Muse - Abby Lee Kershaw (WARNING: contains nudity)

Abby Lee Kershaw is an Australian model who is becoming hugely successful overseas as well as being a favourite at Australian Vogue. I absolutely love her look. She has this carefree, natural beauty about her that to me epitomises the young Aussie woman. She is so diverse though and can pull off practically any look. She is definitely a muse for me and represents the kind of attitude I want to incorporate into my collection.

A colour pallette is formed

This painting of the St Tropez coastline became a key inspirational image. Using the colour's of this painting helped me to narrow down my final brief. I loved the idea of St Tropez, its wealthy socialites partying on their yachts, sipping Mimosa's for breakfast. I wanted however to infuse this with the beach culture I am more used to, one that centres around a more relaxed way of life that I had experienced myself in Queensland and Bali. A kind of fusion of Australin attitude with St Tropez style and culture.




I played around with the idea of each piece of the collection being a part of 'her' day...from morning through to the evening, dressing up for each occasion. This idea wasn't really flowing and it wasn't until I really had a solid idea of who 'she' was that I felt I was ready to begin designing. I needed to get on top of this quick smart because although I was sticking quite well to my timeline I was going to start pushing it if I didn't get on with it soon.
I needed to finalise my look. Attitude was really important. Rather than a broad array of inspiration I could that my design concept was going to end up really specific.




So .... who is 'she' ?

Conflicting themes

Following on from the July '09 story which harked back to the style and sophistcation 'of the golden age of glamour', the other Australian Vogue story which rendered me speechless (a hard thing to do) was the March 2010 Bondi story featuring the stunning Abby Lee Kershaw. Entitled The Life Aquatic, this story was described as '... a powerful new direction in fashion: scuba chic. Go for electirc-bright, surf-inspired block colours, body-con tube dresses, graphic prints and modern silhouettes.' This really is a jaw-dropping brilliant story and definitely was a huge influence.

Basically I have two conflicting influential themes...one is uber stylish south of france look while the other is a sort of anything goes, care free aussie coastal life inspired look. How to bring it together in a cohesive manner?

Desperate to combine the two I focused on more research. I could see that getting to a point where I could begin designing was a quite a way off.

Where to begin?

I am a self proclaimed beach-bunny. During the summer I am rarely anywhere else and if I had my way I would live in Bali with my equally beach obsessed boyfriend. I would own a gorgeous boutique in the chic and stylish area of Seminyak and in my spare time I could go surfing.

This is however, juxtaposed by my love for beautiful, interesting high fashion. Stylish and sophisticated, with an understated sex appeal, my love for bold fashion is centred on fashion that can only come from the creativity of truly innovative designers. 'Beach babe' culture and surf wear don't exactly scream sophistication.

I always knew I wanted to create a collection that incorporated beach wear in some way but my ideal look would be to create a range that was both sexy and sophisticated but very coastal at the same time.

Inspiration began flying at me from all directions and initially proved more confusing than helpful. It was all split into sections - tropical island resort, surfy sun kissed Aussie, south of France holiday maker, not at all cohesive. My one key idea that I was definite on was that I wanted to create a beautifully cut tailored white suit.

Vogue Australia had printed two stories that had completely blown me away when I first saw them and both had continued to be the basis from which all my inspiration flowed from.

The first was an amazing story featured in the July 2009 issue.

Entitled 'Cry Me A Riviera', it was described as a 'Look back to a golden age of glamour, when women were sirens, red lips were 'de rigueur' and there was no such thing as dressing down'.

There was also a stunning image of a crisp white suit with palazzo pants and a double breasted jacket but as of yet I cannot find it on google images. I will have to locate a scanner because it is an amazing image!!!!

This idea of 'never dressing down' is really key for me. I really wanted to incorporate this idea which is certainly a challenege when you're thinking of creating a beach look!