Fresh Start

As you all now I have now closed my store! As this is a little sad as it was such a big part of my life, it's also such an exciting new start for me. Connecting with you all of you and leaving a small mark in the industry has been the best experience! In this fast paced fashion industry I thank all of you who have supported me and had my back. 

Thanks to all my stockists for believing in what I do it has been wild stocking at some of the biggest online stores, like Dollskill, Shop Jeen, Mary Jane Nite and also the coolest independent mortar store Distal Phalanx. Also, seeing my designs on such influential girls in the community and fighting against knockoffs by cult jap brand BUBBLES and even Ragged Priest. 

You were with me every step of the way!! It’s been 3 years since I made the bag that started it all and clear hearts are still popping up everywhere. What is original and what can you actually own? Everything is being appropriated constantly in this money driven industry. As I savour the pace of slow hand crafting, commercialism keeps moving which can become a stressful situation which affects my process.  I am just so grateful that whenever some of you see a clear heart design you immediately think of me and send me dms. You have made me feel like I have left my tiny mark in the world. 

Recently I feel that my craft is becoming a little impersonal and commercial. It's time for me to move on and continue to create as my style and aesthetics evolve. I will continue to fulfill any custom orders I'm only a DM away, closing the shop will enable a more personal way to create unique pieces and work closely with my customers. 

For now last items are available only on Dollskill exclusively while some samples and a few listings will be available on my DPOP: @wenopia. 

Constructed Perfection

Editorial live online at Polyesterzine! I worked with my favourites Rose Pophalf and Somewhere Nowhere ft. internet's favourite sweetheart Ellen Sheidlin. 

The Horticulturalist

"Calculating, intuitive and slightly unhinged, she dresses in clinical white and her chunky heels are strictly for soil aeration purposes. Her neighbours often peer over the back fence, catching strange glimpses of shear wielding and poison brewing. The psychotropic weed assassin digs in the garden all day but somehow her fingernails are always clean.

Our greenhouse girl has more knowledge than a shelf full of botany books, a scientific approach to growth patterns and soil acidity and an unnatural attachment to the fruits of her labour. Her long locks turned green from chlorophyll exposure and she kills time pressing native flowers and herbs. If she planted her own hands, they’d probably sprout tulips." (Bianca Blades and Kellie Pembroke).

I thought I'd share some out takes from a shoot I did with the Sargasso Sea girls, a few months ago. You can see the full story here at Haunt Mag which has become my recent favorite source of visual inspiration.

Brisbane babes Bianca Blades and Kellie Pembroke are the duo behind the impeccable visual diary of fashion and media culture. Full of well informed and witty articles on fashion and consumptions as well a plethora of perfectly curated glossy fashion images it's no wonder Sargasso Sea won the 2012 Ultrabook Pedestrian.tv Blogster Awards (where they scored an internship with Vogue Australia in Sydney). It's meeting such motivated creatives that truly make me want to get off my ass and do MORE STUFF!

So when Bianca approached me to be in their next styling and fashion direction project, I was over the moon to be involved. This was a Spring story without the expected aspect of floral overkill, where a fictional fashion character was invented so you could only imaging how much I was loved the concept! We spent a lovely afternoon dressing up in Emily Mcguire's dreamy creations, digging around the West End community gardens!

Hope you liked the images and check out more of their work on Sargasso Sea.

Thrones

Back in June I got the chance to assist costume designer/stylist Billy Heinemann on a shoot he'd been cooking up for a loooong time. Based on a collective obsession with Game of Thrones and the talents of photographer Amelia Dowd, photography assistant Abraham De Souza, makeup artist Billy Weston, hair stylist Natashia Steyn and dancer/performer Josh Cocks, it was rewarding to see Billy's vision actualize! We even got to play with leather harnesses, braces, belts and crystal studded armour/jewelery from Ruby & Prankstar. All the rest was Billy's own clothing or crowns and accessories he'd made.

Being apart of such a 'story' inspired shoot, this was an exciting opportunity for me to create and think outside the box and also to be SUPER organized. I still find that creating and building fashion characters are one of the most playful and intrigueing parts of fashion! We should all do that more often even if it's just to pop down to the shops, don't you think?
 

Now that it's been chosen and published by Papercut Magazine, we can finally show everyone what our little dream team are capable of! All involved were so lovely to work with and super focused, make sure your checkout their pages. Anyway, here are a few of my favourite shots, you can see the rest of them here!

Let me know what you think? Hope you enjoy these. You can probably pick out all the characters that inspired our looks from one of our favourite shows (addictions) too!

Motherly Advice

I have the fondest memories of sporting killer outfits when I was a kid! We're talking head to toe hello kitty, snoopy and tweety outfits, denim suspender dresses and coordinated to the nth degree, creations. Thanks to Mum, my childhood albums were already bursting at the seams with outfit shots (my photo booth takes the load these days). Over the weekend, we managed to cull down the collection to 12 looks over tea and nostalgia resulting in a not so serious interview about her inspirations and styling career. Drop by the Spool Collective blog to read all about it and to find out more about Spool (an exciting new collective I'm apart of)!

What was your best/worst outfit from your younger years?

Chain Chain Chain

Sorry erin, just can't wait till spring 09, made this today! Can't wait till LowLuv comes out...

Chain harness, de-constructed tank/singlet by wends

xwen