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Tag: fashion

Film Reviews

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Friday, May 19th, 2023 Film Reviews,

  Fashion is a frightening business to be in.                                                                 Mary Quant Having just seen the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Karl Lagerfeld exhibition, I’m […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

Alexander McQueen: Mind Mythos Muse

Monday, December 26th, 2022 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

“I don’t see fashion as curing cancer or AIDS – or anything else for that matter,” said Alexander McQueen. “At the end of the day they are just clothes.” This statement, like so many others uttered by this prodigiously talented designer, testifies to the contradictions that defined his career and character. For McQueen (1969-2010), fashion […]

Film Reviews

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

Friday, October 28th, 2022 Film Reviews,

One wonders what the late Jean-Luc Godard would have made of Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris. When the famous avant-garde director died last month, the tributes were predictably fulsome, but I can’t believe anyone actually enjoyed sitting through anything Godard made after about 1965. For the vast majority of people there is only one reason […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto

Thursday, February 10th, 2022 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

“I am not a heroine,” Gabrielle Chanel told one of her biographers. “But I have chosen the person I wanted to be and am. Too bad if I am disliked and unpleasant.” Like most things this famous couturiere said, this statement requires unpacking. Madame Chanel could be extremely unpleasant, but also wildly generous. She was […]

Film Reviews

The House of Gucci

Friday, January 14th, 2022 Film Reviews,

Shakespeare allegedly set tragedies and comedies in Italy because the stereotype of the excitable Italian was engraven on the Elizabethan mind. One finds the same view at the end of the 18th century in the memoirs of playwright, Vittorio Alfieri, who, caught in an adulterous affair with an English woman, was astonished by the calm, […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

Christian Louboutin: The Exhibitionist

Saturday, March 14th, 2020 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

This weekend sees the launch of the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, the first ever to showcase the work of indigenous artists from around the world. I’ll be taking a look at the Biennale next week, while keeping my fingers crossed. I’ve learned in the past that it’s best not to go into this event with […]

Film Reviews

Alliance Française French Film Festival 2019

Thursday, March 7th, 2019 Film Reviews,

Aside from the Indians, the French are probably the greatest talkers in the world. We Aussies, by comparison, are notably inarticulate. Perhaps that’s why we have such an inexhaustible affection for the annual Alliance Française French Film Festival, an event packed with movies in which characters babble on and on in a language which most […]

Film Reviews

The Gospel According to André

Friday, July 13th, 2018 Film Reviews,

Those who watched The September Issue – the 2009 documentary that sparked a wave of fashion movies, will remember André Leon Talley as a larger-than-life presence in Vogue magazine’s inner circle. Loud, camp and flamboyant, Talley is the big black guy who seems to hang around the office doing nothing in particular. If Vogue’s uptight […]

Film Reviews

Sydney Film Festival 2018: Fashion Documentaries

Thursday, May 31st, 2018 Film Reviews,

This year the Sydney Film Festival turns 65 but has no thoughts of retirement. On the contrary, with more than 250 films being screened over a mere 12 days, the SFF is operating at the peak of its powers. Arriving at a time of year when good new releases are scarce it offers something for […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

The House of Dior

Friday, October 13th, 2017 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

Christian Dior was never one to boast about his achievements but he had very clear ideas about the importance of fashion. “I have always seen my profession as a kind of struggle against all that is depressing and mediocre in our age,” he once said. It’s a statement any couturier would be happy to own. […]