Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2020 i Vogue Australia

For an issue that hits stands at the height of summer, there’s no better fit for our front cover than Elsa Pataky. The Spanish-born actor, who, surely we can now call our own, thanks to her marriage to Chris Hemsworth, radiates warmth and has a down-to-earth outlook that is quintessentially Aussie. The mum of three is so carefree she is known to turn up to photo shoots barefoot and with wet hair, having literally jumped out of the shower. She also happens to live in one of possibly the most inclusive and community-focussed regions in Australia – the New South Wales haven of Byron Bay, a place that brings to mind summer days spent diving under waves, walking on hot sand and the smell of sunscreen mixed with the sensation…

CALL OF DUTY There is an undeniably masculine bent to utility pieces, so reclaim them for a woman’s busy life. Shorts with a paper-bag waist in a neutral provide the comfort factor, and pockets offer a place to put everything – on shirts, or a hands-free waist bag. The more the better. Katharine Hamnett top, $485, from www.matchesfashion.com.Miu Miu shorts, $1,350. Jil Sander bag, $870, from www.matchesfashion.com. FIT FOR PURPOSE Although the great Australian outdoors is oft associated with breezy dresses, it has given rise to a long history of work wear made to weather the rigours of our climate. Channel their hard-wearing qualities in an update on the summer dress: a sand mini in a gauge with a bit of heft. Hermès vest, $13,995. Le 17 Septembre bag, $365,…

THERE’S NOTHING ABOUT Domenic Roylance’s story that’s typical. To start, he’s just finished his honours in fashion and textiles at the University of Technology Sydney and before he showed his student collection for his eponymous label, Roylance, he had already custom-made pieces for Billie Eilish, to feature in Vogue Australia. “I never thought it would get picked up,” the 25-year-old designer says, remembering how an XXL handpainted white jacket was worn by Eilish in last year’s July issue. “But seeing it appreciated and putting it on Billie was amazing.” As fledgling as brands get – he plans to apply for an MA in women’s wear at Central Saint Martins in London this year – that early boost gave him the confidence to pursue a defining element of his design thus…

WHEN WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE wrote that “love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs”, he could have been predicting the reactions to Van Cleef & Arpels’s newest high jewellery collection. Based on the apogee of romantic mythology – the 14th-century tale of Romeo and Juliet – the story might be familiar territory for most, but its power to transcend epochs is worthy of revisiting. The 1896-born maison has recognised that love, and the hope of new love, is something we need right now and is encapsulated through lushest shades of green. It is one of three key colours in the collection, including blue, emblematic of Montague and, red of Capulet. Emeralds are the star: the most beguiling of which is a triumvirate of exceptional Colombian stones on the Lovers’…

TEN MINUTES BEFORE Jack Steele arrived at the hotel where he and Matt Ford are sitting down with Vogue , his phone rang. It was their manager, Steele, 25, explains as he edges into a banquette after Ford, 24, his best friend and current flatmate who is olive-skinned and dark-haired to Steele’s tall, blond and fair looks. Next to each other, on the same side of a too-high, too-small table, they look if not nervous, then definitely discombobulated. For good reason. As the Instagram comedy duo the Inspired Unemployed, they have nearly 100,000 followers and their short clips – masterpieces of dance, lip-syncing, sketch comedy or a combination of all three – can garner 100,000 views in a week. “But this is the first time we’ve ever talked to a…

THE ‘WHY’ OF WORKING OUT It’s a universal truth that goal setting helps us stay focussed. It’s the same deal when it comes to our fitness regimen. Long-term goals – to run a marathon, gain muscle, lose weight, increase flexibility – keep us motivated over extended stretches and are neat devices for charting progress over time. But don’t discount the power of short-term goal setting, either. Cory George, a spokesperson for fitness phenomenon F45, says applying the ‘why’ to each session ultimately increases the efficiency of the workout. “Whether it’s a mini challenge of completing your first pull-up, performing 20 push-ups in a 30-second interval, or simply maintaining a controlled pace throughout the entire session, these little challenges all help support effective workouts.” THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT Among…

When Silvia Venturini Fendi stepped onto the runway after her autumn/winter ‘19/’20 ready-to-wear show last year, it marked the first time that she’d taken the bow without Karl Lagerfeld by her side. Three days before, he had called her from his hospital bed in Paris. “He still wanted to come to Milan. He was having ideas, asking about the collection, sending pictures; he had his iPad. I said: ‘Don’t worry. I’ll send you everything. You’ll see everything.’ He said: ‘Yes, because the doctors, they don’t want me to fly,’” she recalls. Lagerfeld died the next morning, following a stoic battle with pancreatic cancer. He had served at Fendi for 54 years. Five months later, Silvia showed the last collection they had been working on: Fendi haute couture autumn/winter‘19/’20. Staged on…

