The best thing about
fashion week is not the late nights, the endless domestic sparkling white wine, the posing in borrowed imported clothes or the goody bags packed with hair products. It's meeting the lovely creative people who make the whole thing happen.
I was sitting under a dinosaur at the Incu museum party, unsuccesfully chatting up a striking Japanese photographer when I met the girls who did the accessories for the
Antipodium show. Bonzai! Amber Joy and Ebony Fleur coat flowers, toy rats and more in high-sheen latex and swathe them with chains to create macabre and elegant jewels under the name
Make Believe.
Antipodium runway
Ebony said they had been plotting ways to take over the world together
for a while, and only recently worked out they could do it via
jewellery. Ebony brushed up on her latexing skills with a Melbourne
lightmaker so when their mate Geoffrey Finch called to say 'hey, do the
accessories for the Antipodium
RAFW show' they were ready to roll.
Their pieces in the antipodium show included a Moxi necklace, giant latex rose shoulder pieces and loops and lengths of chain.
Next day I went to see them and their moggy at home in Wowoughby (commonly known as Willoughby), to see how they do it.
In a tiny little room at the back of the house (commonly known as a laundry) Ebony was painting flowers with the special goop. Out on a table overlooking their massive garden, Amber and mog assemble the pieces.
Ebony at work
Amber and mog
Now they're selling pieces here and in Japan, where they used to live. They've also knocked out a dance track for the Japanese market that Ebony's record producer boyfriend is pushing on his label
Lindatune. Their talent doesn't stop. They also make really nice ANZAC biscuits, or can at least deftly get them out of a packet while you're not looking.
Photos: Penylane