As a break from the normal things I post about (behind the scenes etc) I thought I'd look back at one of the biggest and best things that has happened to me over the past year and a half, co creating Fashion Torque, Australia's only live fashion chat show with Jenny Bannister.
Jenny is a legendary Australian fashion designer who has been in the fashion industry for over 35 years, her work has been collected by galleries and museums all over including the NGV in Melbourne, the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra and the Powerhouse in Sydney as well as a few pieces in the Smithsonian in the US not to mention appeared on an Australian stamp! Jenny is now retired from running her fashion design business and is now my co host on Fashion Torque.
Both Jenny and I love to dress up, (Very recently Suzanne Carbone from The Age newspaper called Jenny 'Human dress up box Jenny Bannister') and I suppose we are both not afraid of either colour or people staring!
The below photos are us at our most outrageous and colourful and amuse more than me no end!
This is at the launch party of this years LMFF (L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival)
Jenny very kindly invited me to her fabulous beach house so of course the kaftans had to come out! I think we called this a 'beach meeting'...
I was asked to host a competition event in the city and asked Jenny if she would be my glamorous barrel girl!
A Fashion Torque show early in 2011 we decided to discuss the topic of Androgyny in Fashion, so Jenny of course relished the idea of dressing with a more masculine edge.
A side note: Jenny walked the entire length of Chapel Street shopping strip in Melbourne like this and in her words 'Not a person on the street said a thing!'
Now both Jenny and I see the importance of keeping a high profile when promoting Fashion Torque and we could get no higher than being at this party called 'Mile High Disco' on the 89th Floor of The Eureka Tower in Melbourne! We both love a bit of disco time too!
I snapped this photo of Jenny at the afterparty of our Melbourne Town Hall Show for LMFF in early 2011, I thought it was very Lady Gaga-esque!
This photo above is also during LMFF 2011 when I hosted LMFF TV with my partner Joshua Koko.
I asked Jenny to co host with me the event Mission 65 Fashion in mid 2011 that was a charity fundraiser I co created with my friend and General Manager of Fundraising at Prahran Mission, Erica Myers Davis. It was a 1940's themed event executed by my 3rd Year Whitehouse Institute of Design Styling students.
Well as previously talked of in past posts on this blog I love wearing fur and so in June last year Jenny and I decided to tackle the topic we called 'Doramania- The obsession of owning fur'. We thought we may have had Peta on our door but no not a sniff. We are photographed here with Fashion Editor at The Herald Sun Anna Byrne who told us about her paper's refusal to allow fur into the fashion pages!
A shot of me hosting LMFF TV early 2011
Jenny and I at the Finale Party of Project Runway Australia, wearing a bit more fur!
While not really us doing anything to directly promote Fashion Torque, we did go on holiday to Bali in August 2011 and of course even 'off duty' we still love a dress up and again the kaftans came out, not to mention the hours before leaving for Bali the kaftan creating workshops that ensued at Jenny's home/studio! This is us enjoying a cocktail at the Bulgari Resort in Uluwatu Bali.
And the kaftans continue with me at the W Hotel and Resort in Seminyak
We like all Fashion Torque topics to be as current and relevant as possible and so we discussed the subject of 'New Media' and talked about blogging and online media in depth, one of our guest panelists was Sacha Strebe who is Online Editor for Fashion Exposed and Premier pictured here with Jenny who decided to dress as international teenage blogger Tavi!
There is nothing bigger in Melbourne than Spring Racing Carnival for fashion folk and last year we discussed this at a special show we did at Melbourne Central, our guest panelists were 'Milliner to the Stars' Kerrie Stanley and International Make Up artist and Maybelline NY Make Up Director Nigel Stanislaus, of course all dressed in their best racing outfits!
Our first birthday show was literally a HUGE event supported and sponsored by the City of Melbourne which was held on the stunning Portico Balcony at The Melbourne Town Hall, the Beatles in the 60's had stood here and waved to the masses of teenagers. It was the perfect setting for all of our guests that mostly comprised of the past year's guest panelists!
This is a late night snapshot of Jenny and I at the disco after our good friend designer Gwendolynne Burkin's white themed birthday, this is one of my favourite shots of us both!
Jenny and I judging Fashions on the Field in late 2011
At the launch party of online style portal 'Couturing'
At Government House for the morning tea launch of LMFF 2012
Our most recent show on Fashion Film May 2012, both looking as cinematic as we can!
Fashion Torque is something that continues to grow and grow and I love that not only Jenny and I have the opportunity to play dress ups and let our imagination go wild but hopefully our audience feel they can to.
Fashion Torque is a live fashion forum that is more chat show than seminar with different fashion guest panelists and is held the last Wednesday of every month at 7pm in the Hasti Bala Room at The Carlton Hotel 193 Bourke Street Melbourne.
A huge thank you to our major sponsor The Carlton Hotel and to other great sponsors Ciccone Cosmetics and Acqua Panna Fine Dining Waters.
You can check out more Fashion Torque details and Jenny and my escapades at out Facebook page www.facebook.com/fashiontorqueshow
