A Fashion Media Whore!

As a continual process I am posting about some of the many projects I have worked on recently and none was more fun or more satisfying creatively than the collaboration between Fashion Torque (Australia's ONLY live fashion chat show I co created & co host with the legendary Jenny Bannister) and talented emerging fashion film maker Hinny Tran. 
So in this post I share with you some of the background imagery of this great experience along with some official film stills as well as the process and thinking behind such a creative undertaking. Please scroll down to the bottom of the post to watch the stylish and hilarious outcome so wonderfully edited and directed by the wonderful Hinny Tran! 

The incomparable and legendary Jenny Bannister

In my role as creative director I challenged Hinny Tran to step out of his comfort zone of dark, moody & minimal fashion films to create something bursting with colour and movement that echoes Jenny and my over the top profile. Hinny more than filled the brief by producing the right balance of both comic fashion scenes with stylish cutting edge snapshots on high fashion models giving a unique international feel that showcased the best of Australian independent fashion and accessories designers in a stylish, lively, colourful and comical fashion film.

Models Olivia & Anissa of London Management wearing Lui Hon 

I asked Jenny if we could use her amazing home to shoot our fashion film in and she very generously said yes, so we went about creating this backdrop to our concept. I wanted to get the look of space and grandeur with a big dose of quirky over the top glamour. 

Model Anissa wearing Neo Dia

Fashion Torque have always supported emerging and established Australian designers from the show’s inception and we like to think we continue to show our support in this stylized high fashion presentation that hints of ‘Absolutely Fabulous’, Jean Paul Gaultier’s 1990’s “Eurotrash’ television show and the most colourful woman in fashion today, Anna Della Russo (well, aside from Jenny) all while making comment on today’s media grabbing fashion set that attend event after event in the hope of being the ultimate ‘Media Whore’.

Model Olivia from London Management wearing Lui Hon alongside the 'Queen of Colour' herself Jenny Bannister!

We were so lucky to find two perfect models that totally got our concept and conveyed a great international feel but still understood the comic style we wanted for the fashion film.  

Jenny doing her best 'Beatnik' impression wearing her own design leather ensemble alongside amazing silver plated actual crocodile foot necklace' by Ott by Lia T

I seem to very 'seriously' wearing a pair of Jenny's vintage sunglasses

The beautiful Anissa of London Management wearing hat by Richard Nylon for Lui Hon and stunning red leather Lui Hon suit with me, again serious!  

A comic clip from our fashion film 

Model Anissa in emerging designer E.R Emslie & Millie Mosca outfit 

In Jenny's stunning vibrant yellow hallway, Jenny looking slightly 'flat'! 

 Anissa modelling Lui Hon top with accessories by the amazing Alexandra Blak in a clip from the film

Jenny wore some of her fabulous archive designs accessorised with her more recent plastic fantastic creations with Courreges headband and vintage sunglasses.

So you were talking about some 'out there' sunglasses?

Myself and Jenny in a shot from the film, Jenny wearing her own design with gold plated actual croc foot neckpiece by Ott by Lia T, both of us wearing Jenny's vintage sunglasses.

The fashion presented in 'Fashion Torque Media Whore' shows Australian designers who have had high profile international and national success. Well respected fashion designers Lui Hon( Harpers Bazaar), Neo Dia (Vogue Italia) along with emerging designers A.R Emslie & Millie Mosca join up with accessories designers Alexandra Blak (Grazia Paris) and OTT by Lia T (Vogue UK) to create a vibrant explosion of current fashion. 

 ‘Fashion Torque Media Whore’ by Hinny Tran

Please check out 'Fashion Torque Media Whore' on YouTube

HUGE thanks to Hinny Tran, Jenny Bannister, Anissa & Olivia of London Management Iain Murton, Narelle Hall, Andrea Plowman and all the amazing designers featured in the film.

AMPR Party Shenanigans...

            Dean Sunshine in 'that' hilarious tee shirt and Jenny Bannister in monochromatic ensemble

With a plethora of Christmas parties last year to experience I thought I'd show you one that I was lucky enough to attend that was a real hoot! The AMPR (PR Agency) Christmas party is always fun and hosted by the co owners Charlie Goldsmith and the stunning soon to be mum again Sarah Gale. AMPR are one of the top fashion PR agencies in Australia with many high profile clients including Australian department store David Jones and the upcoming Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival (VAMFF). I went along with my friend & co host of Fashion Torque Jenny Bannister who executed the dress code ( Monochromatic) with aplomb in her one off Op Art ensemble. 
On arrival Jenny and I saw the outrageous and infamous artist Dean Sunshine in what I thought was the most hysterical tee shirt I'd ever seen ( see pic above), especially in a room full of PR's and bloggers!!!  
Jenny just had to have a photo with him! 

Monochromatic nails, fabric, shoes and accessories on AMPR's Sarah Gale and Jenny Bannister  

The only fashion writer worth following, the legendary Janice Breen Burns of VoxFrock.com.au doing her thing, well on Instagram at least!

Lots of notable folk about town were in attendance that night in quite the jovial mood, you might say raucous!  With the renaming and new major sponsor of the Melbourne Fashion Festival (Virgin Australia) it was a great chance to hear all about the festivals upcoming schedule of events with many of the VAMFF staff at the party including CEO Graeme Lewsey.  

Janice Breen Burns with Graeme Lewsey and Social Set Siren Suzanne Carbone

Always the life of the party milliner and fashion historian (not to mention prankster) Richard Nylon

Janice Breen Burns and Richard Nylon with a change of chapeu! 

Jenny and Moi 'being' monochromatic in a polaroid 

Big thanks to Sarah Gale, Charlie Goldsmith and the whole team from AMPR for a simply marvellous party.

A Greenhouse Fashion Show

Back in late September I was asked to put together (and host) an intimate fashion show by my fab friends John Flower and Michelle Shepherd who are directors of Hothouse Media & Events for their client QV Melbourne. It was to highlight the latest trends and fashion retailers at QV Melbourne for Spring/Summer and take place in the middle of the centre where they would create a beautiful greenhouse full of plants and flowers that evoked the spirit of the Hamptons in New York, designed by Liz from Flower Temple at QV.
When I first saw the space I was blown away, it was beyond beautiful. Liz and her team had created a magical floral greenhouse, perfect for a spring fashion show.
Thinking about sourcing the right outfits to fit this amazing space wasn't difficult as I knew we needed to show lots and lots of bold and wonderful colour. 

I along with my talented assistant Andi went about introducing ourselves to many of the fashion retailers and worked at getting the perfect cross section of all the fashion and footwear available at QV for many spring/summer looks.
As many people know I love vintage clothing and always like to integrate it into any of my projects if suitable. There is a great vintage store in QV called American Rag with a great owner/buyer who has a great eye and so they were Andi and my first stop. I also sourced from many of the other great stores including INCU (lots of great Karen Walker), MNG, Mossman and great shoes from Melissa.  

The lovely Chadwick models looking a little warmer

Come the first day and of course it poured with rain, so much so that our dressing & backstage area was flooded and poor Andi (who was running the backstage for me with about 3 dressers) couldn't start the show, add to that it was freezing cold and the wind had decided to really blow up our skirts!!! Not ideal for a Spring/Summer fashion show in a clear greenhouse with models wearing little summery dresses! 
What to do? Wait? Well yes and then in a strange (but quite normal for Melbourne weather) change the clouds parted and the sun came out and we had a lovely little Spring/Summer fashion show.

The night before our fashion show the great team at Hothouse Media & Events along with the QV Melbourne team created a fantastic opening party with  fashion presentation by fashion designer Jason Grech and Flower Temple for the QV Melbourne Spring/Summer season. 
I attended with one of my closest friends and the Make Up director of my fashion show Narelle Hall, of course there was a celebrity wall!     

The above pic is taken from the amazing Richard Nylon's Instagram showing the very talented stylist and friend Virginia Dowzer, Richard himself, Narelle Hall and myself enjoying a Spring champagne at the opening party. T'was a great night with a great mix of people! 

                                     The stunning Greenhouse at QV Melbourne

With Thanks to #QVMelbourne, #JohnFlower, #MichelleShepherd & #HHME team, #AndreaPlowman, #NarelleHall #ChadwickModels

Jerry Hall - Style Icon

                                                          Jerry Hall and a white jacket

So this is the second day of my relaunch of this blog and as I shared yesterday I want to give you a look at my work life and show you some of the highlights of my recent styling and creative direction projects. The following was not only a year highlight but a career one!

In September I had one of the most exciting styling opportunities, that was to work with the famous fashion icon, actress and model Jerry Hall. This opportunity would not have been possible without the help of a very talented and amazing friend Liza McLean who produced through her production company the theatrical vehicle Jerry Hall was brought to Melbourne for, 'The Graduate'.

I contacted Liza to see the possibility of Jerry wearing an Australian designed dress to the opening night of 'The Graduate'. Initially we didn't think we would have the opportunity to even have a moment with Jerry as her rehearsal schedule was so busy and that she would even want to wear a specific piece designed by an Australian designer. Things were not looking good and I thought this chance may slip away, many times they do with busy actresses and timings let alone the star even wanting too.

Phone calls went back and forth and finally we had a window of time that we could see Jerry only a day or two before the opening, and for an hour tops!  
I'd only mentioned to a few designers that I could be possibly styling Jerry Hall and hadn't even pulled the dresses. I flew into a frenzy of calls with many designer contacts and PR's I knew and managed to get a great selection of designer gowns and dresses I thought would be a perfect representation of Australian fashion design and talent to hopefully wow Jerry.    

