By Jenna Clarke
WA, the state fast gaining a reputation for high-visibility vests and deep pockets kicked of its 13th annual Fashion Festival yesterday.
While most 13-year-olds deal with teenage angst and bad skin, Perth Fashion Festival has skipped puberty and blossomed into a beautiful swan with the face of a supermodel.
WA-born, New York-based model, actress and jewellery designer Nicole Trunfio is this year’s festival ambassador. If she is not too busy holidaying with Richard Branson on Lake Como or dominating the catwalks in Milan, she may be front row with other WA bombshells including Jessica Gomes and Tiah Eckhart at some of the 40 scheduled events.
For the first time, the seven-day PFF will include designers who hail from across the Nullarbor. Sydney-based designers Yeojin Bae and Magdalena Velevska will showcase their spring/summer wares for 2011 after last night's glitzy opening extravaganza by couture king Aurelio Costarella.
This was the first time Costarella, renowned for his dreamy gowns and taut tailoring, has shown at PFF.
Organisers ensured his presentation of the spring/summer 2011/12 collection, Illumina, was a showstopper, with a strict invite only policy and (almost unheard of for fashion shows) a tight dress code. The West-set, of course, responded with splendour at the St Georges Terrace (Perth’s answer to Wall Street) venue.
Bae will follow tonight with her sexy, Parisian inspired Premiere collection which will be shown at the Western Australian Museum among the dinosaur fossils which call the heritage-listed building home.
Perth’s sunny weather and healthy appetite for fashion has encouraged Bae to head west and make hay while the sun shines.
“Perth has a really exciting mix of local and international brands available in the city, it’s fast becoming a fashion destination with savvy shoppers,” she said.
“I really enjoy how these festivals engage directly with the consumer and we have a very good existing Yeojin Bae clientele in Perth which we hope to increase.”
After the week long festival of capsule shows, fashion blog photography classes, film screenings, shoe parades and pop up vintage stores, fashion diehards will return to the Western Australian Museum on Sunday, September 25 as Magdelena Velevska makes her Perth debut.
Velevska will send models down the catwalk in her trademark structural creations to teach Sandgropers a thing or two about the summer 2011 look, where colour blocking, neon brights and androgynous silhouettes reign supreme.
Rounding out the festival will be Perth’s own rockstar Melanie Greensmith, whose vargas-girl inspired label Wheels & Dollbaby will celebrate its 25th anniversary on Tuesday, September 27.
Greensmith, who is married to Divinyls guitarist Mark McEntee, will close the festival with a dramatic, musical homage to her label at the historic His Majesty’s Theatre.
Little Birdy front woman Katy Steele will perform as will McEntee and Primal Scream’s Paul Mulreany.
“The show will be very theatrical with lots of fun and a bit of history,” she said.
“There will be lots of music. It’s more of a show than a fashion show.”
Details of the after-party have been kept under wraps, probably to ensure Courtney Love doesn’t drop in unexpectedly to try on knickers and flip off photographers like she did recently at the brand's flagship Crown Street boutique.
Other rumoured guests who may be watching or walking on the catwalk include former supermodel Jerry Hall, Blondie frontwoman Deborah Harry and ex-Spice Girl Mel B.
“They could be here but Perth’s a very long way,” Greensmith laughed, relaxed after a short break in southern France.
Greensmith's new collection, La Pin Up Deshabillable, is said to be a departure from Wheels & Dollbaby’s trademark leopard print and tulle with Greensmith describing the spring/summer looks as “a little bit softer and more refined”.
Each night after the shows, models, guests and the 136 designers will retire to the official Fashion Bar at the Court Hotel to continue air-kissing, celebrating and quaffing Champagne.
They don’t call it the wild and wonderful west for nothing.
For the full schedule check out the Perth Fashion Festival website.