Great Moments of Irony #1

 1992: Page 1 !

                                                                       2012: Page 28

A Very Stylish Party

Miranda Kerr

In Style Magazine threw their annual Ladies Of Style bash in association with Audi at the Carriageworks.

Miranda Otto

Who would miss this party?. So many beautiful ladies in one room and they come in all shapes and ages.

Needless to say, the beautiful Miranda Kerr dominated the room. She had flown in from New Zealand that morning with baby Flynn and her mother and grandmother leaving hubby Orlando Bloom behind filming The Hobbit.

Laura Csortan & Sophie Faulkner

Jessica Rowe & sister Harriet

Ricki-Lee Coulter

Miranda, wearing a powder blue Carla Zampatti gown even picked up a gong for Women Of The Year. Who would have guessed?
 The other winners: Beauty: Co-winners: Miranda Kerr and Rebecca Morrice Williams, News & Entertainment: Asher Keddie,Fashion: Pamela Easton and Lydia Pearson (Easton Pearson)
Arts & Culture: Co-winners Nikki Gemmell and Lally Katz, Lifestyle: Indira Naidoo,Charity & Community: Alison Thompson, Business: Kate Weiss,Design: Liane Rossler, Environment: Abigail Forsyth

Colour & Movement

It brings back memories of the Sydney Mardi Gras or perhaps a Jenny Kee fashion show- the Jakarta Fashion & Food Festival opened on Sunday with parades and lots of colour and movement..
This year's theme is INNOFASHION, a mix of two words Innovation and Fashion, an interpretation of national culture richness in the fashion and culinary industry with the touch of latest trend.

JFFF was first established in 2004, and ever since annually held on May.

Isla Supports Dictator

One of our favourite Aussie ex-soapie stars Isla Fisher attended the world launch of the movie Dictator at the Royal Festival Hall in London onThursday evening as our exclusive snaps show.
 Fisher is married to Dictator star Sacha Baron Cohen.

New Hotel Rocks!

David & Lisa Campbell with Michelle Burke & Richard Wilkins

The copious flutes of Pol Roger, the delicious canapes have not affected this report in any way : we have discovered a new hotel and it's a beauty.

The Harbour Rocks Hotel opened on Wednesday night with a small party for a select 100 (Shuttle included)-various TV stars and travel bigwigs and a handful of those keen young men who are involved in finance.

song legends Helen Reddy & Barry Crocker

Funny gal Julia Morris and hubby Dan

And what a fantastic addition to Sydney's inns of quality.

 Tucked away in The Rocks and just a short walk from all manner of tourists spots, the Opera House and so on, the HRH has about 50 beautifully decorated rooms with sensational luxury bathrooms and a wonderful penthouse suite with views of the harbour.

Apparently the hotel has been there since 1887 as our pic shows but over the past few years it has been going under extensive renovations with millions of dollars spent on the makeover. And it was worth it.

And it was a swell opening party with champagne in the cosy book-lined foyer, drinks on the terrace with a harpist paying Mexican music (unusual but entertaining) and then finally drinks in the penthouse with crooner David Campbell.

stylish rooms

The Harbour Rocks Hotel in the early 1900s and today
                                     Below: the balcony/courtyard

Coolest Ever Weather Presenter

Marnie's Showcase

One highlight of the Mercedes Fashion Week was the photographic exhibition held by one of our most talented designers Marnie Skillings at her boutique in Glenmore Road Paddington.

blondes greet

Marnie with Michelle Jank

TO celebrate the launch of her new collection titled Trait, Marnie turned  her shop into an art gallery to showcase 10 portraits of inspirational women including Sophie Lee, musician Julia Stone and shoe designer Terry Biviano.

Skillings is known for her feminine, romantic and sophisticated  pieces and has a confirmed following of fans who limo straight to her boutique when in town- including  Kylie Minogue, Nicole Kidman, Julia Stone, Abbie Cornish and Paris Hilton who shopped there recently during her visit to launch the Marquee nightclub at the Star casino.


left : Marnie Skillings and one of her very best creations-(an unimpressed) Kosta. 
right : Marnie's designs

    the portrait of Julia Stone

                                                                    

                                                            

Jack ( The Ripper) Died In Australia

Forget the Queen's respected surgeon, or the member of the Royal Family. Finally the true identity of the infamous Jack The Ripper has been exposed (120 years after he sliced up 5 prostitutes in the East End of London)

Jack was a Londoner known as Walter Thomas Porriott who was well known to police as Andrew John Gibson. He lived in London at the time of the murders and then sailed for Sydney just as the murders stopped and The Ripper vanished from the news. Apparently he lived in Brisbane and died in 1952 after a long career as an impostor and fraudster.