A FEW MINUTES before you hit Byron Bay on the drive in from the Pacific Motorway, there’s a roadside sign directing guests of Elements of Byron to turn left into a light industrial area. Heading down this road, the first indication you’re on the right track is when you pass the terminus of the world’s first solar-powered train, which runs guests into the heart of Byron town. Then the sight of the low-set undulating roof of Elements’s lobby and guest hub signals your arrival at this award-winning beachfront resort on the New South Wales north coast. Spreading out from the striking lobby to Byron’s Belongil Beach are 202 villas, including 99 luxe two-bedroom rainforest villas that feel like cosy little homes with their timber decks, verandah bathhouses and fireplaces. Pathways…

PISCES 19 FEBRUARY–20 MARCH You might appear fabulous on the outside this month but be floundering on the inside. It’s a mindset thing, and adjusting your attitude will have a profound effect on your wellbeing. While you often feel alone in a crowd, others have totally got your back now and you’ll feel genuinely valued and loved. STYLE ICON: Taylor Hill ARIES 21 MARCH–20 APRIL It’s time to consider life’s bigger questions rather than to launch new ventures. Your romantic style could sparkle with a revamp, so try swapping passion for friendship. Ease into this month, as love and money will come your way more readily, and whatever your current role you’ll be doing your job like a boss. STYLE ICON: Rooney Mara TAURUS 21 APRIL–21 MAY A quest for…

EMMA POCOCK This month, Emma Pocock wrote an essay on the community development efforts she and her rugby-player husband David have done in his native Zimbabwe, on page 30. The pair have self-published a book that also features in our summer reading special (see page 80). “I think people are really hungry for hopeful stories, and we’ve tried so hard to tell them,” says Pocock. The former youth worker and political advisor says she hopes her story serves as “a small reminder that we can all be part of creating our shared life together”. LAUREN BARGE Vogue Australia’s senior producer Lauren Barge went out with a bang as she departed for maternity leave recently by producing the two biggest shoots of the issue: the Elsa Pataky cover story, ‘A beautiful…

THE JOURNEY TO becoming an established model can be long and hard, and the time spent at the top can be fleeting, yet the momentum surrounding Sabah Koj continues to build. Koj, who with her family fled Sudan for Egypt at the age of three, moved to Melbourne when she was seven years old, and began modelling a decade later after being scouted at a beauty pageant. She’s now based in London and New York, having made her international debut in New York during the autumn/winter ’18/’19 shows. “I walked for Christian Siriano and met Cardi B backstage at his show,” she recalls. “[I also walked for] Mansur Gavriel, Sally LaPointe and Dennis Basso, and I closed for Tadashi Shoji.” Soon others, including Pierpaolo Piccioli, Alexander Wang and Virgil Abloh,…

“I’VE ALWAYS BEEN a shirt girl,” says Sasha Iglehart. “I used to be into that Prada saleswoman look, you know? Buttoned right up to the collar. Now it’s less about the fashion statement, more about ease – having quality pieces in your wardrobe, but not feeling too precious.” Iglehart recently launched A Shirt Story, a label she describes as “a curated collection of thrift-shop finds”, which she sells through Instagram and online. The former US Glamour deputy fashion director combs charity shops, where she picks out men’s cotton shirts ripe for a tweak. “I cut the collars off, so there isn’t that stiffness,” she explains. “I put bonding tape in there, or I might leave it to fray – it’s about the fun contrast. I’ve also been gathering Swarovski crystal…

KEVIN PARKER DOESN’T like to dwell on Sliding Doors moments. What if he had noodled for hours on The Sims as a teen instead of his guitar? What if he had succumbed to his introvert tendencies and kept his music offline? What if he grew up surrounded by spoken-word show tunes instead of Supertramp and the Beach Boys? One thing we do know, the last decade would have sounded very different. The Perth-born 34-year-old, known to most as Tame Impala, is one of the most influential artists of the last decade and likely our greatest millennial musical export – challenged only by Sia. He is a bedroom-dwelling psychedelic rocker, hailing from our most isolated city, who has grown into one of the most loved and in-demand artists across pop, rap,…

