INTERVIEW

STYLE PONY ON STYLESTALKER. Behind the scenes of Australian brand stylestalker...an interview with designer Sue-Ann. 

Have you ever wondered how you actually run a creative business? I know I have, so I decided to ask the gorgeous Sue-Ann, one half of stylestalker, a few questions about what happens behind closed doors at stylestalker HQ. 

1. What are your backgrounds? What path led you to establishing the stylestalker brand? Rachel and I come from a marketing background. We were working together at an Ad agency and found we were spending all our time on blogs. We've always loved clothes so when we couldn't find what we wanted to buy, we decided to make it. 

2. What does creating and designing for a fashion brand involve? I'm interested in mundane and amazing! 

1. Inspiration

2. Research. 

3. Fabric and trim sourcing (china)

4. Designing (the hardest part is culling cause we always have a billion ideas). 

5. Getting the samples done and getting stuff made. 

3. You have an active online presence with your blog, twitter, Facebook and lookbook accounts. Is this the main way you market your brand?

We are incredibly passionate about online and stylestalker started as a small online store. We find that this medium of communication is relevant and engaging to us and our customers. We also do PR for offline presence as well. 

4. You create campaigns with some fantastic Australian models. At what stage of crewing a collection do you decide on the model? Does this influence or inspire the designs in any way?

Of course! Every collection has a muse, a girl who embodies the kind of girl we're designing for. Our models strongly reflect that. 

5. Stylestalker seems to have come so far since its inception. What has been the most exciting moment so far? What goals do you have for the brand in the next five years?

Being able to afford staff members has been a massive highlight! Also, seeing our stuff in Selfridges, David Jones and on celebs like Sienna Miller. Over the next five years we want to keep doing what we're doing, making cool stuff that people want to buy and keep having fun. 

Thanks so much Sue-Ann, very insightful. Keep doing what you are doing! x

EVENTS

CHRISTMAS 2011. Present wrapping and photoshop woes. 

My photoshop has stopped working and my internet is being temperamental. The past few days can only be described as a total nightmare. It has caused me to want to go back to the basics of scissors, glue, sticky-tape and pens. 

Anyway....Christmas. 

I adore wrapping (and planning how I will wrap) my Christmas presents. Almost as much as I used to enjoy planning and contact papering my school books each year. Did anyone else spend their whole summer holidays thinking about that? For Christmas 2011, my first Christmas in my own house, I found this spotty hot pink tulle from Lincraft (pink is an official Christmas colour in my book by the way). Thought it would look amazing as Christmas present ribbon. 

Exhibit A shows the tulle paired with brown paper that I seem to have hanging around in excess and a silver tree decoration I poached from my mum. 

Exhibit B features silver cellophane. So effective. So cheap. Find at your closest $2 shop. I would even go as far as saying this silver cellophane looks better on odd, uneven shapes (rather then the crisp, even square shapes wrapping paper usually loves). Brilliant stuff. 

So I am actually devastated about photoshop. Because even though I'm not a pro at it, I could make the above photos look a little better, and be the right size. So sad.
I suppose I will have to get over it though.

x

PATTERN

KITCHENAID STAND MIXER. A life changing decision. 

I have been instructed by my maid of honour to choose which colour Kitchenaid I like best, so I can only assume she is organising one as my wedding present. This may seem like a simple task, but in fact, it is highly stressful. I will be with this Kitchenaid for the rest of my life, choosing the right colour is almost as critical as choosing the right husband. I was going to be sensible and grown up and go with a white or silver, but now I'm thinking of following my heart and getting the pink. Or maybe pistachio. 

collage by me. 

EVENTS

WUNDER PLANT. Unique and unexpected floral arrangements by Amy Wright. 

The gorgeous creations above, created by Wunder Plant, are for a wedding at The Prince Deck. Like many other fantastic Melbourne creative people/companies, I found out about Wunder Plant through The Design Files. I will definitely be stopping by A Shop Called Milton where each Saturday Amy sells $10 posies made up of whatever takes her fancy at the markets that morning. Exciting! It's like a lucky dip! 

CHATS

MY GOODNESS! It's been too long. 

The problem is, the Spring Racing Carnival feels like the beginning of the end. The end of the routines and the working year, and the start of summer, christmas and parties. Shocking that I think this I know, I'm trying to get over it...such a bad habit. First step, resume regular posts here. I have become obsessed with Christmas and christmas decorating, and the wedding planning has reached the critical MUST make decisions NOW stage, so I have entertaining on my mind. When things as dire as decorating dilemmas or entertaining predicaments are on my mind, I like to share it here on Style Pony, it clears my mind and helps me make the best decisions. So brace yourself for some fantastic posts. 

xx 

FASHION

SPRING RACING CONUNDRUM. With Derby day only three sleeps away, and no outfit organised, I had a serious fashion crisis. That is, until I saw these gorgeous 1920's dresses at LEONARD JOEL. 

CRISIS AVERTED.  

If, of course, I decide which dress I like the best and IF I win the auction tomorrow. Leonard Joel also has the most amazing fascinators and hats at the moment. I went down there today and tried them all on, my favourite being the one shown above. They are SO much better and less expensive (if they sell in the estimated price range) then anything half decent you could buy new. 

Of course, there is still my grand plan of making a fresh floral headpiece. I asked Flowers Vasette what flowers they would recommend..."we recommend orchids, phalaenopsis, cymbidiums or vandas as being the lustiest lasers. Roses are really hardy too!". I might save this for Stakes day. 

FASHION

SOMETHING ELSE FROM SOMETHING ELSE. 

While re-reading Russh October/November 2011 last night, I came across a little interview with the people behind the Something Else /Ken Done collaboration.

The creators of the dress I raved about:
Natalie Wood (Something Else designer)
George Barnes (Something Else in-house artist)
Ken Done

The Russh interview:

What is your favourite piece from the the collection?

Ken Done: I love them all but I particularly enjoyed the Kaleidadone Kimono. Maybe I could wear one swanning around the studio?

What was your desire in reinterpreting the works?

George Barnes: To keep the essence of what Ken Done is in my eyes - which is fun, joyful, carefree art, rich in colour and texture. I wanted to adapt these characteristics into my work, for each design to look as good as I could make them. Hopefully it appeals to the generation that grew up with a piece of Done and to the generation about to discover his work!

Why did you approach Ken Done to do a collaboration?

Natalie Wood: We wanted to do a really fun collaboration for summer. We already had a theme, which was about this marine girl superhero character who protects all the coral reefs and sea creatures. So we were already looking at beautiful coral pictures... then we chatted about what sort of artist could work with that theme, and the Ken Done name came up. It was pretty instant that it would be such an amazing collaboration. He is a true icon in Australia so we thought we would launch the first of a series of high profile collaborations on homegrown soil. I also really liked the nostalgic feel to the project; it really stirred something inside people and there was a lot of reminiscing. I was really quite starstruck when I first met him, and to find ourselves in the midst of the Ken Done archives was truly magical. His reef series paintings that he personally showed me through took my breath away.