Neighbours

Prior to moving to the fashion capital I lived in one of those ridiculously cool converted flats that once hailed as some type of factory, a cannery factory in fact – my flat mate and I would joke about hearing asparagus screaming through out the night (bad, bad joke). You may be asking how on earth tortured vegetables are at all related to the recurrent theme of fashion you find scrawled across these digital pages daily?

Well… back in 2005/6 my neighbour at this cannery place was a funny little eclectic, some what odd maybe even charming Malaysian lady. I would visit her weekly, show her my recent purchases, drink cups of tea, talk about her 2 daughters, the trials and tribulations of her single motherhood and the love we all seemed to share for fashion and design. One ordinary day, In the middle of one of these weekly drop ins, from a bedroom toward the back of her flat appeared a very tall, very slim beautiful young lady circa 19 years maybe 20 at a stretch. We began to chat and once again the common thread of fashion became a topic. Little did I know at that point that for the next 2 years I would live next door to a young Australian girl known as Gail Reid who would one day become the ‘Gail Force’ (oh the play on words is too much) behind the ever emerging label Gail Sorronda.

Soon enough the Gail Sorronda Brand began to feature in free(maga)zines all over Brisbane and before we knew it she was showing at G’day LA and stocking all over the country including big movers and shakers in the Queensland/Australian fashion world like Blonde Venus, Natalie Denning and The Cornershop (Belinda Seper actually claiming to have founded this great new talent).

SS06

I much prefer her earlier work over the collections she has launched of late - SS06 (which may have been her graduate collection – stab in the dark here) was very pretty with lots of wrapping and bow details and I of course love a good ruffle on the behind. Move foreword to AW08 and we find some type of goth inspired, all black, simple not so 'wow' range of jersey and lycra. Could there be a too much too soon, not enough time spent at the desk theme here? I also heard a rumour Gail managed to fit in a designer collaborative gig with Target at some point also. No Comment.

AW08

With limbs not so model like I unfortunately was not built to wear a Gail Sorronda creation. I find her work not so easy or even close to the literal meaning ready to wear, however, I do appreciate her mish mash of hard structure and soft draping all on a tricky, stark pallet of black and white. I can most certainly see her appeal to Seper and co. and although I won’t be a consumer I am always very proud of Aussies who make their mark in the ever difficult and guerrilla market that is fashion. Well Done You.