Our First Guest Blogger! - Kellie Alderman

I love the start of a fresh new year – time to dust off the past and start anew.

 When it comes to fashion, I always get excited to see who will emerge as the names to watch so here’s my pick of the people to look out for as new fashion forces in 2013….

GEORGIA GRAINGER

She’s 21, she’s just finished fashion school and she has already had a sell-out silver jewelry line she designed and had made in India.

Georgia was one of the standout designers at the QUT Fashion Graduation show in 2012 and her collection of polished day and evening wear teamed with her intricate hand-cut oversized Perspex accessories had everyone talking. 

Her collection was influenced by the six months she spent in India on an exchange program in her final years of studies; gathering ideas and inspiration for the collection that manages to make an ethnic aesthetic look modern and minimal, timeless but also fresh and contemporary.

“I’ve always been interested in fashion, since I was about 11 I knew I wanted to be in fashion but I was too nervous to start the course, I was a bit overwhelmed so I did business for a year but that drove me insane so I switched to fashion,” the unassuming designer said.

“My Mum is very creative, she has done graphic design and interior design so she has been a big influence on me.”

Her fashion philosophy? “I don’t like stupid clothing, I like people to look good and feel beautiful.”

Amen to that! I am predicting big things for this emerging fashion name.

Image credit for Georgia Grainger: model Jessica Bentley. Photographer: Cydney Holm.

SALITA MATTHEWS

Sunshine Coast-based Salita has been developing her brand of well-edited and highly covetable dressed-up daywear for a couple of years but 2013 looks like it will be her year.

Her recently developed jewellery line features layers of semi-precious jewels and rocks
mixed with leather, brass spikes and crystals hung from velvet ropes and oversized chains.

The jewellery collection received a big stamp of approval from iconic Brisbane brand, Easton Pearson, who selected it to sell in their Brisbane and Sydney stores this season and it was a huge hit.

Salita describes herself as a dreamer, traveller, bowerbird and foodie who is also driven and focused on taking her label to the world in 2013, she is in talks with some international stores as we speak! Go Salita!

For more go to www.salitamatthews.com

SKYE KERR

A former air steward for a Middle Eastern royal family, Skye spent 10 years in the Middle East before coming home to Australia to study fashion.

While her interest in fashion has been life-long, she was dissuaded from choosing it as a career by her family and chose a life in the air instead. Throughout her experiences in the Middle East she has never stopped designing and even entered fashion competitions while she was there.

She was the runner-up in the Swarovski Dubai Young Designer of the Year Awards that brought her to the attention of the royal family who had her design some Abaya for them with her signature hand-embellishments and details on them of course!

Her adventures in the UAE have informed her design aesthetic, her graduate collection featured flowing day and evening wear with a relaxed resort vibe in vibrant colours and prints she developed herself that were inspired by the art and architecture of Dubai.

“It’s a such a great community there – people really dress up, even in the supermarket, you get dressed up and I love that,” she said.

“I am inspired by the way the Abaya falls and drapes, the colours and prints in the Arab world, the desert – I’d love to develop my collections and sell there eventually.”

JESSICA LAMBERT

Former photographer and stylist, Jessica Lambert, has always had a creative eye but she only started applying it to her jewellery label, Lambert, at the start of 2012.

“I was designing and creating jewellery for myself for years but I didn’t really decide to develop it into a label until then,” she said.

“Accessories are something that are trans-seasonal. Women collect a variety of pieces over the years that they never part with,” she said

“A Lambert collection tends to have micro collections within it. There may be a beautiful piece that feels quite organic next to a sculptural piece that feels more modern and strong. What I want to achieve with my collections is a smattering of designs that feels like you’ve collected them over the years. There’s always a key colour palette or repeat of material elements, but each piece can sit side by side with the next and look different. There’s something for every mood. “

That’s exactly why the collection has been attracting the attention of fashion editors and style A-listers who have been spotted around the country in Lambert’s signature neckpieces that feature raw semi-precious stones, brass, bones and shell and make for great focal points of any outfit.

To see more go to facebook.com/lambertdesigns.

Kellie Alderman is a freelance Fashion and Beauty writer based in Brisbane.

Follow her on twitter @ kelliealderman1 

and Instagram @ kelliesundaystyle