• Previous Street Peeper's Phil Oh Takes Us Behind the Scenes and On the Street of Australian Fashion Week
• Oy Irina! The Quirky Supe Returns In a "Dreamy" Ed For Italian Vogue Next

• May 11, 2009
• Runway and Shows

Gold Coast

Street Peeper's Phil Oh takes us behind the scenes and on the streets of Australian Fashion Week. By Phil Oh

Having wrapped up barely a week ago, Australian Fashion Week this season brought out some big names (like Sass & Bide, who opted out of a New York show in favor of a slot in their homeland), new emerging talent (Magdalena Velevska, who makes some pretty dreamy dresses), and plenty of stylish attendees.

Luckily for you—and us—Phil Oh from Street Peeper was on hand to shoot all the Street Seens, backstage madness, and front-row goodness that we missed out on Down Under. Read on for his sunny photo diary of lesbian TV show hosts, crazy accordion scarves, pretty models, and more.



Above, left: "Australian model Myf Shepard returned to her motherland to walk for her compatriot designers. Here she is in a Romance Was Born dress." Above, right: "This is Sydney P.R. lady, Holly Garber in a jacket and ripped jeans by Dion Lee—Sydney's 22-year-old wunderkind whose runway show was the highlight of the week. Oh, and shoes from Stella McCartney."



Above, left: "You know, most people I ask to photograph are generally pretty nice...except this one (yeeouch!). She was one of those people who pretends to be sooo bothered by the photographer ("OMG quickly now, I don't have all day. I'm so busy and important"), but really we both know that she loves the attention. Whatever, its OK, I'm used to it. But right when me and another photographer finished, she turned to her friend and mumbles "those vultures...". Ugh! I asked around, and I guess she's Australia's most famous lesbian MTV host." Above, right: "Denmark gave us the Henrik Vibskov scarf, Palestine, the keffiyeh...Here's Australia's contribution to it-neckwear—the Alpha 60 accordion scarf."




Above: "I haven't seen this many nipples since the Cathouse marathon on HBO. Every show seemed to have sheer tops. I guess Aussies really like their boobies, and here are are a pair at the Antipodium show."




Above: "I took an afternoon off from street-peeping at the RAFW venue to take a peek at the Ksubi showroom. Aimee showed me the new collection, but all I could think about were these glass jars hanging precariously over the showoom, like the jars of damocles. What if one fell and shattered on my head? Maybe I should have gotten travel insurance instead of buying that Thom Browne bowtie, which I don't even know how to tie anyway. I thought bowties were all clip-ons. Survived the afternoon in one piece, and the the Ksubi boys invited me to a weekend in the country but I missed it since the email invite had the subject line 'We'll go riding on the horses, yeah yeah!,' and I marked it as spam since it sounded like a porno email...oops."




Above, left: Here's Paul Bui from Oyster magazine during ROSEMOUNT Australian Fashion Week at the ROSEMOUNT wine bar sipping on a glass of ROSEMOUNT cabarnet sauvignon. (ok RAFW, can I get a free hotel room next year?). Anyways, he's wearing some drop crotch Junya Watanabe pants. But the weird thing is, he pronounced it "Hunya"—like how a Spanish speaker would say Jamon or Jarritos. Have I just been saying it wrong all these years? Is Junya Watanabe a Mexican? Or maybe actually he said Junya and the Aussie accent threw me off. I can't remember now." Above, right: "This lady is dressed in TV—a young line that showed at Australia Fashion Week. I told her that her dress reminded me of Tron, but she didn't really seem to take that as a compliment."




Above: "I really wish I could explain what was going on here, but this is what greeted us as we entered the pier where the Romance Was Born show was held. That, and a jar of jam in the gift bag."




Above: Anna McLeod from Harper's Bazaar Australia wearing a coat by Osklen.


To see more of Phil's work, go to www.streetpeeper.com

Behind the scenes and on the streets of Australian Fashion Week.