGHT RESET
OIL- IN - SERUM

@LOCCITANEAUS #MYRESETMOMENT
AU.LOCCITANE.COM
Top left: Off-White c/o Jimmy Choo shoes,
$1,525. Top right: Valet earrings, $159. Left:
Karla Špetić jacket, P.O.A. Anna Quan dress,
$420. Above: Valextra bag raincoat, $175, and
bag, from $3,550, both from Harrolds. Camilla
and Marc top, $599, and skirt, $599. Above
right: Georgia Alice dress, $675, and skirt,
$585. Extraordinary Ordinary Day shoes, $609.

SEPTEMBER 2018 127

VOGUE V IEW POINT
Pia Miller wears a For her Vogue shoot, a life phase later, she commands
Christian Dior dress, a content maturity, something that might have a lot to do
$9,600. Sit & Wonder
necklaces, $349 each. with starting young. Tawny-limbed, lithe, with a tumble of
Her own Akubra hat deep chocolate hair, it doesn’t take much of an effort to
and Cartier bracelet.
imagine her being that girl in school, everything happening
for her. “I guess what it did more than anything was open my
eyes to this idea that fashion is somebody’s expression,” she
says of realising that style could be a valuable channel of self-
expression as a young itinerant model. It’s a notion in parallel
with her main preoccupation, acting, which has seen her add
to Home and Away’s television legacy as policewoman Kat
Chapman. “We wake up and we put on our character every
day and that has to do with how we dress,” she reflects.
Her modus operandi has been an ease synonymous with
her home city of Melbourne. “I’m all jeans; I love a black
trouser, a wide-leg pant … I have every type of white
T-shirt you can imagine.” The cleanness of a monochrome
palette and a masculine-feminine duality comes also from
her mother, a former fashion designer. “Long lean lines, an
oversized blazer, a man-style pant and then she would
carry it with a silk blouse or silk cami.”
In her new role as Melbourne Fashion Week ambassador
– adding to a Guerlain ambassadorship – Miller will draw
on both the worlds she orbits. “I find that that’s something
that translates between fashion and acting; pushing the
boundaries as much as possible and then finding your own
comfort space where you feel grounded and connected.”
Melbourne Fashion Week runs August 31-September 7,
beginning with Vogue American Express Fashion’s Night Out.

SINGULAR STYLE

Fine act
A L L P R I C E S A P P R OX I M AT E D E TA I L S AT VO G U E .CO M . A U/ W T B
Actress Pia Miller distils her style down to its

H A R : M C H E L E M C Q U L L A N M A K E- U P: M O L LY WA R K E N T N
essence for her latest role. By Alice Birrell.
ST YLING PH I LI PPA M O RO N E Y
PHOTOG R APHS JAKE TER R E Y

P
ia Miller is reflecting, with a flicker of relief, that she now
appreciates how precious people’s time is. “I didn’t really
understand the gravity of a shoot being an entire production
and I guess I took it for granted,” the Chile-born, Melbourne-raised
actress remembers. It’s forgivable; she was in high school when she
used to skip class (parent-sanctified) to dash back and forth to shoots to
model. “I would rock up to work in my uniform, do a shoot, get back
into my uniform and go to school.”

128 SEPTEMBER 2018

VOGUE V IEW POINT

Evelyne Chetrite

A culture of chic
It’s the French go-to label for Parisian street-wise fashion. Vogue
speaks with the creative force behind Sandro, Evelyne Chetrite.
By Tina Isaac-Goizé.
PHOTOG R APHS RO D N E Y D E AN E

E velyne Chetrite is a textbook example of why you shouldn’t always listen to

your parents. Had she not followed her heart and instead done what was
expected of her, Chetrite would have probably become a lawyer. Which
means that Parisiennes would never have had Sandro, one of only a few aspirational,
mid-priced French fashion brands that offers style-conscious customers staples and
seasonal pieces with serious cred, at prices that won’t break the bank.
This season, that translates into Cuban-inflected statement pieces such as pyjamas
edged with guipure, pearl-embroidered denim jackets, gentle pink jumpsuits, easy
striped dresses with an open back that can go urban with a pair of tuxedo-striped
trousers and do double duty after a day at the beach – just throw it on and you’re set
for cocktail hour.
It’s a winning recipe. Last January, Sandro posted outstanding sales growth,
edging close to 1 billion euros in sales (AUD1.4 billion) across 540 points of sale
worldwide. And it has landed Chetrite and her family – her sister Judith Milgrom is
the force behind the brand Maje – among the top 500 fortunes in France.
Today, Sandro and its sister brands in the SMCP group (which also includes Maje
and Claudie Pierlot) are majority-owned by Chinese textile giant Shandong Ruyi.
Chetrite, 57, looks astonishingly like a Mediterranean Julia Roberts, with a wide,
smile, a perennial tan and the kind of chic that non-French women of all ages strive
to copy. She’s the kind of woman who can throw on kick-crop frayed jeans and a
white top and look like a million dollars. (Clearly, both style and business savvy run
in the genes: her handsome son, Ilan, launched the thriving Sandro Homme brand.)
But if Chetrite has conquered French fashion on her own terms, she traces her
influences back to Morocco, where she lived before immigrating to France at 15. ¤

132
SEPTEMBER 2018 133
VOGUE V IEW POINT
Sandro’s
headquarters
occupy a late
19th century
townhouse in
central Paris.
“I was surrounded by lots of artistic influences,” Chetrite notes,
recalling how her aunt, a seamstress, and her grandfather, a specialist
in men’s shirting, initiated her to a love of beautiful materials. “There
were fabrics, rugs, Berber objects, lots of colours all around, from the
souks to the spices, “ she explains.
When she was an adolescent, Chetrite’s mother would
have her wardrobe made twice a year. Whenever there
was a party, her aunt would drop by and take “OVERSIZED ON
measurements for dresses. Then there would be an
expedition to the fabric merchant. “It seems incredible
TOP AND FITTED
today, because no-one spends three hours deliberating BELOW IS
over colour or fabric,” she says. It was only much later ONE OF MY
that she came to realise how those values had stuck.
Despite her parents’ view that fashion wasn’t
FAVOURITE
prestigious enough, it turned out to be Chetrite’s destiny. LOOKS NOW”
After meeting her future husband, Didier, Chetrite
started skipping classes at law school to hang out with
her new boyfriend, who was then sales director for a clothing brand in
the Sentier, Paris’s garment district. But Didier told her he wanted to sell
his own clothes. “The only problem was, he knew how to sell but didn’t
have a clue about design,” Chetrite explains. “It might have been love or
passion that changed my path, but I started skipping class to go to the
office – and I was having a lot more fun,” she says with a laugh.
134
Overnight, Chetrite became a consultant, and the couple launched
Sandro in 1984. Chetrite set about infusing the nascent brand with what
she herself wanted to wear. Sandro has moved from strength to strength
ever since, but Chetrite shies away from describing the ‘Sandro woman’.
“In Paris, women love to mix things up and invent a look,” she says.
“The result is chic without being instantly recognisable
in terms of brands.”
Asked about her own wardrobe, Chetrite counts her
essentials on one hand. “Having the right jeans is very,
very important,” she says. Her other staples: a perfectly
cut suit, tailored trousers and a sexy dress, and a good
pair of ‘baskets’, the French term for sneakers.
It’s those sneakers – that particular mix of feminine
and street – that keeps chic Parisiennes coming back for
more. “Every woman is sensitive to [comfort],” she says.
“We live in a time when sports, movement and work are
all a part of a woman’s life. It’s such a pleasure to go out
wearing trousers cropped at the ankle, a roomy coat and baskets.
Oversized on top and fitted below is one of my favourite looks right
now. It’s smart, and it makes sense.
RODNEY DEANE
“After all, we’re not just selling clothes. Women have so many
things in common and so many things to share. To me, that’s the future.
That’s Sandro.” ■
SEPTEMBER 2018
 VOGUE V IEW POINT
Time to shine
From her formative years in Adelaide to
the runways of Paris, Adut Akech shares her
journey to the top as a young black model.
B
eing the second black woman to close Chanel since
Alek Wek in 2004 makes me feel very, very proud.
It’s hard to explain the feeling, because I never ever
thought I would even work with Chanel, let alone close its
autumn ’18/’19 haute couture show in July. During the
whole process of my fittings I would cry – I guess because
I just didn’t have any words for the experience; it was all so
crazy and unbelievable, and I’m still on cloud nine about
the whole thing.
Then, closing for the Valentino show a few days later as
well … that was such an honour. I absolutely love Pierpaolo
[Piccoli, Valentino’s creative director]. The first time I met
him I didn’t even know who he was and I was chatting to
him like I’d known him my whole life. I thought he was the
coolest and most down-to-earth person and he holds a
very special place in my heart. He took me to the Met Gala!
That experience was crazy. When I first arrived at the Gala,
I didn’t approach people because I was too nervous, but
there were so many people saying hi to me and talking to
me and after that I was like: “Wow, you’re famous but
you’re really cool.”
When I was growing up, the role models who inspired
me in my career were Alek Wek and Naomi Campbell, who
is like a second mum to me now. I also look up to Lupita
Nyong’o, and through her, I’ve learnt about beauty and
being comfortable in your own skin and I gained the
confidence of knowing my own beauty and worth.
My mother, Mary Elijah Akech, has always been my
biggest role model, idol and inspiration in life and she still
is. She is so proud of what I have achieved – from my early
modelling days in Adelaide to walking the couture shows
in Paris – and even though she doesn’t really understand
ALEXANDER WANG S/S ’19
COUTURE A/W ’18/’19
MIU MIU RESORT ’19
CHANEL RESORT ’19
GIVENCHY HAUTE
136
a lot about the industry, she has never given up on me. At the start, I had so many
people against my modelling, who didn’t believe in me, and because of that, I’ve
always been very driven and have worked my ass off to make things happen just so
I could prove those who doubted me wrong.
Because of my success, I realise I’ve become something of a role model to young
girls and I am excited about that, but I’m not going to lie, I also feel a bit of pressure,
because I think people are going to expect so much of me and I don’t want to do
anything wrong. If a young girl of colour aspiring to be a model asks me for advice,
I would say: know who you are and stay true to yourself because being in this
industry it’s so easy to lose yourself, which is the advice that Naomi Campbell gave
me when I started. Also, work hard, because nothing is going to come easy. You have
to want it so bad and give it everything you’ve got.
I do understand how some people who hear about my recent success might think:
‘Why has it taken this long to have a woman of colour close a show?’ And while I’m
so honoured, it is a bit upsetting. But there have definitely been changes in the
industry since I was officially signed to an agent at 15, and I feel happy about what’s
happening. I’m seeing a lot more diversity on the runway and in campaigns, and
being picked to do the David Jones 2017 campaign last year was a very significant
moment for me. In Australia, I feel like I’m seeing more black girls and Asian girls
and more models of colour being used for advertisements. And working overseas,
there are so many black girls and so many more women of colour walking … it’s
great to see that people are finally coming to their senses about being inclusive.
I arrived in Australia from South Sudan when I was six years old and knew
I wanted to model from the age of 12. But never did I think I would be out of my
mother’s house at 17, living in New York and having to pay my own rent. New York
is a hard place to be and is completely different to how I lived my life in Adelaide.
I get very homesick and Australia is always going to be ‘home home’, but I have to
make wherever I am in the world home, otherwise it’s very hard. You have to learn
to adapt very quickly in this industry.
I’m going home to Adelaide after the shows and I can’t wait. My family is super-
tight, so being away from them was the hardest thing, but I knew I had to do it for
their sake. All I ever wanted is to make sure my family is set for life.
I just bought my mum a car for her birthday and that was one of the promises
I made to her when I was younger. When we first moved to Australia I said: “Mum,
I don’t how or what I’m going to do but I promise you I’m going to finish high school,
I’m going to buy you a car, and I’m going to buy you a house.” I’m now 18 and have
achieved two of those things and am now on my way to getting her a house.
That’s another thing about me: when I make my promises I make sure I keep them.
I don’t care how long it takes me to achieve them, but I always stick to my promises. ■
ACNE STUDIOS S/S ’19
COUTURE A/W ’18/’19
COUTURE A/W ’18/’19
CHANEL HAUTE
FENDI HAUTE
 “I’ve always
been very
driven and
have worked
my ass off to
make things
happen just
so I could
prove those
who doubted
me wrong”
MARY K ANG

SEPTEMBER 2018 137

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VO GUE PROMOTION
140
VOGUE V IEW POINT

Jensen Halo earring, $3,200

$450, worn throughout.

hoop, $8,200. Bassike jacket,
for a set, and double sided ear
for a set. On left ear: Georg
double row ear hoop, $2,750
On right ear: Georg Jensen

S T Y L S T: P H L P PA M O R O N E Y P H OTO G R A P H : D U N C A N K L L C K
H A R : P E T E L E N N O N M A K E- U P: P E T E R B E A R D M O D E L : ZO E B A R N A R D
P O RT R A T: S M O N B R K P O RT R A T H A R & M A K E- U P: L N H N G U Y E N
A L L P R I C E S A P P R OX I M AT E D E TA I L S AT VO G U E .CO M . A U/ W T B
 Treasure seeker
Georg Jensen has returned to its roots with a collection by Sophie Bille Brahe, the first
homegrown creative to design for the Danish house in more than a decade. By Jeni Porter.
Danish jeweller Sophie Bille Brahe has had a lifelong fascination with collections based on a simple round shape and hoops. “It’s easy talking
a 1730s Chinese chest passed down to her father through generations of about it now, but when I’m designing it feels like walking when you
his noble family. It’s an eccentric piece with intricately painted doors can’t see. When you’re in it, you use your intuition, use the metal, use
that are so wonky they’re hard to open. Inside are nine gilt-edged your source of inspiration and then play around until it somehow takes
drawers full of curious treasures amassed over the centuries. “It’s the right form,” says Bille Brahe.
completely crazy. There’s a whole drawer of old toys, a whole drawer Ten years ago, she captured the Zeitgeist with her first piece, a single
of weird little boxes collected by earring in gold, curved to the
weird members of the family: shape of the ear lobe, with an arc
there’s one from Nice from 1901 of graduating diamonds. Called
with a hand-painted beach, and Croissant de Lune, it redefined
inside someone has put tiny pink fine jewellery by mixing precious
shells. Every time I look through materials with a street-style
it I find things I haven’t seen attitude. It’s hard to credit now,
before,” says Bille Brahe. When but Bille Brahe was told she was
she was a child, her father would crazy making a solo earring and
let her choose a drawer and she’d even crazier using 18-karat gold
sit all morning in a reverie laying and diamonds. But it took
out and rearranging its contents. off, and from her workshop
For her the chest was the in a converted 18th-century
equivalent of the wardrobe schoolhouse she’s won
leading to the magical land of international renown and a
Narnia, a portal through which celebrity fan base that includes
she would disappear into her Madonna, Rihanna and
imagination, dreaming up stories Zoë Kravitz.
about her forebears. Unfazed by the fame, and
Last year, Copenhagen-based probably to her financial
Bille Bra he accepted detriment, Bille Brahe remains
a commission to make a jewellery totally her own person, a mix of
collection for Georg Jensen, her control freak and self-doubter,
first outside her own brand, with five-year-old son Johan to
which has a cult following care for and a border collie called
among the fashion crowd. It was Snoopy constantly at her side.
a coup for Georg Jensen, not only She agonised over aligning
because she brings It-girl street herself with a corporate brand,
cred – she’s also the first Danish but said yes because of the
designer to create a jewellery special place Georg Jensen has in
collection for the storied Danish her heart. “I’m life-or-death
brand in more than a decade. with everything I do. I had many
The first thing she did was to doubts, because I was concerned
visit Georg Jensen’s archive of about my own company and my
rare jewellery and silverware, which is considered a national treasure, own brand and merging into something where I don’t have control over
and heritage-protected by the Danish government. Let loose in the attic, everything. But in the end, I wanted to do it, because I feel it’s a
Bille Brahe was like her young self lost in her thoughts, as she laid out responsibility as a Danish jeweller. I love Georg Jensen, because of the
earrings and bracelets that caught her eye. “I had a whole day almost craft and its history. As Danes, it’s part of our story in a way.”
by myself and I started gathering things. Some looked really modern Manville says after collaborating with international jewellers “it’s
and some old. I wasn’t worried about who designed what, but I was nice to have a Danish designer working with us. Sophie is taking us
trying to see where I could find room for my language.” Energised and back to our Scandinavian roots”. Her collection is a lighter take on
inspired, she went away and within weeks presented Georg Jensen’s gold, he says, that strikes a balance between her signature precise clean
creative director Nicholas Manville with the equivalent of three lines and the sculptural silver jewellery the house is known for. ¤

SEPTEMBER 2018 141

VOGUE V IEW POINT
“You use your
intuition, use
the metal, use
your source
of inspiration
and then play
around until
it somehow
takes the
right form”
Sophie
Bille Brahe
He’d wanted 10 pieces but was so enamoured with her designs he
selected 19, including variously sized single earrings, pendants and
a cocktail ring with a diamond floating in three delicate circles. As a
tribute to the heritage, Bille Brahe made a bracelet with a lock like one
made by Georg Jensen himself.
She called the collection Halo, referencing diamonds and stars. “A
halo is like this glow around a star. Then also I wanted this collection
to be effortless, and I think Beyoncé’s ‘Baby, I can see your halo’
somehow captures this.” She wants women to wear her jewellery the
way she does, all day and every day with ease.
Lucky is the word the 38-year-old uses to describe her career, but
you could also say it was destiny – written in the stars, even. She went
to a school that nurtured creativity, and her teacher set her up in a
workshop where she could work with fire and glass. By the time she
was 14 she was making earrings and chandeliers that she sold to her
parents’ friends. After high school she trained as a goldsmith in
Copenhagen, an exacting initiation in turning lumps of metal
into precious objects, which, she says, was all “sore, sore fingers and
tens of millimetres” and not especially creative. “You learn the
craft from start to end. But when you’ve done that you almost lose
yourself. My fascination is the fire, working with gold, the way it
looks when you heat it up.”
142
Georg Jensen double row
ear hoop, $2,750 for a set,
and Halo earring, $3,200 for
a set. Solitaire ring, $11,550,
and double row ring, $3,200.
Halo bangles, $13,750 each.
In 2007, the year she designed the croissant earring, she decamped to
London, where she spent two years doing a masters in jewellery design
at the Royal College of Art. Then she followed her heart to Paris, and
when that proved a romantic disaster returned home in 2011. Fame
found her: she made a triple ring as a commission from a Swedish film-
industry friend, who gave it to Madonna for her birthday. The pop star
wore it when she was mobbed by paparazzi at the Venice Film Festival.
In Denmark the name Bille Brahe has a certain aristocratic cachet. Her
father, a surgeon, is a baron, although you’d never guess it meeting him,
and his children inherited titles. They are descended from the 16th-
century astronomer and nobleman Tycho Brahe, and in another arm of
the family were wealthy patrons of Hans Christian Andersen and the
sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. The family lineage is important to Bille
Brahe: the night sky is a recurring theme in her work, as is storytelling
and the sense of being part of a long and continuing history. “I don’t
care that I’m a baroness; it doesn’t give me any money or a castle. It’s just
a title that was very difficult to have as a kid. But the way it matters is
that it’s history and it’s having a family that has this Chinese cabinet
where you just find these things and you can only guess what this box
has been used for or who was using this pipe with little dogs carved in
ivory on it. The funny thing is my son has now started asking about it
and I’ve only shown him one drawer and he completely loves it.” ■
 Georg Jensen double sided
ear hoop, $8,200 for a set, and
double row ear hoop, $2,750
for a set. Halo pendant, $1,450.
Solitaire ring, $11,550,
and double-row ring, $3,200.
A L L P R I C E S A P P R OX I M AT E D E TA I L S AT VO G U E .CO M . A U/ W T B
DUNCAN K LL CK

SEPTEMBER 2018 143

VOGUE V IEW POINT

MOOD BOARD
ALEXANDER MCQUEEN A/W ’18/’19

CLIQUE
TO BUY
Want in on autumn/
winter ’18/’19? Peruse
Vogue’s quick download of
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S T Y L S T: K A L A M AT T H E W S P H OTO G R A P H S : G E O R G N A E G A N
W O R D S : A L C E B R R E L L A RT D R E C T O N : D J A N A M A D D S O N
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RARE VOLUME
The idea is to whip up shapes that
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silhouettes to super proportions.
Clockwise from top left: Gucci sunglasse ,
$520; Aje top, $455; Lee Mathews pants,
$399; Maggie Marilyn top, $450; MaxMara
jacket, $4,465; Chanel bag, $7,100, from the
Chanel boutiques; C&M jacket, $550; Prada
shoes, $1,150; Pandora earrings, $79.

144 SEPTEMBER 2 0 1 8
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VOGUE V IEW POINT

CHLOÉ A/W ’18/’19

THIS MODERN LOVE

More restrained than all-out
romantic, the new breed of
breezy whimsy is anchored

A L L P R I C E S A P P R OX I M AT E D E TA I L S AT VO G U E .CO M . A U/ W T B
with cleaner lines and a
palette more sophisticated
than princess pink.
Top, from left: Stuart Weitzman
shoes, $880; Le Specs x Double
Rainbouu sunglasses, $90; Anton
Jewellery earrings, $1,895.
Middle, from left: H&M Studio
sweater, $100; Albus Lumen skirt,
$325; Zimmermann dress, $950;
Calvin Klein Jeans skirt, P.O.A.
GEORG NA EGAN

Bottom, from left: Christian Dior

bag, $3,900, and strap, $2,250;
Georg Jensen bangle, $4,450;
Georgia Alice shirt, $445.

146 SEPTEMBER 2 0 1 8
 VOGUE PROMOTION

Dining out solo may be

the perfect way to
reconnect with yourself –
and the world around you.
I

I N PA R T N E R S H I P W I T H
 TAILORING AND LACE
The only caveat in this trend
is they must be worn together.
The intersection of feminine
wiles and masculine lines
creates captivating tension.
Clockwise from top left: Ginger &
Smart dress, $669; Anna Quan shirt,
$400; Paspaley earrings, $14,160;
Maggie Marilyn dress, $750; Manning
Cartell shoes, $399; Céline bag,
$2,600; MaxMara jacket, $1,750;
Thomas Puttick dress, $790;
Christopher Esber skirt, $790.

A L L P R I C E S A P P R OX I M AT E D E TA I L S AT VO G U E .CO M . A U/ W T B
ALEXANDER WANG A/W ’18/’19

GEORG NA EGAN

148 SEPTEMBER 2 0 1 8
 #VOGUEFESTIVAL

FOR MORE INFORMATION

VISIT RUNDLEMALL.COM
VOGUE V IEW POINT

Burning down the house

The disruptive wave that broke over fashion has left the gilded gates of the industry swinging
wide open. So who’s inside, and what have they done to high fashion? By Alice Birrell.

