#335 Wellington People Part II - Bret from Flight of the Conchords

I saw Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords yesterday on Victoria Street but only recognised him a moment after I'd walked past him and couldn't bring myself to run back and ask him for a picture. So when I ran into Bret at Deluxe this afternoon I didn't let the opportunity go to waste.

He's much taller than he looks on TV!

#334 Wellington people - Ben and Julian

Ben and Julian, Crane Brothers Tailors, outside the new Crane Brothers store on Customhouse Quay.

#333 Hungry Emu

Above: me throwing up the Hungry Emu with an art Emu in France, 2006.

Below: me throwing up the Hungry Emu with a tourist Moa in Wellington, 2009.

#332 NZ Models in Milan Part IV - Emma Champtaloup at Emporio Armani

Milan Fashion Week is one day in and already one of our New Zealand girls has scored a biggie. Emma Champtaloup walked in the Emporio Armani show, not a bad effort for a first season model.

Rumour has it she's got another big show lined up for tomorrow too.

No sign of our other girls yet, but I'm looking out.

#331 Spotted on the Wellington streets - SOHOMO Club's Paul Phillips

You can take the boy away from Auckland, but you can't take Auckland away from the boy. I was walking up Cuba Mall a few hours ago when I heard someone calling my name. It was Paul Phillips, club promoter, party organiser and general good time guy. He's in town to promote Modular Presents OK OK Bag Raiders, on tonight from 10pm at Good Luck, and SOHOMO CLUB at San Francisco Bathhouse on 6 March.

I'll be there tonight so come say hi!

#330 Breakfast at Deluxe with Brother Josh (in Wellington)

They say Wellington is a pilot's least favourite city to fly into – apparently it has the shortest runway in the world and one of the highest wind rates. Nevertheless, my flight last night was uneventful besides the three hot apple and cinnamon pies AND ice cream they served me on board. I couldn't figure out why I was feeling so hungry when I got to the airport until I remembered that the last time I'd eaten anything was about eight hours earlier at Mexicalifresh. So when the flight attendant offered everyone seconds on the pies I told her to keep them coming.

On that same food note, I got up this morning and went with my brother (strictly hip hop speaking) Josh for breakfast at a little cafe right next to the massive Embassy theatre called Deluxe. It's the most quintessentially Wellington place I've ever seen – you could almost taste the hippy in the food!

Click for pics:

#329 Going to Wellington for the weekend

Sometimes rushed decisions are the best ones. I'm going to our fair nation's capital for the weekend on a whim, flying tonight, arriving back on Monday morning. Next post you read will be live from the windy city.

UNTIL THEN!

#328 Says Grazia Magazine: Gareth Pugh IS going to Dior Homme - Says me: What was I thinking!?

A Shaded View On Fashion

Those of you who read the profile on me in the Sunday Star Times' Sunday Magazine in the weekend might have noticed the following pull quote in bold:

"I really regret not breaking a news story that I got in Paris"

The news story I was talking about was just a little one involving Gareth Pugh (pictured above) taking over from Kris Van Assche (below) as head designer at Dior Homme.

Let me tell you a story.


Enjoy Fashion

It was the night of the Galliano show at Paris Fashion Week, and for some reason there was a two hour break between it and the previous show, which had been Givenchy. The air temperature was floating somewhere around the diabolically freezing mark, and we hadn't eaten anything in at least eight hours so we decided to hop off the bus and get some dinner at a small bistro around the corner from the Galliano venue. We were in a dodgy part of Paris and said bistro was filled with all sorts of dodgy characters. One of the staff was an older woman who smoked like a train while cooking our meals, not caring that her ash was dropping into the deep frier, the bread basket, the drinks, wherever it could go.

When our meals arrived, the older lady proceeded to tell our table that this was her "erotic year", the reason being that she had just turned 69. We laughed politely, trying not to choke on our ashed up meals.

After dinner my table of four went downstairs to use the facilities. Toilets are a rare commodity in France so you have to use them when you get the chance. The little boys room was full and it didn't look like it was going to let up anytime soon, so my other male dining companion (a 24 year old English journalist) and I went to the ladies. We'd been waiting for about five minutes when a young Japanese journalist walked in the door. He and the Brit were friends, and they started chatting.

