Miami Vice

Top Sydney fashion maestro Nicholas Huxley is taking the Miami fashion scene by storm. As we reported in April, Huxley has landed a plum residency at the Miami Dade College where he has been commissioned to set up a fashion design school.


 This week Huxley has been included as one of the seven best dressed guests by the Miami New Times newspaper at the Miami Fashion Week currently under way.  

Whispers reckons he had some pretty stiff competition especially from the wonderfully named Diamante Jones (left) who says his style : "is known to bring out the feminine side of men’s fashion. Classy but with a bit of edginess" which is surely exampled by his fetching Rubik's Cube hand bag.
Nicholas says his magnificent shirt comes from a cannibalized old t-shirt which he sewed onto a new garment.
  
Isn't fashion fun? Huxley's new fame means he also gets to sip cocktails with the Miami Fashion Week's new ambassador- movie star Antonio Banderas.                      



Below: some of Nicholas' competition on the fashion red carpet/

Nicholas has designs on Miami

Nicholas Huxley began studying at the Fashion Design school at East Sydney College in 1973, before working for a number of prominent fashion houses in Australia, He became head teacher of the Fashion Design Studio in 1990, a post he still holds. 

Now he has been commissioned  to set up a fashion design school at the Miami Dade College in the US and it's hard to think of a better choice. Almost every successful name in the Australian fashion scene has studied under Huxley . He's been nominated for numerous awards including  an Australian Film Institute Award for Best Costume Design for the film Sons of Steel and has been
asked to be a part of the annual Jeans for Genes art auction for five consecutive years. Nicholas has won two Fashion Industry of Australia awards and was nominated three times for the NSW Government Fashion Laureate in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
But for the next nine months Huxley will be living in Miami helping bring fashion to that great city. In the meantime he's busy furnishing his new apartment nearby the campus. So that's another Aussie taking over the world ! 
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 Exclusive on the 60 Minutes Beirut Kidnap Plot

While 60 Mins presenter Tara Brown and her film crew were sipping champagne in First Class on a flight back to Sydney today, one of those involved in the matter remained in jail He is Adam Whitington an ex-UK policeman and  head of the Child Abduction Recovery agency. No being whisked through Sydney Airport by Nine's top PR Victoria Buchan for Whitington.

Gatto                           Obeid                       Depp & Heard

All manner of characters seem to be coming out of the woodwork including former NSW MP Eddie Obeid (we reported on how his 6'4" drag queen nephew was intending to turn up to court in support of his Lebanese born uncle when he was under ICAC scrutiny) and now Melbourne "underground" figure Mick Gatto has claimed he was asked to help negotiate the 60 minutes crew's release. Quite how Gatto, the boss of a building scaffolding firm could assist is a mystery although completely unnoticed by the Oz media, Gatto supplied the security for Johnny Depp and Amanda Heard when they arrived and left a Southport court for the great Boo & Pistol Scandal. 
 
But a blogger who goes by the name of Anna Raccoon (she is a retired British lawyer) has come up with some new info on Whittington who was involved in the mysterious Madeleine McCann affair. 
Read Anna Raccoon's article here 

Fashion Follies

Meet Felix Reiss who just last November was working at the Shuttle's supermarket of choice, Coles in Macleay Street Kings Cross. This month he has been treading the boards on the European catwalks and last week he opened and closed the Dior Homme show in Paris.The excellent rag trade website frockwriter brings us this and other hot-tips about the fashion world. It's a good read.
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One Australian fashion personality has been sounding off this week .
 Nicholas Huxley (left) is head of the Fashion & Design Studio at TAFE and he's had a hand in crafting the careers of the majority of our fashion designers and some of the the biggest names in the industry.
Huxley has ticked off both David Jones & Myer department stores for leaving him off their guest lists for years at the yearly fashion parades and soirees. As Nicholas puts it :
             " Today I appeared in the Sunday Telegraph as one of the 10 Secret Style Makers of Australia! (Thanks Elle again)! I have been nominated 5 years out of the 6 years of the Fashion Laureate Award for service to the Fashion industry.I have been nominated for the Fashion Group International Lifetime Achievement award. I have won two FIA(Fashion Industries of Australia ) awards. I have been nominated for an AFI (Australian Film Industries) Award for costuming a motion picture. In 2008(Sydney Magazine) I was chosen along with 4 other Fashion Industry people to be one of the 100 most influential people in Sydney."
 Huxley has a good point. The number of vacuous b-list slebs rolled out at these parades is as legendary as the snooty clip-board  (Ipads now) wielding "PR" consultants who think they are terribly important.

the judges : Didier Cohen * Charlotte Dawson * Alex Perry * Jennifer Hawkins

 Now he's also laid into the new season of the reality TV show Australia's Next Top Model : 
" OMG!!!! Australia's Next Top Model!!! Sorry..but what can I say?? WOW!! I'm sorry but I'm finding it very difficult to look at the judges..There is so much of everything going on...BOTOX GALORE..SO MUCH TALK BUT NO MOVEMENT IN THE FACE / WHITENED TEETH TO THE POINT OF WHO NEEDS THE LIGHTS ON..JUST FLASH THE TEETH! AND A MALE MODEL///WHO'S A BIT LIKE A LOG OF WOOD!
Ouch ! You tell 'em Nick !! 

"Just say No to Knitwear "

Pop critic for the UK Telegraph Neil McCormick got stuck into the British music bible NME's 2010 Cool List and exhorted readers to 'just say no to knitwear' , a reference to his horror that a 1980's jumper revival may be ready for a comeback. Feature writer Hannah Betts of The Guardian agreed calling these colourful creations from our own beloved fashion ikon Jenny Kee : nasty knitwear-more chunky than funky !. Betts was referring to Kee's famous Koala jumper as worn by the late Princess Diana in the 80s. Have they no shame?                                    
Our Jenny was inducted last night as the 6th Annual Australian Fashion Laureate as shown by our snap above where Jenny is pictured with Heidi Middleton of sass & bide, Nicholas Huxley head of the fashion design school TAFE NSW and Vogue heavyweight Nancy Pilcher.
Before you gaze upon the our snap below it's recommended sun glasses be donned : here's Jenny and a group of pals in 2012.

Fashion Teacher Slams Melbourne Style

Top fashionista Nicholas Huxley, head of the Fashion Design Studio at Tafe NSW has ripped into the fashions at this year's Melbourne Cup via his Facebook page.
 Huxley says: 

"I HAVE TO SAY..What a bloody terrible lot of fashion at the Melbourne Cup and the build up to it.All those who are saying best dressed here and best dressed there...PLEASE. Cocktail dresses at any of these racing events...and the ghastly head pieces they're calling hats.There is no sophistication / no understanding of race wear...just a lot of tits and arse to hook an arse with money! The truth will never be told...it's so much better to be part of a click then to be individual.I am so glad I'm not and have never wanted to be part of a click!"

 Ouch !.
 And the UK's Daily Mail newspaper has a few words to say as well about behaviour of cup goers in this piece titled
"And You Thought Ascot Was Going to The Dogs"!