152
 S
omeone recently said to me that he doesn’t “believe there is such
a thing as luxury anymore”. Two years earlier, another declared
he was “not interested in trends”. These are bold statements,
and completely disarming when you realise they come from two people
at the absolute pinnacle: heads of luxury fashion houses nonpareil. Stand
up, Jonathan Anderson, of the 172-year-old Spanish house of Loewe, for
uttering the former, and same to you, Demna Gvasalia, of that hallowed
house Balenciaga, for asserting the latter.
How did we end up here? What was once a plush salon, models carrying
numbers as they carouseled around the room in the latest creations from
Cristóbal became for autumn/winter ’18/’19 a mountainous skate ramp-
like concrete hulk covered in spidery graffiti spelling ‘Balenciaga’. When
did scaffolding, exposed air-conditioning ducting and food scraps – yes,
Raf Simons enlisted American artist Sterling Ruby to fill a floor with
mounds of popcorn for Calvin Klein – become backdrops to luxury?
When did gravel paths in the cold (Hermès), gutted buildings (Sies
Marjan) and sex clubs (Vetements) all become customary places to hold
shows. What of the wait list – for skin bags or painstakingly made shoes?
What, the old guard might be asking, is luxury anymore anyway?
Well, a plethora of forces, the most democratising of which is
unsurprisingly the internet, has finally made a profound and lasting
impact on who has power, who has voice and ultimately who gets to
play taste maker. “The decisions behind what is fashionable no longer
lies solely with the large luxury houses, but instead with
the individual,” observes Elizabeth von der Goltz, global
buying director at Net-A-Porter. “Social media, especially “FASHION IS
Instagram, has impacted fashion in the most profound ABOUT HAVING
way.” And she doesn’t mean it lightly: she’s talking
paradigm upheaval. In real terms, looking only at the big
OPTIONS AND
four fashion weeks is anachronistic to von der Goltz and
DOING WHAT
her team, who make a point of attending weeks such as WORKS
Tbilisi, Sydney, Stockholm and Moscow. FOR YOU”
And that’s not all. “Instagram is now just as important
as going to the shows,” she states, having recently added
Korean accessory brand Gu_de to Net-A-Porter’s offering as they scout
talent outside the usual schedule. “It allows for such an organic process
of discovery – you can really understand a brand from the content they
produce.” It also creates a feedback loop where labels, no matter their
standing in the luxury world, can have criticism fed to them in real time
– on the cut of a dress, the quality of fabric and, happily, the diversity of
models in their campaigns – with the tap of a finger.
Those luxury houses that keep the drawbridge up, the space between
them and the consumer deliberately vast, stand to lose out. Take Gucci,
which does the opposite. Overseeing searing success at a rate of 40 to 50
per cent organic growth in the past 18 months, CEO Marco Bizzarri puts it
down to a culture of inclusivity, telling the Business of Fashion in its 2018
‘State of Fashion’ report that big houses cannot rely on what they already
know. “You need to work in a completely different way, where the most
senior person is not necessarily the one deciding, but the one with more
knowledge is deciding – maybe that’s a kid who is 25 years old!” he said.
Dismantling an ivory tower mentality has meant that after meetings of
Gucci’s executive committee, Bizzarri replicates it in a “shadow meeting”
with younger employees. The aim is to discuss the same topics but
produce entirely fresh perspectives. That upstart mentality and an
entrepreneurial spirit is governing both behemoths like Gucci and
successful smaller labels alike, where ingenuity and call-out culture is
I N D I G I TA L
being celebrated as much as centuries-old needlework and craftsmanship.
“Fashion is now less about cost, status and the traditional power
designers and now about design-led product,” continues von der Goltz.
“A whole new contemporary scene has emerged, led by designers such
as Rixo London, Staud, Wandler, to name a few. Customers want items
that still pack a punch style-wise, but without the price tag.” With cost
and design integrity not mutually exclusive, consumers are rewarding
designers who put things like function at the fore, have a point of view,
or fill a gap, say, offering an edit of vintage-inspired silk party dresses
like Rixo London or moving the conversation along in streetwear.
“My generation is the biggest consumer of fashion and the brands need
to learn how to speak to us,” says actor, entrepreneur, model and stylist
Luka Sabbat (note: his website says he doesn’t believe in titles). “I think if
you have something to say, people will listen. If you don’t, people will let
you know as well. Don’t do it just ‘because’ – have a reason,” tutors the
20-year-old Sabbat, who knows younger buyers will often prize integrity
above label name, a sentiment echoed by Demna Gvasalia speaking to the
Financial Times early this year. Bizzarri has termed it “culture of purpose”.
Open criticism gives fashion momentum. In a piece called ‘Who Gets to
Decide What Belongs in the “Canon”’, the New York Times’s Wesley Morris
wrote that once what is defined as good taste is protected by an elite it is
“shutting down a conversation, when the longer we go without one, the
harder it becomes to speak”. The same can apply to fashion.
Nafisa Kaptownwala is director of Lorde Inc. Models, a casting and
management agency at the forefront of street casting. Working with the
likes of Katie Grand, Vetements, Uniqlo and online
boutique Ssense, she seeks to make visible marginalised
and underrepresented groups. “We don’t have to
compromise ourselves to fit the canon,” she says. “When
I’m casting or scouting for new faces, I think less about
[an] ideal as a goal and place more emphasis on how to
include more and more types of people in those roles.
[It’s] de-centring the ideal concept, and making it about
sharing beautiful and interesting people.”
“Fashion is more inclusive,” notes Sabbat, with many
of his contemporaries still noting there’s a way to go.
“Fashion is a choice. It’s about having options and doing what works for
you.” He points to Louis Vuitton as a label recognising a shift in
mindset. “It used to be the right suit and tie and now it’s about the right
sneaker and the right tees. All of which now has been infused with a
touch of high fashion.” Nowhere was this seen better than at Virgil
Abloh’s street-inflected debut for the French house’s menswear label
comprised of rainbow colours, to represent an all-embracing world.
In other words, there is space for the individual to set the agenda and
be themselves while still buying luxury labels. Where 26 years ago,
Marc Jacobs was jettisoned for putting something considered low
culture – grunge – on the Perry Ellis runway, Gvasalia was celebrated
for bringing an intimidatingly switched-on mix of club kids, skate,
heavy metal and subcultures to luxury fashion.
Von der Goltz says that doesn’t mean quality finessed over decades and
rich histories of luxury houses like Fendi, Prada, Chanel and Cartier are
no longer desirable. “Customers are still willing to invest in the key
pieces, but they now see mixing as essential to building a well-rounded
wardrobe,” she says. “We believe they all have something important to
contribute to the landscape.” The task for designers is to balance that
aspiration with accessibility. “We offer a type of product that leaves the
wearer a space to decide on how and when to wear it,” Gvasalia told
Vogue after his debut Vetements collection, explaining that trends are
antithetical to fashion itself. “Trends are there to dictate a direction and
make everyone look the same.” After all, who wants that? ■
SEPTEMBER 2018 153
VOGUE V IEW POINT
A hand-
made tale
Take one British-Australian
travel photographer and two
impressively entrepreneurial
Americans, then add the
south-west American desert
and you have the under-the-radar
hat line Tio y Tia. By Zara Wong.
T
he south-west of America, as the three women behind Tio y Tia
tell me, has its own magical power. “It’s hard to explain until you
actually get there,” says Nicole Najafi, who is also the founder of
jeans retailer Industry Standard. Tio y Tia’s story began with a single
vintage hat that Najafi found to shield her from the sun while spending
a month in the Mojave Desert. “It was purely functional, but I fell in love
with it. I wore it every day and it didn’t matter if you were male, female,
old, young, they were asking me about this hat.”
Najafi joined forces with her friends Johanna Peet (who has her own
business on the side, plant-based beauty line Peet Rivko) and British-born,
Australian-based photographer Lucy Laucht to explore manufacturing
the hats. After some research, they tracked down the creator of the vintage
hat, who, they discovered, was the oldest hatmaker in America, with
clientele that at one time included artist Georgia O’Keeffe.
“They had heard of Industry Standard, so they were very excited,”
says Peet, who focuses on the business side of the company. “I had just
concluded a six-month van trip with my husband, jumping around the
south-west and west, and I thought: ‘I need to be a part of this!’ I fell in
love with it out there: it’s so magical.” It took several rounds of designing
and sampling to perfect the hats, which are now available at tioytia.com,
as well as at Australian online retailer Worn Store. “Because they’re
made by hand, it does take a bit longer – we learnt to be patient with it,”
adds Laucht, who previously worked in social media for
J.Crew in New York. Now living in Melbourne, she travels regularly as
154
“WEARING A HAT GIVES YOU
SO MUCH MORE CONFIDENCE”
Tio y Tia Paloma hat, $245.
Tio y Tia Ga r hat, $290.
A model wearing a Tio y
Tia hat, photographed
by one of the label’s
founders, Lucy Laucht.
Tio y Tia Taos hat, $320.
a photographer and oversees Tio y Tia’s creative, photography and
social media; Najafi is charged with design and marketing.
For each of the women, running Tio y Tia is fuelled by passion. “We love
working with each other, and we find a lot of joy and excitement from
combining all of our interests,” says Peet. “Having three founders with
such complementary skill sets is insanely efficient.” The three also had
undertaken a “co-founders’ creative road trip” last November, starting in
Utah and then driving south to Arizona. “When the three of us were
in the desert, it’s just so slow out there and the ideas poured out of us.”
The first hat they released, the Gambler, is based on a traditional
western-style hat worn by men. It was repurposed for women by adding
a string cord – “string cords were traditionally worn by women”,
A L L P R I C E S A P P R OX I M AT E D E TA I L S AT VO G U E .CO M . A U/ W T B
explains Najafi. “And it’s cute having a string cord, but also functional,
so it doesn’t fly off your head!” Other styles are softened with additions
such as a ribbon trim.
Najafi admits that previously she was determinedly not a hat person.
“Not until I found the hat – and now I’m obsessed!” she says with a laugh.
Laucht demurs that being based in Australia, hat-wearing culture has
stayed with her. And as Peet explains, a newfound appreciation for hats
through her company has imbued her style with assuredness and flair.
“In New York, wearing a hat can be intimidating. I used to be one of those
GEORG NA EGAN
people who would be self-conscious about wearing a hat and now I love
it – it gives you so much more confidence. If you’re someone who wears
a hat, you’re just really owning it.” ■
SEPTEMBER 2018
 iscover
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VOGUE V IEW POINT

DESIGNER PROFILE

Home and away

New York-based “non-Australian Australian” designer
Matthew Adams Dolan talks about getting the attention
of superstars, his new all-American collection and why he’s
kicking traditional streetwear to the curb. By Zara Wong.

E ach year at Thanksgiving, American flags would go up

outside the Adams Dolan household in Sydney’s Castle Hill, an
affluent suburb about 30 kilometres north-west of the CBD.
Matthew Adams Dolan’s mother – an avid quilter and sewer – would
The new living quarters is an upgrade from his Williamsburg flat
share – complete with a sewing machine and a loom in the corner –
where they Airbnbed the spare room to help with bills. Now his design
equipment sprawls throughout his living space. Current and past
ensure the decorations were in place and that a traditional American season moodboards with early-90s fashion editorials (pastel suiting,
Thanksgiving would be celebrated. For Christmas, his relatives in Christy Turlington in bold gold jewellery and a white blazer) and
America would send him OshKosh and L.L. Bean clothes that he would photographs of John F. Kennedy Jr with Carolyn Bessette (red carpet
wear for the next year. and paparazzi shots) lean against the walls. “We’re all so concerned
“I have always felt quite American,” says designer Adams Dolan in an with politics now; it’s inescapable, so it’s interesting to look at the
Australian accent. Born in a small town outside of Boston, he grew up past,” he says. “Americans are always going to be obsessed with the
primarily in Australia, save Kennedys, because it was such
for stints in high school a big part of the culture. What
in countryside Japan and in Jackie Kennedy wore shaped
Switzerland on university how women dressed, and how
exchange. His parents were they did their hair.”
meant to be in Australia for only The lure of having an
a few years, but they enjoyed it so independent label was never a
much that it was prolonged – and temptation for Adams Dolan,
they still live in Sydney, his father who feels – honestly – that it
is an agronomist and his mother happened by kismet. He was
a narcotics investigator. But he interested in textiles, having
confirmed his outsider status written theses about weaving
earlier, conscious of his identity in America. “I always wanted
as a “non-Australian Australian”, to work in a big company in
as he puts it, living in Australia, textile development, and when
“or when I was in Switzerland or I finished school, I was going to
in Japan, where I was obviously amazing interviews and they
not Japanese, so you’re always would say: ‘Ah, we don’t have
Rihanna in Matthew Adams
distanced immediately from Dolan at a Parsons School anything at the moment’ or: ‘We
everyone because of that”, he of Design benefit (left), and don’t know if this is the right
says. “When you’re an outsider, in that oversized denim position for you,’” he says in
jacket in New York.
you’re able to take a step back a quiet voice of the time when
and look at everyone and he was finishing his competitive
everything else around you.” masters degree at Parsons School
Tall and limby, there is no missing Adams Dolan – his height would of Design in Greenwich Village. He had also completed his
have ensured second glances back in rural Japan. There’s a comfortable undergraduate double degree at Sydney’s University of Technology in
GET T Y IMAGES GREG HARRIS

gait that is in tune with the pitter-patter of his Lakeland terrier, Maisie,
who he’s walking today. Weaving through the streets from his loft
apartment-cum-studio at the southern wharves of Manhattan to
Chelsea, Maisie’s best characteristic is to make sure that Adams Dolan
leaves his apartment, where the 30-year-old regularly works till the
early hours sewing or planning new collections.
design as well as French and Swiss literature – he has an intellectual
curiosity that extends far beyond the worlds of fashion and design. But
in the meantime, the graduate collection he did as part of his Parsons
masters degree was gaining traction, requested for shoot after shoot.
Stylist Alastair McKimm cottoned on early and enlisted him to work
with his team to sew garments as required for a slew of his projects. ¤

156
SEPTEMBER 2018 157
VOGUE V IEW POINT
If there is a singular moment that defines the young designer – the
one that cannot go unmentioned in any story about him – is the Rihanna
moment. Rewind, go back – he had received a last-minute request for
a sample that he didn’t have on hand. But, the sample was for a shoot
with the singer and he stayed up all night to re-sew the particular look.
The rest, as they would say, was fashion history – Rihanna loved the
piece so much that she wore it out and was promptly photographed in it,
causing a furore as to who the mainstream-wise unknown designer was
behind her oversized denim jacket. “She wore it the next day, the next
day, and the next. It was a lot of attention in one week!” Dolan beams.
The reaction was unprecedented. (Lady Gaga had worn his pieces
before and the response was noticeably quieter.) His inbox exploded:
Rihanna’s fans wanted to buy it, retailers in Japan and Opening Ceremony
in New York were interested, even though wholesaling
his graduate collection was not part of his original plan.
“It was a matter of timing and circumstances,” he “WHO NEEDS TO
shrugs, in between passers-by stopping to pat Maisie.
“And I have sewn many of that jacket since then,”
BUY ANOTHER
he says with a laugh (most probably late into the night). HOODIE? I LIKE
Rihanna’s interest in his work culminated in him THE IDEA OF
working with her and her creative team on Fenty for
Puma. While he tells me about how involved she was,
YOUNG PEOPLE
and how there wasn’t a detail that she missed, he DRESSING UP”
was more excited about the experience of working
within a larger team. “I’d interned, but I hadn’t worked
in a company out of school and especially a company at that scale,” he
says earnestly. “I learnt so much about technology and costing, and
knowing that if you’re going to make something, it needs to sell for X
amount, and you’re going to make 2,000 units, and it was working
intelligently with price boundaries,” he explains. He had stints working
in retail, too, while studying: Ralph Lauren, Incu and Acne in Sydney
and at Alexander Wang in New York, where he recalls how Scandinavian
tourists would come in looking for studded handbags. “When you work
in retail, you learn how to read people, don’t you think?” he proposes.
“It’s important to know what people want to buy.”
Delving into the finer points of what sells for his label has fascinated
him. Denim might have been his launch pad and his personal choice for
what he wears himself day to day, but the label is also doing a roaring
trade in knits and shirting, and he is a finalist for the trajectory-boosting
CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. His autumn/winter ’18/’19 took this a step
further by playing with suiting, proportions and cuts to improve design,
rather than for the sake of change. “I’m challenging shape and
158
proportion,” he says. “From the front they look quite normal, but they
have all these big curved sleeves or a very tightly nipped waist. It’s not
just about it being oversized, but considering comfort, so moving the
armholes forward, or having the shoulders curved. Because otherwise,
what makes you want to buy a suit from me or someone else?”
Advancing comfort and ease is what governs how Adams Dolan
designs, and it comes from his sense of identity and place. “American
iconography has so many layers: when you think about something like
jeans, they’re worn by teenagers in the 1950s and it was the first time that
generation were even identified as teenagers, and then you look at punk
and ripped denim, hip-hop, Western, workwear – they’ve moved through
all these different stratospheres,” he says, touching upon his masters work
for Parsons. The strictly streetwear world is one that Adams Dolan has
evolved beyond. “There’s so much hype about streetwear,
but who needs to buy another hoodie? How many hoodies
do people want to see in store?” he asks with a laugh.
“I like the idea of young people dressing up.” In his
designs, he’s “addressing what it means to be American
and not necessarily WASP-y, or Gossip Girl, or Ralph
Lauren ads in the Hamptons. Looking at the American
identity feels more authentic when you’re walking
around,” he says, gesturing to students celebrating
graduation in Washington Park, people eating lunch,
skaters – different ages and ethnicities. “And it’s
reflected in our show casting as well – we want our
casting to look like the New York you see walking down the street.”
With a self-confessed obsession with the legacy and heritage of
American fashion, he rolls off inspiration points that run the gamut
from influential designer Claire McCardell, Dolly Parton to Aaliyah to
the Lo-Lifes, a gang who would steal and wear Ralph Lauren. “Ralph
Lauren is all about aspiration and elitism – it’s very WASP-y and not
designed for them, but they reappropriated it,” he says of the Lo-Lifes.
Of McCardell: “She was about having clothes that women could wear to
work.” The combination of the two, sprinkled with pop culture
references, is an oddly concise summary of Adams Dolan’s latest
collection, with its shirts with elongated sleeves and enlarged collars
worn with blue jeans, fuzzy cable-knit long cardigans for men in fuchsia
and cobalt, and Clueless-style blazer and pleated skirt sets in grey
suiting fabric or plaids. Reworked, recontextualised lexicons of
American style as observed when growing abroad. They’re the clothes
I N D I G I TA L
to wear, to get out and about in, the prep, the American sportswear, the
denim, the street wear that is re-examined and re-made. ■
SEPTEMBER 2018
VOGUE CU LTU R E
DANCE
Show of strength
The Australian Ballet’s stunning new
production of Spartacus is a gritty
examination of masculinity. By Jane Albert.
ST YLING PH I LI PPA M O RO N E Y
PHOTOG R APHS J U STI N R I D LER
K
evin Jackson has been dancing with the Australian Ballet for 15
years now, working six days a week, up to 14 hours a day. As he
has progressed through the company ranks to the most senior
position of principal artist, he has noticed something unusual
happening: his whole physique changes depending on the ballet he is
performing, reflecting the physical demands of the role itself.
When he sits down with Vogue Australia, he is dancing the Prince
in artistic director David McAllister’s production of The Sleeping Beauty in
Adelaide, his body fluid and lithe. Mentally, however, he is planning for
one of his most physically demanding roles yet, that of slave, gladiator
and rebel leader Spartacus, in a contemporary take on the legendary
tale. It is a role that calls for hard muscle and lean lines – brute strength
– in a production set to turn the concept of classical ballet on its head,
its raw masculinity presenting the male dancers of the company in
a startling new light.
Former Australian Ballet dancer and NIDA-trained director and
choreographer Lucas Jervies has dreamt of reworking Spartacus since he
returned to the company as a soldier extra for that very show, in 2002.
“I remember standing in the wings thinking: ‘I want to do this one
day,’” he recalls. His chance came when he was invited to be dramaturge,
or theatrical consultant, when McAllister’s production of Beauty
debuted in 2015. “I thought David would laugh me out of the room, but
his jaw just dropped. He’d wanted someone to remake it for a while;
he was excited from the beginning.”
Spartacus is believed to have been a real figure, a 1st-century BC slave-
turned-gladiator rebel who inspired his fellow slaves to rise up against
their Roman oppressors. His story has inspired myriad books, films and
ballets, from filmmaker Stanley Kubrick to playwright Bertolt Brecht
and ballet composer Aram Khachaturian.
While ancient Rome might not appear to hold much contemporary
relevance, for Jervies the story of Spartacus himself does. “Slavery is at
the highest [level] it’s ever been, and when you look at regimes like North
Korea, the mass parades, the megalomaniac leader; when you look at
some of the rhetoric coming out of America, I think: ‘That’s Rome.’ That
was my starting point,” Jervies says. Working with celebrated French
designer Jérôme Kaplan, Jervies’s Spartacus is set in a Brutalist-inspired
arena that reaches 10 metres high, dwarfing dancers and audiences alike.
It is here, amid the cold marble and coarse sandy floor, the action
unfolds, opening with a mass parade reminiscent of North Korea and
the Stalin era, and quickly progressing to the gladiatorial games, during
which Spartacus is forced to fight and kill his best friend Hermes.
Spurred to rebellion, he incites his fellow slaves to rise up against their
captors and help him free his captive wife Flavia.
160
To realise the multiple fight scenes convincingly, Jervies turned to
Australian professional fight director Nigel Poulton, who works across
film, TV, ballet, opera and theatre, from the New York City Ballet to the
cast of The Good Wife. “There are no weapons in the arena,” Jervies
points out. “I wanted the fighting to be hand-to-hand combat, which is
more brutal, more violent, more risky, creating more tension.” Poulton
taught the dancers skills ranging from jujitsu to capoeira, which Jervies
then choreographed into a dance context.
After dancing classical ballet most of his life, Jackson cautiously
welcomed learning an entirely new physical language. “It felt extremely
foreign to us, but at a point I felt it was actually dancing: watching your
partner, communicating through your eyes, watching for an action and
reaction. I think Nigel is going to make the men of the company fight
like wild animals; it’s an element we haven’t seen on stage in a ballet
context. It will really excite the audience,” Jackson says.
Preparing for the role of the charismatic, brave, physically
intimidating leader Spartacus will require near-unprecedented training
on Jackson’s part. He is approaching his Melbourne debut in the role
from the diametrically opposed physique required of him in Sleeping
Beauty, a production he then goes back to for the company tour of China
in October, before Spartacus returns to the stage in Sydney. Such is life
in a nationally touring company.
“My body really takes on a role, which I’m grateful for, but when
those roles are close together it’s a challenge,” Jackson says. “It’s really
difficult, because I’ve been wanting to get into my Spartacus body, but
obviously I can’t be the Prince in Sleeping Beauty and be all bulked up:
I still need to be fluid.”
Of course, dancers are only as good as their bodies are strong, and
Jackson is aware how much careful preparation is needed. For Spartacus
he has planned an intensive upper-body workout he’ll do in the gym
each evening after rehearsal, allowing enough time to ‘feed his muscles’
with a protein-rich meal, hopefully giving his body the chance to
recover before the pas de deux and fight rehearsals the following
morning. Classical ballet still requires a supple, fluid technique, so to
counteract the weights sessions he will continue his regular tailored
strength and conditioning program. Given the intense physical
demands dancing Spartacus requires, Jackson is particularly alert to any
M A K E- U P: N A D I N E M O N L E Y
niggles or alarm bells his body may sound, taking any concerns about
HA R: D ANE GORG EVSK
potential injury straight to physiotherapist Sue Mayes.
So highly regarded is Mayes and the Australian Ballet’s medical and
physical rehabilitation team they are sought out the world over. In late
2015, Bolshoi Ballet and American Ballet Theater superstar David Hallberg
quietly relocated to Melbourne to work with Mayes to rehabilitate ¤
Australian Ballet principal
artist Kevin Jackson, who
plays the eponymous
lead role in Spartacus.

SEPTEMBER 2018 161

VOGUE CU LTU R E

Jackson and fellow

JUSTIN RIDLER

Australian Ballet principal

artist Ty King Wall rehearse
a brutal fight scene.

162
from a career-threatening ankle injury. Twelve months later he had
recovered, making his comeback on the Sydney stage with the Australian
“I don’t want
Ballet’s production of Coppelia. Such is his respect for the company he has to portray that
since become the Australian Ballet’s inaugural international guest artist. pack mentality
And it isn’t only in the world of dance that Mayes is sought after. of a blokes’
North Melbourne Football Club defender Sam Wright credits Mayes
with ending his 701 days on the bench, after she helped him recover locker room.
from a serious ankle injury. Wright and his fellow AFL team members Spartacus
have since trained with the Australian Ballet, and were surprised to is brave and
find the dancers rivalled them in both fitness and power.
When it came to reworking the story of Spartacus, Jervies was
strong, but he’s
conscious how problematic adaptations have been in their treatment also sensitive
and portrayal of women. Adamant he wanted to avoid what he terms and kind”
‘toxic masculinity’, he has collaborated with his regular associate,
theatre director Imara Savage, whose recent reinterpretation of the
George Bernard Shaw play Saint Joan, starring Sarah Snook, for Jackson with Australian
the Sydney Theatre Company was received with critical acclaim. Ballet senior artist
Dimity Azoury.
“Context was important for me from day one,” he says. “We’re
addressing the whole idea of masculinity. I don’t want to portray that
pack mentality of a blokes’ locker room. Spartacus in my mind is brave
and strong, but he’s also sensitive and kind and considerate. How that
manifests through movement will be how he interacts with Flavia, how
he interacts with people on stage – is he hot-headed or considerate?”
Jervies turned to the Howard Fast book that inspired Kubrick’s film to
help him shape the role of Spartacus, portrayed by Fast as a calm,
almost Jesus-like figure. “Kevin is so sensitive and caring and
grounded: I think he can redefine the role,” Jervies says.
Central to his reinterpretation of the story and repositioning of its
women is principal artist Robyn Hendricks, for whom Jervies
choreographed the role of Flavia. In Jervies’s production Flavia inspires
Spartacus’s strength, providing reason and passion. “Robyn is everything
you could want in a ballerina. At times this can be challenging, because
she’s so precise, whereas I can be a little more irreverent and abandoned
in my approach! But I’m in love with that woman,” he says.
Although male roles in classical ballet are often seen as supporting
the ballerinas, Jackson believes it is always an equal partnership, and it
is no different in Spartacus. “Lucas’s choreographing of Flavia has her as
the heart and strength behind Spartacus. I don’t think she’s a damsel in
distress, even though I go to rescue her. She’s his confidante, and she’s
full of hope, faith and spirituality. She’s so important to our story.”
Jervies is only too aware of the risks associated with reworking a
production and story as beloved as Spartacus, especially doing so in such
a public way on the stages of the Sydney Opera House and Arts Centre
Melbourne. As far as Jackson is concerned, Jervies is perfect for the job.
“He has such a creative mind, is a little left-of-centre and he doesn’t
necessarily do the norm,” he says. “I’ve worked with him before
throughout the years and I know how passionate he is about ballet, but
he’s also gone down the contemporary path, so it’s really exciting to see
how he’s mixing the two. This is the perfect ballet for him, with its mix
of masculinity, the story itself and the grit and the dirt. It’s also really
exciting for an audience to see a work like this, instead of that ethereal,
flighty production that is the perception of ballet. Hopefully, it will open
up new audiences and open their eyes to what they can expect from
ballet. It feels relevant and new and as if we’re actually going to make
a mark on the art form and tell a story people can be captivated by.”
The Australian Ballet performs Spartacus at the Arts Centre Melbourne from
September 18 to 29 and at the Sydney Opera House from November 9 to 24.

