Disciples set sale for golden fleece
- Filed under: Alternative Lifestyle, Fashion, Fashion Week, Fendi, Kiss Bloggs, kissfendi
- Date: Jan 16,2008
HERE we are in the sumptuous Florentine salon of the Palazzo Corsini, decorated with frescoes and all manner of pilasters, balconies, and large golden chandeliers.
In that stylish Italian mix of old and new, this ancient room is set with rows of clear perspex Louis chairs and down the centre an extraordinary hi-tech catwalk with flashing digital read-outs.
Sweeping around the room is a light logo that somewhat incongruously spells “Australian Merino Wool”.
In this magnificent setting in Florence, we are about to witness a young-designer parade that aims to relaunch Australian wool into the hearts and minds of the European fashion market.
Called the Protege Project, five young, relatively unknown designers have been chosen by five incredibly well-known fashion identities, and get the chance of a lifetime to show a collection using Australian merino wool.
The names are Kristian Aadnevik (chosen by Donatella Versace), Jean Pierre Braganza (chosen by Karl Lagerfeld), Ioannis Cholidis (chosen by Paul Smith), Julian Louie (chosen by Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein) and Sandra Backlund (chosen by Franca Sozzani).
It’s all part of Australian Wool Innovation’s bicentary celebration of the sale of the first Australian commercial wool bale to Europe.
And it takes its inspiration from the days of the International Wool Secretariat, when two unknown designers, Yves Saint-Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld, won first prizes for their designs in 1954.
Its new incarnation, AWI - or Ahwee, as the Italians endearingly pronounce it - is like the old IWS, pumping a lot of the Australian wool growers’ money into this renewed push into Europe.
The parade tonight is the brainchild of two Italians, Andreina Longhi, head of the Italian agency hired by AWI, and Sozzani, the much photographed editor of Italian Vogue. /theaustralian.news.com.au
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