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ON A HOT Saturday night in November 1992, four days before my 19th birthday, my life took an epic and unplanned pivot. I had been living the dream: working as a junior creative in an advertising agency during the day and flipping cocktails in a club by night. I lived in my own apartment in Sydney and rode a black, shiny motorcycle. There was even a cute boyfriend on the scene. All the grown-up things I had dreamt of as I slaved my way through the last couple of years of high school had fallen into place: earning my own living, living my own life, fanging my own wheels. As the lights of North Sydney swirled above me, I didn’t know I’d been hit by a car. That horrid reality…

FROM THE FLYBRIDGE of Giorgio Armani’s superyacht Maín , I can see the designer and his navy-clad entourage zigzagging their way down Portofino’s narrow quay, one picture at a time. Armani has been chauffeured from Milan to the Italian Riviera, where his superyacht awaits him. Last night, she glided into the marina in all her army-green starkness, casting a formidable shadow over our Aperol spritz-dotted cafe tables. Now, she’s moored in the tiny tourist paradise, bigger than any hillside palazzo or nearby vessel, a constant gaggle of gobsmacked onlookers anchored at her stern. “I wanted it to look like a military boat,” Armani admits, now embarked and enthroned on a sizeable greige sofa on the lower deck of the boat that he has owned since 2008. Every corner of his…

I’M STANDING IN the middle of a dusty road in Beitbridge, a town on the Zimbabwean side of the South African border. Sweat is dripping down the back of my thighs. It’s probably 36 degrees and I am in full sun, trying to win an argument with a woman who’s haggling over the price of tomatoes from our farm. She wants me to take US$8 (about AU$12) a crate, but at that price I can’t pay my 25 staff. She also wants to pay me in credit, which I have no way of knowing if I’ll ever recoup. Using the best power move I have in my tomato-saleswoman arsenal, I start loading the crates back into my car, hoping she’ll relent. This hot corner of Zimbabwe is a far cry…

WARM, SMOOTH AND tactile, Bulgari’s new ‘practical’ women’s watch, Serpenti Seduttori – meaning ‘seducing snakes’ in Italian – lives up to its name with its magnetic allure. The watch case, a serpent’s head, draws proudly on Bulgari’s famous reptilian motif, one that lies at the heart of the famous Italian luxury brand and provides a link to its heritage. Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, director of watch design at Bulgari, says that referencing the company’s DNA was the most important consideration when it came to design. “It had to resonate with the essence of Bulgari,” he says. “The challenge was not simply the ultra-thin drop-shaped case and new elements around the bezel, but also the bracelet, with its complex hexagonal pattern that has been inspired by the rich heritage of the pattern.”…

1. “Paris is one of my favourite cities to visit. There are so many shops and restaurants that I love to stop into when I am there, and the city is just so beautiful.” 2. “Since starting my line in 2012, I only wear pieces we design. I love being able to live in and style each piece after working with my team on conceptualising them from start to finish. I am also a huge fan of vintage. There is nothing better than finding cool old pieces at the flea market to mix in with my own brand.” 3. “I’ve always admired Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for his minimalist approach to architecture and use of open space.” 4. “Rock ’n’ roll is my favourite genre and it influences my…

“IT WAS EXCITING to go to ‘Jane Austen college’,” Autumn de Wilde enthuses to Vogue on adapting the novelist’s Emma for the screen. “Jane Austen is like this wonderful puzzle. There’s a historical element; there’s so many academic interpretations of what every part of it means.” On the eve of the premiere of her first feature film, the photographer-slash-director, whose lens has captured Lena Dunham and Miranda July and who has worked with the likes of Prada, Rodarte and Florence and the Machine, adds filmmaker to her multi-hyphenated title with the latest adaptation of Austen’s 1815 novel. The beloved comedy, about young Emma Woodhouse, whose life goes off-course when her matchmaking errors are revealed, has been reiterated for film time and again. Gwyneth Paltrow ( Emma , 1996) and Alicia…

AS IS TRADITION every year on Derby Day eve, Fiona and Sidney Myer opened their family’s Cranlana home in Toorak, Melbourne, to welcome guests attending the annual White Party. The Bank of Melbourne and Archie Rose Distilling Co. helped to execute the exquisite event, which also marked the opening of Fiona’s clothing label White Story’s first bricks-and-mortar store in High Street Armadale, Melbourne. Guests including the Honourable Julie Bishop, Deborah Hutton, Michelle Battersby and Deeta Colvin were all in attendance, and together enjoyed Dom Pérignon, gin martinis and canapés.…