According to him, Gareth Pugh was replacing Kris Van Assche as head designer at Dior Homme. How did he know? He worked for Vogue Hommes Japan which had recently done an interview with Pugh or Assche (my memory fails me) and the scoop had been revealed to the magazine during the course of the interview (the issue hasn't hit shelves yet).

My heart started racing, I hadn't heard a scoop that big in all my life. At this point though, I was faced with a dilemma. I've been a Dior Homme fan since the early Hedi Slimane days. Who hasn't? I was gutted when I heard he'd been replaced by Kris Van Assche, of whom I've never been a great fan. I've been meaning to say this for a while, but when his first collection for Dior Homme came out I really liked it. It was clean, well tailored and full of quirky detailing like shirts with fully pleated front panels. I may have been alone in my view though, because almost everything I heard from fellow fans and critics was negative.

So my problem was this: I really really really wanted to go to the Dior Homme show on the final day of Fashion Week. I'd requested a ticket but had been refused on the basis that New Zealand isn't an important enough market for the brand. I was still holding out hope that I'd turn up on the day though and make it into the show. That said, if I called them up and asked for a comment on whether Pugh was replacing Van Assche, my prospects of seeing the show would be greatly lessened.

So I didn't do anything.

The day of Dior Homme I did everything I could to get into the show. Everything. To no avail. And the Dior staff weren't even nice in their refusal. Why didn't I cause a scene and get all hardline journalist on their asses, asking them all sorts of questions about the takeover? I was exhausted and didn't really feel like generating that sort of negative publicity for myself at my first proper international fashion week.

So I sat back and wished I was watching the show - it turned out to be a great one, the best Van Assche had ever done with the brand.

The next day I found this article on Fashionista, which identified the rumour.

Everybody had started really thinking something when Delphine Arnault, daughter of Bernard Arnault (CEO of LVMH) showed up front row at Gareth Pugh's show. That was the final show of the week. I'd heard the rumour two days earlier.

And now Grazia is saying this:

"It's true! Gareth Pugh IS taking over at Dior Homme. The rumours started when Delphine Arnault, the daughter of LVMH head honcho Bernard Arnault sat front row at his debut menswear show in Paris, and now we've heard from well placed sources backstage at Louise Goldin that it's a done deal. No official from LVMH yet but we're expecting the announcement that Gareth is taking over from Dior Homme's current designer Kris van Assche any day now."

Rest assured if I find myself in that situation again, I won't hold back. Believe me or not, what I'm telling you is the truth. In my career to date, it's the one that got away. And it was *this* big!

#327 NZers at London Fashion Week Part VI - Stella at Osman Yousefzada

londonfashionweek.co.uk

London Fashion Week has come to a close, with the last day of shows wrapping up approximately two hours ago. Stella Maxwell left in style with two shows; Osman Yousefzada and Maria Francesca Pepe, the latter of which was not an on-schedule show and I haven't been able to locate photos yet.

Here she is in Osman Yousefzada though, (above and below).


londonfashionweek.co.uk

#326 What's in store at Gubb and Mackie by Jordan Rondel

Gubb and Mackie is now located in what was formerly the Little Brother store on High St. It's a smaller (and sans sign-writing) version of the grandiose G+M store on Customs St, which was housed in the heritage Buckland's Building. The store and the clothes are very nautically inspired – the cream floors, model ships and photos of boats make you feel like you're in a maritime museum that just happens to sell clothes.



I didn't have to convince Isaac very hard to try on about ten different things with the help of store manager George Vause. Already wearing boat shoes and rolled up beige pants, he looked more than ready to step onto his nonexistent yacht.





































5 High St Auckland
(09) 374 1949

#325 BOO U (naughty word) on Fleet FM right now!

fleetfm.co.nz

If you're still awake click here to listen to my good friends Paora and Emma (aka BOO U naughty word) on Fleet FM.

Those guys are funky fresh AND they just did an awesome shout out to yours truly!

I'm not allowed to say their full name because my Mum will tell me off.