Adelaide's own Jaimie Sortino on A Night of Fashion at the Art Gallery

It's taken more than a year to prepare, but Adelaide's couture dressmaker Jaimie Sortino is finally ready for what he says is his biggest parade ever. For the first time, he'll show alongside a glittering array of local and national designers, including Carla Zampatti and Willow at A Night of Fashion at the Art Gallery. Not only that, but he'll be among the first designers to ever show in the Elder wing of the Art Gallery of South Australia. But the 23-year-old says there are no nerves.

"It's more exciting (than nerve-racking)," he says. "I've always wanted to show at the art gallery."

"When I found out it was here (at the gallery) it made me ten times happier."

The grand architecture of the gallery has informed the 15 designs Sortino will be releasing for the first time at the event.

"I came here for inspiration and it's kind of a view of soft white romantic Paris," he says.

"I automatically just thought of floaty, elegant, big, and something white just came to me and I ran with white the whole way through.

The gowns, which are all white, comprise Sortino's only collection for the year.

"I try not to go towards seasons, only because I don't like the words spring/summer/winter/autumn," he says, adding that the pressure of seasonal production can be too much for a single dressmaker. "A lot of people think there are other people working on it, but it's just me working on it."

Sortino says he's learnt from previous mistakes, dropping perceived pretension by producing a collection that is more wearable.

"I definitely like to tell a story with my fashion but I've edited it not to be so literal," he says.

"And that's where I think I got lost last year; I just got very literal in what I wanted to do, and (this year) I just went away and really edited myself.

"(Now) I've found a really good balance between making wearable art and making something that also appeals to the customer who has to buy it, and I really listened to the people that wear my stuff.

"I'm excited to see them on the runway, because they've just been sitting on my mannequins for the last year and a half."

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To be among the exclusive crowd who will view the designs on the runway at the art gallery, you can purchase tickets here. Other designers showing on the night include Bianca Spender, Willow, Carla Zampatti, Scanlan and Theodore, Couture + Love + Madness, Paolo Sebastian, with curated collections from Claire Inc and The New Guard. Tickets include pre-show cocktails and after-party access.

last days of summer.

If you only had a few days left of Summer how would you spend them? Fanny from byfanny.se spent her last days frolicking through the flowery fields of her home town in Sweden and stopping to smell and pick flowers. Luckily for us she caught this beautiful moment on film and sent it through to us. Although we feel for our sweet swedes for losing their summer, we can't be happier to be getting it back in Australia! Only a few more weeks until the launch of our new spring collection which features the 'First Love' bustier above, they will be online at casperandpearl.com so make sure you register your details on our website to get in first.

Lots of love from the c&p girls xx

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Behind the seams with Keepsake's Carmen Dugan

 

The first time I meet Keepsake designer Carmen Dugan, it's at a grungy bar in what used to be a two-storey house.

"You should meet Carmen; she's a designer," somebody says.

I ask her about her label, but Destiny's Child is blasting through the speakers, and conversations  are always a second priority in the presence of Beyonce. What did you say your label was called again? Never mind. We dance.

Later I realised she was the head designer at Adelaide's own Keepsake. If you're a young woman in Australia and not familiar with Keepsake, you'd certainly know of its sister labels at head company Australian Fashion Labels, Finders Keepers and Cameo. Heck, it's stocked worldwide, and everyone from Hayden Panettiere to Nicole Richie, Nicky Hilton and the Kardashians have been papped wearing the label's dresses. That's more than most 23-year-old designers could say about their work - and probably more than any designer based in Adelaide.

"I was just very lucky," Dugan says, adding that she didn't expect to be able to stay in Adelaide. "Even our TAFE lecturers told us, 'you're probably going to have to move.'"

Indeed, many of her graduating class of 2009 had to move interstate in pursuit of success, or leave the business. Even Dugan's co-designer at her former label had to give up design, and now works in fashion retail. Widely considered among the most promising young designers in Adelaide at the time, Dugan and her friend Kayla Bath formed Frankie & Bath in their final year at TAFE. The duo was placed beside labels as big as Ellery, Alexis George and Bowie at local trade shows, their reputation quickly snowballing. But it wasn't long before the label was put on the shelf, and Bath hasn't released anything since. Adelaide's tough conditions serve to magnify Dugan's success. 

Dugan had already been working for Australian Fashion Labels when the company's design director Melanie Flintoft formed Keepsake to hit the trendy formal wear market at a low price point. 

"It started off as an admin job and then I just kind of moved up," she says. "I have a general brief of what needs to be arranged each month and the type of customer that is."

After about ten months of behind-the-scenes work, the label's first collection was released in October 2011 and has only grown since.

"So far the collections that have been seen at retail - the brand's changed so much from even that. So the range that's in store now is still early days."

With 90 per cent creative control over the label, the designer can hint at what we can expect from the brand's November drop, whose lookbook was photographed last week.

"I'm starting to do exclusive prints each month, which is really exciting. We've got some quite thick jacquard fabrics and some rose gold sequins and a lot of beading."

The label drops 28 garments every month but December - 308 garments a year - so it's a wonder she can even remember what's in the November drop, which she started designing in January.

"We're working on probably three different ranges at a time at different stages of the range. For example, at the moment I'm designing April 2013 and then Tuesday I'm shooting for November this year, and then I'll also be working on fittings for January, and so there's a lot going on."

So how much time is actually spent putting pen to paper for a fast fashion designer?

"You don't get a lot of time really dedicated to it," says Dugan. "Unfortunately we just have to get the designs out. But I try to spend as much time as possible (designing) because it's the most important time, really."

