Bowie Stuns Paris !

Bowie Wong that is - the Australian fashion designer has been featured with some of the world's top designers like Schiaparelli, Chanel and Versace in this feature of OTT (over the top) designs. They describe the gown as This Round Dress.
 What fun !

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The Australia Day honours have featured two of Whisper's favourite characters.
Popular show business publicist Bruce Pollack (below right) who has handled some of the biggest stars in the world has been awarded a Member of the Order of Australia “for significant service to the community in the areas of social welfare and public health.” Pollack is also an LBGT activist who helped make the  Sydney Mardi Gras one of the most famous street events on the planet.


 Meanwhile in the snooty Southern Highlands young newspaper executive Cristian King  (pictured with former PM Julia Gillard) who publishes the LatteLife group of newspapers has been awarded a Certificate of Appreciation for his "outstanding contribution to the community of Wingecarribee Shire". Pretty heady stuff for a lad of just 20 years old who recently defended himself in court when a local councilor attempted to obtain an AVO order against him. The councilor sensibly dropped her request. King also broadcasts on local FM radio.

Couture Calamity

A blogging war has broken out over a Sun Herald report last week about Chinese born Sydney fashion designer Bowie Wong. The highly likable Wong has been on a fashion promotion world tour, thrilling fans with a Facebook diary penned from some of the world's ritziest hotels like Hong Kong's Peninsular and the Hotel Georges V in Paris where he is currently ensconced.
The Sun Herald reported under the title Fashion's new immortal :"Sydney's Bowie Wong has been confirmed as the first Australian-based designer to join fashion's most exclusive club: Paris haute couture. Speaking to S from Paris, Wong revealed he'll be showing his collection, Immortality, at Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week in July, alongside great names such as Chanel, Dior, Valentino and Gaultier."

Alas, all is not what it seems according to fashion expert journalist Patty Huntington writing on the influential Frockwriter website : Bowie Wong is showing during Paris haute couture week -Or how to try to sneak into fashion's most exclusive club.

 Commenting on Wong's invitation (pictured right) Huntington says :

"Just to clarify - lest anyone assume there may be some direct connection here to the world's biggest luxury brand, whose name happens to be highlighted in bold on the invitation - the Louis Vuitton Building is indeed the location of the LV flagship. But it's a large building that is also home to a variety of other totally unrelated companies, including at least one real estate agency. Level 5, coincidentally the location of Wong's show, is home to a company called Servcorp, that specialises in short-term and virtual office rentals."

Huntington has also contacted the prestige  Chambre Syndicale who zealously guard the term 'haute coutoure' much like the word Champagne is rigorously regulated by the French. The head of communications, Jimmy Pihet, has responded : "We never heard about this designer before your email and he didn't visit us at the Fédération".

Zut alors ! Where will it all end ?. The Shuttle hasn't known such excitement in the giddy world of dressmaking since a snooty social writer in London buttonholed us at a Harper's Bazaar party three years ago and said : "it really annoys me the way you Australians call gowns, 'frocks' "

Read the full story at Frockwriter.com  and watch a video of Bowie's fashion show (presumably several floors above Louis Vuitton) on Agence France-Press. And is that top UK fashion journalist Suzy Menkes taking notes ?

 

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Our exclusive pic ( left) shows Double Bay society hairdresser Joh Bailey with a new customer - Oscar winning legendary actress Jane Fonda who checked into town for a flying visit yesterday to open a Fitness First exercise centre in the city at the ungodly hour of 6am.   Fonda did the round of Morning TV shows before fleeing the country, missing the excitement at the Gold Coast's Broadbeach Fitness First the same day where a brawl broke out with one unfortunate participant ending up in hospital with an almost severed hand.

 

Pearly Kings & Queens

If you don't have your own set of pearls to twirl then it's time you got yourself a string of these timeless and stylish classics.

And where better than Paspaley Pearls, the leaders in the industry who have been producing South Sea Pearls since 1935 and are the largest suppliers in Australia and are highly regarded in the fashion houses of Paris, London and Milan.

Caroline Laws & Anna Lisa Klettenberg

Paspaley excel in choosing unique locations for their season launches and last Thursday was no exception. In downtown Redfern - once a no go area but now decidedly up market- in the magnificent antique centre The Residence owned by Martyn Cook and Thomas Hamel which not only had plenty of space but some precious antiques perfect for use as display cases, plus a few gorgeous models.

The Residence is just a few doors from the premises once known as the Geebung Polo Club which was years ahead of it's time but crashed and burned putting paid to Wilton Morley's (the son of actor Robert Morley) plans to open a stable of Sydney bars (It's now a gay leather club called Mrs Marys).

Jenny Sweeney & Tim Holmes a Court

Deborah Knight & Kathryn Robinson

Social heavyweights like Anna Lisa Klettenberg and Isolde Tornya, chef Michael Moore, Glen Marie Frost and Carla Zampatti joined a younger set including a brace of Holmes a Courts and designer Bowie Wong to marvel at the beautiful pearls on display.

A late arrival- Princess Caroline Laws' chauffered Rolls Royce tentivelly inched it's way down the narrow lane before depositing her at the front door.