THE DIARY
Something new ... the bold and innovative local fashion label Romance Was Born. Photo: Getty Images
Dogged by controversy, including a lack of designers and management issues, Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Australia is set to start afresh this autumn, upping the ante with an earlier date, interactive technology and a new venue.
Brother and sister designers Camilla and Marc Freeman will open the five-day showcase at Carriageworks in Eveleigh.
Returning after a two-year hiatus on April 8 is red-carpet favourite Alex Perry, who is expected to unveil a new youth line. Designers Toni Maticevski, Ginger & Smart, Romance Was Born,Alice McCall, Manning Cartell and Lisa Ho will be showing alongside Aurelio Costarella's collection marking 30 years in the business.
Back for more ... We Are Handsome. Photo: Anthony Johnson
Moving the event forward a month will tackle the geographic and seasonal challenges the local industry faces. ''It's about reinvigoration,'' said IMG's Jarrad Clark, who says there has been a positive response by e-tailers.
For some, the move has come too late, with the Zimmermann label heading offshore after 16 years at Sydney's fashion week.
Back for the all-important second year is We Are Handsome, a label that has blossomed following celebrity endorsement by British singers Rhianna and Rita Ora, and model Lily Cole.
Pioneers ... from left, Melissa Gibson, Julie McCrossin and Ron Austin.
On parade after the big trek
Walking 30 kilometres through the night, buffeted by gale-force winds is no mean feat - especially when followed, just hours later, with a starring role in Mardi Gras. Julie McCrossin completed a stint of this year's blustery Coastrek on Saturday morning before before her work for Sydney's LGBTI community was recognised at the annual street carnival.
''It was wild below Strickland House in Vaucluse, it was challenging, but there was still an atmosphere of buoyancy,'' says the gay rights campaigner and Good News Week stalwart, who was joined by Jody Broun, co-chairwoman of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, as part of the 4Health team. The ABC's Linda Mottram completed the 50 kilometre walk, while Senator John Faulkner, who guided blind trekker Ben Phillips for the length of the 100-kilometre walk, was last to cross the finish line, cheered on by Gabi Hollows, wife of Fred whose eponymous charity benefits from the event. This year the walk, which runs from Palm Beach to Coogee, has so far raised $1.7 million, with women making up 90 per cent of its participants.
Social media frenzy ... Dan and Matt Rule.
On Saturday evening, McCrossin joined 84-year-old Ron Austin, a ''quiet, dignified'' force behind gay rights, in an open-top car, one of the lead vehicles in the Mardi Gras procession. Austin is part of the group who started Mardi Gras 35 years ago - the '''78ers'' - and is credited with shifting the emphasis from protest to celebration. That first year, 53 people were arrested, their names and addresses published by the Herald the following day. All charges were later dropped.
''An idea can change everything,'' says a reflective McCrossin. ''It was deeply moving, one of the most special experiences of my life. As we moved quite slowly up Oxford Street, people were yelling out 'thank you, thank you'. I've been to every Mardi Gras and there was a gentleness about this one - you really felt there was a recognition that these old people had done something a bit brave.''
At Taylor Square, Olympics ceremony organiser Ignatius Jones led two young people from the Wear It Purple organisation as they raised a rainbow flag in Austin and McCrossin's honour. ''It was a handover to the next generation. It was emotional, people were crying,'' McCrossin says. As for any partying, the day eventually caught up with Austin, McCrossin and her partner, Melissa Gibson. ''The chiefs of parade got out of their convertible, got into a taxi and went home,'' she says.
Col James ... a legacy in Redfern.
Pub talk just as colourful as ever
The inner west is buzzing with former publican Matt Rule's Facebook spray over his old pub, the Annandale Hotel. Taking aim at Leichhardt council in language we can't possibly use here, he objects to the Annandale's receivers Ferrier Hodgson now being invited to apply for a late-night licence, something he says council resisted granting him and his brother Daniel for years. Recently, there's been nothing but love for the hotel with Labor mayor Darcy Byrne and Greens MP Jamie Parker campaigning to keep it open. Byrne says that in 2005, as a councillor Parker voted against longer hours for the pub. Parker says a Liberal and Labor-led council forced the venue to seek legal action, while he approved its application soon after becoming mayor in 2008. Rule tells The Diary his spray isn't directed at either man. ''He has changed his tune in the last few years,'' Rule said of Parker.
