Our campaign for the recent eyewear collaboration, Cast Eyewear X N.L.P Women, this is the first of a series of recent projects shared between the three brands of Cast, N.L.P and HOMME. The story features Cast Eyewear designer Fa Empel, wearing the new season N.L.P swimwear, and of course, the collaboration eyewear.
CREATIVE DIRECTION; Cale Mason at HOMME
PHOTOGRAPHER; Justin Griffiths at Vivien’s Creative
MODEL; Favela Punk
STYLIST; Nikki Penny
EYEWEAR; CAST x N.L.P
SWIMWEAR; by N.L.P
01 CÉLINE : boxy sandal
02 MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA : oversized snow globe
03 ALEXANDER WANG : leather / shearling bear
04 ROSA MARIA : rings
05 LOLITA : film poster
06 GARRET LEIGHT x MARK MCNAIRY : circular silver frame sunglasses
07 WAITS CORBIJN : the book
08 CHARLOTTE OLYMPIA : gold plated croissant clutch
09 BYREDO PARFUM : apocalyptic candle
10 SAINT LAURENT : classic fedora rabbit fur felt
11 SELETTI : candelabra
12 VIRGIN SUICIDES : soundtrack by air
13 KEVIN MURPHY : full again
14 T BY ALEXANDER WANG : stretch bralette
15 NLP : balconet black neoprene bikini
16 COMME DES GARÇONS : blue series
17 HOOD BY AIR : poodle t-shirt
Over the years, everyone’s had a crack at defining women. One of my personal favourites was The Odyssey, when Homer’s Sirens presented the female gender as irresistible, reeking of unattainable carnality and beauty. While this idea is probably the ultimate form of objectification, there have been worse. Ironically enough, examples extracted from reality often offend more than the fictitious characters created by misogynistic Greek mythologists. For instance, ‘Octomum’, a woman with 12 children (8 being born at the same time), forces women to ponder whether having as many children as your body will biologically allow demonstrates any kind of femininity. It also makes them wonder whether women like this should be forced to abide by some kind of government-implemented birth control intervention. Nevertheless, the definition of “ the woman” has remained somewhat murky, making it difficult for girls to determine exactly when they qualify. That is to say, it is virtually impossible to pinpoint the transitional phase from child to woman; the unforgiving and unglamorous series of events that shape the individual character of every grown-up female.
When I was in Kindergarten, there were already cliques. You know what I mean. The little girls who probably became bosom buddies from the moment they made eye contact as they emerged from their mother’s contiguously positioned vaginas; mothers who were likely to also have been inseparable since Kindergarten (and who, relevant or not, probably got a little too close in their experimental college days). Retrospectively, the countless playground rejections I received from these dipshits were hardly a result of any freakish qualities, but merely a hint that I probably had a more private birth. I have distinct memories of doing most things by myself, with the exception of the occasional ‘good day’ spent with my on-again off-again best friend. Clementine very insightfully states in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, “Sometimes I don’t think people realize how lonely it is to be a kid”, and from personal experience, I have to concur. Although, she should have also mentioned that childhood solitude is crucial in the process of personal growth; an epiphany that ensconced itself within my five-year-old mind, after slapping my aforementioned best friend in the face when she banned me from a hop-scotch game with her and the other bitchlets (yes, it is a word. I just made it up). Years later, you always seem to discover that the Mean Girls (note: capitalized) have spent their adulthood gaining a few kilos, groveling at the feet of their previous victims and festering in their own stagnant existence. As the famous saying goes: “if you want to be a bitch, prepare to eat several dicks later in life.”
