Miami Horror Stage Costumes

I was commissioned to create the band Miami Horror's stage costumes for their gig tomorrow night at the Falls Festival in Lorne. They are doing the New Years countdown so they have to look amazing. The thing is I was kinda told about it yesterday, ha. Well that's not exactly true I had known about it for a while as I styled some of their press images a couple of months ago and we talked about it then but then it wasn't spoken about again till yesterday. Anyway the important thing is I got it done, I stayed up till 3am cutting and sewing and am exhausted now, but its done and looks amazing! They wanted sort of a grungey nomadic look with references to nature, so to me that meant fur, feathers and fimo, ha.


Black t-shirt with cut outs (such a simple technique for such an effective look don't you think?) and white fimo triangle necklace for the guitarist.


Black faux fur cape with faux fur fox tail shoulder detail, a shredded t-shirt (that takes fucking forever to do people!) and a brown fimo necklace for Ben the keyboardist.


Black t-shirt with feather shoulders and a woollen feather neckpiece for the lead singer. The drummer is going to wear his own t-shirt, a fimo necklace and a faux fur fox tail attached at the side of his jeans.


Fimo is amazing! I really like that they look like primative cave men jewellery. All you do is mold the fimo to the shape you want and then bake it for 30 minutes so essentially it is shape and bake jewellery, awesome.

Ben just came and picked up the clothes and he loved it, yay! He said he didn't think I could do it in time but I did and he doesn't know anyone else who can do that and do it so well, so yay what a complement. Unfortunatly I'm not going to Falls so I wont get to see the costumes up on stage but I'm getting photos of it which I will post on here ASAP. If any of my readers are going can you please take photos and send them to me? Thanks xxx


Here are some behind the scenes shots of me at work on the shoot we did for their press images. The denim vest I am putting on Ben is from Comeback Kid. Behind me is the record company exec who flew down from Sydney to oversee the shoot which was stressful. I had never styled a band before and perhaps I did come at it in a very fashion-y way. It was kinda funny as I brought what I thought were kinda regular normal clothes, well apparently macrame vests aren't normal, ha. We pulled it together in the end, getting some "out there" shots and some regular normal band shots too. The band who wanted the crazy stuff was happy, the record exec who wanted the normal stuff was happy and I was just plain exhausted, ha.


I love that sculpture at Mia, the photographers mums house. Perfect location.


The black t-shirts and macrame vest were from Trimapee, the cream t-shirts and vests were from Kirrily Johnston and the rope accessories by Leo Greenfield.

Merry Christmas

Angela See, Angela Blog sent me this sweet drawing for Christmas. It's a pretty good likeness, me with my camera in hand and a floral dress. Thanks Angela, I wish you a Merry Christmas too, xoxo.

I hope all my readers have a fantastic Christmas, you have made my year so wonderful I love reading all your comments! You deserve to get exactly what you want for Christmas. All I want for Christmas is cold hard cash, ha, sometimes I can be so vulgar.

Lunar Mare

I have loved Estelle Deve's jewellery for a while, using pieces from her first collection in shoots and I have been lusting after her new collection ever since she sent me the first proofs of her lookbook months ago. Well Estelle had a market stall at the Craft Hatch market at the State Library over the weekend and I headed down to hang out and to see the pieces in person.


Estelle wearing the Smythii necklace. By the way Estelle if your reading, this photo was the best one but if you don't like it I will take it down.






Some pieces from her first collection were on sale too.


Me wearing the piece I want (Henry are you reading???) the Somni necklace. I must say at the craft hatch market her jewellery was definitely the most innovative and interesting. I'm starting to really feel that buying or showcasing locally hand crafted but not neccesarily "crafty" work is going to be my thing from now on. i just am not interested in the latest from Europe when we have so much talent here. Estelle is someone to watch, she is going places for sure. Estelle excitedly told me that Incu in Sydney have picked up the collection which is amazing news.




Estelle Deve Jewellery

Adam & Eve + TV studio SALE

Here are some behind the scenes photos from a shoot I worked on yesterday, yes yesterday in the 40 degree heat, outdoors! The theme was animals in the jungle and we had to showcase the beautiful new range of animalistic/african inspired jewellery by Airdrie Makim from Joolz. So instead of clothes I had the models wear leaves, vines, feathers and not to mention fake and real flowers too.




The vine leaves from the ground made a perfect belt to cover the white tape, inventive!


The photographer was Natasha aka She is Frank, whose work I have admired for a while, you have to check out her portfolio its stunning.


Russh magazine inspired nudity.