SEPTEMBER 2018 163

VOGUE CU LTU R E
Facing facts
Ronan Farrow shared a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Ahead of his first Australian
speaking appearances, Farrow discusses the power of investigative journalism with New Yorker editor David Remnick.
DAVID REMNICK: “Ronan, I’m so happy to say, you’ve won the Pulitzer Prize
for public service for your reporting on the Harvey Weinstein story of
sexual harassment and what became the MeToo movement. We [Farrow
and the New Yorker] share this, because it’s an institutional award as
well, with the New York Times, and I wonder if, when you started
reporting this, did you have any sense of where it would all go?”
RONAN FARROW: “I think it was clear to all of us from the beginning how
significant this was, what a deep vein of untold stories we were tapping
into, and the breadth of this, that very rapidly it became apparent this
was not just a story about Harvey Weinstein, or a story about Hollywood.
This was about a set of systems used to silence survivors of sexual abuse.”
DR: “Why did it happen now? As, you know better than anybody, more
than decade ago, Ken Auletta tried to write about Harvey Weinstein
specifically, and he wrote a pretty tough piece, but we couldn’t get to the
core of it, where women are concerned, because, quite frankly, sources
weren’t ready to come forward. I’m sure many, many reporters tried to get
at what they either knew or suspected was the case outside of Hollywood
as well, on the factory floor. Why did this happen in 2017/2018?”
RF: “You’re absolutely right. Ken Auletta did wonderful work, David
Carr did wonderful work. Janice Min, the long-time editor of the
Hollywood Reporter, described this as a ‘white whale’ of journalism.
People were circling this. I do think the landscape changed. Much as
I would love to take credit for this, I think it was over-determined, in a
way. [Bill] Cosby’s accusers coming forward. Honestly, my sister [Dylan
Farrow] coming forward at a time when that message was not well
received, with an allegation of abuse against a powerful guy. These
were blows to the system.”
DR: “Now, it’s no secret that there’s a lot of discussion about the MeToo
movement on a lot of levels, and individual cases. In politics, for
example, what happened with Al Franken and the destiny he met is still
pretty controversial.”
RF: “You know, people have been really pilloried for trying to talk about
the fact that there are shades of grey in these allegations. And that there
have been a number of different types of allegations, with different
levels of severity.”
DR: “It’s understandable that they’re
pilloried for it.”
RF: “I think that this is a set of truths that “People
was buried for so long, that we’re just
grappling with the initial wave of: ‘Okay,
have been
we’re telling the truth for the first time.’ pilloried for
And I actually think that our profession trying to
has been pretty good at self-regulating.
You look at something like the Aziz
talk about
Ansari blog post that went viral and very the fact
rapidly was dissected and determined to there are
be something quite different from the
Harvey Weinstein allegations. I think
shades of
people are pretty sophisticated and they grey in these
are drawing those distinctions …” allegations”
164
DR: “Over and over again, when I read about you, which is, since we
work together, it’s an odd feeling …”
RF: “You’re so tired of reading about me, I know.”
DR: “But reading about you, [there’s this] notion … that the fact you were
in a show-business family, that somehow gave you an advantage in
terms of sources and sourcing. Is that true?”
RF: “I think when you call someone up and you say: ‘Hey, relive the worst
experience of your life in clinical detail and re-traumatise yourself and
take a huge risk talking to a reporter about it’, saying I’ve got family
members who work in your industry is not a huge source of comfort. It
was not something that entered into a lot of the conversations early on.”
DR: “I don’t mean to embarrass you, but I would see you on the phone
with sources and your capacity for empathy was remarkable, your
patience and all the rest. And I get the sense that this comes to you in a
way that’s, I would say, natural, but began early on with you, in political
terms and in reporting terms. When you were a kid, I think you used to
go on trips with your mother to places like Sudan, obviously not beach
vacations, but places that had real political import.”
RF: “Yeah, no-one was on holiday in Sudan at the time that I was there.
It started even earlier than that, in one sense, because I was raised in
this family with all of these adopted siblings from every corner of the
earth, with tremendous adversity in their backgrounds. Men and
women who had been abused terribly and had lived without language
or love in the most abject kind of poverty imaginable.”
DR: “And with disabilities of all kinds.”
RF: “Severe physical disabilities, psychological handicaps and conditions
that last a lifetime.”
DR: “How many kids?”
RF: “I’m one of 14. And the end result of a family like that doesn’t look
perfect. It’s not the nuclear family. Those problems don’t go away.”
DR: “And it’s not a quiet family.”
RF: “It’s not a quiet family. But I’m so immensely proud of the fact we all
banded together and we have each other, and we are truly a family. And
the world’s problems, because of that, were at my doorstep from a very
early point. And then from the earliest point at which I was looking at
what to do professionally, I had inculcated in me my Mom’s Catholic
schoolgirl altruism. And I was afforded wonderful opportunities,
because she was doing advocacy, internationally, to watch that.”
DR: “Where was she going? What was she doing?”
RF: “She was going to refugee camps across Africa. And doing really
substantive work, you know, here’s the lack of access UNICEF has
to a refugee camp in whatever African country, can I use my celebrity to
broker greater access for them? I mean, more than just a photo op. I was
pretty young, in my teens. My trajectory was odd, because, this is very
annoying, I had this Doogie Howser thing of I started college at 11, and
then I …”
DR: “Why did you start college at 11?”
RF: “Because I’m a nerd, David.”
DR: “You were a nerd, but were you in a hurry to get out of a noisy and
complicated house, too?”
 RF: “No, I mean there was turmoil and trauma and pain in my childhood,
but I don’t think that’s what I was outrunning. I think if there was an
insecurity that fuelled that, it was having a chip on my shoulder about
these immense, high-profile figures around me. And wanting
desperately to make my own mark on some level. It was all very ego-
driven. But the commitment to public service was sincere and was a
through-line right from that early point and, also, was the origin point
of my print journalism. Because I started writing op-eds when I was in
Sudan and a number of other African countries. And I would just
submit them to the Wall Street Journal. And for a while I was doing
a column a month for different papers.”
DR: “What did you think you were going to be and do? You mentioned
that you went to college at 11. You were at law school by, how old?”
RF: “I got in at 15, 16, then I deferred for two years to do more UN work
and to start working for Richard Holbrooke, my mentor of many years,
this great diplomat.”
DR: “So, your new book – you have a new book out – called War on
Peace, which is all about diplomacy, the failure of diplomacy, your
experience with Richard Holbrooke, your experience with diplomats
that you portray in almost tragic terms, as kind of the last of their
breed. Tell me about how you started seeing that diplomatic world at
its best and its worst.”
RF: “Because of the public service-minded background that we just
talked about, I went off to Afghanistan to work for Holbrooke, who had
then taken on this job as the President’s diplomat-in-chief trying to end
that war. He had been famous for ending the war in Bosnia and
desperately wanted to do it again. And he was an immensely
complicated figure, massive ego, fights with everyone all the time,
alienated everyone …”
DR: “Talk to me about getting hired by Richard Holbrooke. There’s
a great scene in the book, I think there’s a shower involved.”
RF: “Everyone who dealt with him over the years had some kind of a
bathroom story related to him. Hillary Clinton gleefully, for all the
years after, recounted this story of him following her into a women’s
room in Pakistan.”
DR: “We should say this was when Richard Holbrooke is running the
Afghanistan-Pakistan portfolio for Hillary Clinton when she was
Secretary of State, under Obama. He would excitedly continue policy
briefings into bathrooms the world over, even women’s rooms … and
you’re 20 at the time?”
RF: “Around 20. And I actually had been in a wheelchair for a while, and
was just recovering. And he knew this, but he was …”
DR: “You’d had an infection from a trip to Africa.”
RF: “It was left untreated while I was doing a lot of that travelling, and
I had many surgeries, and he knew that I was just off crutches. And yet
he handed me all of his luggage and said: ‘We’re going to my place in
Georgetown’, and I’m hobbling after him. And we get to his place. He’s
I N T E R V I E W CO U RT E S Y O F T H E N E W YO R K E R
asking me: ‘How would you overhaul assistance to Afghanistan? How
would you negotiate with the Taliban?’ He had this sort of visionary
quality where he believed: ‘If I bring in outside voices who are
nonconformist and don’t have the government experience, I can shake
things up.’ And he had tremendous confidence in good ideas. And so, it
was a sincere exchange we were having and it continued … upstairs in
his townhouse, and he goes into a bathroom, leaves the door ajar …
pees, turns on the shower, is unbuttoning his shirt and pokes his head
out and says: ‘Uh, I’m just gonna keep going with this.’
“America is “And we’re then doing a job interview
over the hiss of the shower. And
increasingly I thought: ‘Wow, well, now I have my
a nation Richard Holbrooke bathroom story.’
without “So this is one reason why I think
I tell this whole story of this whole
negotiators, transformation of America’s place in
that shoots the world. That we are increasingly a
first and asks nation without negotiators, without
peacemakers, that shoots first and asks
questions questions later, or not at all. I tell it
later, or through the lens of these very
not at all” colourful characters. And they really
are the last standard-bearers of what
they say is an endangered profession.
And Holbrooke’s story is particularly instructive, because of the
parallels of history you just talked about.”
DR: “One of the newsier aspects of this book is you had a very good
interview with Rex Tillerson, late of the State Department under President
Trump. And what’s amazing about it is that no-one has tried to slash the
diplomatic budget or the emphasis on diplomacy or the foreign service
more than the Trump administration. What’s the rationale there?”
RF: “Since the Clinton administration, to an extent, and especially since
9/11, we have been chipping away at diplomacy. It gives us clear lessons.
When we do this, it is a disaster. We closed embassies, we closed
agencies even, during the Clinton era, [those] that have responsibility
for huge swaths of American foreign policy. What Trump has done
is taken these failed trends and doubled down on them. He has turned
a slow glide down into a nosedive.”
DR: “Toward what end? What’s the rationale? What does Rex Tillerson
say to you to rationalise that?”
RF: “So, what’s interesting about this conversation with Rex Tillerson,
which is one of his last and most candid interviews before his firing, is
that he does a little bit of a mea culpa. He says that he was inexperienced
and didn’t know he was supposed to advocate for his own institution’s
budget. He also says, for the first time, that behind closed doors he
pushed back and tried to fight the budget. He lays a lot of blame on the
White House. He says that the State Department is empty and there are
ambassadorships around the world unfilled because the White House.”
DR: “So what is the solution to all of this, if you don’t mind speculating?
And what, in an ideal world and with a different President and a
different mindset, has to happen for diplomacy to improve and for the
value of diplomacy as such to be raised up in American government?”
RF: “A big chunk of the book is devoted to these purges of the State
Department right now, that the flow of talent into the diplomatic
profession is drying up. That embassies are empty everywhere. Offices
are empty in the State Department. There is no-one at home to make
peace or make deals. And everything is being run through the military.
But it also talks about how easy it is to reverse course on this once you
have leadership committed to large-scale diplomatic endeavour.”
DR: “Right, thank you, and congratulations again on the Pulitzer Prize.”
RF: “Thank you, David.”
To watch this conversation, part of the New Yorker Interview video series,
go to video.newyorker.com/series/the-new-yorker-interview.
Ronan Farrow will speak at the Melbourne Writers Festival on August 30, and
the Antidote Festival at the Sydney Opera House on September 1.
SEPTEMBER 2018 165
 Call me
Audrey
Meet Audrey Mason-Hyde: a
non-binary teenager who doesn’t
identify as a girl or a boy and who,
along with her filmmaker parents,
is helping to break down gender
identity perceptions, writes
Sophie Tedmanson.

ST YLING PH I LI PPA M O RO N E Y
PHOTOG R APHS JAKE TER R E Y

Audrey Mason Hyde wears an Armani Junior jacket, $400,

and waistcoat, $340. Armani Kids pants, $250. H&M Kids
shirt, $25. Her own glasses, worn throughout.

I
n many respects, Audrey Mason-Hyde is a typical 13-year-old:
bubbly, excitable, whip-smart and funny – her conversation is
littered with “likes” and her face lights up when talking about her
favourite YouTube stars or a poetry slam contest she’s to perform at.
But halfway through lunch, Audrey needs to go to the bathroom. Her
eyes dart over to the cafe’s toilets and a nervous hesitation crosses her
face, all confidence drained in an instant. She watches the women’s
door for a minute, wondering if there is anyone inside.
For when it comes to going to the bathroom in public, Audrey is no
typical teenager. Audrey was born biologically female, but doesn’t
typically identify as one, nor does she identify as a boy. Non-binary,
gender fluid, gender neutral, gender queer – label it what you will –
Audrey shrugs her shoulders when asked what moniker she prefers:
“I guess I identify as non-binary, or just Audrey, you know?”
Just Audrey. Just Audrey is just right – after all, as she says, “why is it
your business whether I’m a boy or a girl?” It was this exact question
Audrey posited at a TED Talk in her home town of Adelaide last year –
the extraordinary child (she was 12 at the time) bravely standing solo on
stage in front of hundreds of people discussing “toilets, bow-ties,
gender and me”.
Audrey is one of many atypical teens coming to terms with their
identity in this modern era of fluid gender and sexuality. It is an era in
which we’ve finally seen gay rights being widely accepted, and recently
witnessed transgender becoming publicly acknowledged – thanks to the
KLJK SURILOHV RI &DLWOLQ -HQQHU /DYHUQH &R[ DQG RXU RZQ $QGUHMD 3HMLþ
(who made history as the first transgender model to grace the cover of
Vogue Australia last April). And it is now a time in which the term ‘gender
fluid’ has also entered the vernacular, thanks to celebrities such as Ruby
Rose and YouTube vloggers such as Miles McKenna [of Miles Chronicles]
openly discussing their struggles with not conforming to either standard
gender, in turn becoming important role models for LGBTQI teenagers
coming to terms with their own identities.
For the first time, just two years ago, the Australian Census allowed
individuals to select ‘other’ as their gender in place of male or female for
its 2016 survey, with some 1,260 people (out of 23.4 million) recording
a sex/gender diverse response. While in the US, recent studies have
found more teenagers are identifying themselves with non-traditional
gender labels such as transgender or gender fluid than ever before.
According to the Oxford dictionary, the term gender fluid denotes
a person who does not identify as having a fixed gender, while non-
binary denotes a gender or sexual identity that is ‘not defined in terms
of traditional binary oppositions such as male and female or homosexual
and heterosexual’ – identities outside cisnormativity.
As gender fluidity becomes more acknowledged, we are also seeing
A L L P R I C E S A P P R OX I M AT E D E TA I L S AT VO G U E .CO M . A U/ W T B
H A R : M C H E L E M C Q U L L A N M A K E- U P: M O L LY WA R K E N T N
more representation on TV and films – recent storylines of the popular
TV shows Billions and Younger have featured non-binary characters who
don’t identify as either gender, and use the pronoun ‘they’.
But while the public perception is more open in pop culture, in real
life there are still many hurdles to overcome. Like going to the bathroom
when there is no unisex option.
Audrey – who is happy to be addressed as ‘she’: “it’s just easier” –
dresses in what you might say is a boyish manner: short cropped curly
hair, pants and sneakers and always a fabulous bow tie (she has 27 of
them) – which makes some people raise questions when they see her in
the women’s toilets. The first time this happened was when Audrey
began primary school, aged five.
VOGUE CU LTU R E
“One of my first days [at school], someone called me a boy in the toilets
and I was really taken aback, like: ‘What?’” Audrey says, her animated
face mocking confusion. “I didn’t get it at all, because my parents didn’t
really instil in me what was boys’ clothes or what was girls’ clothes: they
sort of just let me dress however I liked, which was good. Before I went
to school, I didn’t get the whole social constructs of gender, so I was just
like, yeah, I can wear whatever. But from that [point] it happened more
and more often and it was hard for the majority of the time.”
“Still is, huh?” Audrey’s mum, Sophie Hyde, offers with a comforting
smile. “Still is, yep. I feel weird,” Audrey says, looking back over to the
toilet door. “So I always go to the disabled or, if I can’t, I just go to the
female toilets and deal with it … but I get really nervous coming out of
the cubicle, like if there’s going to be another person in the loo, I think:
‘Oh, no, I’ve gotta wait until they get out before I can get out of the toilet.’
“I was always quite strong in who I was and I would go into bathrooms
and people would go: ‘Oh, look, there’s a boy in here, what are you
doing in here?’ and for a long time I would just be like: ‘No, I’m a girl,’
but I think at one point … I think it was when Mum showed me photos
of people who were non-binary and gender fluid and I sort of thought
about it a bit and it felt more right than a
boy or girl. So I stopped saying: ‘No, I’m
“When I a girl, and my style … I just refused to
change it for people – so then having an
first found androgynous style also represented
out that that [experience of gender]; it’s also sort
that could of like intertwined.
“Realising I didn’t just have to wear
be a thing, boys’ or girls’ clothes, and like I could
that I could wear make-up with boys’ clothes or
be not just I could wear Spandex pants with
sparkles all over them with boys’
a boy or a clothes, and just be whatever I wanted
girl, that to be … from that I think came my sense
felt right” of identity.
“I think it was like when I first found
out that that could be a thing, that
I could be not just a boy or a girl, that felt right.”
Hyde says Audrey started dressing in ‘boys’ clothes’ at the age of five,
just before she started school, and evolved into a more androgynous
style about three years later. Hyde and her partner, Audrey’s father,
Bryan Mason, decided to let Audrey’s individualism develop into
whatever she wanted, providing a loving, nurturing and, most
importantly, supportive home environment for their child, who was
obviously different to others from an early age.
Hyde says Audrey was always a confident child, and her response
when people mistook her for a boy was to not conform. “Some kids
respond in the other way: they would become really feminised, like
they would like grow their hair long and try to show all the signs and
symbols of being a female, and that would be how they would get
through in life,” Hyde says. “It’s just been interesting watching her not
do things, like she doesn’t identify as tomboy or anything.”
Audrey screws her nose up at the word tomboy. “I think for a long
time I thought I was a tomboy and that was so the opposite of what
people thought I was – a girl,” she says. “It was basically being a boy.
“Like, for a long time, I thought that meant I can’t wear pink – I don’t
like pink, I hate pink, can’t wear frills. No frills, nothing, like, just ¤
SEPTEMBER 2018 167
VOGUE CU LTU R E
nothing … anything girlie was like I’m betraying myself. But I guess
that’s why non-binary felt so right, because I can wear anything, I can
do anything and I’m just still me. Like, I don’t have to be a tomboy or a
girlie girl or whatever it was; I felt stifled by it. A lot of younger kids ask
me [about it] and I try to explain myself and my gender to them. They’re
like: ‘So you’re a tomboy,’ and I’m like: ‘No, not a tomboy, I just don’t
identify as either gender.’”
Audrey will move to high school next year, and while she admits to
being nervous starting all over again with a new peer group, she is
excited about attending a progressive school that has an LGBT students’
club she is already keen to join.
“I’m excited for that, but I’m also worried … it’s nerve-
racking, high school in general,” she says. “But for me having a whole
bunch of new kids who I haven’t grown up
with and wondering how they’re going to
react to my gender is gonna be interesting.”
The TED Talk stage is not the first time
Audrey has spoken in public – her parents
are award-winning filmmakers and Audrey
has featured in many of their productions,
including the film-festival hit 52 Tuesdays
and, most recently, Fucking Adelaide (both of
which deal with gender-identity issues),
currently on ABC iView, in which Audrey
plays a gender-fluid child. Growing up on
film sets, surrounded by a community of
creative artists, and in an extremely open-
minded family, helped Audrey find
confidence in herself and accept her identity
with minimal trauma. But it has not always
been smooth sailing, even for her parents.
Hyde says watching Audrey come to terms
with her gender identity has helped her and
Mason understand how much gender plays Audrey wears an H&M Kids jacket, $45, shirt with bow tie,
a role in society. $25, and pants, $40. Topman socks, $25, for a pack.
“For all of us during the writing and Converse sneakers, $100. Audrey’s mum, Sophie Hyde,
wears a Witchery jacket, $300. Camilla and Marc top,
making of the films, Audrey’s experience of $240. Zara pants, $99. Bally shoes, $940.
gender has really illuminated things,” says
Hyde. “When you’re creators, you’re always looking at the world and
trying to understand it, and watching Audrey have this experience and
seeing people deal with her really made us understand gender
differently.
“And that’s what been really interesting, seeing Audrey so early
going: ‘Okay, maybe I do like make-up or maybe I’m interested in more
flamboyant things within this’ – that it’s not about the rejection
necessarily of all the ideas of femaleness, it’s the rejection of the idea
that these two – female and male – are distinct and separate and that
they come naturally to everybody.
“There’s nothing like having a child who doesn’t like to identify, or
there’s confusion around other people’s vision of them,” Hyde says. “It
does show you how gendered everything is. Everyone just wants you to
explain – is it a girl or a boy? Constantly, everyone, every conversation
is a question about whether someone’s a girl or a boy. And then when
you’re talking about someone, it’s almost impossible to do so without
using pronouns. I try … I say ‘my child’, but I’m not always good at it.
Sometimes I will slip up and Audrey knows that.
168
“I used to say I have a daughter and now I’m like, no, okay, that
doesn’t mean anything anymore … if I call her my child, usually people
assume she’s a boy.”
Audrey interjects: “Mum will say ‘my child’, and they will be like
‘your son?’ I mean, you try to use language like … ‘Audrey is doing blah
blah’ and not use pronouns. It’s so hard, and that means that you are
constantly just being asked to explain what gender you are. Why does
that matter? I don’t want to think that I have to give over my gender
every time someone knows anything about me.”
On a more personal note, Hyde admits it has been a difficult yet
enlightening experience as a mother coming to terms with having a child
who didn’t necessarily want to be a girl. “It was kind of tough for me at the
beginning, because I wanted to believe that I raised a child who was a
strong female and was able to be anything she
wanted inside that label,” she says. “I wanted
to teach her that inside it wasn’t about any
other preconceived ideas about womanhood,
but as you start to see how Audrey
experiences life, you realise, oh, it still is.
“So I’m still restricted and confined by
the idea of my gender as well, and Bryan
too. But we are quite a feminist family,
really, or at least we are quite comfortable in
questioning the idea of gender. Like I’m
a woman, you know, it’s like a strong
statement. And I think from my point of
view it was quite hard [to realise] for
Audrey – oh, right, okay, um, so you are not
a woman; you are not a girl.
“And I think in some ways I always just
thought of you as Audrey, so it was always
quite a comfortable thing that you didn’t
identify in some ways as a ‘girl’.”
While Audrey is proud of who she is, and
hopes to help other teens going through
identity issues, she admits it is exhausting
having people question her gender. Even
simple things like playing sports at school
when someone suggests choosing teams based on boys versus girls, or
going to the bathroom, brings up anxiety.
“Yeah, that’s really exhausting,” she says. “It’s like I feel in bathrooms
– so trapped. If I sit out of the sports game, I am making a point, like
I don’t want to play this sports game because of choosing a gender side.
And if I go on the girls’ side, it’s giving up, or it’s conceding to them or
A L L P R I C E S A P P R OX I M AT E D E TA I L S AT VO G U E .CO M . A U/ W T B
something. So it’s a feared situation, and it’s the same in bathrooms.
“I would love to say: ‘Oh, I’m just so free being me’ and identify as a
girl, but it’s the social construct of what a girl is and the social
expectation that is uncomfortable and doesn’t fit, but neither does ‘boy’.
Now, being non-binary, I feel so comfortable to just be that, and so
uncomfortable to be a girl or a boy – it’s just not who I am.”
Audrey admits she doesn’t rule out possibly changing her mind in the
future and shifting the way she identifies, but for now she is happy
within herself identifying as non-binary. “Ultimately, I just want to be
JAKE TERREY
Audrey – why does it matter if I’m, like, Audrey the girl or Audrey the
boy? Why does that mean something to people whether they see me one
way or the other? Why can’t I just be Audrey?” ■
SEPTEMBER 2018
VOGUE CU LTU R E
OPINION
Time to man up
Writer Richard Clune, who has just
released a book on being a modern
man, pays tribute to Father’s Day with
a heartfelt letter to his children.
W
hat I want you to know, now and for the wash
of time, is love. It is love that drew you into
this world. It is love that empowers you to be
and love that will enable you to grow. It is love that will
forever frame our wonderful entanglement.
To speak of parenthood, of my fatherhood, is to also gift
you the single greatest truism of this heightened pact. And
it is this: I don’t actually know what it is I’m doing. Like
every parent, I’m making this up on the fly. I’m winging it.
Some things will work, others won’t. But we’re seemingly
getting somewhere, together, holding a line in life that
seems, for the most part, to trace an ascendant arc.
If I’m to be completely honest with you, with myself, then
I must also admit I wasn’t sure if I’d make it here. To this
point. To this juncture where the signposts seem more
defined than they were for so long with two kids under two.
Because I didn’t enter the arena of fatherhood with
a raised fist of confidence, a swagger in my step. No, my
entrance was more of a stagger. A stumble, even, and
a largely drunken one at that, given I spent the lead-up to
your first breath, my darling Hattie, rinsing every last bit
of fun from life by running with reprobates and howling to
a selfish god. It’s not to suggest that I ever wished for a
return to times more simple. Please don’t ever think such
thing. But my initial priorities were fragmented when they
should have been firm.
Parenthood is hard. No one person truly enunciates this.
And it’s why, my loves, my darlings, you will sometimes
hear my voice raised or glimpse an open sense of struggle
tumbling down a cheek. It’s tough, this thing called
fatherhood, though also know that at the centre of all I do
and say and encourage and deflect is a want for you to lead
an existence of engagement and experience, one brimming
with imagination and possibility, one devoid of Dickensian
moments of struggle.
And I feel we’re getting there, my loves – we are, right?
Slowly, sure, though we’re getting somewhere, I believe.
A lifetime of nothing in a suitcase.
They’re a set of words my father, my dad – never my ‘old
man’, because that’s just crass – said to instil in me a desire
for life to take on meaning and be littered by incredible
experience. I’ve long slung them from a shoulder, never
wanting life to lead to little.
And I wish to present those same words to you now too.
I hope that you can engage the sentiment, if not today then
170
soon, because they’re words that have helped me live life, one that’s ultimately spilt
beyond full. It’s meant that I’ve felt pain alongside privilege. It’s meant that I’ve sat
above situations and smiled at the profound nature of what played out below.
I have, my kids, my darling loves, laughed and cried in equal measure. Just as you
will too. For life will explode with wonder, and will at times leave you bruised. Of
course, I will kiss every blemish and collect every tear, just as I will smile at your
elation in crossing experiences new and full of incredible cheer.
Harry, my girl, my assortment of awesome. You’re my equally proudest moment,
my crazy one who knows no fear. You can also be assertive to a point of pain, my
little miss, my whirlwind warrior. I do sometimes worry about the teenage years
ahead, about whether you’ll find false YouTube prophets or, worse, a basic older
boyfriend called Nathan, who’s “into cars”.
But then I also sit and watch you from afar, wise beyond your years and a leader of
your playground gang; a powerhouse female who reads people and situations like
others your age can’t, or shouldn’t be able to. And I look upon you in that moment
and know that all will be okay.
Hattie, Harry, H, you’re entering a world that doesn’t immediately accept the
fiercest of females. But know that things are changing, and will continue to
ameliorate so long as you and other girls don’t ever find defeat. It will be incredibly
hard at times, at times a seemingly impossible task laced with barbs set by men and
the jealousy of others. But you must maintain the fire.
Find trouble, find fortune, find frivolity, find fun. Hell, find an emo phase and
facial piercings. Just don’t let anything alter who you really are, my girl, my trouper,
and all will be wondrous.
Elliott, my boy, mon fils. You came earlier than envisaged, but you immediately
filled our lives with incredible love; funny as you were with an overfilled fat face
and chubby outstretched arms that always sought to hold another close. Or seek out
more food. Today, your mind whirs at a speed and on a level that I can’t always
understand, undertaking solo missions to places I cannot see. It will set you apart,
your unique intelligence and vision, though never seek to bury that which you are,
my boy, my remarkable little man.
Regardless of your constant quest for perfection, I encourage you to not fear
mistakes, for they’re part of the contract. Without them, life can too easily become
stifled – fear strangling true adventure.
You need no guidance when it comes to kindness, in lifting your sight to see those
around you. I ask that you continue to hold true to this, to continue to force others to
hold hands as you do in today’s playground. Yes, do that and all will be all right.
My kids, my darlings, my loves. My dynamic and vastly different duo. On this
Father’s Day, know not just of my commitment or want for you to truly live, but also
know of all that I have gained by being with you both.
Because of all that happens, I’ve come to
understand and accept that each and every day
“I didn’t (every hour in those early stages) is about learning.
enter the Fatherhood has taught me patience – on driving for
hours at night to settle the cries of a baby struggling
arena of to sleep. Fatherhood has taught me acceptance – in
fatherhood understanding why it is you no longer state farewell
with a with a kiss at the school gates. Fatherhood has
taught me true love – on seeing you smile and
swagger in feeling your grip whenever a hug is needed.
my step. No, I thank you, my wonderful precious two, for all
my entrance that we have shared. I thank you for this Father’s
Day and for those that lie ahead.
was more of Male Order: Manning Up In The Modern World by
a stagger” Richard Clune (New Holland, $24.99) is out now.
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B E A U T Y
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178
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180 SEPTEMBER 2018 180