Farewell to James, hero architect
Australian architecture royalty was out in force on Saturday to remember Col James, architect and champion for Aboriginal housing.
A crowd of friends, family, students, colleagues and indigenous affairs figures walked from the corner of Darlington's Shepherd and Abercrombie streets, accompanying the funeral hearse to the Block in Everleigh Street, Redfern, where James' work made such a lasting impact.
Architects Ric Leplastrier, Glenn Murcutt, Mick Mundine, Paul Pholeros and Peter Stutchbury listened to federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek at the Redfern Community Centre as she honoured the man who was once called ''the Fred Hollows of architecture'' for giving students the ability to see with fresh eyes.
Architect and Redfern resident Genevieve Murray says: ''Hearing the stories of indigenous Redfern residents talking about the impact Col's work had on their sense of self, place and community brought tears to my eyes.''
STAY IN TOUCH . . .
HIGH STAKES AT REVAMPED CLUB
If walls could talk, the Bourbon and Beefsteak's might have been called as a witness to some of Sydney's less-salubrious court cases. Opened in 1967 for soldiers on R&R from the Vietnam War, the colourful King Cross bar has hosted everyone from villains to celebrities.
For Sydneysiders of a certain age, a visit to the cavernous Bourbon was a rite of passage. With a 24-hour licence, it was one of the few places you could drink after midnight. ''It was the place of last resort,'' says one fond drinker, ''you went to Taxi Club, then Barons, then on to Bourbon and Beefsteak for huevos rancheros and a Bloody Mary.''
Original owner, Texan-born Bernie Houghton, knew how to throw a party and patrons included former rugby league star Johnny Raper, cricketer Ricky Ponting (who probably wishes he never went, emerging with a black eye and no recollection of how it happened), Hollywood's Gregory Peck, pictured below, and actor Lee Marvin. Leo Schofield described it as ''shamelessly low-life''. Few would likely disagree. Now, it's losing the ''Beefsteak'', and will open on Tuesday night as jazz venue The Bourbon. But will the glossy incarnation answer to the infamous ''oversexed, overpaid, over here'' sailors' cry?
ABBOTT'S TRIP TO THE WEST
Rooty Hill may be all about PM Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and the Novotel - for this week, at least - but Margie Abbott did her bit for the invasion of the west on Sunday with a 45-kilometre bike ride from the city to Parramatta. Completing the Gear Up Girl course by 11am, the Opposition Leader's wife delved into the family Lycra chest in aid of The Kids' Cancer Project. Abbott rode with 600 other women, including Paralympian Jayme Richardson, Olympian Katherine Bates, NSW Greens senator Lee Rhiannon and Julie Owens, federal MP for Parramatta. ''Cycling is surely a much better way than driving to see some of the sites of western Sydney like Homebush,'' Abbott (pictured) says. The significance of the date and location was not lost on the Libs camp, nor on The Diary, which was given no comment from team Abbott as to the poetic timing of the event.
FOLLOWERS OF FASHION
If a litmus test for Aussie fashion's reception on the world stage were needed, let Phaidon's tome, Pattern: 100 Fashion Designers, 10 Curators, be it. The book holds a wodge of glittering CVs, selected by a panel that includes 16-year-old blogger-turned-editor Tavi Gevinson crammed into its artfully edgy pages, with Australia represented by Romance Was Born, Dion Lee and Josh Goot. No mention of luminaries such as Zimmermann, Collette Dinnigan or Carla Zampatti - this is all about designs that are ''stalked'' by Lady Gaga. ''Equipped for globetrotting'' with its own carry bag, the hefty 424-page hardback is guaranteed to tip your baggage over the limit.
ddumas@smh.com.au
Twitter: @daisydumas
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