Although Dr. Erikson insists that identity development becomes an issue no earlier than adolescence, I insist that Erikson’s a dumbass. Cue, Cecilia from The Virgin Suicides: “obviously Doctor, you’ve never been a thirteen-year-old girl.” You can smell the ignorance from a mile away; his studies clearly never considered the critical nature of the female childhood rivalry between the Barbies, lip gloss, and floral dresses of the Girly-Girls and the backward sports caps, shorts and unwashed bare feet of the Tomboys. If you’re unsure of what I mean, this personality dichotomy is played upon in almost every family comedy starring the Olsen twins – namely It Takes Two, where you get to relish in the adorability of Mary-Kate’s squeaky Brooklyn accent. Furthermore, a woman’s identity is not only shaped biologically, but moreso through the interplay with their environment, or more specifically, other girls. There were times when young sisters simply enjoyed one another’s company through an unspoken mutual enjoyment for an afternoon of Cinderella and cheese toasties. Then there were other times that purely consisted of bitter rhetoric and overdramatic ultimatums. Though in the end, having your sister threaten to slaughter you every time you spill her tin of beads, does somehow contribute to your personal growth. Firstly, it helps to develop lightning reflexes. And secondly, it all amounts to funny memories years later when you find yourselves equal in physical strength and mental prowess. As for the identity issues, well, when do they ever cease? Maybe the Girly-Girl/Tomboy thing was always just a coping mechanism, representative of the Mainstream/Hipster thing that occurs in early adulthood. But don’t even get me started on that shit.
It’s hard to find the silver lining within the onset of female puberty; that awkward phase of development characterised by budding breasts, sprouting hairs and ever-mounting self-consciousness. Not to mention, of course, an introductory course in the pleasures of menstruation. Who doesn’t love that first period, where you unsuspectingly go to the bathroom to find your knickers foxed with unfamiliar crimson stains of the menarche nightmare that will continue to haunt your existence (until menopause, but that’s another story), accompanied by the induction of paralysing uterus contractions? As you can imagine, this ordeal especially sucks when it occurs on your birthday (A big fuck-you-very-much to my thirteenth birthday). To top it off, I hear bears can smell the menstruation. A dangerous ordeal for everyone. Not only does this unearthly affliction take a toll biologically, but proves to be the main source of embarrassing opportunities during female adolescence: the moment when you experience your final year of primary school, almost entirely spent working toward consolidating your legacy and capturing the attention of boys you’re only just beginning to notice, when one of them points at your leg and screams, “aw, RANK!” A florid face and exorbitant amount of toilet paper later, you begin to realise that perhaps being born with a womb was the ultimate form of divine condemnation. Though as the years go by, you realise that the bloody briefs and blinding abdominal pain did, in fact, serve a purpose. While the whole thing is likely to promote some hardcore character-building, it is also a necessary primer for reproduction. Of course, try telling that to a thirteen-year-old and they’ll probably tell you exactly where to shove your necessary primers.
Then there is the final phase. The phase when you are finally considered a ‘woman’, whatever that may be. Does anyone have any definite idea? With the exception of Britney Spears, who knows all about being “caught in the middle”. And, perhaps, the teenage skanks slathering their faces in Mummy’s make up and spreading their legs for their wobbly-voiced boyfriends, who slip under the title of “woman” as easily as they do rocket-ship bedspreads. For the rest of us, however, the definitions remain somewhat nebulous. For some of you, the loss of perception virginity may have happened when you were standing in a pseudo-conscious state behind your cashier counter, wondering why the air conditioner is always on high and what your mum will be cooking for dinner. Suddenly, a woman instructing her child to “give the Chupa Chup to the nice lady” interrupted this train of highly intellectual thought. As you took the lollipop from the soft baby hand, you realised with some surprise that this alleged “lady” was actually you. At least, that’s how it happened for me. Tip-off or not, I can still strongly assert that the rest of the puzzle pieces are waiting to align.
I think it’s safe to say that the respective phases of female development have been accurately represented at times, with writers preying on this humiliating journey for the benefit of public amusement. Although, can you blame them? After all, if you can’t chuckle about those dark suicidal moments, then you’d probably, well, commit suicide. This coming of age, however painful it may be, indeed determines the character of each woman. If you hear your daughter scream, “CALL AN AMBULANCE, I’M DYING,” when she sees her first period, it’s probably an indication that she is and always will be a massive pussy, unless you actively intercept (suggestion: swift backhand). On the other hand, if your little angel is bitch-slapping their snarly, white-sandaled peers (or predators, take your pick) at the mere age of five years old, I like to think they’re safely headed down the path for grandeur. Whatever your opinion may be, I think we can all agree that if you can’t beat ‘em or join ‘em, you may as well laugh at ‘em.
