Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2024 i Vogue Australia

Avant Australia fair Geographic isolation has fed into an ability to be independent thinkers. Our newest style handwriting comes via a next guard of emerging labels that innovate in shape, material and construction, paying homage to our most cerebral designer icons. Scan the QR code to shop Vogue's edit of the best Australian brands. First resort Like the vitality of nature, brave use of colour and an embrace of prints is synonymous with our resort-focused style vocabulary, so fly the flag in volume, an explosion of florals, and saturated hues. Dramatic silhouettes reign. Natural inclination A rawness, an effortless ease, each inform a visual language rooted in natural fibres. Slubby and sleek linens, woven knits and homespun macramé, featherweight silk; breathability accounts for the blazing sun, and our predisposition to…

Conventionality is not something you'd associate with Şener Besim. An eyewear designer for two years, before creating jewellery, and more recently clothing, he added categories only when things were just right. Like finding hand-milled titanium for his Japan-made sunglasses that take more than 1,000 hours to make, or Turkish mercerised cotton for his fifirst resort collection of minimalist twist-back T-shirts and dresses last year. His meticulousness can be traced back to earlier days doing work experience at a Melbourne tailor, surrounded by Italian fabrics and the labouring of cut during the highoctane 1980s. After launching in Paris in 2016, he's won favour with the likes of Tilda Swinton and artists and architects he's collaborated with. ThThanks to Turkish and Albanian parents, Besim is continually inspired by soaring and complex Middle…

VOGUE “You can either become more rigid as you become older, but you can also become more free” – NICOLE KIDMAN We should probably talk about the snake. Nicole Kidman certainly wants to. She loves snakes. “I like them,” Kidman clarifies, with a laugh. “I love my children, I love my husband.” But, yes, she does like snakes. “I think it's something to do with the same way that I skydive or scuba dive,” Kidman begins. The actor, 56, is comfortable with being uncomfortable in a way that continues to subvert every expectation about her. Kidman is a movie star who has made television her growth industry, an artist, possessing of ferocious intellect, who isn't afraid to produce confronting, provocative work. A woman who, when presented with a snake on…

VOGUE AUSTRALIA: What's the first thing you do when you wake up? ADRIAN NORRIS: “I wake up at 4.30am and head straight to the gym. I work out with my trainer; we usually focus on strength and conditioning before heading home to an Amino Acid Superblend – it contains all nine essential amino acids, the building blocks of life. I use it to support and enhance muscle tone after my workout, and to kickstart my energy levels for the day ahead.” VA: What are three things you do every day? AN: “Exercise, cold shower and meditate – in that order.” VA: When do you feel most focused? AN: “After drinking Ikkari Bulletproof Tonic. It's formulated with plant extracts to support focus, clarity and concentration.” VA: How did you come up…

Aquarius 21 January-18 February This month is all about you with the Sun, a New Moon and Mercury energising your sign. Add Venus and Mars to the mix and you're a magnet for love, money and passion. Releasing fears around commitments could occur thanks to a cleansing Full Moon, but if you feel lacking in any way, lean into the Moon's north node and comet Chiron to help you learn how to feel complete. STYLE ICON: Alicia Keys Taurus 21 April-21 May Your career gets a boost from the cosmos with Mercury, a New Moon, passionate Mars and your ruler Venus all lining up for you now. Quirky work styles could emerge and you might just love your job more or hook up with someone linked to your role. Ambitions…

DIVYA BALA “I began my career at British Vogue and currently am a contributing editor to Vogue India, so being commissioned for Vogue Australia, the edition I grew up reading, was especially meaningful for me,” says Sydney-born, Parisbased writer and editorial consultant Divya Bala. Tasked with penning ‘Home and away’ from page 120, which chronicles the success of Australians abroad, Bala set out to convey that “despite where we come from or where we are in the world, Australians are in possession of a truly unique national spirit, work ethic and ambition that is appreciated globally”. MONTANA PUGH “My job is to create an environment that helps tell the story,” set designer Montana Pugh, who worked alongside photographer Steven Klein on cover star Nicole Kidman's New Yorkbased shoot, tells Vogue…

