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Creatives and Ideas

Acquaint Chelsea Hickman

Lessons in Fashion History Kristian Calleri September

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Acquaint yourself with some of Australia’s best up and coming creatives. Acquaint takes a look into the minds of the best and brightest, introducing you to new artists, designers writers and ideas. Interested in a particular creative? Get to know them more closely on acquaintmag.com

Introducing Pg. 4

Chelsea Hickman Fashion journalist Chelsea Hickman looks at legendary iconoclast Vivienne Westwood

Pg. 8

kristian Calleri

Meet the man who calls himself designs ‘iced out fresh unit’

Pg. 10 Luke Tiziani The future of design looks bright with this soon to be RMIT graduate’s vision and talent.

Pg. 12

Hayley Stead Hayley looks at the state of current design in Melbourne

Pg. 14

Alex Weston

On the modern asthetics and what makes Australian design, Australian

Pg. 16

Kaspar Grosskopf Kasper shows Acquaint what he has been working on, and what he’s planning for the future.

Pg. 18 Anna Jenkins Anna shares her art with us and talks about style and being an individual in the creative industry

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Looking Into Fashion’s Rich History 4

Photography by Chien Fang

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Photography by Alexander White

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Chelsea Hickman

Lessons in Fashion History Words by Chelsea Hickman

Vivienne Isabel Swire was born in 1941 to a working class family in England’s textilemill region. She made her own clothes as a teenager and altered her school uniform to suit her outlandish personality. She studied silver smithing at Harrow Art School with the intention of making and selling jewelry but couldn’t see herself making enough money to get by so decided to study teaching instead.

She married Derek Westwood in 1962, had a son named Ben shortly after but the couple divorced in 1965 probably because Vivienne met Malcolm Mclaren, an art school drop out with a love for music and rebellion and was five years her junior.

They had a son named Joe who later in his life started the lingerie label Agent Provocateur.

In 1971, West and Mclaren opened the shop Let It Rock selling clothes that reflected punk emerging in UK society. West described her look at this time as “Easter egg chick on acid” referring to her spiky peroxide blonde hair, skin tight trousers and lemon coloured mohair sweater.

A year later the pair decided to change the name of the shop to Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die and evolved the shops clothing into more James Dean-bikie-leather inspired.

There was intense controversy around some items in the shop being too pornographical so in 1974 West and Mclaren reacted to these accusations by out rightly calling the shop Sex and began selling bondage gear for casual wear and porno printed on t-shirts. Whilst West controlled the on-goings of the shop and was its main clothing designer, Mclaren was a band manager and often got his bands to wear West’s designs. West’s clothing designs and music combined had the biggest impact on

society through punk rock band The Sex Pistols.

The image of the band created somewhat of a cult and being a punk rocker was not only about the music and fashion but it was also an artistic, anarchist and political statement.

In 1976, the name of the shop was changed to Seditionaries’ just when the Sex Pistols were at their height and had created a reputation for Westwood’s designs.

The Punk Rock movement was at its peak in 1977 when the Sex Pistols released God Save The Queen but something like 18 months after that it just seemed to stop. The bass player for the Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious, died of a heroin overdose, Mclaren and West were still broke and closed down the shop because the lease was finished.

In 1981 they had their first ever fashion show titled ‘Pirate’ with a completely new look from the punk rock they were known for. The new collection was flamboyant in attitude, historical in essence and somewhat androgynous. With this collection, the shop was reopened and titled World’s End. Vivienne claimed that she had an “in-built clock that always reacts against anything orthodox”.

She had no formal training and was unrestricted by traditional constraints of pattern cutting.

She was always interested in the idea of a Queen which is reflected in a lot of her work after 1980 when she had enough money to execute her more technical 18th century inspired ideas and based on those ideas has ironically managed to build her own empire over the past 40 years.

To learn more and Chelsea, fashion history or Chelsea’s personal design work visit www.acquaintmag.com/designresidence

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Kristian Calleri

The Fresh Prince of Design Interview and photography by Hayden Mitchell

Who are you?

My names Kristian Calleri but MF’s call me KC_1er.

What do you do?

I’m am a fresh design student at RMIT, I am the most iced out unit walking around the joint in the design department, building 9 level 3. I pretty much freeze the whole floor and put everyone on skates because I am that icy.

Why do you do it?

I do design because I love it, without design I’m not sure what else I would be doing. It allows me to be a fresh MF and to be an iced out fresh unit.

Most inspirational person to you?

The most inspirational person would have to be KAWS, like the MF knows freshness, he pretty mush stepped out the womb a fresh unit.

He is steppin’ all the time, like he pretty much is ice. Another person is Marc MF Newson, this unit is the

definition of FUTURE, this unit is so fresh. They way in which he takes things to the next level, is something I try to replicate with my design.

Your views on the current state of design?

My view on the current state of design is that it keeps getting better and better, design is forever becoming more popular, everything benefits from FRESH design.

Where do you want design to go?

I’m not sure where I want design to go, design can go anywhere.

Where do you want design to take you?

I would love to work as a graphic designer for nike, supreme, palace or any other big global brand. That would be the dream job, then I would be steppin hard, I would be one ICED OUT FRESH UNIT.

To learn more and kristian, freshness and his work visit www.acquaintmag.com/designresidence

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