WORDS; Hannah Scaife
IMAGES; Diane Arbus
HOMME : GRACE WOODROOFE : We are proud to announce the release of our new film starring Los Angeles based singer/songwriter GRACE WOODROOFE, which features a teaser of her new track ‘DEADWEIGHT’.
DIRECTOR; Cale Mason
FEATURING AND MUSIC BY; Grace Woodroofe
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY; Justin Griffiths at Vivien’s Creative
CREATIVE DIRECTION; Cale Mason
STYLIST; Sarah Scaife
STYLING ASSISTANT; Beth Maslen
HAIR; Ash Wuillemin at Head Studio
MAKEUP; Kinga Markovic using M.A.C Cosmetics
EDITING; Lara Benwell and Justin Griffiths
LIGHTING; Craig Williams
During our recent week in Sydney for Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Australia, we went for a drink with Kym Ellery, designer and director of high-end womenswear brand, Ellery. Meeting at the EVH offices, Kym soon steered us away from the chaos erupting within, and into the leafy streets of Darlinghurst. After searching for a few minutes for an appropriate place to chat, Kym pointed decisively at a humble pub spilling with locals.
SARAH; I hope this voice recording picks up.
KYM; I sometimes just record people for fun, in places louder than this. And it works.
SARAH; Do you really? So do I. I always feel like a bit of a creep, though.
KYM; Oh, yeah. We went to New York Fashion Week, and we had these guys flown in to make an installation of sound in the space, in a circle. I was like, “I’ve got these really creepy recordings of my friends over the years.” You know, saying things in Paris and in London, some interesting characters, taxi drivers, random shit. It was the funniest thing. They played them out of different speakers on repeat.
SARAH; That’s pretty cool. Did anyone recognize themselves?
KYM; Well, no. None of them were there. I was kind of like, fuck, that’s someone who’s quite famous and she’s revealing shit.
SARAH; Did it mention names, or whatever?
KYM; Exactly. There was one that came on of me going, “it’s fucked up!” At the run-through, I was like, “please, no, let’s scrap that.” My crass, loud voice booming through the speakers. Not cool.
We laughed.
SARAH; Did you make them delete – ?
KYM; Oh, they deleted that one.
SARAH; That’s actually one thing I wanted to ask you. It’s completely jumping to the middle of the interview, but whatever…
KYM; Yeah?
SARAH; I suppose there’s a kind of professionalism etiquette for women, for anyone, in a position of power regardless of their respective industry. I personally find it interesting to, I suppose, investigate how different people perceive what they should say, what they shouldn’t say, what they don’t like to reveal. Everyone has a different idea of privacy, where is your line?
KYM; I think it’s boring to refuse to say what you think. Which is why I just always say anything I want.
She smiled ruefully, and then resumed.
KYM; And then I get in trouble. On that note though, I met up with Leandra Medine from Man Repeller in Paris the other month?
SARAH; Yeah, yeah, yeah.
KYM; We’ve Tweeted at each other, and emailed each other over the years, our mutual love for each other.
Kym broke down into another giggle.
KYM; When I met her – because I think she’s the coolest –
SARAH; She is.
KYM; I was so happy to meet her. She was so refined, well-educated, well-spoken, and funny. She could get away with saying, like, “I found this really funny blog on vaginas, where women post ‘selfies’ of their vagina.” If I said something like that around the dinner table in Paris, I’m pretty sure it would come across as not-very-ladylike…
SARAH; I thought she’d be loud and American!
