A New Look

A 'New Look' for Fanantique

If you've been following along for a while, you'll know that the past year has brought about some massive changes and both my business, 'Fanantique' and my career as an illustrator have been somewhat neglected.

Now that things are slowly starting to get back on track, I have put some time into re-branding everything and am trying to consolidate everything I do into one cohesive identity . It is not easy!

To gather inspiration, I looked over both the current Fanantique and Lizzie Lamb branding; logo design, fonts, colours along with some of my favorite images and promotional graphics created.

 

 Above: The Current Fanantique logo & colours

Below: An advertising image created for a sale

(photography by Rob Luxford of Vivid )

My very favorite Fanantique image is this one below, of the gorgeous Anna Boulic in this fabulous 1950's dress. I am sure you have seen this image around the place on the Fanantique website and facebook page.

While having a think about all this, I spotted an image I had hanging above my desk and drew a quick interpretive sketch of it.

I then scanned the image and had a play with it in Adobe illustrator, adding some color and tweaking the design. (I'm thinking about trying to upload a tutorial soon)

below: The iconic image that inspired me, Dior's 1947 New Look

This rough sketch was scanned and then colour shading and pattern added to create the below drawing.

I was pretty happy with the image, so used it as my starting point to create my new business card (I love polka dots!) I just got the cards back from the printer and they turned out well. I actually went with rounded corners and they turned out great.

Behind the Scenes at Fanantique

As you may have noticed, my posts on the blog have became more and more sporadic, I'm sorry about this- I haven't even kept up with my 'Champagne Friday" entries! There has been quite a lot of things going on behind the scenes here at Fanantique, all of which deserve their own post and in time will get one!
Here is a run down of some recent goings on, events and also some work in progress:

DesignEx- Interior Design show
At the moment DesignEx is on in Melbourne. DesignEx is a trade only exhibition open to anyone in a field such as interior design, architecture, furniture, furnishing fabrics and textiles etc. It is always good to go along to these events to keep an eye on what's new, current and emerging trends in interior decorating. (Not to mention there is usually a glass or two of Champagne involved!) I will be going along to this tomorrow and hope to report back to let you know what beautiful things I see....
In the meantime to find out more about 'DesignEx' click here



The Royal Wedding
Unless you have been living under a rock, you will know that it is not long now until the Royal Wedding of Prince William of Wales and Kate Middleton. I thought it was as good an excuse as any, for a celebration. The day of the big event, April 29, does happen to be a Friday so we will be celebrating with an extra special Champagne Friday. We will be featuring an extra special window display in store, co-curated  by renowned Melbourne milliner, Peter Jago (aka the self proclaimed 'Queen of Everything') we have started putting together some special pieces including some limited edition Peter Jago hatpins.

Melbourne Fine Art- French Fashion Illustration 
There is currently a very special exhibition on in town at the Melbourne Fine Art Gallery:
Vintage French Fashion Illustration. The images I've seen from the show all look divine and I can't wait to check out the show on Monday. I look forward to reporting back on the visual delights that await me! For more details about the show click here

Bay St One Off Event - Vintage Fashion Sale
As you may or may not know, we have some rather interesting neighbors here on Bay St. One of which is a fabulous Antique shop - 'A Joy Forever'. The owner, Francesca is currently having a clean out of her warehouse and amongst her treasures she has a great collection of vintage clothing and accessories. We are teaming up and are in the midst of planning a one off vintage fashion sale along with some other purveyors of fine vintage fashion. Stay tuned for more about this soon......