It really stands to reason. Not only were convicts sent to the colonies for a range of petty crimes but upper class families often sent their wayward sons to the other side of the world to escape scandal. And where better? At the turn of the last century Australia was a favoured place to escape to and create a new identity. It still is.
As the Ripper was never caught, it could be said that being confined to living out one's life in Brisbane was a suitable punishment.
Read the full story here at the Telegraph.co.uk

STOP PRESS : Now former solicitor John Morris claims Welsh-born Lizzie Williams (left) was the Ripper and says she killed her victims because she could not have children, ripping out the wombs of three in an "unhinged state".
 Read more here.
 
Tommorrow : Is Rupert Murdoch related to the The Ripper?

Murdoch Watch #1 : Rupert Tweets

Our favourite Australian born media mogul Rupert Murdoch has been at Twitter again in the past few days telling all that he is busy writing a speech :
"Tomorrow receiving Jewish Museum Heritage Award. Busy preparing short speech, mainly about Israel."
and complained about a rash of insulting tweets. The British journalist Jon Snow responds:

Billy's Memorial Vandalised

Billy Thorpe & Lynn

The memorial at the Sunbury Pop Festival site for the late rocker Billy Thorpe has had it's plaque stolen and his widow Lynn Thorpe has expressed her dismay and sadness to her Facebook pals.

gone

Manchester born Thorpe emigrated to Australia with his parents and became a child star using the name Little Rock Allen. By his early 20s he was the biggest Australian pop star with a string of hits and fronted his own television pop show. During the 80s he lived in the USA and had a number of hits there and wrote music for top TV shows like Star Trek, the Disney corporation and Universal Studios.

In the UK he formed a band with Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac before returning to live in Australia in the late 1990s. A hugely popular and well liked entertainer, Thorpe died of myocardial infarction at the age of 61 in 2007.

Anyone who knows where the plaque is should ring their local copper's station.
Below is Billy with his big hit "Over The Rainbow" from 1966:

Day 4 Fashion Week-Jenny Kee

Jenny Kee and pals

inspiration?

If one didn't know the London publicist Lyn Franks, one could be forgiven  for thinking that perhaps Australian/Chinese/Italian designer Jenny Kee was an inspiration for Edina Monsoon of Ab Fab fame. Perhaps Kee was also a fashion  influence for Dame Edna Everage.

In between reminding us in the pages of Woman's Day every five years or so that she once had an affair with John Lennon ("I turned him on to Asian girls") Kee has revived her original fashion label Flamingo Park which she started many moons ago in the Strand Arcade after returning from a few years in London. The high point at Flamingo Park was presenting a riot coloured jumper bearing an embroidered  Koala Bear to Princess Diana which Diana wore to the Windsor Polo when she was pregnant with Prince William.

watch out for spiders

The last time we encountered Jenny was at the launch of her book Jenny Kee-A Big Life at the Powerhouse Museum some years ago. The guests had to 'ommmm' for 2 minutes before speeches to raise the vibrations in the room.

The book is a pretty good read detailing Jenny's adventures over the years from an extremely beautiful teenage Kee hitching a ride with an amphetamine crazed trucker from Alice Springs to Darwin, her Oz Magazine days in London with Richard Neville and Martin Sharp, a snub from Lennon and Yoko Ono when they once came across Kee at her stall in the Chelsea Antique Market on Kings Road and an adventure involving the game-keeper's son at the grand Beaulieu estate in Hampshire where she glowered at her host Lord Montague who perceived Jenny had designs on the young chap.

This many colours combined gives the Shuttle a migraine-literally so are best viewed through sunnies but ordinary folk should be safe gazing on these kaleidoscope designs. Our favourite is the kaftan draped in gum leaves (above). The only thing missing from the outfit is one of those large Hunstman spiders that inhabit eucalyptus trees en masse. Dame Edna would have included one!.

Day 3: Mercedes Fashion Week

star models : the Stenmark twins

 left : street wear


right : Alice McCall

                                         
                                                                   

left/right : Bec & Ridge



















 

right & left : Ellery























left & right : Jayson Brundson