KYM; No, not at all. Afterwards, we were like, “aw, she’s so smart, and cool, and ladylike.” I was like, “I just need to shut the fuck up, not be like blahh all the time!”
Kym waved her hands in the air.
KYM; I realized I have to check myself, and act professionally. We are from a different country though, so maybe it’s… I don’t know. Different.
SARAH; Even still, in Australia, I feel like I have to be somewhat reserved when it comes to swearing for the hell of it or talking about really vulgar shit, for the hell of it…
KYM; I dropped the C-bomb actually, the other night, in front of my mum.
Kym sucked a breath slowly through her teeth, in obvious shame.
KYM; She was horrified. I was so busted. So busted. My dad was there, and he was like “oh, leave her alone”.
After a few moments of inevitable digression, during which we all shared personal anecdotes on the subject, we returned back to the interview.
SARAH; So how was your Fashion Week?
Kym sipped her drink and nodded her head encouragingly as she swallowed.
KYM; We basically made the collection and sold it in Paris to all the international regions. Then when we came home, I decided we should do a show, with two weeks to put together extra pieces. At first I was thinking, it’s going to be super easy because the samples are there already and normally they’re what make it difficult, and cause the all-nighters, but it was pretty full on anyway.
She took a deep breath, and looked around the bar.
KYM; I don’t know, we’ve been doing this a long time – almost six years – which I think is a fair amount of time to know what to expect. I was saying to my friend the other day that this year feels super hard, I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s just the energy or the fact that everything’s so driven by email and social media. It takes a lot of extra work.
SARAH; Or the fact that you’re expanding?
KYM; And that. More stuff creates more work, but a different type of work, which is nice. Yeah. I forgot what your question was, sorry.
An apologetic smile ensued.
SARAH; Oh, just Fashion Week.
KYM; That’s right, yeah, I’m really glad I did it. A few things just fell into place, like getting Hanne out here. IMG offered me Hanne Gaby Odiele. I didn’t even read the email! I just vaguely saw Dan, my friend who’s just started IMG Australia, say “hey babe, do you want Hanne?” and I just read the first sentence and wrote back, “fuck yeah!”
Kym’s words broke down into laughter.
KYM; Anyway, I woke up the next day and I thought, “you know what? I’ll fucking make this work!” So I called my publicist, we organized a flight, and voila.
SARAH; She was amazing?
KYM; She was awesome. She opened, and Julia Nobis closed. They’re good friends as well, them and Ruby-Jean Wilson. They were really cute together. It was good, all the other girls were really happy she came.
We all took another sip, somehow in unison.
SARAH; You shoot a lot of your campaigns, right?
KYM; Yeah, I shot Hannah Holman in New York out of necessity because we didn’t have a photographer. I was like, “I’m not losing this amazing girl just because we can’t find a photographer. I’ll hire a camera, do it myself.” So after that – that was my first shoot – I’ve shot a few things for my boyfriend’s brand, for our new brand L’America, so yeah. I always threaten my photographer friends that I don’t need them, that I’ll just shoot it myself!
She giggled, and we all instinctively followed.
SARAH; “Soon I’ll learn make up, and hair, and you’ll all be obsolete! I’ll be a one man band!”
KYM; Yeah! Totally! Like Karl.
We laughed harder and looked to one another in encouragement.
KYM; My ex-boyfriend Darren McDonald is a really amazing photographer. I worked with him and Holly Blake before they were really propelling, and they’re doing such a good job now. Coming from Perth, I always think, I don’t want to come into this industry and pay someone who’s already doing well to do a job, I want to support and nurture up-and-coming people who I think are talented. Even with our staff, I try to hire an intern for the job, instead of advertise for it, just try and work that way.
SARAH; That’s good to hear.
KYM; Darren gets a bit shitty that I asked Holly to shoot Julia, but I asked Holly because I love her, and also because I was shitty at Darren for being an arsehole to me when we used to date. He got so annoyed. He was like…
Kym adopted a low-toned imitation of Darren’s voice.