VIEWPOINT Since moving from Russia to Australia at 17 years old, Marina Afonina has fallen in love with the ocean. It's a grounding principle at her fashion brand Albus Lumen, with diaphanous silk slip dresses and linens that evoke a languid, effortless elegance. It was also top of mind when she and revered jeweller Ryan Storer, a close friend, created wearable regalia for her spring/summer ‘24 collection, by weaving precious stones not only into jewellery, but into clothes. “A puzzle,” Afonina finishes. “Yes, a puzzle!” Storer agrees. Certain pieces are made of pieced-together bijoux, like a camisole top created using hundreds of shell fragments, evocative of a shimmering jigsaw. Other garments use jewellery more sparingly; one blue gown has a shoulder strap made from crystals in oceanic blue and iridescent…

FIRST PERSON Ash Barty has always been intent on creating change off the court. The tennis champion first began working with kids while still competing professionally, setting up sports programs and creating scholarship funds for Indigenous children. Following her retirement in 2022 after winning three grand slam tournaments – the French Open, Wimbledon and the Australian Open – and the birth of her son, Hayden, in July, the athlete is back in business, launching the Ash Barty Foundation. The work began in her home state Queensland, focusing on education and sport for children, and is inspired by many of her fellow athletes, including her long-term mentor and friend, Indigenous tennis trailblazer Evonne Goolagong Cawley. Here, she charts her dream to improve the lives of all Australian children. “My parents were…

Australia: a land of king tides, extreme trade winds, and unparalleled tectonic movement. Fearless, unbridled kinesis is in our DNA. It is perhaps why so many Australians have set out from this wild, whirring island to seek out new momentum overseas. For Canberra-born, Brisbane-raised chef James Henry, co-founder of the celebrated Le Doyenné restaurant, farm and guesthouse just outside of Paris, life abroad is a path well-trodden. His father's career in the Department of Foreign Affairs saw Henry and his family bounce between cities in Australia, Saudi Arabia, Asia, the US and the UK throughout his childhood. “This is the longest I've lived anywhere since high school,” Henry, 40, admits of his almost 15-year tenure in France. Henry cut his teeth as a “dishy” at a bistro on Brisbane's James…

Few New York fashion week experiences compare to attending a Dion Lee show. On a humid Saturday last September, guests poured into a dark space inside a building by architect Frank Gehry in Chelsea, for a 10pm start. Crowds parted to make room for A-listers, including Ice Spice – Lee, with his keen eye for music talent, tapped the 24-year-old rapper early last year and she's now a four-time Grammy nominee with a Spotify audience of 30 million. But despite thumping music and a buzzing scene, Lee says creating a nightclub feel was the last thing on his mind. “We were bumped from our previous time slot on a Friday evening [due to another show] – but then we moved to Tuesday and found out it was the [MTV] VMAs,”…

OUTER PLAYER Barn coats, biker jackets – all take their start points from workwear: heavy-duty and robust. The idea is a hero piece that pulls everything together from JW Anderson and Marni's muscular blazers, to Gucci's utility-meets-car coat to throw atop a lace slip, and Louis Vuitton's heavy-duty cropped leather trench – a surefire wardrobe lifer. The proportions are slightly blown out and the directive is to wear in and make our own – signs of wear inclusive. IN ROUGE From the proliferation of the floral motif of the season, the rose, to Gucci's new hue Ancora red – a glossy, Oxblood, after-dark hue that new creative director Sabato de Sarno is emblematically deploying as his era-starting shade – the colour was everywhere. The most compelling option however was a…

FOOD How do I explain what we're doing?” Ellie Bouhadana says, with a little smile. We're looking for somewhere to sit in the courtyard next to Hope St Radio, the Collingwood wine bar where she has been head chef for the past three years. Owners Jack Shaw and Pete Baxter, who picked Bouhadana to run the kitchen back in 2021 after attending one of the pop-up dinners she hosted on the street outside her house, are looking quizzically in our direction. She has spent the day interviewing for a new chef, she explains; perhaps they think I am one such candidate. Bouhadana relays that I'm here for Vogue Australia and Shaw and Baxter leap into action, dragging an enormous table into the sun for us. We settle in, glasses of…