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DA N B E L E U

182 SEPTEMBER 2018 182

VOGUE BE AUT Y

Ground force
With a renewed focus on the superpower of natural ingredients, Jurlique’s
latest launch takes seed to skin quite literally. By Remy Rippon.

T
here’s a translation at play. Nikita Soukhov, plant specialist for
Jurlique, cherry-picks one of the few remaining floral shoots
that’s survived the burly Adelaide winter, and hands it to me.
“This one’s Viola,” he says with the admiration of someone who has
quite literally nursed the plant from seedling to bloom. “Viola tricolor,
otherwise known as pansy, is soothing and great for calming delicate
skin conditions, even redness associated with breakouts,” explains
Jurlique’s education specialist Danielle Williams, interpreting each
plant’s skincare cachet – from David Austin rose (for hydration and
soothing) to peppermint leaf (for protecting).
Indeed, the stretch of land in the rolling Adelaide Hills of South
Australia is the birthplace of many of Jurlique’s natural ingredients and,
unbeknown to them, Soukhov and Williams represent a tidy metaphor
for the brand itself, the symbiosis of cutting-edge agricultural know-
how and results-driven skincare. “There is no doubt that our practices
are unique in the beauty industry,” says Williams on one of her many
visits to the farm. “The time-honoured practices we use to grow, harvest
and extract our concentrated botanicals mean that we’re unlike any
other natural skincare brand.” This close connection with natural
ingredients – we’re talking flowers (including 12 different varieties of
rose, no less), medicinal herbs and trees, and root crops straight from
the source – has also led to a few ‘aha’ moments in the brand’s history.
The most recent? The newest launch, and perhaps one of the most
groundbreaking for Jurlique, is the reformulation of its much-loved
Herbal Recovery Signature range. The collection, which includes a serum,
mist, eye cream, moisturising cream and lotion, is not only concerned
with botanical ingredients like yarrow extract (which targets fine lines)
and marshmallow root (for antioxidants) but their potency, too. Notably,
and perhaps why Soukhov was so enamoured with the pansy, is the fact
that the brand has managed to triple its force in its newest incarnation.
Jurlique senior formulator Valérie Laviolette says that a new-found
extraction method was at the heart of the reformulation. “In the Herbal
Recovery Signature Serum, the concentration was tripled to effectively
help minimise the signs of ageing better than ever before,” she says.
Central to this discovery is quashing the notion that to be natural,
skincare must forfeit efficacy. Not so, says Williams: “The fusion of
breakthrough botanicals and advanced technology, alongside clinically
proven results, will redefine what’s possible from natural skincare.” Take,
for example, the exclusive Advanced Gel technology (another translation:
the seal-like glide of products on the skin that often evades formulas in the

A L L P R C E S A P P R OX I M AT E D E TA L S AT V O G U E . CO M . A U/ W T B
natural category), which dials up the skin’s ability to take in those
nourishing ingredients. “It improves the absorption of Herbal Recovery
Signature Serum ingredients into the skin and creates a protective film
on the skin’s surface, enhancing hydration,” says Williams.
The packaging, too, created and parcelled just a 40-minute drive from
the farm at the brand’s ‘natural beauty plant’, has also been remastered
with striking crimson bottles to mimic the rouge thorns of the farm’s
A L Q U E E D WA R D U R R U T A

plentiful rose bushes. Particularly, each individual product is branded

with a unique number. “To ensure traceability of all plants from the
farm to finished product, the herbs are tracked through the corporate
inventory system,” says Soukhov. “This enables traceability from seed From l que Herb sing Loti
to a finished Jurlique product.” Seed to skin indeed. ■ Signature Eye $135.

184 SEPTEMBER 2 0 1 8
VOGUE BE AUT Y

TRENDS

3.

ART DIREC TION D IJANA MAD D I SO N

PHOTOG R APHS EDWAR D U R RUTIA

At Dries
Van Noten.

Backstage
at MaxMara.
7.

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186 SEPTEMBER 2 0 1 8
 188
7.
at Coach.
Backstage
VOGUE BE AUT Y

8.

5.
1.

3.

4.
At Givenchy.

SEPTEMBER 2 0 1 8
E D WA R D U R R U T A
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VOGUE BE AUT Y

Fired up R
ed has always been the biggest, baddest, boldest hue
in the hair colour spectrum. Of course, no-one has
ever dyed their hair flame-red to blend in. As a
From this season’s lifelong ‘volunteer’, I know. I have always wanted to be
a member of Club Redhead – I have coloured my hair
runways to the celebrity
butterscotch since my teens, when my blonde-streaked
circuit, redheads are
brown just didn’t seem to match how I felt inside. When
red hot. By Cleo Glyde. I busted out of the ’burbs as a teen and headed to Paris on
study leave – accidentally dropping out of Adelaide Law
School – it was time to leave my brown pigtails behind.
With my fair skin and Irish mother, I looked the part
and felt like an honorary member who should go the
whole way. As soon as I became a card-carrying redhead,
I had a licence to be cheeky and defiant. In a way, my
personality and hair started a symbiotic relationship:
this vibrant new colour allowed me to express a rebellious
streak. And in turn, everyone’s projections and
expectations egged me on to be even more over-the-top.
‘That crazy redhead’ became an inextricable part of my
early modelling career and identity (I once used the name
‘cyclonecleo’ for my email address).
Backstage this season, flame-coloured tresses did more
than just ‘pop’ visually: they became beauty’s next big
thing. After last year’s holographic lips and jewel-studded
eyes, this season’s unmistakable mood shift was fiery locks
– not just the uniform ginger or auburn we associate with
natural redheads, but exciting, electric, knowingly
artificial rock-star red.
On the Miu Miu runway, Australian model Lily Nova’s
natural ginger was turbo-charged into shocking manga
neon by British colourist Josh Wood, using Redken pro
colour. Korean model EZ’s buzz cut was unexpectedly
rust-coloured, totally reimagining its androgynous edge.
At Gucci, Lina Hoss strutted a burnt-orange crop, jutting
sky-high with unmistakably glam Bowie-esque flair –
British stylist Paul Hanlon says the look was a nod to 70s
and 80s underground Chelsea punk.
Major style-statement red has been echoed by celebrities
in all their glittery glory. Pop star Rita Ora ditched
platinum to sport fluorescent red and dark roots with her
usual street insouciance. American rapper Justina
Valentine has made vibrant, ultra-faux red part of her
wild-child branding. Even actress Blake Lively’s strawberry
bronde, as pretty as a sparkling bellini, brings a boho edge
to her gloriously tumbling, Rapunzel-worthy locks,
updating her more mainstream cheerleader aesthetic.
Red stole the shows as colourists like Wood pronounced
that the hue has replaced last year’s Mad Max-inflected
platinum trend. Clearly, red’s mesmerising visual power is
helping women embody and express our era’s radical
female fearlessness.
“Bold, bright reds are it right now,” confirms colour
expert and Goldwell ambassador Neil Barton, who has
noted their rise across the UK and at his busy Edinburgh
STEVEN KLEIN

salon, Neil Barton Hairdressing. “Requests for bright

fire and cherry red are rising.” His favourite red-carpet
redhead is Emma Stone (a natural blonde). “Her ¤

192 SEPTEMBER 2 0 1 8
VOGUE BE AUT Y
muted, coppery red has a gorgeous shine and looks stunning with her skin tone
and current lob. I also love how actress Eleanor Tomlinson’s fiery red really shows
off her bright blue eyes.”
Barton sees the current reign of coppery reds as perfect for Australian women,
especially coming into summer. “They add warmth to the complexion and look great
with a tan.” Barton is also a fan of the rose gold trend: “The mix of warm red and
cool pink is flattering, because it works across all skin tones. This gorgeous metallic
is all over Instagram at the moment.”
Red’s graphic boldness suits social media, whose main currency is maximum
visual impact. It’s the perfect experimental showcase for hairstylists like LA-based
Elena Palacios, whose fiery ‘Hot Cheetos’ ombre creation blends red, orange and
yellow. On Instagram #redhair has more than 13 million posts alone, a cornucopia of
style and colour, from natural freckles and ringlets to cyber-bright waves reminiscent
of cartoon character Ariel in The Little Mermaid.
My Sydney-based colourist, George Giavis, currently tints my hair ginger for
summer and a deeper, more red-setter hue for winter, sometimes adding a bright
strawberry wash on the ends. “There is something about the current mood of women
fighting back and redheads that just goes together,” says Giavis. “And expertly
coloured red is a luxe colour that can make hair look lustrous and healthy, especially
if you use organic colour like I do.” Giavis also thinks that women should embrace
the clash factor of red with bold summer colours: “Everyone notices the redhead in
the room. There’s an old saying: blondes have more fun, but redheads do the damage.”
Flaming tresses have always been the most emotionally charged hue, conjuring
the tempestuous qualities that we associate with a hot-tempered Celtic colleen: fiery,
untameable wildness. This intensity is exemplified by glorious Maureen O’Hara’s
portrayal of a flame-haired shepherdess in the Technicolor classic The Quiet Man,
from 1952. Like a bucking wild horse, Mary Kate is the ultimate prize for someone
man enough to tame her. Enter the mesmerised John Wayne.
“Maureen O’Hara played the returned immigrant’s fantasy of a feisty Celtic
woman,” says cultural commentator Dr Ruth Barton in the 2008 Irish documentary
Rua, which is Gaelic for red. Seeing this iconic character hold her own (“It will be
more than words you’ll be getting if you come another step closer”) is electrifying,
and erotically charged. “That resistance is somehow more full of promise,”
says Barton. “Her fiery, passionate nature is what is associated with a redheaded
woman to this day.”
Of course, true redheads can attest that anything unusual can become a lightning
rod for bullies (a colleague of mine was taunted with “Fanta pants” all through her
Queensland childhood). Red attracts attention, helping make the epithet ‘ginger’ one
of the last acceptable forms of minority taunting in a schoolyard.
But it is the hue’s very rarity that also makes red a hit among the fashion
community. Art directors, photographers and designers love its vibrancy and
clashiness. Independent art and design magazine MC1R, named after the gene that
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194
determines hair colour, is devoted entirely to red hair’s
‘specialness’. Redheads are represented even more on the
runway and in editorials than in their natural habitat
Scotland and Ireland, the land of fair-skinned Celts, where
genuine, flame-coloured hair is concentrated. The Scots
have the world’s highest proportion of redheads, at 13 per
cent, followed by 10 per cent of the Irish population. True
genetic redheads are a tiny two per cent of the global
population (most redheads have brown or hazel eyes,
making red hair and blue eyes the rarest of all hair and eye
colour combinations).
When a redhead is born that way her tresses reveal her
bloodline; when a woman chooses the colour of fire, her
hair tells the world that she is truly ready for its gaze. With
the global hair color market projected to reach US$29
billion by 2019, red colour sales already outstrip every
other hue, occasionally reaching fever pitch, such as this
season. Clearly women who find their natural colour too
blah are more than ready to fake it – and that’s the real deal.
So you want to be a redhead?
GOLDWELL AMBASSADOR NEIL BARTON
SHARES HIS TOP TIPS
• There is a shade to suit everybody. Auburn and copper
are great for brightening light eyes and suit medium skin
tones. Women with darker skin should opt for deeper
cherry red, while lighter skin tones suit rose gold or
strawberry blonde.
• Prevent colour fade – red hair looks its best when
bright and vibrant. Goldwell Kerasilk Shampoo,
Conditioner and Treatment preserve colour brilliantly.
• Don’t over-wash, as this can strip colour and natural oils.
• Avoid heat tools, as they speed up fading. Or at
least use heat-protection spray and colour-protection
styling products.
• Get cutting-edge colour. The latest trend is a morphing
technique with the Goldwell Reds range, using different
pigments within a red, applying red violet or even yellow
violet on the outer layer of the hair for a stunning 3D effect.
• Match colours with cuts. I love copper shades on long
hair. Bright, bold reds work best with shorter cuts and
geometric styles such as bobs.
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VOGUE BE AUT Y