KYM; “I can’t believe you didn’t get me to shoot Julia, I really love her.”
She dropped the imitation.
KYM; So I said, “well, stop being a dick, and I’ll ask you next time.” So he behaves now.
We shared a giggle.
SARAH; I have to say though, everyone talks about your shows like they’re flawless. Anyone I ask, they say, “oh, yeah, Kym. Her show was perfect, of course.”
KYM; Aw, that’s nice.
SARAH; It’s obvious that you place a huge emphasis on your shows.
KYM; We try to make them something memorable. It can be really challenging, because finding a location is super hard. Casting the girls can be really hard as well.
SARAH; I can imagine.
KYM; This year, I’d been working for over a year on that location.
The Ellery show at this year’s Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Australia was held at the Helenic Club in the heart of Sydney’s inner city.
KYM; It didn’t come easily by any means. They sent through these hardcore legal documents on Friday before the show on Tuesday. For a minute there I was like, “okay, there’s no show everyone!”
She clasped her hands together dramatically, and laughed from beneath the wide brim of her Saint Laurent hat.
SARAH; Let’s do it out of the office, it’ll be fine! Down the EVH hallways.
KYM; Totally.
SARAH; How would you define a successful show, though?
KYM; For me, I focused this year on different things. I focused on making all the clothes look wearable, and still a little bit avant garde. It’s doesn’t reference too much the design development inspiration, which I have been caught up in the past. This year, I worked with Romy Freedman, who’s a stylist.
SARAH; Style Me Romy?
KYM; Yep, Style Me Romy. She used to work for Vogue, she’s been around a long time, and I like her aesthetic. I thought it would be better to work with a woman who understood what women want to wear, and we share a similar goal. Quite different, but where we met in the middle, it worked out.
SARAH; Sound like a good team. So, I would like to know where your career began.
KYM; I was in Perth, at TAFE after high school. I took a year off, I worked in a surf shop, and I worked in bridal during high school. Then I studied part time after that at a place called Swan College, it’s like a TAFE.
SARAH; Was it design that you studied?
KYM; No, pattern-making. I was a bit of a self-taught pattern maker before that, so I learnt the technical way, which I think was super important now that I think back. Then I moved to Sydney, I worked in Scanlan and Theodore for a couple of years, and I’m still very close with the CEO of Scanlan and the owner and designer, Maria and Gary. Shanna, the guy who’s in charge of all the business side, is still one of my mentors. He’s a legend.
Kym fiddled with the damp coaster beneath her glass.
KYM; Then I worked as an intern at Russh. They offered me a job, but I’d booked a flight to England to study at Central St Martins. I was a bit torn. I wasn’t sure whether I should take the opportunity to work at a magazine, or whether I should go do a degree.
She drummed her nails on the timber table.
KYM; I did summer school at St Martins, instead of the four-year degree. Came back, and I thought, “you know what? I’m probably going to learn more working for a magazine than I will doing four years going to uni. I didn’t want to follow the system, and go to uni, get a massive HECS bill, and then start from scratch. I thought I’d learn the industry first, and I think it rewarded me. It meant that all my friends worked in magazines and they all supported what I was doing. I was very lucky.
SARAH; It sounds like it. What advice would you give to a woman starting out in this industry?
KYM; Make sure you want to do it, because it’s such hard work. You really need a strong support network and you have to really want to do it, because it’s one of the most difficult things, I think; to build a brand in an industry that’s such high-risk. Especially right now, with the economy. You’re creating a product, and you’re putting up capital to make that product for people to order, which is a three-month process. People also aren’t very honourable in business, and it can be a real strain from that point of view as well.
SARAH; Would you say that’s a design perspective, or a general business perspective?
KYM; Business perspective, definitely. For design, it’s fun to have creative freedom. That’s a pro. And that’s kind of why I left the magazine, I was over managing other people’s projects. I got to do my own thing a little bit, but I just thought, I want to have something that allows me freedom. For two years, I was working full time at Russh, going home and working through the night on Ellery, then going to work at 9am, going to parties for work, attend everything for the advertisers and blah blah blah. I was really tired.
