CIT Fashion Show 2011

Designer :Amy Taylor

Last Thursday we viewed the amazing talent on display at the CIT Fashion Show. The annual parade showcased the work of the 2011 Bachelor of Design(Fashion) students, each with their own amazing, extravagant style. The Bus Depot was full to the brim with Canberra's most creative, fashion obsessed personalities and we were all craning our  necks to get the best view of the beautiful garments on show. 

Designer :Alice Sutton

 CIT boasts graduates working under many successful industry leaders such as Sass and Bide, Alexander McQueen, Veronica Maine, and Kirrily Johnston. We wish the graduates all the best in their exciting careers!

Tahnee Crockford

Elizabeth Knight

Tips and tricks to buying online

A lot of people are turning to buying online to get the best prices and widest range of products... without even leaving the comfort of your lounge room. Ebay is one of the biggest and well known online shops worldwide but there is a bit of an art when it comes to finding and winning an item that you want so here are my tips to finding and winning your favourite brands or items:

1. Set up email alerts. You can enter your favourite brands, price range etc and when an item that matches what you want is posted, you will get an email from eBay with the item details.
Whenever you do a search on eBay an option to 'save this search' will appear below the search box. By following the prompts you can set up alerts via email.

2. Mobile bidding. Bid from your mobile phone and get notifications if you are out bid.
How to set up notifications

3. Avoid disappointment in the final moments of bidding. Watching the counter tick down in the final seconds of an auction is exciting if there are a few people bidding, but it can be so disappointing when your browser doesn't process your bid fast enough and you get outbid at the final moment. Decide before hand how much you would really be happy to pay for the item in store and bid accordingly, I have been pipped at the post many times! It's hard to not get carried away and pay more than you want so decide on what you think is a good price before the shopping adrenaline kicks in!


Happy bidding!!

Review top 
Bidding ends tonight

We have Sass and Bide, Armani, Bare by Rebecca Davies, Cooper st, Wayne Cooper, French Connection, Veronica Maine, Alannah Hill and more finishing within the next 2 days. FabricFirst

Whether your looking for work or play, you find
something you love at Material Pleasures ;)
Photography : Jiawa Liu
Make up : Chloe Gouneau
Model : Kathleen McKenna

It's only one month till Christmas and we're at the start of  the silly season with x-mas parties and work functions penciled in the diary. We have a heap of new stock in store for all your events and we have tonnes of small sizes so if you have any teeny- tiny friends or family bring them in for some retail therapy!

Zoe Wittner heels 

Fashion Parade on Kingston Foreshore Thursday night

CIT Momentum 2011 - Creative Industries Showcase

CIT's expo for their creative industry courses is on at the Kingston Foreshore's Old Bus Depot until tomorrow. I definitely recommend having a look, the work on display is amazing.
On the upper floor they have static and computer displays of visual art, photography, interior design, building design, architectural drafting, graphic design and media open for viewing from 9.30 am to 4pm. On Thursday in the foreshore gallery they have presentations, talks, music performances and a Hamlet screen Production ( download their event itinery from their site here)

Tomorrow night the fashion graduates will be hosting a fashion parade at 7pm (This is a ticketed event , tix can be booked at http://www.outincanberra.com.au/products or through Department of the Exterior or Itrip, Iskip Braddon for $40 which includes entry to the after  party at Charlie Blacks, Manuka)

Static fashion display by the CIT graduates

Photography by Josie Cosgrove.
My snap shots don't do these amazing works justice - come check them out
 tomorrow at the Old Bus Depot Markets

Photography by Elanna Woods

Lanvin Paris 2012 Spring/ Summer Collection

Check out Lanvin's super dramatic runway show : 

Lanvin spring /summer 2012

Material Pleasures in Vogue Magazine

Yep! You heard right!
We just about dropped the phone when we got a call from the Vogue Australia marketing team asking if we would like to be part of their editorial ad section in their magazine.
From January 2012 you will be seeing glimpses of Material Pleasures in the monthly fashion mag.
We are all a bit excited ;)

Fleur Wood and Vintage picks

Close up of lace on Fleur Wood dress -
Fleur Wood is known for her beautiful
 luxurious fabrics and embroidery

Here are some of my favorite picks for the week. As always, new pretties are coming in thick and fast so come and visit us this week end :)

Quirky parrot brooch

Fleur Wood lace slip dress

Halter Neck 1950s swing dress

Back of pink vintage dress
with button feature

Sundays at the Old Bus Depot Markets

Old Bus Depot Markets open every Sunday
Kingston Foreshore

Every Sunday The Old Bus Depot Markets hosts a collection of the most amazing pastries, international foods, local wine, flowers, jewelry, home wares, fashion, photography, art, millinery and so much more. The market is 17 years young and still running strong with much of the Canberra community frequenting the event every week end.

The Old Bus Depot Market lower level

Here's a little taste of the 200+ stalls :

Boloco Creek Steelworks has an incredible collection of sculptures, garden ornaments, and homewares all handcrafted from recycled steel. The workmanship in each piece is amazing and they fit beautifully with the current industrial-chic home decorating trend.

Boloco Creek Steelworks
Candle sticks and fruit bowl created with recycled steel

Boloco Creek Steelworks
Handmade amazing things fabricated from recycled steel.

Revived Wares by Tess Gifford. "Jewelry bras and accessories made with buttons beads and curiosities"

This is one very creative lady, my favorite piece was a black necklace that was made from heaps of beautiful big buttons sewn into a 'v' shape, my pic didn't turn out very impressive though so I've chosen to show off one of her cool ring-pull tab necklaces.

Revived Wares
Necklace made from recycled ring pulls!

The markets always have some cool live entertainment, today they had an accordion player outside who set this awesome quirky carnival feel. This busker had an amazing voice... and really, really cool hair, I'm a little envious!

Live music - Guitarist

Of course our little market shop is one of my favorites!

I tried to get a couple of inside pics but it was insanely busy, well done Mel and Little Rebecca, I can't believe how calm and collected you both were!

Material Pleasures
Our cozy corner, packed to the rafters with stock!

I drooled over the amazing array of gourmet chocolate, Turkish delicacies, nougat and cheeses before selecting this gorgeous patisserie to share with you from Creme n' Sugar.

Creme n' Sugar Patisserie

I had to include some of these beautiful, intricate necklaces by Lillian Toms. The time and patience taken to create each piece as well as her creativity blows me away!

Lillian Toms beautiful beaded jewelry
classyglassdesigns.com.au

More by Lillian Toms

Another Treasure

Merry-go-round necklace

This little pretty has just come into our possession. Isn't it gorgeous!

Carousel/ horses necklace

New spring/summer looks from Material Pleasures

As promised here are a selection of pics from last week ends shoot, we will have some behind the scenes shots and goss coming soon x

Model : Kathleen McKenna
Make up : Chloe Gouneau
Photographer : Jiawa Liu
Stylist : Tahlia Downes

Model : Kathleen McKenna
Make up : Chloe Gouneau
Photographer : Jiawa Liu
Stylist : Tahlia Downes

Model : Kathleen McKenna
Make up : Chloe Gouneau
Photographer : Jiawa Liu
Stylist : Tahlia Downes

Model : Kathleen McKenna
Make up : Chloe Gouneau
Photographer : Jiawa Liu
Stylist : Tahlia Downes

Material Pleasures on Ebay

Wayne Cooper Dress
Brand new with tags
$39 on Ebay

You can now find a selection of Material Pleasures treasure on-line! Our user name is Fabric First, we currently have Wayne Cooper, Caractère, Anne Klein, Little Joe by Gail Elliott (New York), Nicola Waite, Zimmermann, Covers, Verse by Versace, Morrissey, George Gross, Cohen et Sabine, Leona Edmiston, Lisa Ho, Teelia Peploe, Empire Rose and Natasha Gan. Prices currently range from $9 - $39.

I have a little bit of an addiction to ebay... Receiving your parcel in the mail is so exciting! Its like christmas only you know what your getting ;) What could be better than shopping from the comfort of your lounge room in you jim-jams!

Little Joe by Gail Elliott (New York) silk & lace dress
$19

Photo-shoots, Fash'nTreasure and Alexander McQueen

I had the most incredible day today!

We arranged a photo shoot this morning for Material Pleasures with Jiawa from Closet Voyage. As I was fossicking around putting together a few looks I discovered an Alexander McQueen jacket that had been hidden away somewhere AND some divine  new  shoes waiting to go in the shop !

We had such a great time doing the shoot I can't wait to put up the pics! Jiawa is an incredibly talented photographer and took some beautiful pictures – I’ll have an update soon to show off her photos.

Fash’n’Treasure was on today – Material Pleasures had a stall with some great bargains ( lots of $5 items!). By the time I got there the racks were near naked! I’m kind of glad I missed the insane frenzy of fashion addicts.

DeAnne of PantyhoseParlour

I met some really cool stall holders; De Anne of PantyhoseParlour.com had a beautiful collection of vintage suitcases, fashion and of course pantyhose. I definitely recommend checking out her stall next Fash’n’treasure. She’s gorgeous!

Barb's beautiful head wear - BM Designs 

I also fell in love with Barb Mickelson’s crazy hats and fascinators.  She’s at the Old Bus Depo Markets every Sunday with her lovely collection.

Thank You

Thank you so much to all the ladies that visited us on Tuesday for our Melbourne Cup event .
 You made the day a total success with your amazing hats from the amazingly creative convertible hat to the feathers and fascinators.


We hope you enjoyed it as much as much as we did !


Congratulation to our winners of the $100 gift voucher and the Moet ! Enjoy :)

Vintage Fair

Coco Repose 

On Saturday I frocked up and visited The Way We Wear Vintage Fair at Albert Hall . I had heard amazing things about these markets but have never been,  I was hooked as soon as I saw my first vintage lady. The lady at the door was dressed in the most devine 1950s style with hair and makeup styled to perfection!

Walking into the beautiful hall was like stepping into a time machine with a blur of fashion from the last 200 years. 

The stalls were all beautifully presented. My favorite was Coco Repose by Jessica Guthrie. Jessica has a polished selection of books, shoes, hats, dresses and lots of delicious little treasures. You can check out her pretties here.

The fairs are also held in Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast & Hobart. Lock in  29th-30th June in your diary for the next Canberra The Way We Wear Fair!

Gorgeous Jessica of Coco Repose

Circa Vintage Hats

For more details visit  thewaywewearfairs.com