Under the
influence

YouTube beauty star James

Charles, wearing pieces from
his Sisters Apparel range
and his own jewellery.
 Charles preparing to go
on stage at a live event in
Sydney earlier this year.
P
icture this: you’re in an auditorium full of teens and pre-teens
bubbling with anticipation. They’re shifting nervously in their
seats, which, for those in the front row, have cost $499 each. Some
are on the brink of crying. Many are accompanied by a parent, and almost
every single larynx will soon quiver to emit a frequency that only dogs
and adults born after 1972 can hear. Now, who do you think this audience
is here for? A rock star? A hot actor? A teen dream pop sensation? Nope.
A decade ago, sure, the above would probably hit the mark, but in
2018 puppy love thirsts for a different type of celebrity, one who blurs
reality with aspiration, speaks brutal truths, uses the word ‘extra’ as a
self-description and comes armed with a front-facing camera and
a subscribe button. In this particular instance, they’re here for 19-year-
old American beauty YouTuber James Charles, who is taking the stage
to perform a live make-up tutorial and a Q&A session. Soon, the athletic
brunette, with fierce brows and chiselled cheekbones, will emerge,
exclaim a big, warm “Hi, sisters!”, his catchphrase that addresses the
tribe (every ’tuber has one). Screams, stamping and tears like nothing
you’d ever expect, considering the context, will follow. “I’m so excited to
be here,” he soon says. “Let’s get glam!”
At the time of writing, Charles has over 6.8 million subscribers on
YouTube, 1.32 million Twitter followers, 6.7 million Instagram followers
and 125,000 likes on Facebook (which tells you a lot about his
demographic’s preferred platforms), and has his own line of merchandise,
Sisters Apparel. He has one of the most engaged followings on YouTube,
many of whom, as one learns when attending his live show, are not afraid
to call him out on, well, anything they see fit. “These kids know me,” he
later says. For example, during the Q&A session, one attendee calls him
out on his filthy beauty blenders. Savage, but Charles doesn’t flutter. And
so he shrugs and says: “Oh, I know! I’m so disgusting!” And someone
from the audience tosses a new one onto the stage from their goodie bag.
Everyone laughs. It’s hard to imagine being so blunt with a teenage
celebrity role model, but this connection is different – it’s personal.
I doubt Taylor Hanson or Justin Timberlake would have stayed up all
night replying to messages and creating an online fan community nearly
as big as Charles’s Sisters … Alas, them’s the breaks as a YouTuber: you’re
held accountable at all times, from the products you peddle to what you
say, as Charles (along with many other creators) has learnt the hard way,
via with a few miscalculated, racially insensitive comments that have
resulted in major call-outs by fans and big apologies by him.
Having had a beauty channel since 2015 (besides an “unfunny
comedy channel” prior to that, which we’re not to talk about, he jokes),
Charles rose to fame with a meme about being so extra that he brought
a ring light (a portable LED light famously used by Instagrammers
and Kardashians) to his prom photo shoot specifically to pop his
highlight. It later came out that the meme was a joke, but not before he
was appointed CoverGirl’s first male face, appeared on The Ellen ¤
SEPTEMBER 2018 197
VOGUE BE AUT Y
DeGeneres Show and became a viral sensation. Along with make-up
related content and tutorials, he also produces a show, Brother & Sister,
with his younger brother Ian Jeffrey, where they talk about growing up,
sexuality, relationships and fashion – a casual breakdown of family,
youth and brotherhood, with an sensitive undertone of James’s coming
out as a 12-year-old. It’s adorable, to say the least.
According to internet statistics portal Statista, Charles’s content is a drop
in an ocean of 88 billion beauty videos annually uploaded to YouTube.
However, not everyone has the influence that this Los Angeles-based teen
does, and certainly few could charge $499 for a front-row seat at a live
make-up tutorial, breakfast, selfie and goodie bag. That is a feat in itself.
“I could speak all day with reasons why
James is so successful,” says Ellana Byers,
founder of cosmetics brand Be Coyote, the
headline sponsor for Charles’s Australian
tour. “He is charismatic, ridiculously
talented (and not just in make-up),
extremely hardworking and he appreciates
his millions of fans. Watching him
backstage, as well as in the meet-and-
greets, you could see a genuine love for
every single person. That’s what makes a
difference. Fans can very quickly see
his authenticity, and that, mixed with his
unbelievable talent, is what makes him
truly influential, and a force to be reckoned
with.” But to anyone over the age of 25,
the question remains: what is it about
YouTubers that appeals to this generation?
And aren’t they a little young for make-up?
Well, to understand the rise of A-list
beauty YouTubers, you need to look
beyond skin-deep.
“YouTube as a platform has a particular
appeal to teenagers/pre-teens for a couple
of reasons, but it is mostly because of the
immediacy of the platform and the feeling
that it could be them one day,” says Daniela Walker,
foresight editor at the Future Laboratory, a trend
“A LOT OF
forecasting agency in London that looks closely at the PEOPLE DON’T
behaviour of millennials and Generation Z (those born UNDERSTAND
in the late 90s to early 2000s). “All these young YouTube
stars fit the mould of being ‘just like them’,” says Walker,
WHAT THE LIFE
“rather than the unreachable heights of celebrities on TV OF A YOUTUBER
or in the cinema. [This is] despite the fact the likelihood REALLY IS”
of actually becoming a famous YouTube influencer is just
as low as becoming a famous actor.”
A large part of Charles’s success is that he runs deeper than your run-
of-the-mill beauty blogger. He shares personal stories – his failures,
successes, family and his private life – all while engaging with his
young audience and talking directly to the camera, creating a sense
of eye contact. He also happens to do great make-up.
“I get a lot of fans who deal with poor mental health,” he says,
mentioning a girl he took a selfie with at the Sydney live show who
hugged him and confessed, through tears, that his channel stopped her
from taking her own life. “But that’s the good thing about the internet –
that there are so many kids who can confide together and help each other
198
out. I try to be a role model to these kids and so it’s really important for
me to explain to them that I love them, that so many people love them
and that no matter what, eventually, this will get better.” The star himself
admits to his own dark clouds, often leaning on his fans for support. “The
fans are the only reason I do this job,” he shrugs. “As much as I love
make-up and the creativity behind this, the internet can be a horrible
place and sometimes with so much negativity and hate, it’s hard.
Sometimes the only thing that keeps me going is knowing I can help
inspire young kids to be themselves, that they’re waiting for me to put
out awesome content for them. I love make-up, but I’d probably just
be doing it in my apartment if it weren’t for this community. So it’s
a two-way street.” And this is where
another allure of YouTube comes in – the
community, something mainstream
media rarely provides teens.
“As long as there are teenagers, there
will be a ‘find your tribe mentality’,” says
Walker. “YouTube and the internet has
just made it easier to realise you are not
alone. Prior to that accessibility, role
models were very mainstream, and for
a kid from a small town in the middle of
nowhere, they may find that they have
no-one. Whereas now, they simply have
to turn to their computer to be able to
find like-minded people. Social media
has given different communities more
exposure, and made it easier for people to
find a niche where they feel accepted.”
Hence Charles’s ‘sisters’. Walker adds
that it’s not that mainstream media has
done anything to lose this audience, it’s
just the nature of YouTube, the intense
accessibility and immediacy. “It’s funny,
because now most of these influencers
have a lot of money, expensive equipment
and production and yet there is still a
feeling that it is home-made. Plus, they are available
after their YouTube video is off. There’s Snapchat,
Instagram Stories, Instagram, etc, so the storytelling
and the relationship between them and viewer never
ends, making it much more intimate than a fictional
television show/star.”
The misconception that many beauty content creators
are shallow, vain and lazy is a common one. In fact, it’s
quite the opposite. “A lot of people just don’t understand
what the life of a YouTuber really is,” says Charles. “It’s
not just sitting down in front of a camera, pressing record and uploading
it 20 minutes later. It’s a full-on process, and I do three videos a week
right now. Two beauty videos, plus our full production show with my
little brother. Then, I’m also working on Instagram posts at all times,
product launches and projects.” Charles has a team of four people, and
a production company that helps out with Brother & Sister. “I really don’t
get that much sleep! I love it, but it is a lot of work and so many people
LEVON BAIRD
don’t understand the pressure that actually comes with it – to perform
well, to look good on camera, to put out really great content, to always
step your game up. It’s hard.”
 Aside from changing how an entire generation consumes media, the
community is shaping how that generation thinks about beauty and
how the beauty industry is thinking about them. No longer is the
industry focused on changing you or making you into someone better,
but on how it can slot into the life of you, the creative individual.
“I think it has had a major shift in a positive way,” says Charles. “Now
it’s about really supporting each other, being inclusive and how this
beauty product can make you feel better. It’s long overdue.” Byers
echoes this. “It’s the biggest change I’ve ever seen in the beauty
industry,” says the cosmetics CEO. “The level of influence that some
YouTubers have is unbelievable … Gone are the days when a product
was released, marketed and ultimately consumers tried it out. We now
live in a world where entire brands can be made or broken on reviews
from YouTube stars. New brands and products appear daily, and these
modern-day celebrities get to decide what wins and loses.”
And so the beauty industry has had to rethink its business. The
YouTubers with integrity will not stand for sub-par products, because if
they gain a big enough audience on trust, the money from views rolls
in, which lures the big fish they actually do want to work with, but all it
takes is one false review to make it all fall down. And the kids all have
noses for frauds. “I’ve built up my integrity so much over time, and
it was so hard to earn my fans’ trust, so I have to make sure I’m only
recommending good products,” insists Charles. “For me, first and
foremost, I have to love the product. I absolutely have to. Obviously,
with YouTube, let’s be real, you can make a decent amount of money
and it’s a great job to have, but there’s no pay cheque I would ever
receive in exchange for sacrificing my trust with my followers.”
“The beauty industry has made massive strides in recent years when
it comes to inclusivity and rethinking its campaign models,” says
Walker, noting how the representation of people in beauty campaigns
is also changing, thanks to this generation. “There are so many facets of
this, but if we are talking about YouTube specifically, then I think, yes,
they have to work harder on their formulations and products, because
now you have popular YouTubers doing things like ‘unboxing’, hauls
and reviewing products – breaking it down for the consumer. They
trust these people. The internet overall has bred a review culture, and
also a space where you can contact brands directly. If a brand does
something wrong, never before has it been easier for a consumer to
shout about it, whether that be on YouTube, in an Instagram comment
or through Twitter and retweets.”
That said, YouTube, Instagram and the other image-driven apps have
been driving change within the beauty industry for some time now.
Walk into Sephora or Mecca and really look around. The days of
glamorous golden palettes are fading, replaced by a more creative
culture of beauty. Almost everything looks like an art supply or is
designed to be ‘photo-ready’, optimised for personal photo shoots
The YouTuber at his Sydney event
instead of daily life. Kim Kardashian West’s KKW Beauty line looks like with some of his fans, who call
a range of chic pastel crayons, and then there’s Pat McGrath’s cult-status themselves Charles’s Sisters.
otherworldy sheens, glitters and molten hues, sold in bags, palettes
or pots. There is a graphic connection to artistic expression here, not
beauty as our mothers knew it. This might seem vapid and narcissistic
on the surface, but this movement is rooted in individuality, belonging
and a confident sense of self. “It’s the long-lasting impact of everything
else we’re talking about that matters the most,” says Charles. “And all
this,” he says, motioning to his perfectly contoured, highlighted and
baked look. “You can do anything you want, because at the end of the
day, it washes right off. It’s just make-up, after all.” ■
VOGUE BE AUT Y
Top notes
This season’s focus on exposed necklines is a timely
reminder that we need to take care of the most delicate
area of our skin – the décolletage. By Remy Rippon.
Y our face finishes at your boobs.” As a beauty editor, I’ve heard plenty of
dermatologists, facialists and skincare devotees – and even my own
mother – recite this phrase with gusto over the years. But still my daily
skincare ritual usually finished at the chin, at best the collarbones, which is down
to time restraints, cost (you could take out a mortgage on some serums) and, let’s be
frank, sheer laziness. Fashion, however, has a knack for drumming home some
truths. At the autumn collections it came via Chloé’s whimsy silk shirts with wide
lapels and deep-dive plunging necklines. From neck to navel, they exposed
an exclamation point of delicate, refined skin and picture-perfect décolletages.
I couldn’t help but lift my (turtleneck) knit and inspect my own. Point most
definitely taken.
Elsewhere this season, peekaboo flashes of skin – be it an exposed shoulder, a
swan neck or toned arms – ruled the runways. At Saint Laurent, keyhole, deep V
and sweetheart necklines were the order of the season for creative director
Anthony Vaccarello, while at Christopher Kane one-size-fits-all woollen dresses
were artfully slung to expose strong, angular shoulders. Designers from
Alexander Wang to Halpern turned on to anything off the shoulder, exposing
arms and collarbones alike. Collectively they seemed to be saying that the top half
is now top order.
While research on the area from chin to cleavage is scarce – it seems researchers
also direct their efforts towards the face – dermatologists (and anyone over the age
of 35) agree it’s one of the first areas to suffer premature ageing. Its exposure
is practically a lightning rod for sunlight and, consequently, the neck and chest have
a knack for exhibiting sun damage, pigmentation, fine lines, and lax skin even before
they’re visible on the face. “The skin on the neck in particular is also more fragile,
with less collagen and fat stores – without this internal structure it is far more prone
to laxity and fine lines,” says facialist Melanie Grant, who spends a fair portion of
a facial focused on the chest, upper arms and shoulders. It’s naturally less hydrated
too, with fewer sebaceous glands than the face. “We do need to do all we can to
ensure this delicate area is receiving the vital lipids it needs to stay supple, plump
and firm,” says Grant.
The simplest improvement you can make to your at-home regimen, says Grant, is
your application technique. “I am adamant about applying products in an upward
sweeping motion. I believe dragging the skin downwards over time can have
grave effects on the elasticity and natural tautness of the skin,” she says. As close
to gravity-defying as a cream may come, Estée Lauder’s Perfectionist Pro Rapid
Firm + Lift Treatment contains the anti-wrinkle ingredient acetyl hexapeptide-8
and aims to boost collagen and elastin along the jawline and neck via souped-up
alpha-hydroxy acids (use only at night: the acids can increase sensitivity to
sunlight). Likewise, Black Tea Firming Corset Cream from cult US brand Fresh,
which is stocked at Sephora, contains kombucha and goji fruit extract for an instant
smoothing effect. Applying the cream feels nourishing, and there’s a satisfying
tightening of the skin. The latest product gaining popularity Stateside is
the awkwardly named, albeit effective, Sio SkinPad. The violin-shaped silicone
chest pad is designed to be worn to bed to lock in moisture, boost collagen stores
and therefore prevent décolletage wrinkles (particularly effective if you’re
a side-sleeper and wake to a concertina of chest lines in the morning).
“Generally, the neck ages more rapidly, as the skin is more delicate and the skin is
stretched from movement,” says Kony Peev, clinical training specialist at Solta
200
Medical. With this in mind, you may want to put down
your smartphone. A recent study published in the Journal
of Physical Therapy found women to be twice as likely to feel
neck discomfort when using gadgets, which can lead to
long-term concerns such as poorer posture, ongoing neck
pain and premature ageing of the neck and chest from
perpetually hunching over our devices.
Where in-clinic treatments are concerned, Peev says that
while we’ve typically put most of our efforts into our
complexions, many treatments can simply be extended
further south. Popular lunchtime treatments like Clear +
Brilliant and its brawnier counterpart Fraxel are both
effective for hyperpigmentation as well as fine lines and
loss of elasticity below the collarbones. “Both these areas
are more sensitive than the face, so treatment settings need
to be adjusted accordingly, treating on a lighter level than
the face,” says Peev.
It pays to hit the gym, too. Although lifting weights
(particularly among women) has long been associated
with bulking up (it doesn’t, for the record), it’s vital for
posture, tone and upper body form. “The days of women
thinking it’s all about the butt are over. The upper body
plays a pivotal role in supporting our overall form and
functions every day,” says Blake Bridges, head of fitness at
Barry’s Bootcamp Australia, the global high-intensity
training phenomenon that is set to open in Sydney. Each
individual session of the gruelling 55-minute workout
“uses a mixture of dumbbells, resistance bands and body
weight to perform exercises designed to isolate, sculpt and
tone their upper-body muscle groups”, says Bridges. The
workout brings to mind another word of advice I’ve
received over the years – ‘shoulders back’ – and this time
I won’t ignore it. ■
“The skin on
the neck is
more fragile,
with less
collagen and
fat stores
without this
internal
structure it is
GREGORY HARRIS
far more prone
to fine lines”
 Below the line
The area from chin to
cleavage is the latest
focus for treatments,
products and even
workouts to combat signs
of premature ageing.

SEPTEMBER 2018 201

TM
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JACKIE NICKERSON

.
S P
ISSUE
VOGUE
 Life
of
Ky
Mother, influencer
and almost-billionaire,
Kylie Jenner talks to
her sister Kendall about
work, motherhood and what
matters to her the most.
By Remy Rippon. Styled
by Christine Centenera.
Photographed
by Jackie Nickerson.

208
 Kylie Jenner wears
Calvin Klein
205W39NYC coats,
one worn underneath,
both P.O.A. All prices
approximate; details at
Vogue.com.au/WTB.

SEPTEMBER 2018 209

K
ylie Jenner could click her fingers and have
just about anything she wanted in the world –
but on a Friday afternoon in one of the many
cellular dead zones of Los Angeles, mobile
phone reception doesn’t fall into that category.
The 21-year-old is genuinely apologetic when
she eventually connects with her older sister and
today’s interviewer, Kendall, five and a half
hours later than the scheduled interview time.
Jenner is phoning from the bedroom of the LA
home she shares with her boyfriend, 26-year-old rapper Travis Scott,
whom she met at last year’s Coachella music festival (which Scott was
headlining), and their seven-month-old daughter, Stormi Webster. The
last time she went off the grid – posting sporadically to her social
channels and sidestepping public appearances – was during her
pregnancy. No Demi-Moore-on-Vanity-Fair-style pregnancy shoots, and
remarkably, not even a cryptic drip-feeding of pregnancy-related vox
pops via Keeping Up With The Kardashians. She did what many in her
position would have thought unthinkable, if not impossible – Jenner
simply shut out fame for a while.
Days after the arrival of her healthy baby girl on the first day of
February, she reconnected with her 112 million Instagram followers
explaining her brief hiatus: “I understand you’re used to me bringing you
along on all my journeys. My pregnancy was one I chose not to do in front
of the world. I knew for myself I needed to prepare for this role of a
lifetime in the most positive, stress-free and healthy way I knew how.”
Whether intentionally or not, it marked a pivot point: a time-stamped
divide between Kylie, the youngest of one of the world’s most
recognisable families, and a sort of coming-of-age Kylie: mother,
tastemaker and, thanks to the runaway success of Kylie Cosmetics, one
hell of a beauty pioneer. In under three years, her make-up line has
raked in sales of more than $630 million (she owns it outright, too), and
according to Forbes, she’s positioned to knock Mark Zuckerberg off the
perch of youngest self-made billionaire. Not bad for someone who has
only just reached the legal drinking age in her home state and is often
unceremoniously anointed with the ‘famous for being famous’ tagline.
Jenner is a force, whichever way you dice it.
Indeed, Jenner’s success paints a compelling picture of the beauty
industry in 2018. Right now there are likely boardrooms of beauty
executives strategising and decoding sales figures in an effort to recreate
even a fraction of the magic dust they’re sprinkling over there at Kylie
Cosmetics. But Jenner (and, of course, her beyond-savvy mother, Kris)
knows that the most successful businesses set out to solve a problem. By
her own account, Jenner’s insecurity has long been her lips. In an effort to
make them appear plumper, she began overdrawing them, caricature-
style and filling them in with lipsticks so punchy it was as if they were
tattooed in place. Jenner then began filling them with heartier stuff,
actual filler, in fact, which only inflated the obsession (though not long
after our shoot, she replied to an Instagram comment, explaining she had
removed the fillers). Her lips became as synonymous with brand Kylie as
her sister Kim Kardashian West’s derrière has been to her own image,
and the impetus for Kylie Cosmetics.
In the time it took Jenner to refresh her website’s browser – mere
seconds – she had entirely sold out of the brand’s first product, the now
legendary Lip Kit. The beginnings of her brand may not have been
entirely strategic, but there’s no denying it was authentic.
212
All of this – the highs (and lows) of the spotlight, the unparalleled
business success and, of course, motherhood – has distilled a maturity
and self-assuredness in Jenner that’s well beyond her years. Like the
now old-fashioned bricks-and-mortar store fronts (which are also in the
pipeline for Kylie Cosmetics), the self-confident selfies and provocative
Snapchats she fires off daily are merely the glossy frontage for an
incredibly determined young woman who is building – so far, extremely
well – a multimillion-dollar empire. Although she may be the closest
thing to a poster girl for an entire generation – a cohort largely focused
on the now – Jenner has her eyes firmly concentrated on the future. And
from here, it looks bright.
KENDALL: “Hi, sister.”
KYLIE: “Hi.”
KENDALL: “So, this is so funny, because I feel like I already know a lot of
the answers, but Ky, how has your life changed since you became a
mum? And you don’t have to say that we became closer, because that
was my answer.”
KYLIE: “I don’t think my life has changed since becoming a mum:
I think the way I look at life has changed since becoming a mum. I think
more of the future. I used to live each day as it came, and now I look at
the future more. I actually feel like I love myself more after I had Stormi.
And I’m trying to be … I mean, I’m already a positive person, but just
having fun, being positive.”
KENDALL: “Yeah, I can feel that. I feel you’re a lot nicer to me, now that
you have a kid.”
KYLIE: “Yeah.”
KENDALL: “Do you feel you have more of a responsibility on social
media, and the influence that comes with it, now that you have a baby?”
KYLIE: “No, I never really felt a responsibility online. I always felt like
being myself was the best.”
KENDALL: “Yeah. Feel. You. Going into being a kid, sticking with that
theme, what’s your most memorable moment from being young?”
KYLIE: “I think the most memorable moments from being young are the
memories that we shared together, and just like, our family, like
holidays. They used to be so much fun for us. I mean, they still are, but
like just so much fun back then, even playing with Barbies, or the fights
we would get in, like we really were.”
KENDALL: “The Barbie sitches. I feel like the Barbies were one of my
strongest memories and just us being stupid and like getting into
trouble.”
KYLIE: “Yeah, they were.”
KENDALL: “And when I would steal Mum and Dad’s car so I could drive
you places. So, how did your brand come about? Your Lip Kits?”
KYLIE: “My Lip Kits started with number one, my obsession with
make-up and lips specifically and just how I took my insecurity
with my lips and turned it into my business model. Something I just
became obsessed with was lips and lipstick, and how wearing lipstick
made me feel. I just loved bigger lips, and I just got obsessed. To this
day, I can’t leave the house without lipstick. So, I just think I’m obsessed
with doing my make-up and watching tutorials and that’s kind of how
Kylie Cosmetics started.”
JACKIE NICKERSON
KENDALL: “Nice. What’s been the biggest learning experience during
the whole thing?”
KYLIE: “I think I’ve learnt a lot about the beauty world that I never knew
about. Honestly, I never knew about the difference between top ¤
 Louis Vuitton men’s
sweater, P.O.A. Poiret
dress, $11,135.
Yeezy shoes, P.O.A.
JACKIE NICKERSON

Ellery skirt, P.O.A.

Vintage Céline top.
glass and shiny, and I just learnt a lot about that whole world. But for my
business, just accepting that mistakes are going to happen, and to just
do your best. They’re mostly out of your control with creating a new
business, so just do your best and have great customer service.”
KENDALL: “Yeah, I feel like it’s also finding a balance between what you
like and what your buyer likes. I feel like that is something you have to
adapt to.”
KYLIE: “No, I agree with you, that’s been a challenge.”
KENDALL: “Sticking to the lip sich, you’ve spoken about how they might
have been an insecurity for you when you were younger, but do you
think that has anything to do with people looking at you so intensely or
do you think that would have been something you would have done
even if people weren’t looking at you, like they are?”
KYLIE: “I think I would’ve done the same thing, because my insecurity
with my lips didn’t stem from people saying anything. I don’t even
think anyone commented on my lips. We all have insecurities, right?
Nobody’s perfect, and that’s my thing.”
KENDALL: “Totally. Who’s been the most influential person to you?”
KYLIE: “Probably our mum is the most influential person to me. I spend
a lot of time with her. We do a lot of business stuff together. She’s just
super-smart and I feel like I have a lot to learn from her.”
KENDALL: “Mum and I had a long talk today about business and
personal stuff, too.”
KYLIE: “She’s a smart lady.”
KENDALL: “She sure is.”
KENDALL: “So I feel like you’ve really hit the nail on the head with this
one. But what do you think your ‘special sauce’ is for catering to young
people? What do you think connected you with them?”
KYLIE: “I have a really good relationship with my fans, and I just feel like
I was super-personal with them, and I let them in to everything. I think
they saw that lipstick, for me, was really genuine. So it just worked.”
KENDALL: “What’s your goal with Kylie Cosmetics?”
KYLIE: “My goal with Kylie Cosmetics is to eventually be worldwide
and have stores.”
KENDALL: “Do you feel as though you’ve made it in the beauty industry,
Ky? Would you say you’re completely satisfied? Or are there things you
want to work on?”
KYLIE: “No, there are definitely some things and some goals I have left
to achieve and I never get too comfortable. I never think: ‘Oh, I made it.’
There’s definitely a lot of stuff that I have yet to do.”
KENDALL: “What does the future of beauty look like to you? And how
has having a daughter impacted you?”
KYLIE: “I feel like having a daughter, and thinking about beauty in the
future, has definitely changed me, and I feel like it has made me love
myself more and accept everything about me. Even my ears, I always
felt like they stuck out too far, and she [Stormi] has the same ears as me
and so now I love my ears. It’s just having a different outlook on life so
I can pass that on to her. I want to be an example for her. What kind of
example would I be if she said she didn’t like her ears, and then I didn’t
like them either? I just want to teach her that. I’m trying to love
myself more.”
KENDALL: “I think that goes along with my next question, because in
this world we live in, you kind of have to have that own self-love to be
able to navigate the ups and the downs. So, how have you learnt to deal
with the highs and lows of the spotlight?”
KYLIE: “I feel like we never – I never – fully have like been okay with the
ups and downs of, you know.”
220
KENDALL: “This life …”
KYLIE: “I feel like you just kind of have to accept it.”
KENDALL: “One of my favourite things you did during your pregnancy
– and I know I was talking to you about it a lot, so I hope that I was
maybe a part of this decision – was that you stayed really low-key
during your pregnancy. I think that it was kind of beautiful. You really
took that time to just appreciate having a baby inside of you, rather than
flaunting it everywhere. You just took in that magical experience. What
were you thinking when you did that and what was your whole process
behind that?”
KYLIE: “I knew that it would be better for us, if me and Stormi just
stayed kind of low-key. Your hormones are going crazy and your
emotions are more heightened, and I just felt like I wasn’t prepared to
… I just knew that it would be better for me, and I could enjoy the whole
experience if I did it privately. I just felt like it was a sacred special
moment and I wasn’t ready to share it with everybody. I just wanted to
keep that to myself.”
KENDALL: “I love that.”
KYLIE: “I had a really good time, and I feel like that’s why Stormi is so
calm and so happy, because I was so calm and so happy.”
KENDALL: “We’ve been in the spotlight for a really long time. How do
you think that’s impacted your adult life and the person you’ve
grown into?”
KYLIE: “I feel like it has made me grow up a lot faster than usual. I think
I’ve been exposed to a lot of things that people my age maybe have
not seen.”
KENDALL: “I think we kind of got the best-case scenario. We still went to
a normal school and did all our normal stuff and kind of like this
happens in the process. But I think you always did a really good job. We
went to school, we did our homework, we weren’t trying to be on the
show all the time. I don’t know if it was like us, ourselves, or our family
was guiding us in the right direction, but I think we kind of got the
best-case scenario with that. What’s the best part about watching Travis
become a father?”
KYLIE: “We both experienced this for the first time, so I love learning
together and just watching him with her. He’s so good with her and
she’s really obsessed with him.”
KENDALL: “What role do you think you play in our family? Do you think
you’re the funny one, the cool one, the serious one?”
KYLIE: “I feel like I’m the troublemaker or the funny one.”
KENDALL: “Yeah, I agree with that. Okay, I really actually need to know
this answer. What do you want in life that money can’t buy?”
KYLIE: “I bought myself my dream car, the LaFerrari, and the excitement
and the happiness lasted not that long. I have my dream house and the
car I want, and I just realised early that those aren’t the things that make
me happy. It’s a different kind of happiness. I just feel like some people
get lost, and strive their whole life for materialistic things and then you
realise that it’s not everything. I want to appreciate and be comfortable
in the place that I am, and just find happiness in my friends and
my family.”
KENDALL: “Good answer, kid. I taught you well. Love you, sweetheart.
Is there anything else you want to talk about?”
KYLIE: “I’m actually scrolling through Instagram right now, and it says
JACKIE NICKERSON
that me and Travis don’t live together, and so I just want to say that we
never miss a night with each other, we go back and forth from my
Calabasas house and the city home that we actually got together. So just
if you wanted to add that in.” ■
JACKIE NICKERSON
 Louis Vuitton
top, $4,450. Piers
Atkinson hat, P.O.A.
Beauty note: L’Oréal
Volume Million Lashes
Mascara in Black.
JASON KIBBLER
 Marni tunic, $2,530,
top, $2,729, and pants,
JASON KIBBLER

$2,729. Marc Jacobs neck

flourish, $965. Calvin
Klein 205W39NYC
gloves, P.O.A.
JASON KIBBLER
Miu Miu jacket, $5,670.
Boss dress, $1,199, and
JASON KIBBLER

pants, $549. Faeth

Millinery hat, $669.
Sermoneta gloves,
$415. Alexander
McQueen shoes, $975.
Saint Laurent jacket,
$6,720, and blouse,
$3,520. Faeth
Millinery hat, $669.
JASON KIBBLER
 Balenciaga dress,
$6,075, earrings, $780,
and shoes, $1,730.
Stylist’s own scarf, belt
and socks. All prices
approximate; details
at Vogue.com.au/WTB.

236
 Flowers mix with fine prints to create a sense of nostalgia and fading charm in
a garden of earthly delights. Styled by Natasha Royt. Photographed by Sharif Hamza.

Shujing wears a Prada

tulle dress, $1,400,
worn over Prada dress,
$3,930, and skirt,
$4,580. Sijia wears
a Prada tulle dress,
$4,860, worn over
Prada dress, $5,800.

SEPTEMBER 2018 237

 Loewe coat, $5,150,
SHARIF HAMZA .

dress, $4,290, pants,

$875. Tal Angel scarf,
$280. Heron Preston hat,
$230. Ash shoes, $380.
 Louis Vuitton top,
$4,800, and skirt,
$3,150. Tal Angel
scarf, $480. Ray Ban
glasses, $195. Miu Miu
necklace, $670,
worn as a belt.

SHARIF HAMZA .
 Gucci shirt, $2,410,
and skirt, $2,410.
Off White c/o Virgil
Abloh scarf, $955.
Moscot glasses, $400.
Chanel necklace,
$2,960, from the
Chanel boutiques.
Prabal Gurung scarf,
$1,105, over arm.
Salvatore Ferragamo coat,
$6,090, and dress, $1,790.
Mary Katrantzou dress,
$4,150, worn underneath.
SHARIF HAMZA .

Toga head scarf, P.O.A.

Undercover boots, $580.
Beauty note: Payot Crème
N°2 CC Cream.
 Calvin Klein
205W39NYC blazer,
jacket (in hand), skirt,
hood, gloves and
boots, all P.O.A.
 Heron Preston jacket,
$1,030. Miu Miu
jumper, $1,275, skirt,
$2,150, and necklace,
$670, worn around
body. Batsheva top,
SHARIF HAMZA .

$319. Frame shirt,

$399. Hermès silk
scarf, $695. Heron
Preston hat, $230.
Chunjie wears an Undercover parka,
$1,420. Batsheva dress, $635. Toga
scarf, P.O.A. Heron Preston hat, $230.
Undercover boots, $580. Sijia wears
a Chanel jacket, $12,350, from the
SHARIF HAMZA .

Chanel boutiques. Heron Preston

jacket, $1,715. Batsheva dress, $600.
Boss pants, $549. Tal Angel scarf,
$289. Heron Preston shoes, $1,055.
 Simone Rocha dress,
$3,410, and sweater,
$770. Heron Preston
shoes, $1,055.
Make up: Ai Yokomizo
Hair: Tamas Tuzes
Manicures:
Shirley Cheng
Models: Xie Chaoyu,
Sijia Kang, Chunjie Liu
and Shujing Zhou
 i
For his final tour, Elton John will wow the crowds in elaborate looks commissioned from his “creative twin”, Gucci’s
Alessandro Michele. And, as Anders Christian Madsen discovers, the admiration is mutual. Photographed by Nick Knight.
SEPTEMBER 2018 251
 “His clothes fill my
house with happiness,”
says John of Michele.
 A
psychedelic spin painting by Damien Hirst cuts through the suits me,” he says. “The more the merrier. I would wear a tiara if I could.”
romantic 18th-century master portraits and palatial “When I look at what I’ve worn throughout the years, I’ve followed my
furniture in the orangery at Woodside, the Windsor home of own rules and I’ve had a lot of help along the way,” John reminisces.
Elton John and husband David Furnish, where the past Off-stage he was devoted to Yves Saint Laurent, Tommy Nutter, Richard
cross-pollinates with the future. “I love the Renaissance,” James and, most famously, Gianni Versace, while Bob Mackie made many
Alessandro Michele reflects, sparkling in a Gucci rhinestone bomber of his elaborate stage costumes. Michele’s favourite is the white suit with
and a royal-purple velvet NY Yankees baseball cap, among hundreds of the angelic plume epaulettes, captured by Terry O’Neill in 1973.
antique leather-bound volumes in John’s library. “Can you imagine if it “I wasn’t David Bowie. I wasn’t ultra-skinny. I was sitting at a piano.
were possible to meet Raphael or Michelangelo? For a little guy who’s I had to have humour in my costume,” John explains.
worked in fashion for a long time, to be in touch with Elton is something “There’s one thing about Elton, which I always repeat: with all his
like this.” Bedecked in an embroidered diamanté tailcoat created by flamboyant looks in the 1970s, he was so masculine. He was always so
Michele for his ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ tour this month, John has natural and he didn’t lose any of himself,” Michele says.
opened the gilded gates of his sprawling estate to the Gucci designer he “Also, I never wore any make-up,” John adds. “I wasn’t glam rock.
considers a creative soul mate. “Alessandro and I are like twin brothers. I was me being a blokey guy wearing these clothes.”
I’m much older, but I’ve found someone who is exactly the same as I am: In a new age of self-expression, Gucci is dressing the defiant men for
who loves beauty, collects things, has a magpie eye. And I’m so glad that whom John’s early courage paved the way – from Harry Styles to Jared
he came into my life. His clothes fill my house with happiness.” Leto and A$AP Rocky. “I’m almost like him,” Michele says, referring to
Under the trompe-l’oeil ceiling of John’s orangery, where cherubs fit for John. “There is nothing that is forbidden for me. I was like this since
Fragonard linger in a rococo blue sky, the princely singer and his court I was eight years old. I bleached my hair at 10.
dresser look a match made in heaven. Like a rock’n’roll master and his Roaming Woodside, it’s as if one artist’s imagination has materialised
apprentice, their mutual admiration for one another’s work has come in the house of the other. Like the hyper-historic, cross-cultural sensory
full circle in a Gucci-fication of the signature look overload Michele dreams up in his Gucci collections, John’s
trademarked by John through four decades on stage: the private world is a conversation between eras and art. In his
oversized glasses, the ringmaster suits and all that glitters. “I thought, God driveway stands one of the oldest oak trees in England,
“In some of the costumes I wore, I probably did make a fool
of myself. Not to me, but other people thought: ‘That looks
almighty, it’s dating back to the 16th century. The big house, built on the
spot where Henry VIII’s physician once lived, is
ridiculous.’ It’s what your idea of ridiculous is,” John says. so out there! ornamented with masterpieces and artefacts everywhere
“I’ve always been fearless, and that’s why I love Alessandro. It’s like he’s you look. Behind it is a modern art gallery erected to house
He doesn’t give a fuck what people think. He doesn’t give his contemporary collection.
a fuck at all.” The kindred spirits first conjoined when from Mars or “I have everything, but I always find something I don’t
Jared Leto introduced them at the Vanity Fair Oscar party something. It have. It’s eccentric, I suppose …” John shrugs.
in 2016. To the 46-year-old designer, then a year into the
Gucci job that would revolutionise fashion, it was destiny.
was like, yes!” “The first time I met him I thought I was in front of
a mirror, because I have the same attitude with objects,”
Michele grew up listening to John’s music and admiring Michele says. “He collects everything.”
his audacious costumes. At Gucci, the singer had long featured on the Back in the orangery, the singer quizzes the designer about the
mood boards. “When you’re working in fashion, there’s always a picture similarities in their professions: the idea process, the insomnia, successes
of him or David Bowie from the 1970s: the most flamboyant guys on Earth. and regrets, and the inevitable envy of peers. “I can think of one or two
He changed my work a lot, because I’m such a big fan of that era. It’s people who’d be jealous of you,” John says mischievously.
a dream come true.” Michele looks at me. “He’s so sincere,” he says with a laugh, avoiding a
For his part, the superstar, now 71, first heard of Michele from the late direct response. “When you’re inspired by another person, you don’t want
Ingrid Sischy following his debut show for Gucci in January 2015. to destroy their career. Fashion and creativity are not a place for jealousy.”
“I thought, God almighty, it’s so out there! It’s like he’s from Mars or The orangery is decked out like John’s own Petit Trianon in honour of
something. Gucci was kind of dead for a long time after Tom Ford and his beloved grandmother, who once lived there. A small room has become
suddenly this man …” John pauses. “It was like, yes!” Michele sensed his own private chapel where plaques memorialise those who influenced
an immediate friendship. “Elton was like a teenager chatting to me with him, from Diana, Princess of Wales to Elizabeth Taylor and Gianni
this beautiful, happy face,” he recalls. Indeed, later that year, Michele Versace. “Gianni told me there’s beauty all around you. He would take me
told me about the meeting, effusing: “He’s like fireworks! He’s to a church in Milan and look at the mosaic floor. He’d say: ‘Look, beauty
incredible! He’s a guard of music, of bling-bling, of everything!” A year is everywhere.’ And I think Alessandro is that sort of person,” John says.
on, John attended the cruise show in Florence and Gucci soon launched “I’m obsessed with him, I’m obsessed with his clothes, I’m obsessed
an ongoing capsule collection inspired by his legendary tour looks. with what he does. For me, the only person who was like that in my life
Sitting on a majestic sofa with his Jesus Christ Superstar beard and before was Gianni, and when Gianni died, a part of me died. Alessandro
Bronzino bob, one of his hosts’ young sons admiring his many rings, is the first thing that’s happened in my life since Gianni died that I can
Michele looks every bit at home in the John/Furnish household. really identify with.” Last year, when Donatella Versace relaunched her
Affectionate and tactile, he has a warming effect on the slightly sterner brother’s Elton John print from the early 1990s to commemorate the 20th
superstar, who turns heartfelt in Michele’s presence. When John changes anniversary of his death, Michele was watching from the front row. It
NICK KNIGHT

into his Gucci tour look, he adds only his own jewels. “I’ve always loved was a sort of spiritual passing of the baton from one Elton John designer
that Louis XIV over-the-top kind of shit. If you saw Liam or Chris to another. “When I wore Gianni, I wore nothing but Gianni,” John says.
Hemsworth in it – two beautiful men – it wouldn’t suit them at all. But it “My life is now Gucci.” ■

SEPTEMBER 2018 253

Extra,
extra
The lone maxim from
the autumn/winter
’18/’19 collections to
live by: zero in on
accessories dripping
in excess; ignore
everything else.
Bigger, brassier,
braver. Illustrations
by Blair Breitenstein.
PRESS
RESET
Fashion’s most iconic staples are
suddenly fresh again. Styled by Stella
Greenspan. Photographed by Richard
Burbridge. Words by Karin Nelson.
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 “What! I’m in the September issue!” Yes. No expense spared for
Celeste Barber when we take her for a mani/pedi. Well, how could
you resist such a date with Vogue? #Challengeaccepted writes Alison
Veness. Styled by Philippa Moroney. Photographed by Hugh Stewart.

268
H A I R : P E T E L E N N O N M A K E- U P: L I N DA J E F F E R Y E S

Opposite: Celeste Barber

wears a Tom Ford jacket,
from Tom Ford. Tom Ford
dress, earrings, leggings
and shoes, all from Harrolds.
This page: Tom Ford jacket,
dress and earrings, all
from Harrolds. Details
at Vogue.com.au/WTB.

SEPTEMBER 2018 269

 es, please.” We expect this answer from
@celestebarber, who we guess would be up for
anything. And so we meet at USA Nails on Sydney’s
Oxford Street: chair to chair, recliner to recliner,
foot spa to foot spa in what seems like the only
place to meet a person voted one of the funniest
women on Instagram in the WhoHaha site’s female
comedy awards.
“The trick is to pick the first colour you see,
otherwise it will induce panic and unnecessary
we study the prepainted plastic nails. And so it’s
Shellac Big Red Apple for her toes, and clear polish for her manicure,
and O.P.I Quarter of a Cent-Cherry for me. She is all legs and sneakers.
Well, when you’ve got it, flaunt it, right?
“A mani/pedi is very Vogue … do you want me to stop saying that?
You know what, though, when I did the photo shoot people said it a lot,
it was quite hilarious. The crew said: ‘That’s good’ and would look at
each other and say: ‘That’s very Vogue.’ I loved that they were referring
to it like a thing. Loved it.” Of course she is an all glam, glam, high-
maintenance woman. She’s a bit disappointed I didn’t get the whole nail
salon shut down just for her, but once she overcomes this, she shares her
rigorous beauty routine. “It consists of waking up, that’s all, and you
know what, it’s whatever hasn’t run out and is in my top drawer that my
stepdaughters haven’t borrowed. Yep, that’s me done!”
“It feels”, she says pausing to find the right words to describe being on
the pages of Vogue, “fucking awesome. I had so much fun. People think
I don’t like fashion, but I love it, I’m obsessed with it, so yeah, I feel like
it’s my natural habitat, let’s be honest.”
Her own Vogue ‘covers’ (see right) are so much better than the originals,
I lie, and wonder out loud how it must feel to upstage everyone all the
time. “Good. Right. Necessary. As I said, natural habitat. Lorde won’t care
and neither will Kylie,” she says. “They love it.”
We want to learn all her secrets and how to do that Christy Turlington
yoga pose. “With a few glasses of wine, a kitchen bench and your
phone, that’s it … and a sexy silver suit. And it’s not the first time I’ve
held my ankles, just quietly,” she adds.
She is obsessed with new BFF Tom Ford, who she recently met. “It was
quite a surreal moment. It was the most stylish office I’ve ever been in,
not that I’ve been in many fancy offices.” “But,” she whispers, “fucking
hell!!! He’s the sexiest man in the whole wide world and I know a sexy
man ’cos I’m married to the hottest one ever.”
Of course, she will be flying to his ready-to-wear show in New York
this month. “Yeah, Tom and I are playing together in September. I’m not
walking. You know what, though, I did call it a parade. I said to him:
‘For your fashion parade’, and he said: ‘It’s not a parade, it’s a show’, and
I was like: ‘Ugh, got that, sorry about that, love.’ And I never know what
to wear and he said to me: ‘Play to your legs’, so that’s all I care about
now. And he said to me: ‘You are beautiful, you don’t ever need to lose
weight’, so now if anyone ever says I need to lose weight, I say: ‘Well,
Tom Ford told me I don’t have to, so you can suck a fart.’”
She admits that all the fame will go to her head. Front row? “Yep.”
Flowers? “Yep.” The town cars? “Yep … I am 100 per cent a different
person now: I judge everyone on what they wear, I’ve already deleted
boring people out of my phone, and I only hang with celebrities with 10
million followers on Instagram.” [She currently has 4.4 million followers.]
Her #HotHusband is coping “beautifully”, she says, with all the fame
swirling around his #HotWife. “I’ve semi-retired him, so he’d want to
be fine. He’s a good guy, hot too, most supportive, love him nearly as
270
much as I love Tom Ford. Tom Ford knows that too … when I tried to
open-mouth kiss him, I think he got the point,” she says, laughing. She
has no advice on snagging a man, however. “I don’t give advice. I don’t
know shit about shit.” She met #HotHusband at a pub in Balmain (the
suburb, not the label). “He was on the end of a bender and I was working
in the bar. Done. Lock that shit down real quick. Yeah.”
Is America ready for you? “I fucking hope so. I’m coming anyway, so
they’d wanna be.” Her last tour sold out in 24 hours. Her upcoming tour,
Celeste Barber Live, will kick off in November in Seattle, with 25 more
performances across America. Her website crashed from the volume of
traffic, which she agrees is a massive compliment. “It’s awesome, it’s crazy,
I still don’t understand it and am always happy to not understand it and
be shocked by it, because the second I’m not shocked, I’m a fuckhead.”
“Just file … square,” she directs at the pedicurist. “She hates me.”
There will be a tour bus. On her celebrity rider are all the usuals:
small dogs, scented candles, flowers and she wants a scantily clad
celebrity on there to parade around.
Her family are all going on the road with her, #HotHusband, her four-
and seven-year-old sons, her 16-year-old stepdaughter [her 19-year-old
stepdaughter has to work], plus her best friend/assistant. And there will
be groupies (who DM her, obvs). “Gwyneth might just cook for me – a
nice little Goop soup.” And what about Reese? “Reese is busy at the
moment but, yeah, I’ll make a little spot for her on the bus. Tracey
Anderson wants to come on with me, and I’m like: ‘You’re more than
welcome to come, but I’m not working out with you on that bus, mate.’
I said: ‘You are welcome to come and watch me drink wine and scream
into a pillow, ’cause I’m so tired; you can think again if you think I’m
doing a workout.’”
Mr Ford will be driving the bus. “He’s going to design it, a little bit of
whatever he wants. I’m really obsessing over him a little bit, aren’t I?
He’s divine,” she says with a dreamy look. At this point, much like a
moment from This is Your Life, I present her with some quotes about
herself from Ford, which he kindly answered in advance of this
interview. “Are you being serious?” Her mouth is in the foot spa. “Read
them to me; I’ve got tears in my eyes!”
We asked him: When did you first discover Celeste Barber?
Tom Ford: “A friend forwarded one of her posts to me a few years ago
and I began following her on Instagram.”
A dreamy sigh. “Hi Tom, my love.”
What do you enjoy most about her comedy?
Tom Ford: “I love that she does not take herself too seriously. Self-
deprecating humour is always so appealing. I also love that she ‘takes
the piss’, as the English would say, out of the fashion and beauty
industry, which often takes itself too seriously.”
“He’s right. We spoke about his while I was over there: it’s not the
individuals, it’s the culture. Don’t hate the player, hate the game,” she says.
Do you have a favourite Instagram of hers that makes you laugh every time?
She butts in: “I know! The one I did of him?”
Tom Ford: “Well the Tom Ford one, of course!”
“Yes!
Has this exposed you to any other Australians who you would like to work
with? She butts in: “Don’t focus on others … why would you?”
Tom Ford: “Australians are always great. As a Texan I find that we have
many similarities. I think that it is that pioneer spirit. We are bold and
often just say what comes into our minds.”
“Sure, if Tom Ford is Texan I have an inner Texan for sure. He’s right:
[about] having a laugh, being honest and getting on with it,” Barber says.
We discuss what her fake famous name will be for that moment when
 a studio calls up her hotel to say they are doing a remake of Wonder Barber has an upcoming book. So why would we bother to buy
Woman and asks if can she take on Gal Gadot. “I’ll probably be Jessica a copy? “Because I took all my time writing it and it nearly killed me.”
Rabbit because I want to be hot like her – or hang on, no, Beavis and I ask about the cover. “Me. Eight photos of me. Did a Vanity Fair cover
Butt-Head! And yeah, sure, cool, I’ll say: ‘Send through the call sheet.’” vibe.” It’s focus is the anti It-girl. “Someone who doesn’t take themselves
She would like her Hollywood Walk of Fame star to be placed next to too seriously, someone who just gets on with it, has a go and has a laugh
Taye Diggs. “Does he have one? He’s hot. Or Beyoncé? It makes sense, and doesn’t kind of think they’re better than anyone, sticks by their
Beyoncé and me.” values … shut up, Celeste, who cares?”
What would she sing if she’s ever on James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke? Does anyone ever recognise her in the street? “Yeah, man, sometimes
“Salt-N-Pepa Shoop. Know all the words, know all the lyrics, oh yeah, they recognise me. I put out the call every morning. Once a woman in
I have all this ready to go … The Killers’ Mr Brightside; Robyn, Hang With Balmain ran across the street and said: ‘Oh, you’re Ricki-Lee, the
Me – love that. I would say an Alicia Keys song but it hurts when I try and singer, but before she lost all the weight.’ So fat Ricki-Lee. I was:
sing them. A bit of Spice Up Your Life by the ‘Thanks, mate.’ But now I get it more. Love
Spice Girls. But Salt-N-Pepa Shoop – the it. People are really, really kind to me.
original OGs, sexy excellent women going: There’s nothing bad about walking down
‘Fucking do what I want.’ Love them.” the street and someone screaming: ‘I LOVE
Barber gets down to the nitty-gritty about YOU!’ Once people start yelling: ‘You’re
how she stays fit for her body shots. “Put your overrated and too fat to wear underwear in
Fitbit on, and don’t pay it any attention. Grab public’, then that’s not nice, but people are
a glass of wine, put some ice in it; it keeps you so kind to me and really happy when I give
hydrated. I eat everything I want to. I exercise them just $20 bucks for saying nice things
for my health, not for how I look, and I don’t and not $50, so that’s good.”
drink as much water as I should.” All this is And so when it is all over one day, what
not for nothing. She is hoping she might be does she hope to leave behind, other than a
spotted for Victoria’s Secret. “I probably pile of dirty undies? “Just a heap of half-
already have been, I reckon. I can probably naked, inappropriate, unflattering photos,
give you the scoop now that they are fitting that’s the goal.” Her main goal though, her
wings for me as we speak. Me walking down own show in the US.
that catwalk, that would be everything!” As we finish, will she try a final word
She is about to hit the roof – the pedicurist association game? #Challengeaccepted.
is going to scalpel her heel. “It never ends Victoria Beckham: “Thin.”
well,” she grimaces, and pants loudly to the Wine: “Yummy.”
whole salon. “It’s like I’m in labour.” They Shoes: “Love.”
are transfixed. “It’s fine, people get this to Organic: “Ummm whatever. Fine.
relax, I like it, but I have sensitive feet. Don’t Expensive, but necessary.”
you find this satisfying? I walk in with size Influence: “Alcohol.”
10 shoes and walk out with a size eight.” Kim: “Kimbo.”
When she is finally horribly rich she will Kanye: “Crazy.”
ditch her home on the Central Coast. Big knickers: “Essential.”
“Well, it looks like the Hemsworths have Exhibitionist: “Fun.”
taken over the far north coast where I grew Flagrant: “What’s that?”
up and where I’m moving back to, so Twisted: “Twisties.”
I reckon I’ll probably buy a house between Beyoncé: “Life queen.”
them. Chris. Barber. Liam. But I won’t Selfie: “Boring.”
ever forget the Central Coast. It’s been good Yoga: “Hard shit.”
to me, it’s looked after me.” Tampons: “A luxury.”
N I CO L E B E N T L E Y PAT R I C K D E M A R C H E L E R E M M A S U M M E RTO N

I ask her what she will do when Donatella MeToo: “Necessary.”

Versace begs her to be the face of a Versace
campaign. “I’ll say: ‘Send the call sheet’, and I’ll
call Tom and see if he’s alright with it though.
Everything goes through Tom now.”
And is she worried about overshadowing
Miranda Kerr? “It’s a constant, constant
concern. When I wake up, I think:
‘Did I drink too much wine last night?
Second thing is: ‘Fuck, I hope I’m not
overshadowing Miranda Kerr.’ Yeah. She’s
Vogue Australia #Challengeaccepted: Barber’s
Aussie, though, she’ll be fine, she’s
a good chick.”
take on our May 2018, January 2003,
October 2017 and December 2017 covers.
Britney: “Oh Britters. Wow. Breaks
my heart.”
Rihanna: “Amazing. Queen. Love.”
Straya: “Straayaaa. Home.”
Vogue: “Amazing. I love Vogue.”
We leave and walk up Oxford Street
towards Matt Blatt, where Barber is going to
browse. We part, full hug, and promise to
meet in New York, front row at Tom Ford, of
course.
Challenge Accepted! by Celeste Barber
(HarperCollins, $32.99) is out September 24.

SEPTEMBER 2018 271

THE
ROCKAWAYS
New wave is new again, a gutsy glitz
of mini-dresses with lashings of
post-punk leather and a vinyl-slick
polish. Pull it all on and play it on
repeat. Styled by Katie Mossman.
Photographed by Sebastian Kim.
From left: Erin wears a Saint Laurent blazer, $4,870,
shirt, $1,225, jeans, $955, and shoes, $2,690.
Miansai necklace, $245. His own rings. Dior Homme
belt, $940. Amanda wears a Givenchy dress,
$25,650, and shoes, $2,050. Stylist’s own Fogal
tights. Lucian wears a Roberto Cavalli shirt, $4,340.
Officine Générale pants, P.O.A. Stylist’s own
bandana. Roberto Cavalli belt, $859. Stella
McCartney boots, P.O.A. All prices approximate;
details at Vogue.com.au/WTB.

SEPTEMBER 2018 273

SEBASTIAN KIM

SEPTEMBER 2018 277

 Lucian wears a R13 jacket, $1,375.
Calvin Klein Jeans jeans, P.O.A.
The Shiny Squirrel necklace, $60.
His own chain necklace. Michael
Kors belt, P.O.A. Erin wears a Faith
Connexion blazer, $2,060. Robert
Rodriguez shirt, $510. Saint Laurent
SEBASTIAN KIM

jeans, $955. Ayaka Nishi tooth

necklace, $190. Miansai necklace,
$245. Dior Homme belt, $940.

278
 From left: Erin wears a Saint
Laurent jacket, $8,405, jeans,
$1,225, and boots, $2,690.
Amanda wears an Alexander
McQueen tuxedo jacket,
$11,805, earrings, $1,680,
choker, from $1,955, pendant
$1,165, and shoes, P.O.A.
Wolford tights, $65. Lucian wears
an Officine Générale shirt, P.O.A.
Saint Laurent T shirt, $665.
Calvin Klein Jeans jeans, P.O.A.
The Shiny Squirrel necklace, $60.
His own chain necklace. On right
hand: Avocet ring, $300. On left
hand: his own ring. Stella
McCartney boots, P.O.A.
 From left: Erin wears a
Saint Laurent shirt, $1,225.
Miansai necklace, $245.
Amanda wears an
Alessandra Rich dress,
$2,640, earrings, $295, and
belt, $1,030. Wolford tights,
$65. Lucian wears a Zadig
SEBASTIAN KIM

& Voltaire jacket, P.O.A.

Frame T-shirt, $110.
Rag & Bone jeans, $340.
Stylist’s own bandana.