SARAH; Are you still really tired?
KYM; I’m okay now. I’ve got a good team now.
SARAH; You’re probably used to it, as well?
KYM; A little bit. I’ve applied more boundaries on myself. I want to start a family soon, I’m turning thirty next week, I want to start focusing on bigger things now. Like, Paris, New York, twice a year. The girls from Sass and Bide, and Willow, they’re all mothers. My publicist, Emma. In some of the ways, I see how they have to live, and I think they’ve all got it nailed, and I want to have that too. Like Magdalena Velevska, I don’t know how she does it. She had no staff, and a baby, two babies, I think.
SARAH; That’s insane.
KYM; Totally! She told me she’s been felting on the kitchen floor, with a kid, and I’m like “ahh, that sounds like hell! I want nannies!”
SARAH; And staff, preferably!
KYM; Yes please.
SARAH; Are you a healthy hard worker or an unhealthy one? I tend to find most people fall into one extreme.
KYM; I don’t know. I don’t like exercising. I don’t smoke, but sometimes I do, if I’m stressed. I need coffee. So I don’t know.
SARAH; You mentioned earlier that you eat healthily.
KYM; I like organic food, and smoothies, and all that. I only learned that stuff last year, really, though. I had this relationship that was really fleeting but the one thing I did get out of it was all that. He was very knowledgeable about all that.
SARAH; Who are your female influences?
KYM; Um…
She drummed her nails once again, looked upwards, and returned back to the table.
KYM; I like Diana Vreeland a lot. I think she was a really incredible human. A hard-arse, which I think is good.
She threw us a coy grin.
KYM; I saw a documentary on her recently, and I liked that she referenced a lot of things other than fashion.
Her tone quickly switched from pensive to animated.
KYM; I took my boyfriend, who’s a surfer. I was like, “come on, you’re coming with me!” Then there was this one part where she says that surfing is the most magnificent thing you could ever do, to be between the sky and the ocean. “Just fabulous!”
SARAH; She won him over?
KYM; Yeah, he got brownie points. Now he’s like, “what’s that quote, baby?” I emailed him the link so he could show all his mates. It was pretty funny.
SARAH; That’s pretty cute.
KYM; I also like Daphne Guinness. For her style. She can, of course, do whatever she wants because she’s an heiress, but I still think it’s pretty cool that she has her own unique point of view. She’s a curator of fashion! You know? She really has a passion for fashion, and she… oh my god, did I just say that?!
Laughter erupted around the table.
SARAH; You definitely just said that.
KYM; Make sure you put an ‘r’ in there! Parshion for farshion.
SARAH; Accent noted.
KYM; Miuccia Prada as well. She’s quite a lady.
SARAH; You recently spent some time in Paris. What did you do there?
KYM; I was there for three weeks and we created a pop-up boutique in the first. We got loads of traffic from the industry, picked up some really great new accounts, and discovered some French fans we didn’t know existed! They couldn’t speak English. They just had photos on their phone of Julia [Nobis] or product. We hired this French shop girl, and kept asking her what they were saying.
SARAH; That’s really cool.
KYM; We had a great time. We’ll definitely go back and do it again in September. Also, we’re doing pre-collections in New York. We did Fashion Week in New York last year because IMG contacted us and approved us for the schedule. My girlfriend was producing it, with Chris Esber, and she wanted me to do it as a group kind of… um… installation. That went really well too…
Thoughts took over her speech for a few seconds, before she shook her head and continued speaking.
KYM; I want to find a balance. Do pre-collection in New York and main collection in Paris, twice a year.
SARAH; Not many people many know about your new brand, L’America. Tell us about that.
KYM; It launched last year. It’s a project that was born from an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. I’m not actually the designer, the brand is just part of our group.
SARAH; Oh!