Just as Shirlene stood up a car came, luckily our lovely assistant for the day Cathy was nearby with a sarong.




The team minus 2 people, from left to right, Cathy, Me, Shirlene, Iskra and Natasha.

Photographer: She is Frank
Models: Naomi Kissiedu, Iskra Galic & Shirlene Lai (GIANT Model Management) You may recognise them as the models from season 2 of Project Runway Australia.
Stylist: Me
Makeup Artist: Megan Harrison
Assistant: Cathy Sison
Accessories: Joolz
Behind the scenes photos by: Airdrie (I forgot my camera)

In other news TV is having a studio sale starting from today!

Thurs 17th - Sat 19th 10am-6pm
Floor 1, 358 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne.

I totally read the flyer wrong and thought it started on Saturday and was ready to be first in, oops, better head down soon I think.

Swensk Window's Revealed

The window at Swensk was unveiled on Saturday after much hard work on everyone involved's behalf. I would like to thank Jane and Mats at Swensk for offering me the opportunity to create the window, it was a great learning experience. Special thanks to Viktor for being an amazing photographer, perfectly capturing the mood and essence of what I had in mind and at such short notice. The models too were perfect, thanks so much Jemma, Angus and Matt you all really got into character perfectly portraying the anguished love triangle from Ingmar Bergman's Summer with Monika.

The idea was to create a window that reflected upon both Swensk's Sweedish ties and also the stores modern simplistic clothes and even if I do say so myself, I think I did just that. The film, Summer with Monika, is an iconic Sweedish movie, and we were able to draw from its moody imagery to create a dynamic retail window installation. The styling is a departure from my usual crazy over the top work, (see here for evidence) but I think it finally proves that I am able to meet breifs, work within budgets and most importantly it showcases my diversity as a stylist.

To see more images from the shoot and where they match up in the movie please visit here.

Ingmar Berman will never go out of fashion by Hayley Hughes will be on display at Swensk until 26-12-09.


The small gathering at the store on Saturday was fun.


Talking about the window with friends.


Enjoying the mulled wine and lucia buns that Jane prepared for Saint Lucia day.



I wore my early Christmas present from Henry, the yellow dress from Gorman that I have wanted for nearly 4 months! It finally went on sale at their Richmond clearance store (down from $250 to $125) but I had no money, que Henry to the rescue, yay! I know my outfit is very similar to my last outfit post, just a different dress, but I do have an idea on how to wear this dress in a different way so expect to see that soon.

Ingmar Bergman will never go out of fashion

The "secret project" I have been working on for the store Swensk can finally be revealed.

Ingmar Bergman will never go out of fashion by Hayley Hughes, a window installation at Swensk will open tomorrow Saturday, 12th December. I will be in store from 1-3pm to answer questions and chat about the work, so please come down.



Swensk commissioned me to create the window display for their store using the brief “Interesting people never go out of fashion”.

"Choosing one of Sweden’s most influential writer, director and producer's of all time, Ingmar Bergman, Hayley Hughes has taken a contemporary approach to one of his greatest pieces of work. Sommaren med Monika (Summer with Monika).

Initially drawn by his renegade attitude to directing and the controversy which surrounded the release of Sommaren med Monika, Hayley was inspired by the film’s take on adventure, love and responsibility.

Working with Melbourne based Swedish fashion photographer Viktor Nilsson, the two have re-created and captured the mood, intensity and love triangle from the 1953 film. Swensk is excited to invite you to visit this window display this Saturday, 12th December. Both Hayley Hughes and Viktor Nilsson will be in store from 1pm-3pm if you wish to meet them and talk to them about the project.

Also, this weekend marks St Lucia Day, we welcome you to come past and have some warm wine and St Lucian Bun with us in store."

Swensk is located at: Shop 1, 230 Little Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000‎
Google Map

Hope to see you there, xoxo

Drum roll please, and the winner is

Shardette who wrote:
"I would take on the Kaiser, that's right Monsieur Karl Lagerfeld. But because he such a heavy weight, Daphne Guinness and I would tag team.
We would win with 'those' Alexander McQueen alien boots and head-to-to Chanel. We would also out ring Lagerfeld's enormous collection of rings he wears by blinding him with bling rings from Deadly Ponies.
KA-POW!
Shardette + Daphne Guinness vs. Karl Lagerfeld"

has won the awesome Pete Versus Toby t-shirt + singlet with her awesome idea of tag teaming with Daphne Guinness in a fight against fashion's ultimate king Karl Lagerfeld.
Shardette if you could please email me your address I will send out the prize pack right away.