280
Attico dress, P.O.A. Alexandre
Vauthier belt, P.O.A. Alexander
Wang boots, $2,515.
Hair: Pasquale Ferrante
Make up: Yumi Mori
Models: Amanda Murphy, Lucian
Clifforth and Erin Mommsen
All is not as it seems in these images … Welcome to the world of the digital supermodel.
By Zara Wong. Visual artistry by Cameron-James Wilson.
S
hudu is my muse – as a photographer,
if I get inspired and want to try out
a new lighting concept, I can do that
at any time of the day,” says Cameron-
James Wilson, the creator of the CGI
avatar – or digital supermodel as he calls her.
Working with the Vogue Australia team on
these images, the process involved
photographing real Tiffany & Co. jewellery
pieces from its new Paper Flowers collection
on a stand-in model before blending the
photographs with three-dimensional renders
to create the hyper-realistic portraits of Shudu.
Each image can take days to produce.
“Working with such delicate and intricate
pieces was such an exciting challenge,” he
says. “I had to adopt new techniques in order
to blend Shudu’s virtual presence with the
very real Tiffany pieces.”
For Wilson, Shudu is a creative project, a
way to explore his interest in illustration,
make-up, fashion and design as well as three-
dimensional imaging. “So, really, this
encompasses and appeals to all my creative
tendencies,” he explains of his endeavours.
With questions raised around authenticity
and identity on the internet, the increased
prevalence of these avatars – the terminology
that Wilson is most familiar with, given his
background in gaming – is both a result of
a digital realm and reality merging, and a
comment on humans’ relationship with
technology. “I love to wonder about fakery and
what exactly it means,” says Wilson. “Where do
we draw the line between fantasy and reality?
What is real, anyway? Pushing the fantasy into
reality, Shudu has more skin texture than your
average Instagram post,” he quips.
Shudu’s Instagram account is filled with
comments from people amazed at the realism
Wilson is able to capture, and others
fanatically track the technical progression in
his work from image to image.
“I created Shudu during one of the toughest
periods in my life,” remembers Wilson. “I had
moved back home, where there were not many
models. I’d been a photographer for 10 years,
so creating a digital model was a natural
progression for my new-found 3D hobby.”
284
With a long-time interest in fashion, Wilson was inspired by incredible models that he had admired
growing up: Iman, Alek Wek, Naomi Campbell and Grace Jones. “In the 3D art world, there really
aren’t a lot of resources to create ethnically diverse characters, especially when compared to the
assets on offer for Caucasian characters,” says Wilson, who’s aware of the debate surrounding
the issue of having a non-black male creator produce a CGI black model. One controversy being
that a fake rendering of a woman of colour is taking up space in an industry where real women of
colour already struggle to find a platform. But to him, it comes from wanting to celebrate beauty
and show diversity in a gaming and 3D art world, where homogeneity is the norm.
“With VR [virtual reality] growing, I think this divide needs to be a serious consideration,” he
says. “This also parallels the very real under-representation of dark-skinned and diverse models
in the fashion industry, which Shudu’s creation has sparked a lot of debate about.”
The human eye naturally picks up on markers of authenticity; the skin texture is a key one,
especially with Shudu. The way the fabric moves around her could be another, but there are features
that remind us that the human hand – or mouse – is at play here. While to some there is unease
because Shudu is just too eerily realistic, to others there is a sense of
marvel of what technology can do. If Louis Vuitton can have characters
“I had to adopt from Final Fantasy model their wares in a campaign, as they did in 2016,
and if imagery can be manipulated on one’s own smartphone, a CGI
new techniques avatar is the next understandable progression.
in order to The man behind Shudu’s exquisite floral jewels is Reed Krakoff. “We
found a drawing from the 1800s of an iris that ended up being an
blend Shudu’s inspiration for Paper Flowers,” says Tiffany & Co.’s new chief artistic
virtual director on his first jewellery collection for the storied American
jewellery house.
presence with “The idea was how you make the iris in jewellery feel modern and
the very real not something that has come from the archives or is historical,” he
Tiffany pieces” says of the inspiration point. “It’s the idea of cutting flat petals and
pinning together and making the flowers out of paper by hand. So that
tension between hand-made and natural is kind of the beginning.
What gives it its modern feel is that it’s feminine and pretty, but not traditional.”
And here, modelled by Shudu, a human-made creation taken out of nature, she is much like the
jewellery itself.
Krakoff is in his office in Tiffany’s New York headquarters in the Flatiron District. It is large but
not cavernous, a tasteful sofa on the side, windows to coax the natural light in. His desk is covered
with perfectly aligned stacks of books and papers, like miniature skyscrapers, and he, Krakoff, is
the overseer. After his noteworthy rehaul of Coach, and designing an eponymous minimalist
label of ready-to-wear that has since closed, he was waiting for the right opportunity before
returning to his love of design.
His laptop is tucked neatly away: using his iPad is his favourite way to sketch. He’s decisive,
concise in his speech and devastatingly particular. Combined with a slight shyness, it gives him
an air of authority and assuredness, but there is a serene curiosity behind the exterior.
“I have to say I’m more excited than daunted,” he says of working for Tiffany. “It’s a big
responsibility to work with a brand that has had such an incredible history and has had many, many
accomplishments before. Tiffany has always been about this American sense of luxury, understated,
easy, complicated. It’s more pressure to live up to the name and to continue the next chapter.”
Fine jewellery of this ilk is a first for Krakoff, although he had designed sterling and casual
jewellery before. Krakoff’s hand can be seen clearly in his past endeavours and now at Tiffany.
There are the clean lines, a minimalism without coldness and always a sense of function and “the
idea of surprise and irreverence and the dreamy and fantastical as well”. ¤
C A M E R O N -J A M E S W I L S O N
 Under Krakoff’s watch, Tiffany in 2018 had
the song Moon River from Breakfast At Tiffany’s
be reworked with A$AP Ferg rapping and
actress Elle Fanning, on vocals, dressed in a
Tiffany blue hoodie, a Tiffany Paper Flowers
tiara sitting askew on her head. Interested
parties in said tiara would be disappointed to
find out that the jewelled ornament, a one-off
piece, was quickly sold. (We can hazard
a guess that it passed the meeting test.)
The idea of flowers made out of petals that
are remade highlights the craftsmanship of the
artisan. “It’s a funny thing about a company
that’s big: everything is still made one at a time,
in the right way,” he says, his voice faltering
with surprise still. His induction into the
company saw him taken on a tour of Tiffany’s
landmark store on Fifth Avenue, where he was
handed a paper coffee emblazoned with
Tiffany & Co. and hit upon one of his first
designs – aha! A Tiffany coffee cup recast in
sterling silver. “I didn’t think I was going to
make a paper cup out of silver,” he says. “I was
taking all these photos of this paper cup.
People are like: ‘Why are you taking pictures of
a paper cup?’ And I’m like: ‘No, it’s going to be
good!’ I don’t know what everyone else was
thinking of me doing that!” he says, chuckling.
The finishing touch of the Paper Flowers
collection came from a scene in a recent movie
he watched, where a character is surrounded
by fireflies – real or imagined. “We had not
Lee Mathews dress, $649. anticipated this in the collection,” he admits.
Tiffany & Co. Paper Flowers
Open Flower platinum earrings
“It needed something surprising and magical,
set with diamonds, $6,650, and this idea of a firefly came up. So we started
Cluster platinum pendant set thinking of this glowing yellow colour and it
with diamonds, $14,200, Open
Flower platinum pendant set brought us to the Tiffany diamond.” (The
with diamonds, $2,950, Tiffany diamond, one of the largest yellow
and Cluster platinum ring diamonds ever found at more than 287 carats,
set with diamonds, $22,100.
was worn by Audrey Hepburn in publicity
photos for Breakfast at Tiffany’s.) It was a late
So to come forth with Paper Flowers, a fine jewellery collection that uses precious materials like addition to the collection, with the necklace of
white and yellow diamonds and tanzanites to be worn for the daytime rather than just for formal multiple flowers and a firefly nestled in it as
evening events, is a culmination of Krakoff’s and Tiffany’s essences. “It’s not typical of fine the final touch. “That was when it felt like the
jewellery,” he says. “The objective was to make diamonds in a modern way, not something to put collection was finished,” says Krakoff.
away in a jewellery box or safe and wear once a year. It’s the sort of thing you can wear with For Cameron-James Wilson, his work is far
a T-shirt, or dressed up. It’s a statement about the attitude of how people want to dress today.” from finished. If Shudu’s Instagram feed is
When Krakoff holds a meeting at Tiffany, he will often put something on a table. A work-in- anything to go by – there were 130,000
progress design. A point of inspiration. “If no-one says anything, it’s probably not very desirable,” followers at last count – we’re set to see more of
he explains. “If someone says: ‘Oh, my God, where can I get that? I love that’ you know it’s this digital influence in the real fashion world.
something. It’s a really intuitive, visceral thing. You can’t look for people to advocate for “I see the natural development of these
something being great – it is or it isn’t. There’s no in-between.” avatars to be digital doubles,” predicts Wilson.
He’s quietly proud that his taste is unpredictable, “because I’m always taking in information “Imagine we could scan ourselves and that
C A M E R O N -J A M E S W I L S O N

and evolving my thinking … everything in a way surprises me, because I try not to have anything digital self would never age. We could change
I’m sure of until I understand what I’m talking about, because that’s when you get in trouble”, he our appearance at a click of a button, or
says. “You need to keep updating, otherwise you end up with a stale business that people don’t become someone different altogether – I think
get excited about, and you end up being predictable, which is the death of every brand. We can’t it’s a very exciting space to be a part of and
expect people to buy something because it says Tiffany.” I can’t wait to see how it develops.” ■

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Maticevski shoulder band,
$850. Tiffany & Co.
Paper Flowers Cluster
platinum earrings set with
diamonds, $11,900, Cluster
platinum ring set with
diamonds, $22,100, and
Open Flower platinum ring
set with diamonds, $8,700.
Assistant: Tom Lockyer
Production: The Diigitals
Make up: Heidi North
Styling: Philippa Moroney
and Erica Matthews
Hand model: Alexsandrah
Gonders
A wave of true-crime podcasts are fascinating Australians and helping reopen unsolved murders and
mysteries while reinvigorating award-winning investigative journalism, writes Sophie Tedmanson.
T
he human heart being what it is, murder was a theme not
likely to darken and yellow with time.” So said Truman
Capote in an interview with the New York Times in 1966, the
year his groundbreaking non-fiction novel In Cold Blood was
released. In Cold Blood, about the grisly quadruple murder of
the Clutter family on their farm in Kansas, broke the mould of true-
crime and investigative journalism, with Capote’s extraordinary eye for
detail and a narrative that took the reader inside a real-life story.
More than half a century later, true crime is still prevalent in the
modern Zeitgeist (it’s fair to say we are obsessed), only this time
the public’s fascination is being satiated in the form of podcasts that are
unearthing new evidence and reopening cold cases, telling stories in
real time and in turn becoming brilliant showcases for the nation’s top
investigative journalists from all mediums – audio, print and television.
It began with This American Life’s Serial, and its gripping reinvestigation
into the 1999 murder of Baltimore teenager Hae Min Lee, whose former
boyfriend Adnan Syed was convicted and jailed in 2000 for her kidnap
and murder – which became a pop cultural phenomenon when it
debuted in 2014, breaking podcast records, going on to be downloaded
more than 175 million times and ultimately resulting in Syed’s trial
being reopened. Serial co-producer Sarah Koenig, who herself gained a
cult following, once said her podcast was “about the basics: love and
death and justice and truth. All these big, big things” – all the perfect
ingredients for a fascinating whodunit.
Four years later and the phenomenon has well and truly gripped
Australians – and particularly Australian women – with locally
produced true-crime podcasts the most downloaded in the charts (at
the time of print six of the top 10 podcast downloads on iTunes were
Australian-made true-crime series, beating Oprah Master Class and the
financial podcast The Barefoot Investor).
“I felt if I could track down the relevant people … if I could piece it together, maybe I could tell a
The stories are real and represent people from all elements of our
society: young and old, rich and poor, Caucasian and Indigenous; they
are mysterious and compelling. They include the 1982 disappearance of
mother of two Lyn Dawson, whose former rugby celebrity turned
school-teacher husband was having an affair with a student in Sydney’s
northern beaches (The Teacher’s Pet, the Australian); the unsolved murder
of Melbourne mother Maria James in 1980, which has unearthed police
bungles, sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and satanic cults (Trace,
ABC); the mysterious death of young indigenous teenager Mark Haines,
who was found on train tracks in Tamworth, the country music capital,
in 1988 (Unravel: Blood on the Tracks, ABC); the brutal unsolved murder of
Sydney rugby fan David Breckenridge in 2002 just a day after his 28th
birthday (Eight Minutes, the Daily Telegraph); the death of 24-year-old
Phoebe Handsjuk, who was found at the bottom of a garbage chute in
a luxury apartment building in 2010 (Phoebe’s Fall, Fairfax); and the
unsolved 1990 to 1991 murders of three indigenous children who all
lived in the same street in a northern New South Wales country town
split by racial tensions (Bowraville, the Australian).
290
They are also playing out in real time and are interactive: not only are
they revisiting unsolved stories, often uncovering apparent police
mistakes and other injustices, but as the podcasts are going to air,
listeners are coming forward with new evidence, helping to shape
and sometimes change the narrative of the non-fiction story and
ultimately, hopefully, helping to solve a crime. In the introduction to Eight
Minutes, Daily Telegraph reporter Nicole Hogan entices the listener
immediately: “In this podcast we will follow the police investigation,
look at what the unsolved homicide squad has done so far, what the
impact has been on David’s family and friends, and appeal to you,
the listener to help us catch a killer.”
The public interest has been so demanding that true-crime seminars
have been held around the country – hosted by various media
organisations and even the Walkley Foundation – with panels including
the journalists, and in some cases people who are involved in the story,
enabling the public to interact with real people featured in the true
crimes they are obsessing over through their headphones.
For Hedley Thomas, respected investigative journalist and national
chief correspondent for the Australian newspaper, the case of Lyn Dawson
has mystified him for 17 years: a devoted mother of two allegedly walks
out of her northern Sydney home one day, leaving behind two beloved
daughters, and never returns, apparently having joined a cult. She has not
been seen since. But the story has even darker twists, as the tagline says: ‘a
star footballer, his schoolgirl lover, a wife who vanishes’; the intrigues are
many. Two coronial inquests found that Lyn had in fact been murdered by
her husband Chris Dawson, but he was never charged because prosecutors
claimed there was not enough evidence. He currently lives in Queensland.
Thomas first covered Lyn Dawson’s disappearance in 2001 and was
compelled by what he considered a “travesty of justice”, and also
intrigued by coincidentally having a personal connection – he attended
the same high school where Chris Dawson ended up working years
after his wife’s disappearance (and after Thomas had graduated).
“I thought it was such an extraordinarily sad story, compelling in
terms of the weight of circumstantial evidence. I just thought this story
would be something I would one day perhaps revisit,” Thomas says. For
years he kept his story notes and files in a box marked ‘Lyn Dawson’ in
the roof of his carport at home in Brisbane.
“Late last year, with my son’s help, we took the box down and
I opened it and just thought: ‘I’m going to try and do this podcast series’,
which I hadn’t done before,” he adds. “I felt if I could track down the
relevant people, members of the family and persuade them to talk to
me, if I could talk to some of the cops who were involved, if I could piece
it together, maybe I could tell a gripping story but maybe – and this was
always my objective – maybe we could find new evidence in terms of
delivering justice. Because I always found it a travesty of justice, I’ve got
to be upfront about that. I’m trying to be objective and balanced, but I’m
upfront in saying I agree with two coroners who found that Chris
murdered his wife and got away with it.”
 The Teacher’s Pet has so far broken Australian podcast records – as of
July it had hit more than five million downloads, with 35 per cent of
those from overseas, including listeners from the US, Canada and
Europe, taking an interest in this uniquely Australian mystery.
At the time, the Australian’s editor-in-chief Paul Whittaker told his
own paper: “Podcasts allow newspapers to amplify big and complex
stories by giving voice to victims and their families in a way that our
journalism has never been able to.”
The Australian already has an award-winning podcast, with the
extraordinary Bowraville winning two Walkley awards in 2016 – the first
award for a podcast since it was added to the ‘radio/audio documentary’
category. Last year, however, on the back of the boon in podcasts, the
award was transformed into ‘innovation’ and was won by the ABC
podcast Trace. Journalist Rachael Brown, who created Trace, says the
case of the murder of Maria James “chose me, in a sense”.
“I felt a podcast would be the perfect intimate medium to first explore
this multilayered case,” she says of Trace, which remains number two in
the podcast download charts after a year, and has since developed into
a book – Trace: Who Killed Maria James? – released this month.
“True-crime coverage often treats tragedies like spectator sports, so
my early caveat was getting the blessing of the James brothers and
former detective Ron Iddles. I wanted Trace to be both a forensic
investigation and respectful of all those caught up in this case. The
intimacy of the podcast medium allowed the James brothers’ story to
resonate powerfully, it gave Adam James the space he needed to speak
publicly for the first time, it offered anonymity to church abuse victims,
and the immersive sound design helped listeners feel they were
walking alongside me through the investigation.
“Another strength of the medium is that it allows the public to play
a role. I wanted listeners to be participants, not just consumers, able to
meaningfully contribute with leads and information. The emotional
investment this approach fostered was phenomenal. Three hundred
emails quickly poured into Trace’s account with fresh leads, allowing
Trace to evolve as it went to air.”
Thomas has had the same response to The Teacher’s Pet: “This medium
is a juggernaut. I’ve been pleasantly stunned at the scale of engagement,”
gripping story but maybe … maybe we could find new evidence in terms of delivering justice”
he says. “We’ve got phenomenal emails – hundreds, I can’t keep up –
and that doesn’t happen with stories I do in print or digitally. This has
shown me that this medium for long-form journalism is so brilliant and
so promising. It’s a great medium because people respond to the voices
they’re hearing, and when you do it in collaboration with the paper,
they are genuinely interesting news stories.”
“I do believe that journalists who do thorough cold-case investigations
may well be more effective than traditional policing, because what
we’re finding in this is people who have never talked to the cops are
coming to me, they’re going onto The Teacher’s Pet website and wanting
to share stuff that despite numerous appeals from the police they’ve
never shared with the police.”
Those coming forward include family members such as Shanelle
Dawson, the daughter of Lyn and Chris Dawson, who had never spoken
in public until she granted Thomas an interview for his podcast.
In episode nine of The Teacher’s Pet, Dreamworld, Shanelle describes
what the podcast has given her: “I feel really excited because I’d kind of
given up hope, it seemed like there were no other leads on anything that
might lead to an answer as to what happen to my mum, so I’m hopeful
this might just keep the hope alive, and maybe somebody who hasn’t
seen the articles might hear this [podcast] or, I mean I’m nervous, but
I definitely want to honour my mother and this is a great opportunity
to do that …”
In July, News Corp Australia (publisher of Vogue Australia) also
launched True Crime Australia (TCA), a website dedicated to ‘the
nation’s most compelling crime stories’, utilising the company’s large
national network of crime reporters with in-depth articles and, of
course, podcasts. Other media organisations including the ABC and
Fairfax have similar true-crime sites with associated podcasts.
According to News Corp Australia’s News360 executive editor Kathy
Lipari, who oversaw the TCA launch: “Our writers have been behind
the scenes and at the heart of the most infamous, mysterious and
chilling crimes in Australia. At the same time we have been witnessing
recently a surge in public interest in the area of true crime both in the
fictional world and in real-life events.”
Lipari says podcasts are part of the evolution of the modern newsroom
tapping into a huge appetite for a good crime story. “The core of what we
do has not changed – publishing fantastic content – it is still all about
good storytelling, but what that looks like has evolved and now has to
include video and image-rich reports, and yes, podcasts,” she says.
“A good read can put you in the picture, but a podcast places you at
the scene, almost makes you a character as you can hear the words
spoken that often are unspeakable.
“In our time-poor lives as well, particularly in commuter cities, it’s
easier to listen to a good read on a podcast while you are stuck in traffic,
or on a train or bus or just on the couch with your headphones plugged
in. In some ways podcasts are a rebirth of the old wireless serials people
used to tune in for.
“True-crime podcasts have become so popular because they allow
this type of chilling, gripping story to be told in a way that they haven’t
been before. The details of so many cold-case stories contain such
unbelievable stories of human tragedy but also heroic and extraordinary
human deeds from those who step in to help, to find, bring to justice
and try to help resolve.”
Like any good story does with any good journalist, the exhaustive
investigations, continually following up new leads, and trying to find
justice for the victims becomes all-consuming for these podcast creators.
Thomas jokes he hasn’t been able to play golf with his mates for months;
while Brown would mull over evidence on her morning runs along the
Yarra River in Melbourne to gain a clearer understanding of the facts.
Like Serial, which has resulted in Adnan Syed being granted a retrial,
the Australian podcasts are changing the course of justice. Following
The Teacher’s Pet, new witnesses have emerged and detectives are
investigating past student-teacher relationships at Sydney’s northern
beaches high schools. And thanks to new evidence revealed in Trace,
there is fresh hope in the search for the killer of Maria James.
“The James family and I are now waiting on the coroner to decide
whether she’ll hold a fresh inquest,” says Brown. “The rusty gears of
justice mightn’t turn quickly, but they are turning.”
For more on The Teacher’s Pet, go to www.theaustralian.com.au/the-teachers-
pet. The book Trace: Who Killed Maria James (Scribe) by Rachael Brown is
out now.
SEPTEMBER 2018 291
 As millennials enter parenthood, Amelia Lester examines
their attitudes to parenting and family roles, and their
concerns and hopes for their children’s future. Art direction
by Mandy Alex. Photographed by Edward Urrutia.
hen news broke last year that then 20-year-old Kylie Jenner
was expecting a child, no-one seemed more shocked than
her peers. Lena Dunham, whose alter ego Hannah Horvath
once declared herself “the voice of a generation”, tweeted
that the news was confronting for many of her 30-year-old
contemporaries: “A solid 10 friends texted me triggered by
Kylie pregnancy. I’m like: ‘Ladies she’s 20. We were all
v fertile then, we were just broke.’”
A few months later, Dunham would announce her
struggle with endometriosis had led to a voluntary
hysterectomy at 31, but she had hit on a demographic truth: millennials, born between
about 1980 and 2000, are delaying childbirth longer than ever before. According to data
from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average age of first-time
mothers in 1980 was 22.7; in 2013, it was 26. The trend is similar in Australia, moving up
from 28.1 in 2005 to 28.9 in 2015. Forty per cent of Australian millennials are now dealing
with parenthood, but the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reported in 2015 that
just 15 per cent of births that year were to women under 25.
Sarah Renzi Sanders, who is 32, is an artist living outside Washington, D.C. Like Jenner,
she bucked millennial stereotypes by having her first child at 20. She was a university
student at the time and felt out of synch with her cohort. “I lost a lot of friends,” she says.
“People were literally having parties in my apartment while I was trying to sleep.” Renzi
Sanders nonetheless graduated on schedule. Today, she’s raising her three children with
husband Austin Sanders, 33, a commercial real estate broker; they married shortly after
the birth of their eldest, Adelaide.
Spending time with the Sanders, I am struck by the ease with which they parent – even
with their two-year-old, Wallace. After a weekend with them at the beach recently,
I commented to my husband on how strikingly low-key they were about the kids compared
with other parents we know. “Well, they’ve had a lot of practice,” he pointed out.
Austin and Sarah don’t sugarcoat the experience of having children young – they cite
making ends meet and keeping their marriage together as the biggest challenges – but
they are also thankful for the powerful connection it engendered. “I see that a lot of my
friends struggle to give up their free time and their independence, but we never had
boozy brunches and shopping dates to begin with,” says Renzi Sanders. At a 34th
birthday party a few weeks back, Austin noticed how many of the young children in
attendance were plugged into iPads or entranced by their parents’ phones. “I get that
people want to have time with friends and not manage the child, but you don’t get any
socialisation that way,” he says. “To be able to have the energy to emotionally connect [as
younger parents] makes things so much easier.”
Still, the Sanders are not your average millennial parents, and nor is Kylie Jenner.
Jenner’s half-sister Khloé Kardashian, who gave birth earlier this year to her first child at
33, is a more typical case, statistically speaking. Actually, because Khloé is unmarried,
Kim Kardashian West might be the most representative of that clan, because two of her ¤

SEPTEMBER 2018 293

three children – all born in her 30s – arrived in wedlock. It turns out Sydney once she and her husband, Will, had their first child. It was in
millennials, while putting off the experience of starting families, are part to be close to her mother and sister, but there were other draws, too.
surprisingly traditional when it comes to what their families look like. “When I was pregnant, we were quite happy in our two-bedroom
Helen Fisher, a professor of biological anthropology and consultant to apartment in the city,” Milthorpe says. “Property prices really sold it for
dating website Match.com, calls the juxtaposition of casual sexual Will, but there’s a beautiful sense of community here, and we want that
liaisons and long-simmering committed relationships amongst for our kids.” Now that their son, James, is three, and daughter Amy is
millennials “fast sex, slow love”. Because of this conservative approach, two, Milthorpe is extra appreciative of the slower pace of life. “We’re not
it is predicted that about 60 per cent of the children of millennials will living on busy roads and all the kids in the neighbourhood can go out
be born to married parents. and play without us having to worry,” she says.
Just as they prefer to wait until marriage for children, there’s also The way Milthorpe talked about her shift to the mountains reminded
some evidence that millennial parents maintain a surprisingly me of another couple who relocated to start a family. Phil and Ashley
traditional division of paid work, childcare and Carter, both 33, met while they were both living in
household maintenance. A fascinating study San Francisco. When I ask Phil how he conceived of
conducted by the advocacy group Young Invincibles,
based on US census data, shows that millennial mums
Millennials, while his role as dad to daughter Kinley, who is 17 months
old, he answers by explaining the decision to move
spend, on average, about twice the time that fathers do putting off the back to Ashley’s home state of Colorado. “San
on both childcare and household maintenance. This is experience of Francisco is still my favourite city on the planet, but
at odds with what both men and women say would be
the ideal arrangement: in a 2011 Pew Research survey,
starting families, we looked into our future and saw what our lives
would look like if we stayed versus what we could do
72 per cent of millennials agreed that ‘husband and are surprisingly for our family in Colorado,” he says. “Our decision
wife should both have jobs and take care of the house
and children’, compared with 63 per cent of Gen Xers
traditional when it was largely driven by our desire to start a family, be
close to Ashley’s parents, and have more balance and
(born 1960 to 1980), and 59 per cent of Baby Boomers comes to what their flexibility in our lives. That’s what’s important to me
(born 1946 on). families look like as a father,” he adds.
Why the discrepancy? Millennials are a generation of Moving from one of the most expensive places in the
hustlers; as 25-year-old mother-to-be Cardi B says: world to a regional area has had beneficial effects on
“I make money moves.” Pew notes that they are the first generation in the Carters’ work/life balance. Since giving birth, Ashley has adopted
modern history to have higher poverty rates and lower incomes than a more flexible schedule, while Phil has recently left his position at an
their two preceding generations. In Australia, the news is almost as e-commerce app to work full time on his passion project, a social
dire. Roger Wilkins, a professor of economics at the University of media start-up called Empath, which he describes as “Fitbit for
Melbourne, explains that while wages are flat in real terms, for new feelings”. Ashley says her parents “love being grandparents” and the
entrants to the labour market, wages are declining. At the same time, extra time she’s gained with Phil means they haven’t had to
permanent part-time jobs are growing. “This is the rise of “completely sacrifice our marriage”.
underemployment,” he says, “and that’s affecting Gen Y” – another There’s another benefit to escaping the city, which is that Kinley is
name for millennials – “more than anybody.” growing up in a more traditional environment. Both Ashley and Phil
speak often about the importance of exposing her to the outdoors; the