KYM; Yeah. I own it, it’s my business, but we’ve got a girl at the moment called Anja, and Sarah, who design. We hire a team to do it and I just oversee the creative aspects: the campaign images, the general feel of the range, to make sure it’s taking the right direction. I like the idea of having a brand that’s more youth-driven and more affordable in price point.
SARAH; Is Ellery more mature?
KYM; Yeah. I mean, not so much our customer, but it’s focused moreso on quality and we ship in the best of everything around the world, using local manufacturing, where we can keep an eye on it. With L’America, it’s a lot quicker. We work out of Hong Kong with production. Yeah.
She shrugged.
KYM; I’m looking forward to seeing where we can take that. I just wish I had two of myself!
Kym gestured to an empty seat beside her where the hypothetical second Kym Ellery would likely sit.
KYM; It’s pretty full on. I think it’s got a lot of potential. We just sold it in America and it was really well received.
SARAH; It certainly seems that way, it’s all over social media.
KYM; Oh good!
SARAH; Lauren was saying actually –
KYM; Oh, you know Slater?
Lauren Slater is the brand manager for L’America.
SARAH; Yeah, we met the other day! She was saying she gets bombarded with requests every day for the red jersey sweater.
KYM; Oh my god, I know. I emailed Anja the other day going, “uh, I think we need to order more of these!”
She mimed a typing motion.
KYM; My girlfriend in New York who’s very high up in the hierarchy of fashion, emailed me asking for the fucking sweater! And asking for one for her supermodel friend. I was like, “huh? How did you even find out about L’America?”
SARAH; The power of social media.
KYM; Yeah, I mean, we haven’t even really pushed it a lot. We did a soft launch. I really want to amp it up though. I want to make sure I keep up the creative vision.
SARAH; What’s your main ethos as a designer and as a woman? Are they the same or do they differ?
KYM; Just be honest, is my philosophy. I was brought up that way, but you know when you’re trying to find your way…
SARAH; Also, I suppose, this industry gets blames a lot of the time for being one of the most dishonest ones.
KYM; Yeah, and it definitely is. It’s hard. You’re kind of caught between the glamour and the hard work. I don’t subscribe to the bullshit anymore. The minute someone’s difficult, I just think, “I’m not working with you anymore”. Life’s too short.
She paused.
KYM; I don’t like that sometimes people don’t recognize talent because it doesn’t have an accompanying CV.
SARAH; You obviously recognized that even when you chose experience over university at the beginning of your career.
KYM; Absolutely. I wanted to see all facets. I worked briefly in PR, in retail obviously, at a magazine, and I was a model when I was a kid and there are still other things I wish I’d done.
SARAH; Like what?
KYM; I never worked with a designer. I didn’t get a degree and I didn’t work with a designer. A lot of it was a bit, kind of, self-taught. Not having a business person around to tell me about budgets and I’d be like, “I’ll have a hundred of those $500 pieces of fabric, thanks!”
Laughter rang behind her words.
KYM; Then I’d be like, “oh, fuck.”
SARAH; It’s all part of it, isn’t it.
KYM; It is, and hopefully it’ll be a bit more easy-going in the future.
SARAH; Speaking of, what does the future hold for Ellery?
KYM; Hopefully a presentation in Paris, that’s what I’m working towards. I’ve had meetings with the head of Paris Fashion Week, to try and secure a slot. If I get it, it’ll be pretty crazy, because Colette Dinnigan is the only other Australian that’s had that. I admire her business a lot, I’ve heard she’s a real hard-arse, but I finally met her the other night. I was like, “hi!”
Kym, hand on hips, offered an exaggerated performance of enthusiasm.
KYM; I said to her, “I’m a huge fan, and I saw a documentary on you once, and I just want to say… well… done.” She kind of didn’t know what to do, I think. She was like, “oh, um, thank you.”
After a few amusing moments, we all sobered up.
KYM; Anyway, what was the point? Oh, Ellery. Yes. It’s all very exciting.
PHOTOGRAPHY; Cale Mason
WORDS; Sarah Scaife