With so many dresses, Dugan says she doesn't always recognise her work when girls wear Keepsake on the streets. But when she does, surely it must be difficult not to criticise the way the dresses are worn if they aren't styled the way she had originally envisioned? Dugan is more gracious than I: "That's the risk you take putting it out there. No one's going to wear it exactly how you would wear it, so you just have to take it as it is."

Fortunately for Dugan, there'll be no questionable styling on Saturday, September 1 when she shows the upcoming Keepsake collection at Fashion Avenue in the Queen's Theatre in Adelaide. The label will be flanked by local and national designers including Porcelain, Alannah Hill, Gorman, Alex Perry, Lisa Ho, Morrison, and more. Tickets are from $60 and available online.

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I wanted to show you a couple of Dugan's designs from her most recent collection, so I took a couple of quick snaps for you. Initially I was really intimidated by what seemed to be Lilliputian waist sizes, but they're actually extremely flattering, comfortable and right on the standard size.

Below: Keepsake's Have It All dress, $99 and Good Intent dress, $139 (both gifted), available from new Australian online boutique Freez. There's an extensive bargain section with plenty of dresses under $30, so it's well worth a look.

loz bugitti.

We just love seeing photos of our lovely customers in their favourite casper&pearl pieces, especially when their as beautiful and creative as these! Very talented blogger from Sydney, Loz Bugitti photographed and styled this shoot of Keelin wearing the orange c&p floral headpiece (mixed with other headbands) and she looks impeccable! Don't you agree? We think she really captured the innocent nature of the casper&pearl girl!

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The Loft Upstairs lookbook

All clothes from The Loft Upstairs

Styling: Lael Woodham

Hair and makeup: Christina Barbaro and Becki Mounsey

Model: Harriet, unsigned

Photos and post-processing: Chanelle Leslie

The mezzanine in Adelaide Arcade is really coming to life, what with several adorable boutiques having opened there in the past few months. One of those stores you might recognise as previously living in North Adelaide: The Loft Upstairs. What I love about the vintage and consignment boutique is that its clothes don't have that awkward, stuffy look that you find haunting many popular vintage stores - and its consignment section is a melange of new and vintage designer picks. So it's no surprise that I was thrilled to shoot their lookbook, and even more thrilled to shoot new face Harriet Wakefield. The 16-year-old natural beauty has a Blake Lively-esque face, and believe it or not, this was her first time in front of the lens. More photos on Facebook.

Chanelle

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i don't know where.

We just stumbled across this adorable photo of Christina from 'I Don't Know Where' in her Penny Lane dress! Her photos are so creative and lovely, definitely worth a click!
This dress is no longer available, but we have very similar pieces coming for this Spring!

Lots of love,
c&p xo

Give these a spin

Anybody who knows me knows I have a borderline obsession with my vinyl collection, and at the risk of being considered a wanky hipster, I couldn't help but photograph a few of my favourite LPs. I barely buy CDs anymore since most new vinyl comes with free digital downloads so I get the best of both worlds. Boy do I miss the Bleecker St record store in New York, though - vinyl is absurdly cheap in the US and five of these I hauled back from overseas.

Chanelle

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For the little ones

1. Jonty wears Witchery cardigan, Ralph Lauren shirt, Furious Kingston corduroy trousers, Cotton On Kids shoes

2. Liam wears vintage neckerchief

3, 4. L wears Furious Kingston fedora hat, vintage shirt and jumper, Zara jeans

5. J wears Furious Kingston hat and waistcoat, vintage shirt and pocket square

6. L wears vintage neckerchief, Zara chinos

Jonty and Liam require nothing less than the best when it comes to what they wear. (Or, if they had it their way, everything.) Jonty, 9, needs people to take him seriously as a newspaper editor, motivational speaker and radio host, and can't be seen in just anything.

At 6, Liam is a little less discerning, but he nevertheless has his business to go about, and the king of the playground deserves only the best.

Quality kids clothing is difficult to come by in Australia, so I tend to save my sartorial gifts for when I travel, stocking up on Zara and Ralph Lauren. But Furious Kingston, a little boys' label out of Melbourne, sent me an adorable package of boys' clothing and I couldn't help but put together a sweet little editorial, styled by my brothers themselves.

Don't you think they did a good job? The only thing I added was the pocket square and the neckerchief!

Chanelle

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Branding shoot | The Bowerbird Room

A rare rainy day in Adelaide didn't stop young entrepreneur Kirstin Cooper from setting up a fun picnic for her first branding shoot. She's in the process of launching her event styling business The Bowerbird Room - sounds pretty cute if you ask me! More photos on my facebook album.

Chanelle

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Little bird | Blogger/photographer collab shoot

1, 2, 3. Millie wears dress by Celia Fraser

4, 5, 6. Olivia wears dress by Emma Tapp

7. Millie wears dress by Victoria Scarce

8. Millie wears vintage dress, stylist's own; Olivia wears dress by Jennifer Charles

9. Millie wears vintage dress, stylist's own
10-14. Dresses by Emma Tapp

Hair and makeup by Jessica Anne

Photography by Chanelle Leslie and Claire Alice Young

It was January this year when Claire and I decided to collaborate for a final shoot before she moved to Melbourne, and we made it the biggest either of us had ever done to that point. We kept it raw and local: young designers fresh out of TAFE, and unsigned models scouted off the street. But what I loved most about it was the way it brought out our different styles: the contrast of the darkness and the light. 

Our concept for the shoot was for the styling to be inspired by the elegance and strength of birds, but looking back I see a split personality reflected in the shoot, the simultaneous darkness and light that we each have inside us. Go to Claire's facebook page to see even more beautiful images.

Chanelle

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