The film’s haunting cinematography mimics the clothing it displays with sharp lines and dramatic contrasts of colour, texture and shape. Jo’s dramatic designs juxtapose fabrics of contrasting nature to create a sense of harmony, which is certainly what also occurs in the editing and cinematic style of the film. Made up of fast cuts between lingering close up shots and broad establishing shots made up of diagonal lines and contrasting colour, each shot from the film is harsh and dramatic but beautifully edited. These striking shots are frozen on screen for seconds at a time, creating a calming sense of harmony, causing the film to appear almost as if it were a moving magazine editorial.

The film’s artistic quality is its most impressive feature. Many of the films that made up Melbourne Fashion Festival’s Fashion Film Series unintentionally come across as being quite commercial, especially when viewed one after the other (as they were screened as a part of the festival). AAIZEL is a pleasant break away from that sense of commerciality. Rather than blatantly modelling the clothes, they are weaved beautifully into the film with a mixture of extreme, frozen close ups and broad establishing shots. The film makers have excelled at eliminating any sense of commerciality within the film, meaning that those who are not particularly interested in fashion will view the film and appreciate its artistic quality. Instead of using three minutes attempting to begin and complete a storyline, AAIZEL pleasantly leaves itself up to interpretation, focusing on creating striking imagery rather than a memorable plot.

AAIZEL’s simplicity is its most redeeming feature. Its stillness in colour, line and contrast in its cinematography perfectly matches the clothing within the film, showcasing the perfect aesthetic match between designer and film maker. Many fashion films, with their blatant modelling and selling of clothes can seem quite pretentious, but AAIZEL’s artistic quality overtakes any sense of commerciality, making it tense, capturing and hypnotising. A sure standout within the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival’s Fashion Film Series.

AAIZEL played as part of the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival Cultural Program 2015

Image source: The Weekly Review

Life Through Wool’s cinematography is stunning. Set on rural Victoria’s breathtaking Bonoke sheep station – the birthplace of merino wool – the film is filled with shots of an exceptionally casted Isabel Lucas running through the Australian countryside. The small subtleties within Life Through Wool are what make it great. Hundreds of sheep running through a field are filmed in the background of a shot, through a car window, and the Country Road clothing is displayed almost as a backdrop to the beautiful, contrasting light and dark colours of the Australian outback. Lucas is perfectly familiar and naturally beautiful, running through fields and walking through warm Australian sunsets. The films soft soundtrack and romantic dialogue, “this place never leaves you”, is perfectly sentimental and will surely strike a chord with the Country Road target market.

You would except a film produced by such a large company as Country Road to be blatantly commercial, but it’s hard to call Life Through Wool commercial at all. The Country Road products are seamlessly integrated into the film, beautifully edited so the clothes balance and harmonise with the soft textures and colours and countryside. The clothes are shown enough to be noticed within the film, but are not lingered on to the point where the film becomes commercial. The film certainly seems to celebrate the relationship between the two brands rather than debut the new winter collection.

Overall the film is obviously meant to reach the Country Road audience, and it will. It’s hard to review Life Through Wool as a short film, because although it doesn’t come off as being even remotely commercial, it obviously is. Regardless, in the Melbourne Fashion Festival’s Fashion Film Series competition Life Through Wool stands out. Because even if you do think rolling shots of the Australian landscape are a little cliché and a little commercial, it’s still a beautifully captured, exceptionally casted and well thought out film.

Life Through Wool played as part of the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival Cultural Program.

Photo credit: Youtube

Littered with cameos from Rihanna, Rosie Huntington Whitley and Joan Smalls, the film is a charming profile of head designer Olivier Rousteing, following him as he creates the Autumn/Winter 2014 collection for Paris Fashion Week. Overall, the film’s most memorable trait is its characters. Rousteing is extremely charismatic, his emotions endearing and obvious throughout the whole film. From his enthusiasm in designing and creating the collection to his gratitude for his staff to his nervousness before the show and his elation at its finish, his personality strengthens the film from beginning to end.

His small team of employees are also extremely entertaining. Close knit, many have worked together for over seventeen years and are bound by late nights and impossible deadlines. After weeks of stressful sewing they laugh together as they sneak drinks of alcoholic punch from underneath their desks. Just as charming is a team of tireless, unbelievably dedicated interns. The absurdity of the work nearly justify Balmain’s price tags as they spend days happily colouring in an entire dress fashioned from rope with hundreds of yellow permanent markers. This is a dress that “we will only sell about thirty to fifty of”, for twenty-thousand euros each, of course. One has also developed tendonitis from hand sewing leather.

If you’ve ever spent time in a fashion office The Balmain Style will surely strike a chord. Prignent’s abruptly casual narration is completely unpretentious, unexpectedly making affectionate light of an industry that is often taken much too seriously. The film perfectly dictates the descent into madness a fashion office undergoes prior to fashion week. If you’ve never spent time in a fashion office, there’s still enough story, character, history and quirk to keep it interesting and entertaining the whole way through. The Balmain Style cannot be faulted.

The Balmain Style played as part of the VAMFF’s Cultural Program 2015.

Image source: Broadsheet

Curiosity is a key feature of the exhibition. Walking through the space there are muffled sounds and vibrant, coloured lights leaking into rooms from every direction. The sense of unknown, that comes from never being sure what sounds and colours are coming from where, keeps you walking through the exhibition.

The exhibition space is relatively small, making a second walk through necessary and rewarding. The first walk is almost overwhelming, a chaotic blend of colour and texture. On the second its abrupt nature falls to the wayside and the underlying influences of the exhibition become clear.

The exhibition is inspired by the death of Williams’ Father, who passed away from melothemania, an asbestos related cancer affecting the lungs and the breath. This knowledge gives every object a whole new, more haunting impact, which is really where the strength of the exhibition lies.

The influence of the disease is evident in every room. Walls are stuffed and covered in sheer fabrics. Rooms are cluttered. Giant foam blocks, vibrant, coloured lighting and a multitude of screens and sounds results in an almost suffocating experience in four rooms. Another room, in contrast, is clinically white and bare, plastic curtains acting as a literal depiction of the hospital curtain her Father lay behind before his death.

Ultimately The Curtain Breathed Deeply is an encompassing exhibition that will suit both novices and experts of the art world. Its only fault is the lack of explanation given to the inspiration behind it, a story that encourages you to stay in each room for a longer time and analyse each and every object within it. But then again, most of Williams’ work is up to audience interpretation. Maybe too much explanation would spoil the wonderful sense of confusion that comes with sitting on a cracked, painted lounge watching Williams’ characters dance around on the projected screens that surround you.

The Curtain Breathed Deeply runs from 7 February until the 2 April at MUMA, as a part of the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival.