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.
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
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