Zahra Newman is well acquainted with the responsibility of being the only actor on stage. For her successful run as Billie Holiday in Melbourne Theatre Company's justwrapped Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, and in her upcoming work in the dramatisation of Maxine Beneba Clarke's The Hate Race at Malthouse Theatre as well as Kip Williams's highly anticipated Dracula retelling, opening at Sydney Theatre Company in July, the Jamaican-born Australian is a one-woman powerhouse. Solo shows are challenging and high pressure, but according to Newman they can also be very rewarding, acting as a powerful teacher for herself as an actor and her relationship with an audience. “There's just something about direct address, particularly the kinds of solo shows I've done, which involve inviting the audience into the world…

Hair: Sophie Roberts Make-up: Gillian Campbell Model: Abbey Lee Set design: Natalie Turnbull…

October 2023, and Christopher Esber was finally on the other side of his debut on the Paris fashion week schedule. His spring/summer ‘24 show was the culmination of 14 years of dogged, determined hard work, but once a career-long goal like this is reached, the ensuing low can be swift – especially if a champagne celebration is involved. But Esber's response was different, primal even. “I had the immediate need to lay on grass, and to reconnect with the earth,” he reflects of showing at the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine between Givenchy and Rick Owens. “The lead-up to the show had kept me away from that connection I felt I needed, so I lay on a small grass patch with my team.” For those who know the Sydney-born…

BEAUTY When I was about seven or so – still barely aware of having an appearance – a friend brought to school a fashion magazine she had stolen from her mother and, pointing to the models, patiently explained that this was the way to look. Later that day, alone in the bathroom, I scrutinised myself. My face was okay, I decided; as soon as the freckles faded away, I could even give this modeling thing a shot. I remain endeared by the thought of that moon-faced, pot-bellied kid giving herself the once-over and concluding that the smattering of freckles was all that stood between her and a career on the runways. Ironically, 25 years later, my freckles are about the only physical trait I do share with models. Chloe Oh…

I wish they'd make one of these things for grown-ups,” my husband and I would often quip after laying our newborn son down in the Snoo, a fandangle, motorised bassinet replete with white noise and, most impressively, a cot base that continuously sways – left, right, left, right. The idea? A parent's pregnant belly is a cosy, humming, constantly moving home for the first nine months of life, so why not mimic the soothing sensations of the womb says the brand's co-founder Dr Harvey Karp, outside of it? That's also the premise behind a host of sleep assists that could have been lifted straight from the pages of a dogeared newborn sleep bible. Chief among them: rocking. “It's one of the first sensory stimulations we ever encounter as a human…

There was no shortage of star power on the red carpet at Melbourne's National Gallery of Victoria's (NGV) prestigious annual Gala. Held in early December and coinciding with the launch of the gallery's NGV Triennial 2023 exhibition, the night was a merging of art, fashion, performance and sumptuous food, with an exclusive preview of the NGV Triennial for dressed-to-impress guests, among them Liam Hemsworth and Gabriella Brooks, Abbey Lee, Baker Boy and Olivia DeJonge. Spread across all four floors of the gallery, the exhibition features 100 works from 120 artists, designers and collectives exploring the themes of magic, matter and memory. Highlights include Tracey Emin's five-metre-high neon light installation, Yoko Ono's large-scale work I Love You Earth, a 100-metre-long woven artwork by women from Central-West Arnhem Land, and eight garments…

When Jean Paul Gaultier hosts an event, you know it's going to be out-of-this-world extraordinary. Kicking off the Australian summer, the brand invited guests to celebrate the launch of its latest fragrance, Gaultier Divine, hosting a Gaultier Temple of Temptation party in Sydney's Darlinghurst. A dress code of “gilded self-expression” saw the fashion crowd go all out with the glitz, fantasy and daring, a tribute to a designer known for his subversion and innovative work that embraces all shapes, colours and identities. Guests were spotted in an array of signature Gaultier prints, as well as unique and expressive interpretations of the Gaultier style. Headlined by DJ Rich Penny and musician Lucy Lucy, entertainment included gilded mermaids and golden-clad dancers, custom Gaultier cocktails, a photo booth and a tarot card reader…