That's So New York - Just a couple of days ago I was once again doing what I do best; searching the internet along with various boutiques for some new up-and-coming talent which I could then voice my opinion over and ramble on about via a post, and you may have guessed, I'm now doing just that. I seem to be a little behind when it comes to new features on various Online-Stores which seem to be popping up all over the place; I assume that is why I only discovered the ASOS Marketplace around a week or so ago and along with it, Australian Designer Kelly Love. I went ahead and flicked through some of Kelly's work and my first impression was "not too shabby" yet when I finally got around to clicking over to her official website and taking a glance over her Fall/Winter 2011 collection which she had exotically titled Song of the Rainbird I have to say that I felt overwhelmed with confusion along with various thoughts which pondered something along the lines of "what is going on here? why on earth is this designers work not plastered all over Vogue and Elle? Why is she only retailing on around three different Online-Boutiques? Why oh WHY does she only have three or four press pieces?" and I was simply completely taken back by the fact that her work was more than impressive, yet her press numbers were simply not showing it; what on earth does the world of fashion want if not a talented designer who has a fantastic eye for unique prints and classy cuts, followed by a fantastic collection of campaign images?
I went ahead and emailed Kelly in relation to my Online-Store as my initial thoughts screamed "PERFECT!" and I have to say that I was just a little excited when she emailed me back, thanking me for my compliments towards her work and lastly told me that she would be very interested in retailing on the store; my reaction? well, it went something along the lines of "YES! YES! YES!" followed by a slightly camp applaud of "yay me!" (now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that things continue to move forward and with any luck, we will be seeing the works of Kelly Love gracing the Online-Boutique come this August/September.)
Okay, moving onto some of the basic background information in regards to Kelly; because I'm not entirely familiar with her background and life as a designer, as pure usual I couldn't resist heading over to her About page; later clicking thecopy option, followed by a swift click of the paste button. Here's what the caption had to say, in terms of an introduction ... "Kelly Love is an Australian fashion designer with a label in her own name. The signature behind the label is a tribute to feminism, old world glamour and love in the purest form." Okay, sounds pretty basic, right? (those were my initial thoughts at least) but who would have thought that she would have spent time studying and working in Japan alongside some dandy designers? obviously, not me. Following the basic introduction was a small paragraph which read "The romantic notion of owning a fashion label was instilled during days living in Japan working with Japanese fashion designer, Sin Nakamayal. Returning to Sydney, Kelly studied fashion at KVB Institute of Technology. During this time the industry was explored by work placements with Akira Isogawa, Charlie Brown and Fleur Wood. Soon after completing her studies Kelly began working for the prestigious couture label Baccini and Hill." okay, slightly more impressive, right? To clarify (simply because Kelly seems to be quite the traveller) Love is now living in London where her label is also now based.
Woah, I've been really pulling out the talent of rambling, haven't I? Moving on to the actual topic of this post which is Kelly's Fall/Winter 2011 collection, titled Song of the Rainbird (which I briefly mentioned earlier) and has been captioned as being "made up of 1960s inspired pieces in sumptuous sandwash silk with exclusive hand-painted prints, unique painted fur, light weight suede and felted wool." hang on a second, 1960s? right, finally an excuse for me to ramble on about vintage features which you otherwise may have thought "does this guy ever friggin stop?" in regards to.
These are just a handful of the garments which grabbed my attention at first; I think that these are some of the only pieces in the collection which quite clearly present various techniques and simple prints which we could easily relate to the work of various japanese designers; the prints especially seem to follow a kimono-type style along with the use of silk, whilst the .. (Continue Reading)
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