B
ernard Salt is the demographer who went viral around the
world with his Australian column about millennials
spending too much money on avocado toast and not saving
enough. He has written that the double-income yuppie
parents of millennials, themselves raised in the 1950s and
60s by the precepts of Depression austerity, “measured their own
success as parents by how much they could give their Gen Y kids”.
Now, as millennials become parents themselves, Salt predicts a decade
of intergenerational tension between the two groups based on their
comparative economic situations. As young people turn to more
flexible workplace arrangements in the gig economy, a lot will also
become dependent on their parents. A Deloitte survey reflects
Australian millennials’ doom and gloom, with only 39 per cent
believing they will be better off than their parents, compared with
51 per cent globally.
Yet the conflict Salt predicted has not necessarily eventuated. In fact,
many millennials I’ve spoken to are teaming up with their parents, and
in some cases, structuring their decisions around starting a family to
make that outcome possible. Eloise Milthorpe, a 36-year-old in health
service planning, grew up in the Blue Mountains and moved back from
word ‘community’ also comes up a lot. “We go to church and hope that
Kinley feels loved there,” Ashley says. “But beyond broad brushstrokes
we haven’t talked about being really prescriptive or overly structured
in terms of her time.”
An influential Ad Week story from last year summarised the shift in
parenting style from Baby Boomers to millennials as ‘helicopter parents’
to ‘passenger plane parents’. Boomers, trend analyst Sarah Holmes
wrote, were “hyper-focused on their children, often at the cost of their
own interests”, while millennials take a “collaborative, inclusive
approach” which considers the needs of the family as a whole.
Alicia Mollaun Bartlett, a 37-year-old international advisor for the
Australian Public Service, isn’t familiar with the term ‘passenger plane
parents’, but sees echoes in how she is raising her son Evatt, who is two.
“I’d call it slow parenting, simplicity parenting, and one of its important
elements is not scheduling your kid too much,” she says. “Lots of kids
do gymnastics one day and daycare three days a week and swimming
on the weekend, and two-year-olds don’t need to do that much stuff.”
At least one morning each week, or even a whole day, is quarantined
for family. “If a kid’s party falls during that time,” she says, “we won’t
go.” Mollaun Bartlett is also concerned with reducing Evatt’s exposure

294
to plastics and processed foods – another big change from her own
childhood, during which dinner was usually a kid’s meal eaten in front
of the television. She recalls that her son’s diet has sometimes been hard
to explain to others. “People will say: ‘Oh, kids can have a sausage, and
I’m thinking sausages are probably the worst thing you can give a kid.’”
In addition to breastfeeding, which she plans to continue until Evatt is
around three, Mollaun Bartlett and her husband focus on feeding their
son whole foods. One of Evatt’s favourites, she says, is avocado toast
with ‘sprinkles’, which are nutritional yeast and sesame seeds.
During Mollaun Bartlett’s extended maternity leave, she took an
online course called Low Tox Life, run by Sydney-based environmental
evangelist Alexx Stuart. Through the course, Mollaun Bartlett learnt
generations. A Pew survey revealed that 57 per cent of millennial mums
say they are doing a very good job as a parent, compared with 48 per
cent of Gen Xers and 41 per cent of Boomers. This is no doubt partly
because they are, on average, older and more settled in their careers by
the time motherhood comes around, but it could also be because of the
abundance of information online to which they have access.
At the time of writing there are 215 million hits for a Google search on
‘parenting advice’. “The good news is that parents know more about
child development than ever before,” says Rebecca Parlakian, program
director for family research group Zero to Three to the Washington Post.
“Google is the new grandparent, the new neighbour, the new nanny.”

P
that everything from doonas to school shorts contain hidden chemicals: reparing for the birth of my first child as your typical mid-
“We had to specify to aunties and uncles that we only wanted wooden 30s control freak, I asked my mum where she had gone for
toys, which was quite difficult because they wouldn’t listen and kept parenting advice back when there was no internet. “My
giving us plastic ones.” Mollaun Bartlett says this philosophy is friends and I all used Dr Spock for his chapters on crying and
sometimes called ‘natural parenting’. I suggest it could also be dubbed rashes, and I had a Mothercare book which had a good
‘what would nana do?’, and she doesn’t disagree. ‘troubleshooting’ section at the back,” she texted me back. (Like most
Of course, one big difference with nana’s era is that parents these days millennials, I am allergic to the phone.) “But there was nothing like the
must contend with technology, and specifically smartphones. Everyone array of books and information now available as you have.”
I spoke to expressed a desire to delay their children’s exposure for This can, of course, be a double-edged sword: Dawn Barker, a child
as long as possible, but the Sanders’ lived experience suggests this is psychiatrist, recently wrote an essay on Quartz titled ‘Even I Look for
harder to pull off than it sounds – 11-year-old Adelaide is one of the Parenting Advice Online’ in which she wrote about the downside of
only kids in her class without a phone. relying too heavily on ‘Dr Google’. Mothers today are “typically older
Parents of daughters seem especially anxious about the at the birth of their first child, and while this may mean more
psychological effects of social media on young brains. Phil Carter, financial stability and life skills … the loss of control over a woman’s
who is himself a social media entrepreneur, says: life – an inevitability with a baby – can be
“For young women in particular, I think it can be challenging.” She went on: “For women who have
really difficult to have a balanced perspective on life “We’re told as been successful in other aspects of their life, failing
when people are curating a perfect image of to live up to being a textbook mother, by not having
themselves on social media all the time.” Sarah Renzi
women we can do a textbook baby, can be very challenging, triggering
Sanders sees Adelaide’s peers “scrolling through anything and be the obsession to ‘fix’ the problem rather than
Instagram with the highlight reel of their life and it’s
not good for anyone’s self-esteem”.
anything, but relaxing into parenthood.”
Michelle Kennedy, 35, felt that loss of independence
Although the science is still not settled on the long- I felt unprepared for acutely when she became a mother to her now five-
term effects of smartphone use, especially among where motherhood year-old son, Fin. Kennedy tells me on the phone from
adolescents, the Australian Department of Health’s her home in London that she felt very lonely a lot of
latest screen time guidelines for infants are crystal was meant to fit in the time. “Being the first in my group of friends to
clear: none for children under two, and no more than an with my life plan” have a kid meant that even if you manage to go out for
hour a day until five. The TV is no longer an acceptable dinner and try to be the old version of you, your
babysitter for the very young – but what about friends are saying: ‘I slept with this guy last night’
Facetiming with grandparents? Or goofing around with silly Snapchat while I’m like: ‘I did a dream feed.’”
filters? It’s all part of being the ‘first’ generation to grapple with a seismic A successful tech entrepreneur who had climbed high at the dating
shift in how we relate to one another. app Bumble, Kennedy also felt adrift professionally as she took on a
In terms of technology use by millennial parents, there are still more radically new identity. “We’re told as women we can do anything and
quandaries, and they start early: do we post a birth announcement on be anything, but I felt completely unprepared for where motherhood
Facebook? What about on a public Instagram account? And is it okay to was meant to fit in with my life plan.” That experience inspired
share that hilarious video of our bundle of joy splashing in the bath? Kennedy to found Peanut, an app that connects mothers in the same
Celebrities grapple with this in the public eye. For every Zoë Foster way Bumble or Tinder does for dates. Peanut, which launched in
Blake, who is happy to share photos of her two children with her Australia in July last year, now has more than 350,000 users,
650,000+ followers, or Chrissy Teigen, with 18.3 million, there’s an predominantly young professionals.
Adele, who has never shared a picture of her son, or Ashton Kutcher “Looking back on those early days, motherhood was really scary and
and Mila Kunis, who keep their family snaps on a private account. lonely,” Kennedy says. In particular, she was worried about being judged
On the flip side, the internet can also be a source of knowledge and for desperately wanting to go back to work after six months of maternity
comfort for millennial parents – and may even contribute to their leave. “But now more people are talking about it,” she says, “and I realised
confidence in their parenting skills, which is higher than for previous doing it your own way doesn’t make you a bad mum.” ■

SEPTEMBER 2018 295

 CLOCKWISE FROM RIGHT: ZARA WONG, FASHION
FEATURES AND CONTENT STRATEGY DIRECTOR
AT VOGUE AUSTRALIA, WITH KEYNOTE SPEAKER
ZOË FOSTER BLAKE, CREATOR OF GO-TO AND
BREAK-UP BOSS; BREE JOHNSON, CO-FOUNDER
AND DIRECTOR OF WILLOW & BLAKE AND FRANK
BODY, SHAMINI RAJARETHNAM, CEO OF RATIONALE,
ZOË FOSTER BLAKE, ANASTASIA CAMMAROTO,

CODE GENERAL MANAGER, GROUP TECHNOLOGY

BUSINESS INTEGRATION AND CIO, CONSUMER BANK
AT WESTPAC GROUP, SARAH HOLLOWAY, FOUNDER
OF MATCHA MAIDEN AND MATCHA MYLKBAR; GUESTS

BREAKERS
An aspirational agenda and a posse
CHECKING THE PROGRAM; MILLENNIAL SPEAK
PANELLISTS SARAH HOLLOWAY, ALYCE TRAN,
CO-FOUNDER AND CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF THE DAILY
EDITED, AND BREE JOHNSON; PENFOLDS WINE
WAS SERVED AT THE SUMMITS; KEYNOTE SPEAKER
FLAVIA TATA NARDINI, CEO AND CO-FOUNDER
of entrepreneurial women made OF FLEET; THE TDE #VOGUECODES LAPTOP CASE;
A VOGUE STAFFER USING AN HP LAPTOP AT THE
Vogue Codes 2018 the place to be. SUMMIT; KEYNOTE SPEAKER EVA CHEN, GLOBAL
HEAD OF FASHION PARTNERSHIPS AT INSTAGRAM.
It’s a brave new world, with technology making
a huge impact on our lives. Vogue Codes was set
up to encourage more girls and women to pursue
careers in the male-dominated tech industry. “It’s
not about learning how to code … but to be aware
that technology is becoming further ingrained in
how we work and live and that we need to harness
its potential to be involved in how the future is
shaped,” says Vogue Australia’s editor-in-chief
Edwina McCann. Thanks to presenting partner
Westpac and supporting partners HP and Audi, the
Vogue Codes 2018 series of events took place
recently in Sydney and Melbourne.

VOGUE CODES Summit

It’s the third time Vogue Codes Summit has taken
place and the topic up for discussion this year was
empowering future female innovation. A who’s
who of speakers and panellists, including
Instagram’s Eva Chen, Go-To and Break-up Boss’s
Zoë Foster Blake and digital political activist Meena
Harris, inspired start-up dreamers.
 VOGUE PROMOTION

CLOCKWISE, FROM FAR LEFT: SPEAKER THE HON

JULIE BISHOP MP, MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS,
AT THE SYDNEY SUMMIT; VOGUE STAFFERS
DANIELLE GAY AND LILITH HARDIE LUPICA AT THE
EVENT; VEUVE CLICQUOT WAS THE CHAMPAGNE
OF CHOICE; VOGUE’S ZARA WONG ARRIVING AT
THE SYDNEY SUMMIT IN AN AUDI; DAVE CURRAN,
WESTPAC GROUP CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER,
SPEAKING AT THE SUMMIT; BROOKE CORTE,
CO-ANCHOR OF FIRST EDITION AT SKY NEWS
AND MODERATOR FOR THE BEYOND 2018: WHAT’S
NEXT IN TECHNOLOGY PANEL, LUCINDA HARTLEY,
CO-FOUNDER OF CODESIGN STUDIO AND
NEIGHBOURLYTICS, JULIE TRELL, GLOBAL HEAD OF
MURU-D AND SHEEO AUSTRALIA COUNTRY LEAD,
AND ROISIN PARKES, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
AT GUMTREE AUSTRALIA; KEYNOTE SPEAKER
TIM BROWN, CO-FOUNDER OF ALLBIRDS; A TABLE
SETTING AT THE SUMMIT SYDNEY WITH AN HP
LAPTOP AND NOTEBOOK DESIGNED BY YORKELEE
PRINTS AND COURTESY OF HP; LEILA JANAH,
FOUNDER AND CEO OF SAMASOURCE AND LXMI;
GUESTS AT THE EVENT; GRAZING TABLE AT THE
VOGUE CODES SUMMIT, SYDNEY; KEYNOTE
SPEAKER AUBREY BLANCHE, GLOBAL HEAD
OF DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION AT ATLASSIAN;
NICHOLAS GRAY, CEO OF THE AUSTRALIAN AND
PUBLISHER OF THE NEWS PRESTIGE NETWORK,
THE HON JULIE BISHOP MP, MINISTER FOR
FOREIGN AFFAIRS, EDWINA MCCANN, VOGUE
AUSTRALIA EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, AND MICHAEL MILLER,
EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, NEWS CORP AUSTRALASIA.

vogue codes in conversation
The power breakfast is back. Co-hosted by Network
Ten’s Sandra Sully in Sydney and Lisa Wilkinson in
Melbourne, the In Conversation presented by Audi
breakfasts recognised, and applauded, female
trailblazers. Marita Cheng, founder of Aubot and
Robogals, Zoë Foster Blake, creator of Go-To and
Break-up Boss, and Vogue’s Zara Wong shared tales
of challenging the status quo at the events.
CLOCKWISE FROM RIGHT: SPEAKERS EDWINA
MCCANN, VOGUE AUSTRALIA EDITOR-IN-CHIEF,
LISA WILKINSON, JOURNALIST AND CO-HOST
OF THE PROJECT, AND ZOË FOSTER BLAKE,
CREATOR OF GO-TO AND BREAK-UP BOSS, AT
THE IN CONVERSATION PRESENTED BY AUDI
BREAKFAST IN MELBOURNE; GUESTS AT THE
IN CONVERSATION EVENT; PAUL SANSOM, AUDI
AUSTRALIA MANAGING DIRECTOR; VOGUE’S ZARA
WONG ARRIVING AT THE IN CONVERSATION EVENT;
BISTRO GUILLAUME, THE SYDNEY VENUE FOR
THE IN CONVERSATION EVENT; VUE DE MONDE,
THE VENUE IN MELBOURNE; SPEAKERS MARITA
CHENG, FOUNDER OF AUBOT AND ROBOGALS, AND
SANDRA SULLY, TEN EYEWITNESS NEWS ANCHOR
AND MANAGING NEWS EDITOR OF TEN DAILY;
SEEN ON THE STREET AT VOGUE CODES.

VOgue codes live

Tips from industry insiders, attention-grabbing
activations and collaborative Q&A sessions –
the Vogue Codes Live interactive seminar at
Sydney’s Carriageworks covered everything from
mentorship to starting your own business. The
event included speakers such as Melanie Perkins of
Canva and Cyan Ta’eed of Envato and Hey Tiger,
two of Australia’s most successful entrepreneurs.

VOgue codes kids

They’re digital natives, but it’s still vital to
encourage children to fully explore the digital
world – and give them every opportunity to engage
with technology. Vogue, together with Code Club
Australia, held free sessions for kids aged eight to
12, where they could create interactive digital
games, try out wearable tech and learn to code.
 VOGUE PROMOTION

FAR LEFT COLUMN, FROM TOP: GUESTS USING

AN HP LAPTOP TO EXPLORE THE AUDI ACTIVATION
AT VOGUE CODES KIDS; CHECKING OUT THE HP
VIRTUAL REALITY ACTIVATION AT VOGUE CODES
KIDS; BEYOND BEAUTY: THE FUTURE OF THE
BEAUTY INDUSTRY PANEL AT VOGUE CODES LIVE,
FROM LEFT: KATE MORRIS, FOUNDER OF ADORE
BEAUTY, ELEANOR PENDLETON, FOUNDER OF
GRITTY PRETTY, CARLA OATES, FOUNDER OF THE
BEAUTY CHEF, SAASHA BURNS, CO-FOUNDER OF
BEAR; DIGITAL POLITICAL ACTIVIST MEENA HARRIS.
MIDDLE COLUMN, FROM TOP: YOUNG ATTENDEES
AT VOGUE CODES KIDS; FLUFFE FAIRY FLOSS HIT
THE SPOT; THE WESTPAC ACTIVATION AT VOGUE
CODES LIVE AND KIDS; THE VOGUE CODES LIVE
STAGE; PANELLISTS AT VOGUE CODES LIVE, FROM
LEFT: CARLA OATES, KATE MORRIS, ELEANOR
PENDLETON AND SAASHA BURNS. RIGHT COLUMN,
FROM TOP: VOGUE CODES LIVE MODERATOR
INGRID WILLINGE, CHIEF BUSINESS REPORTER AT
SKY NEWS; MONOGRAMMING IN ACTION AT THE
DAILY EDITED ACTIVATION.
VOGUE PROMOTION
 VOGUE SOIR ÉE
1. 2.

8.

7. 4.
I N D I G I TA L H E AT H E R S H U K E R

5.

1. Giambattista Valli, Suzy Menkes, Christian Dior artistic director Maria Grazia Chiuri, Karlie Kloss, WME/IMG co president Mark Shapiro and
Condé Nast International chairman and chief executive Jonathan Newhouse. 2. Maria Grazia Chiuri and her daughter Rachele Regini. 3. Karlie Kloss and Mark Shapiro.
4. Jewellery designer Sabine Getty. 5. Maria Grazia Chiuri and Marisa Berenson. 6. Hilary Swank and Suzy Menkes. 7. Alexandre Arnault. 8. Hilary Swank.

SEPTEMBER 2018 301

VOGUE SOIR ÉE
1. 2.

3.

5.

beer was bland? Melissa Hoyer

4.

1. David Abela and Rebecca Amos. 2. From left: Sam Wines, Blair Norfolk, James Thompson and Max Kruse
3. and 4. From left: Lucy Folk, Katie Ingham and Jen Guberek. 5. Nick Smith and Mike Christensen.

302 SEPTEMBER 2018

 ++++ ++++ ++++ ++++
TIME OUT, LONDON THE INDEPENDENT THE GUARDIAN THE ARTS DESK
++++
THE STANDARD

“AN EXHILARATING, “EXCEPTIONALLY

INTIMATE PORTRAIT” MOVING”
THE STANDARD VOGUE

THE FEARLESS, REBELLIOUS AND EXTRAORDINARY

LIFE OF ALEXANDER M C QUEEN

IN CINEM A S SEP TEM BER 6

VOGUE PROMOTION
 Libra
23 SEPTEMBER – 23 OCTOBER
Loosening up a fixed mindset is
the key to all you do this month.
Let ideas and plans free-flow
– your values may undergo
a transformation as a result.
This includes reassessing close
connections. As home life settles,
romance and creativity go off the
scale in unusual but highly
intriguing ways.
STYLE ICON: Bella Hadid
Capricorn
22 DECEMBER – 20 JANUARY
Opportunities for a life makeover
open up this month, linked to
study, travel, the media or your
spirituality. A rare recklessness
with money is possible, too,
and as you nurture personal
goals and trusted friends, love
could emerge from the friends
zone or via a collaboration on
a cherished dream.
STYLE ICON: Sienna Miller
Aries
21 MARCH – 20 APRIL
Recent excesses have taken their
toll on your body: this month
you get a wellbeing wake-up call.
Detox your mindset and holistic,
healthy harmony will flow more
easily. Romance and work life get
intense now, too, but do the work
on yourself and relationships,
career and friendships will also
benefit exponentially.
STYLE ICON: Lily James
Cancer
22 JUNE – 22 JULY
Exploring new hangouts close to
home could revolutionise your
world. Learning something new
with a more like-minded crew
has unlimited potential, even
A S T R O LO G E R : S T E L L A N O VA
if the thought of unfamiliar
territory scares you a little.
Reducing pressures at work
gives you more time to live, love
and take better care of yourself.
STYLE ICON: Khloé Kardashian
Scorpio
24 OCTOBER – 22 NOVEMBER
It’s time for some serious wishing,
but also for some major action
to make those wishes come true.
A new friend or tribe could be
the catalyst and you’ll soon
know which of your dreams are
keepers. You’re magnetic now, so
flaunt it, but with subtlety – and
avoid overstating your capabilities
both at home and at work.
STYLE ICON: Emma Stone
Aquarius
21 JANUARY – 18 FEBRUARY
Now’s the time to get your
financial and romantic affairs
in order. Start streamlining
situations, and rather than dive in
with your own opinions, hear out
the other side in negotiations. A
work-related romance is possible,
but remember that rather than
adding complications, this month
is about simplifying your life.
STYLE ICON: Cressida Bonas
Taurus
21 APRIL – 21 MAY
It’s a stunning month for your
love life. Nothing less than
your idea of perfection will
do, so things could go deeper
with an ongoing liaison or
move quickly with a new lover.
Friendships may feel less secure,
but stay connected and keep
sight of ambitions during this
intense phase.
STYLE ICON: Amber Heard
Leo
23 JULY – 23 AUGUST
This month is less about what’s
‘out there’ and more about what’s
inside you. You could find more
love within yourself as well as at
home because chez vous is where
love deepens if you detox old
habits and attitudes. Those close
to you could push you to your
limits, but stand your ground,
as clear boundaries are essential.
STYLE ICON: Rose Byrne
Sagittarius
HOROSCOPES
September
23 NOVEMBER – 21 DECEMBER
There’s a new energy about your
career this month, a desire to do
things by the book instead of just
winging it. Put precision into
gear now and soon you could
be the sought-after go-to gal in
your area of expertise. Instead of
rushing into romantic or financial
liaisons, analyse everything
before you commit.
STYLE ICON: Chrissy Teigen
Pisces
19 FEBRUARY – 20 MARCH
A connection could surface that
seems to fit the perfect picture of
a partnership you carry in your
mind’s eye. A realisation that
there’s more to life than money
could unravel you, but friends
will keep you stable. Work on
your big life plans now, so that
by November you’ll be ready
to make them real.
STYLE ICON: Lily Collins
Gemini
22 MAY – 21 JUNE
A sea change in how you live is
in sight. Going from ‘all over the
place’ to ‘a place for everything
and everything in its place’ is
your new mantra. Harmony is
all around, although dithering
over decisions may hold up
progress. A love affair with your
body could lead to a healthier
approach to romance and work.
STYLE ICON: Angelina Jolie
Virgo
24 AUGUST – 22 SEPTEMBER
This is your butterfly moment.
Shake off the old you and start
parading the new, improved
version. Let go of subterfuge and
power struggles, especially over
money or sex, to let the process
flow. As a more stable partnership
scenario emerges, with minds
engaging just as much as bodies,
watch your energy levels soar.
STYLE ICON: Coco Rocha
SEPTEMBER 2018 305
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AGERASIA DAVID AND ISSAK

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IN YOUR ARMS
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BELLE COULEUR
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COO CULTE LANNAH DUNN
Popular European fashion label
Coo Culte has arrived in Australia. Lannah Dunn Fine Jewellery,
With a focus on cocktail and curator of rare antique and vintage

VOGUE AUSTRALIA DIRECTORY

evening wear, Coo Culte garments jewellery; specialists in all
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MAGNOLIA LOUNGE WHY MARY

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EVAS SUNDAY

Eva’s Sunday is an Australian

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SEPTEMBER 2018

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 EYE OF HORUS LUXE LASER AESTHETICS
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LOLA AND LILLY GET INTO FASHION

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LET’S FACE IT HYDE & STONE

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KARRI NATURALS SILK ONLY
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ZEBRANO | FASHION MY TRIBE TYPE

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LIANDRA SWIM
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MEEKA
Australian made organic skincare
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SEPTEMBER 2018

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 L AST PAGE

ART DIREC TION D IJANA MAD D I SO N ST YLING K AI L A MAT TH E WS

PHOTOG R APH EDWAR D U R RUTIA

A L L P R I C E S A P P R OX I M AT E D E TA I L S AT VO G U E .CO M . A U/ W T B
WORDS: ZAR A WONG

Prada shoes, $1,660.

310 SEPTEMBER 2018

“If we support
each other
equally, with
confidence
and passion,
progression
is our only
option.”

Audi Vorsprung durch Technik