Fashion

Two years ago I walked passed the watches in a Fossil store in the USA and went straight to the casual clothing section and purchased a pair of shorts. I am not a watch person and did not realise that this company, started by two brothers in 1984, grew from a fashion watch company into a world-class lifestyle brand with over 400 stores in 120 countries on four continents. On 2 October 2014, I attended Fossil’s 30^th anniversary, of vintage heritage at Bondi Junction Westfield where I learnt more about the history of these watches and even got given a special edition Fossil men’s watch featuring a vintage graphic on the dial.

Fossil embraces a spirit of freedom and adventure by exploring the infinite possibilities of life on the open road this season, and the bespoke Fossil tin car embodies this. Famous for their tins – every season the designs on the brand’s iconic packaging match back to the inspiration of the collection. Influenced by colourful tins of the 1940s and ’50s, the collectible tins have become a unique way to show off Fossil’s creative graphics while serving as environmentally sustainable packaging.

Guests gathered at the Westfield Bondi Junction activation space near the Fossil store to celebrate 3 decades of the American lifestyle brand, which is ingrained in authentic vintage and classic design. At this event, Fossil unveiled an artwork installation (a Fossil car made from iconic watch tins) that marked 30 years of product innovation and design. Those who attended posed with the Fossil car, in order to receive a custom Instaprint inside the Fossil store.

Channel [V]’s Danny Clayton was the host. Other VIP guests included radio personality and Big Brother 2013 Winner Tim Dormer, Home & Away’s Andrew Morley, Miss World Australia 2013 Erin Holland and this year’s The Bachelor intruder Mary O’Neil.

American-inspired mini hot dogs, southern fried chicken bites and custom cake pops were washed down with drinks served in vintage soda bottles, whilst The Voice’s Alex Gibson provided the perfect acoustic tunes to set the scene for the evening.

The custom-made tin art piece will be held at Westfield Bondi Junction until the 5th of October, before it ‘hits the open road’ and heads to Emporium Melbourne shopping centre on the 9th – 12th October.

Topshop and Topman launched its first every racewear collection on Wednesday 24 September 2014.

The event featured an interview with Kate Waterhouse, daughter of horse trainer Gai Waterhouse. She answered questions about her family’s racing history, her fashion career and her interest in racing fashion. She advised the audience on how to dress for the various days of the Melbourne Cup Carnival and the dos and don’ts of racewear.

She showed the audience (who sat in stools in front of her) a number of race looks she liked for both men and women. My favourite was the dress that Kate Waterhouse was wearing.

Guests were served Seppelt Salinger Vintage Cuvee 2009, Asahi beer, Voss water and treats from Nectarstone. Reelax played the DJ tunes while guests got to shop for their new racewear look. Everyone who purchased something got a wreath of flowers for their hair and a goodie bag.

Topshop may not be a high end luxury fashion label but on 2 October 2012 jockey Chantelle Buckley won $15,000 on the Fashion on the Field competition sponsored by the Iconic at Rosehill Gardens and she was wearing a Topshop dress purchase from Las Vegas that had been lengthened at the bottom with another piece of fabric by her mother. This just goes to show, you can do quite well for less.

I was very excited to attend this ladies luncheon event on Sunday 14 September 2014 at the 5 star Shangri-La Hotel. Not only did it have great views of Sydney Harbour, great food from the hated Altitude Restaurant, millinery on display from the best milliners in NSW and racing fashion from Mackenzie Mode, but my photo was on the invitation of this sold out event.

This event was organised by the queen of racing fashion events, Sharon Lenton, from Thoroughbred Events Australia. She organises two of these ladies luncheons a year: one for spring and the other for autumn. She also runs fashion on the field competitions at country race clubs in NSW.

The event included a two course lunch, a fashion parade with matching millinery, an opportunity to purchase an outfit with matching millinery (or the millinery or clothes separately), an art exhibition by Lysandra, a speech by Clare Hawkes, raffle prizes, and a best dressed competition judged by Christopher Haggarty. The event was MCed by Jamie Rodgers from the TAB.

The highlight of the event was the fashion parade with clothes from Mackenzie Mode. I was impressed with the fashion of MacKenzie Mode. The vibrant colours in her outfits were very appropriate for spring racing. The collection looked very Peter Pilotto, Clover Canyon, and Mary Kantratzou. Canadian born designer Emily MacKenzie lives in Coogee and has a store there. However, she sells clothes all over the world. In the United States, her direct competitor is Clover Canyon. She sat at our table and told me that what I saw in the fashion parade was a very small portion of what she sells. She has other collections including swimwear, casual clothing, coats and her own headpieces.

Clare Hawkes, the 2004 Spring Racing Ambassador, is the daughter of pioneer female jockey, Linda Jones and New Zealand trainer, Alan Jones, Clare is married to Michael Hawkes, the youngest son of Australian Racing Hall of Fame inductee, trainer John Hawkes who trained the 2014 Golden Slipper winner Mossfun (among many other winners). She gave a very humble speech about her experiences growing up with her famous mother (where she thought it was normal for people to have reporters visit their house).

Editor of Men’s Style Report Christopher Haggarty judged the best dressed competition. Alla Dimech won best dressed and former Fox Sports presenter and current Channel Seven producer Christy Johns was runner up. Clare Hawkes got a special mention for her racing attire and was presented with flowers.

The women who attend these events hold off from buying any outfits or millinery beforehand. The general feeling is that you do not want to waste your money buying an outfit when you could find something much better at this events. Then when you arrive at the event, you rush around looking at all the millinery and purchase the best piece before anyone else can. Of course the milliner can take special orders, but you have to wait for it to be made and that could take some time if the milliner has many orders. Some women purchase one headpiece but others purchase many. One lady and daughter team left laughing. They told me that they purchased six hats from milliner Cynthia Jones Bryson and many others from other milliners.

Milliners that were displaying and selling their headpieces included milliner to the stars Neil Grigg, milliner to the Honourable Dame Quentin Bryce Cynthia Jones Bryson (who is also the milliner of my blue headpiece), Carmel Butler, Bev Gunn, Kathleen Watson, Deb Parish, Kerry McGlone and Julie Lynch.

Sponsors included TAB, Sky Racing, Barbara Wenman from La Fleur D’Alyse, Blue Pyrenees, MacKenzie Mode and Lysandra.

If anyone is interested in buying any of the outfits, please contact Thoroughbred Events Australia and they will direct you to the milliner and designer of the outfit you liked.

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