Melbourne = Unromantic? Sydney = Derivative? Prove Him Wrong!

If you are not already following The Sartorialist, please at the very least have a good look. Scott Schuman's blog was named by Time Magazine as one of its "Top 100 Design Influencers" and with good reason. He has an amazing talent for photographing street fashion and finding the core essence of his subjects. I love his images and can find inspiration in just about every one of them.

I was therefor, very excited to see that he is currently in Australia as a guest of The Australian Tourism Board at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week and managed to stop in Melbourne for two days.

In an article published on Tuesday he was asked to compare the women of Melbourne and Sydney (*yawn*)..... Clearly the journalistic agenda of the so called "Melbourne/Sydney rivalry" is alive and well. But I shall leave that subject for another rant.

He said Melbourne women had a "very serious" style preferring "over design" along the lines of Comme Des Garcons and Yohji Yamamoto and flats over heels.

"A lot of times they kind of dummy it down a bit and kind of dowdy it down, which to me I don't find that romantic," he said

"Where here [in Sydney] they work out hard, they are beautiful girls and they really play that up. But somewhere in each place there's that difference. Heels and all that don't always make the look."

Read the article in full here.

Now, I don't mean to get defensive about the town I love, or it's gorgeous Harbour City sister, but exactly how much of Melbourne did he see in two days to qualify 'A lot of times..."? Plus the fact that he was quoted after spending one day at RAFW (making that around two days in gorgeous Sydney) suggests that his view is somewhat skewed.

I got the feeling he was saying that essentially, Australian women just aren't put together very well. Yes, we are beautiful, but we lack true sophistication or self awareness of our style.

This Kitten disagrees. A. Great. Deal.

I want you to prove The Sart (as much as I love him) wrong.

In fact, I want you to rush out and capture a photo of yourself or someone who you believe embodies their own sense of style or romanticsim. They don't have to be Australian, but they must be photographed in Australia. Email them to me at vintageverve(at)hotmail.com by Friday 9th May 2008.

Naturally there will be prized awarded. Romantic, stylish, Australian and cutting-edge-cool prizes god damit!

Whew! I worked myself into a bit of a tizz Kittens. Better take a Bex and lie down.

Enter This!

The eternally cool and super stylish Super Kawaii Mama is running the BEST competition this side of the 1960's.

Taking inspiration from the award winning TV drama Mad Men, SKM has put the call out for YOU to send her your very own Mad Men styled outfit.

Set in a Madison Avenue Advertising Agency in the 1960's, Mad Men encapsulated the style, social and political attitudes of the day. It's compulsory viewing, especially for vintage enthusiasts.

More information can be found here.

So get styling and send your photos or video to Super Kawaii Mama before May 4th. I'll show you some of my own submissions at a later date.

And The Winner Is...

Thanks to all those who left me their fashion disaster stories over the last couple of days in response to this post.

As promised, I chose what I thought was the best fashion disaster story. You know what? It was a difficult choice!

There were some of you who wrote about the outfits you are now embarrassed about, but I don't think these were disasters. They were expressions of your influences and those of the times and should therefore be embraced - you were at the forefront of fashion at the time!

Although honourable mention must go to Cat of Impossible Colour, I have awarded Rosey my cute hoop earrings with heart, squiggles and pink details for her true fashion disaster, from which she recovered with true fashionista aplomb:

"When something so wrong becomes so right....

All I knew for sure was the color; I wanted to wear something soft lemon to a x-mas party a couple of years ago. I envisaged a dress; gorgeous, flowing, sexy and a bit quirky, so I raided my cupboard in search of something to work with....(rather something that my miracle-worker dress maker could work with) I came across a fabulous vintage - lemon color - nightie(!) from the 50's that I had bought at Hunters and Gatherers years before.

I took it to my dress maker and asked for an ethereal, flowy yet sexy design and sketched it with lots of arm movements to support my vision. I bought some really good quality silk for the lining and she dutifully worked her magic.

A week later I went back for a fitting and I've got to tell you, I was disappointed. As I took it off in the dressing room I noticed that the lining material and stitching was so immaculate - the inside was perfect!!
I put on the dress inside out and it was STUNNING! In her 30 years as a dress-maker she had never made a dress perfect by turning it inside out! It was a one of a kind dress that stole the show on the night! Moral of the story - yes, buy that fabulous quirky piece, have a good dress maker and always spend money on good quality lining!! "

Congratulations Rosey, these babies are coming your way: