Peta Pledger — vintage inspired goddess

Lover The Label

Tarot cards, folk music, Charles Manson, ballet, freaks and geeks, and Patty Hearst can all take responsibility for being some of the inspiration’s behind the Australian fashion label, Lover. It’s all too clever and witty to ignore. Each collection adheres to a specific narrative and a central character. Read more

Claude Maus

If on a picture perfect summer’s day, you find yourself wishing for a blizzard, something is wrong. Very wrong. But don’t panic, this weather preference has nothing to do with hatin’ on sunshine, and everything to do with an infamous leather bomber jacket from Claude Maus. It’ll have you hooked with its luxurious soft leather, stitched front paneling, Italian wool lining and the very necessary detachable hood. If you’re somewhere cold, then chances are you’re nowhere near this Australian-based label. So if you’re looking for a push in the purchase direction, it’ll be pleasing to know that the Aussie dollar ain’t doing too good. Gives a whole new meaning to the term ‘investment piece’, doesn’t it? Read more

Hussy’s Exotic Escape

The Hussy Summer 2009 Exotic Escape collection is up for viewing. I quite like the leather Zanzibar sandals for a stylish casual look that’s slightly sophisticated. While there are a few nice dresses in the new line, I much prefer the accessories and clutches. That’s partially why the rest of the globe has come to love this iconic Aussie label, right?

Ken Taylor

Australian illustrator Ken Taylor has created imagery for some of rock n’ ’roll’s great purveyors of sound, from the Rolling Stones and Queens of the Stone Age, to Nine Inch Nails and the Mars Volta. He has an easily recognizable style that screams sharp edge cool. Bold and bawdy, Taylor’s pieces use vivid colour to create a cut-out-comic-like feel reminiscent of old movie posters from the 1930s and 40s.

Kelly Smith

Beautiful, delicate, fragile, a little bit collage, a little bit sketchfull. This is the work of Kelly Smith. Combining several mediums in a collaborative expose between pencil, paint and print to create timeless works of elegant splendour, it is easy to compare Smith’s works to the last snowflake of winter, fleeting but real, avoiding the brash bright mercantile world for the prettier climes of illustrative pleasure. Smith has a twelve-day exhibition on at the 696 Space in Brunswick, Melbourne, opening November 14.

Brandt Peters

Trapped in a time warp between then and now, the work of Brandt Peters combines an old school aesthetic with a modernity bordering on futuristic fantasy, with a touch of morbid fascination thrown in for good measure. In other words, he creates wonderful imagery combining cartoon-like pin-ups with sometimes freakish attributes (large skulled beings, for instance), and every now and then seems to throw in a nod to sci-fi — such as a mechanical glass jar — for good measure. Muted tones replace the bawdy colours often associated with such mediums, giving his pieces a whimsical, dream like quality. He must live in a delightfully wispy world.