The Deck Bar
Speaking of neighbors,  another one of our neighbors is the lovely Brad, who has 'The Deck Bar' further down the street. He is currently in the midst of a renovation on the function room of the bar. I was lucky enough to be asked in to have a look and offer my opinion. His interior decorator, has come up with the inspired theme of 'Midnight at the Oasis' , a luxurious Middle Eastern flavor. I am currently loving being part of the creative process and have come across some gorgeous points of inspiration for the project. To give you an idea of the feel, here are a few images. (Again pictures and more details coming soon)

New Products- Besame Cosmetics
Of course I am always on the look out for beautiful things for the store. After chatting recently with the lovely Candice DeVille (aka Super Kawaii Mama- to see her amazing vintage style blog click here) I decided that Besame cosmetics would be a fabulous addition to our range. I am still in discussion with the company, but things are looking good and I am hoping to introduce their gorgeous range of vintage inspired lipsticks soon. To get a sneak peek at the beautiful collection click here

Vintage Fashion
Of course there are some more beautiful vintage pieces arriving soon, amongst other things,we have some beautiful coats and handbags for winter coming soon. My mum is currently in Seattle and she will be bringing back lots of goodies for the store at the end of the month!


Illustration
Outside of Fanantique, things have been busy also. I have been working on illustrations for a book for an educational company, Take Note Music. I hope to share pictures soon, after the book is published. It has been a fun project with some gorgeous characters. The concept of the book is all about teaching children how to read music. It has been fun to step away from fashion illustration and explore other styles, and I must say illustrating for kids is a lot of fun.

The Wedding
Of course another thing that is occupying my thoughts is of course my wedding! I have been slowly putting together a collection of ideas (creating a mood board) but have yet to really do any tangible planning. The current plan is still to go to Hungary for the event, but Gabor is not a big fan of being the center of attention so is getting a little nervous about this idea. He is gently trying to talk me into opting for a small wedding on a remote Western Australian beach or a shot gun style wedding in Las Vegas! I must admit Las Vegas is very tempting.....but I am sticking to my guns and still planning a European Wedding. Once I finish the book I am working on, I will get to work on designing my dress.

There are also more things in the works for further down the track, including a Spring Racing Event, a special excursion to the Grace Kelly exhibition next year and more, stay tuned!

Vintage Style at the Oscars

I always love to watch the Oscars to look at the fabulous and sometimes, not so fabulous dresses. This year I think overall there were more people that got it right than really wrong. Most of the looks  captured old  Hollywood glamor and thankfully it seemed like it wasn't just all about flaunting clevage!

But also, from what I have seen, it seems many of the looks were quite conservative and there was not one ensemble in particular that was a real stand out.

As co-host, Anne Hathaway had several wardrobe changes. I thought this Vintage red Valentino looked stunning on her. Pictured here with Valentino himself.

Of course I love the look of this 1950's inspired dress by Marchesa, worn by Hailee Steinfeld. Many fashion commentators suggested that this 'ballerina' style was inspired by 'Black Swan' and the whole ballerina theme. (There were on awful lot of feathers on the red carpet this year)

 Marisa Tomei also dressed in vintage couture, this gown by Charles James from Lily et Cie Couture.
(I love the ink colour)

 'Our Nicole' dressed in Dior Haute Couture (what could be more classic than that?)  Not many critics seemed to like this dress, but I quite like it. (I must admit I wasn't a fan of the hair, she had a pony tail at the back!)

I do always love to check out what Helena Bonham Carter wears because she is usually the most interesting and has a particular fondness for Vivienne Westwood. This year, I thought she was quite conservative too, opting for an elegant black velvet piece by Colleen Atwood. Shown below with partner Tim Burton- great to see his Film 'Alice in Wonderland', get an award for best costume!

Not to be disappointed, I did see some Westwood on the red carpet. Worn by Helen Mirren, who I think did a fabulous job presenting with Russel Brand!

Images from style.com

Spring Fashion Extravaganza, hosted by Fleurage Perfumery.