Thanks to everyone who entered, choosing a winner was very very very difficult.

xoxo

Home again home again jiggity jig

While I had a blast in Sydney, it is so good to be back home in Melbourne. I missed Henry, Ebony, Hachiko and the laneways so much. Thanks so much to everyone in Sydney who showed me around and to all the readers who said hi. My trip was memoriable to say the least and I do have 1 more Sydney trip post to come. Meanwhile I'm loving my new dress, purchased at Incu presents Topshop in Paddington, Sydney. I wore it around Melb town to many compliments yesterday.

What I am wearing:
Dress: Incu presents Topshop $80
Hat: Savers $3
Necklace: Make Believe gift
Bangle: Ishka $10
Sandals: Target $14 on sale
Fringed Bag: Gift from my mum

I know I hardly ever do outfit posts anymore, but that is going to change. You can expect more to come from now on. The reason why there have been so few is because every outfit photo is such a drama to get done, it nearly ends in divorce, ha. The above photo was suprisingly drama free, I think Henry missed me while I was gone and he was less stroppy than normal. Boys are funny things aren't they? I'm going to invest in a tripod so he no longer has to help, its about time isn't it? I look a lot better too when I'm not mid fighting while getting my photo taken, ha.

The winner of the Pete Versus Toby competition will be announced tomorrow at 12 noon, so there is still time to get your entries in xoxo

An open letter re: The Dove Incident

OMG I did not kill the birds myself people. Please stop harassing me! I did everything I could reasonably do. The birds were not wild so freeing them would have caused more problems, and I have since learned that 7 birds were infact freed and will now starve to death in the venue or be shot so as to not have a horrible slow death as they are uncatchable. I've been told their handler is very very upset by what has happened. I was interviewed by The Sydney Morning Herald (OK it seems it was the Daily Telegraph, oops) but I'm not sure if there has been any article in the paper yet but hopefully there is so that more people find out about what happened (There has its in the Daily Telegraph). That was all I was trying to do, get it out there so you all know how ksubi condone cruelty to animals. It was almost like I was these poor creatures voice.
And YES I myself have made a complaint to the RSPCA but am yet to hear back from them. I have no clue what you all think I could have done, its kind of ridiculous the hate mail I am receiving.

I wanted to link to some horrible photos of hipsters getting inside the net and holding the birds like toy guns and frightening them for fun, but the website is down that has those shots, when its up I will link to it.

What upset me the most was everyone else's blase response to what was happening. I was pointing out the birds and trying to get people to try and help but everyone ignored me. (Well not everyone, some friends were concerned too).

Seriously I DID everything I could do in the situation. AND yes I am going to stick by what I said about the night being the best night of my life. Imagine seeing friends you haven't seen in years and having them perform like they have never performed before. It was amazing, exactly like being back in Tokyo in 2006. It had nothing to do with the "celebs" or the "cool factor" and everything to do with my friends being amazing lovely people. I don't buy into that shit at all, I just go along where my friends are.

I am such a strong vegetarian that if Henry has eaten meat I wont kiss him (for like a week at least) so believe me when I say this really upset me!

Romance Was Born + Tokyo Bondi

A reader kindly let me know about the Romance Was Born pop up store in Paddington and I had to go check it out right away being the RWB fan that I am. I was told it was just a hole in the wall, and it literally is.




The dark hallway leads you to the "mermaids lair" which is full to the brim with a barnacle of Romance Was Born delights.


Oh look here its the controversial crochet print that Cate Blanchett wore to a film event in Melbourne. Controversial to the conservative fashion reporters at certain news establishments. My thing with that is I always love the clothes in the "not" or "worst dressed" sections anyway, ha.




The store is a treasure trove of all things Romance Was Born. If your in town you HAVE to check it out ASAP because it's not there for long. You can find it at 2a Glenmore Road, Paddington, right next door to Kirrily Jonhston.


I ended up doing exactly the same thing as I did yesterday, started out in Paddington and then headed down to Bondi to meet up with friends.


which isn't a bad thing at all.




Yulia got herself a "famous" icecream.


We chilled on the soft white sand and joked about Enoshima beach being more beautiful.


Did I mention that Mark the Cobrasnake was with us? Or Uncle Mark as he is now known.


In his paedophile fluoro speedos and his sneaky underwater camera.


Qrea and Mark enjoying the sunshine.


Tallulah Morton dropped by and went for a swim with Mark. It was too cold for the rest of us and it was dinner time so off we went.

Again I am so happy I came to Sydney. I've had such a fun trip I think I'll be back more often.