                                                             The stunning Jerry Hall

I knew that I needed to include some designs from Melbourne's amazing Toni Maticevski and promptly called my friend Prasana Lee who is the in house Maticevski PR supremo and she told me that Toni would LOVE for the icon of fashion Jerry Hall to wear his designs and we quickly chose a few possible options. The only problem with this was that Prasana and Toni himself were about to leave for Paris in a day or two to show the collection and we couldn't find any actual dresses in Jerry's size at the studio! 
Hair pulling out time! I was envisaging taking about 5 dresses from Toni Maticevski to show Jerry along with nearly another 15 from other Australian designers, you can never have enough in my mind. Also we are talking JERRY HALL here, I HAD TO to get exactly the right dress she would love! The phone call came from Prasana just before jumping on a plane to Paris, 
'Philip we have one dress in Jerry's size!' Double hair pulling out time!
'We'll take it!!!" I said.

                                                               Designer Toni Maticevski

So the fitting time came and I was asked to make it as simple and smooth with the least amount of fuss when going to Jerry's suite at the Crown Towers Hotel accompanied by Liza. Jerry answered the door herself in black skinny jeans and a black knit sweater, no make up and a beaming smile. She was gorgeous and so welcoming, did I say gorgeous? Jerry is 57 and has had 4 children, not to mention being married to Mick Jagger for many years and looks like a woman 20 years younger, she does not look like many women you have seen on television or the movies that have had 'work done' she looks completely natural, beautiful. 
Ever mindful of the limited time we had I lay the gowns and dresses out and started to offer up my preferred choices gathered from all the best Australian designers, including the Toni Maticevski. 
Jerry slipped into many beautiful silk gowns and dresses in wonderful colours, right then I remembered many iconic images of Jerry walking the runways of Europe in YSL, Chanel and Dior back in the early 80's looking stunning as she did in these Australian designs. 
The only problem was Jerry wasn't feeling them, she liked them but didn't think they were right for the opening night of 'The Graduate'. Not what a stylist wants to hear, with a fear that this could all go wrong I grabbed the solitary Toni Maticevski dress (knee length and shorter than the rest) and waited while she tried it on…
In that famous Texan drawl she said 'I love it, this is the one! No hair pulling out!
She stepped out of the dressing area and both Liza and I smiled and agreed it was the one. 
Very happy stylist. 

                                                       The Toni Maticevski dress in the look book

Producer Liza McLean introducing Jerry Hall (in the dress) and the cast of 'The Graduate' at the Opening Night Party

                                                             Designer Alexi Freeman

As a bit of a side note, the day I was to have the fitting with Jerry Hall I was returning some clothing to Melbourne designer Alexi Freeman and I thought I would ask him if he would be interested in giving a piece of his clothing to Jerry Hall, I thought it would be great as a designer to claim someone so famous as a client. Alexi was great and offered up quite a few options which I included in my selection.
In the fitting I brought out one of the pieces Alexi had supplied, a black tulle dress with printed slip. I wasn't sure it was Jerry's style but she jumped at the chance to try it on, she loved it and also loved when I mentioned Alexi was a great emerging designer. It looked fantastic on her and even though she thought the printed slip too short for her she told me that she would give it to her daughter Georgia May Jagger, probably the hottest model in Europe and face of cosmetic company Rimmel. 
Of course when I informed Alexi he was beyond excited to have both Jerry Hall and Georgia May Jagger wearing his creations.
The dress of Alexi Freeman's was from the collection below.  

I thoroughly enjoyed my time styling Jerry Hall and thank her for making the experience so pleasurable as well as a big thank you to Liza McLean for making it possible and for the invitation to opening night of 'The Graduate' and after party. Myself and my date for the night my friend and co host of Fashion Torque Jenny Bannister enjoyed the show immensely and I got to chat with Jerry after the show about the dress and wearing an Australian designer as well as get a few photos with her as you can see. 

                                     
                                                       My date Jenny Bannister and I


With thanks to Liza McLean, Toni Maticevska, Prasana Lee, Alexi Freeman 

A New Year A New Name

PHILIP BOON PRESENTS:
After much thought and inner argument I have decided to re launch my blog with a different title that I think reflects what I have been doing for the last few years but also the path I intend to follow for the future. So now this blog will be called PHILIP BOON PRESENTS: and will showcase my career and many projects both past, present and future. 
I hope you may enjoy seeing some of the life I have been lucky to create for myself in fashion, style and design. I hope to share with you the exciting projects and plans I have for the future as well as some of the behind the scenes experiences I have already brought you in this blogs past incarnation which I will continue to cover. 
So, here we are 2014! I already have a lot of projects that are more than in the planning and working on a lot of other 'like to do' things for the year. 
This year I am personally moving into a new part of my life and I'm excited for the future, we all really need to be thankful for all we already have and the accomplishments we have experienced in our life while learning from those things that haven't worked, its ok to make mistakes and not have everything go our way, it makes us stronger and eventually we move on from them and hopefully grow. So here's to a year of growth and success and even a mistake or two, after all we are all human even those in the supposedly glamorous world of fashion…