Part 1- "Ice Cream Cake"

My apologies for my long absence from the blog, but now I can finally share with you what I have been working on for the last month. Fanantique together with Fleurage presented our first Spring Fashion event, and what an event it was.
There are too many gorgeous images and too much to tell all at once, so over the next few posts I will show you everything. Firstly, I must credit Rob Luxford of Vivid Communications, for all of the professional photography. It's stunning! A big thank you also to our gorgeous models, Adrain of Delilah Hair studio (to find out more about Delilah click here) and to Rebecca of Beyond Andromeda for the beautiful make-up. The stylish hats are all by Ann Shoebridge (excluding a few pieces that are vintage)
To see more gorgeous images and a wonderful overview of the afternoon, please visit the Fleurage blog by clicking here . Emma, sums up the whole event wonderfully.
Set to the romantic sounds of Anna Boulic playing Harp and serenading the audience in French, our show commenced with our 'Ice Cream Cake' collection. Delicious shades of sorbet, the very essence of spring. To compliment this ,  Fleurage coordinated a signature fragrance to each ensemble.....Spring was definitely in the air!
Coming soon, our next collection, 'Hello Sailor'

Here are our gorgeous girls backstage before the show started, what a marvelous job they all did!

One Week and One Day and Counting!!!!

Tim Burton Exhibition Opening in Melbourne June 24th

Conceptual drawing 'the joker' for Batman by Tim Burton

As an illustrator (and a reformed goth kid) I have long been a HUGE fan of Tim Burton. Of course I admire him as a movie maker, but to me, first and foremost he is an artist. You may or may not know that he started his career with Disney as an illustrator before becoming a director. He is still largely responsible for all the art direction in his films and works the old fashioned way by HAND drawing many concepts from costumes & character development to set design. To me this is marvelous, while I dearly love both my Apple MACs (and Photoshop) there is nothing better than creating something the old fashioned way with pencil and paper.

Original Art by Tim Burton

Tim Burton was a major inspiration to me in many ways from the way that I dressed to the work that I produced as a design student. As a fashion design student at RMIT back in the mid 90's many of my design projects had an obvious Burton influence. Over the years and during my many moves and travels I ended up throwing most of this work out...but a few pieces still remain. (As do a few choice gothic outfits).

 Promotional Image from Sleepy Hollow

Considering the admiration I have for him, you can imagine my joy in learning that as part of the exhibition that is about to open in Melbourne next week, Tim himself is going to be here AND he will be appearing to talk about his work in a seminar AND I HAVE A TICKET TO GO SEE HIM!!!!!!
I am so excited!!!!
I am also excited that as part of the show that The Australian Centre for the Moving Image, or ACMI, are hosting an online gallery for fans to upload their own Burton inspired work. Of course I have to take part. Unfortunately, there is a 2 piece maximum. Obviously, I have a stack of work which could be appropriate....now just to find it and scan it etc. Most of the work I completed during my Uni days was pre-Apple Mac so it is stored in old-school folios, packed under beds and in other hard to reach places.
Another problem is that for some reason back in the early 1990's many Art teachers seemed to insist on all work being large scale..at least A1 size..(I never understood this, it sure did make train travel difficult going to and from University) anyway, this also makes scanning the work near impossible so will narrow my choice. So far I have entered one piece (because it was conveniently located on my hard drive) but my second and final choice will take more careful consideration.
Anyway, in honor of the exhibition, I have decided to have my own "Tim Burton" retrospective and pull out many of my projects  and possibly some photos, ranging from 1995-1998..my Art School years.

'Lady Killigrew' by Me!

(This piece was actually completed in 2000, when I was going through a collage phase. This work is created with photography and torn paper. I think it still works in the Tim Burton theme though)

More work coming soon.....

Julie & Julia

We recently watched Julie and Julia on DVD and loved it. Not only were our mouths watering from all the delicious looking food that Julia Childs (Meryl Streep) was cooking but from the gorgeous looking costumes and sets. Following the biography of Julia Childs, set for the most part in Paris in the 1950's we were treated to some classic styles, fabulous dresses, hats, shoes and bags.
The other half of the movie tells the story of blogger, Julie Powell , (Amy Adams) a New Yorker , who begins the movie in jeans and ends up in cute 1950's style pearls, vintage dresses and aprons by the end as she develops her obsession with the iconic Julia Child . Definitely worth a look!