Livia Arena

L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival - 2013 National Designer Award Finalists

On Wednesday, judging for the L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival’s 2013 National Designer Award took place at Melbourne’s Sofitel Hotel.

This prestigious award showcases only five finalist each year. I feel extremely humbled to be one of the finalists for 2013 and be recognised by such esteemed judges alongside my talented peers.

A huge thank-you to L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival, also to Tiffany & Co., ANZ Private and Harper’s BAZAAR for sponsoring such a wonderful award.

For more information on the 2013 Nation Designer Award please continue to this page:

http://blog.lmff.com.au/2013/02/28/2013-national-designer-award-finalists-announced/

Laser Cutting Leather

Winter production is well underway, and last week we paid a visit to Melbourne Laser Cutter to see the laser cutting of the leather waves tops in action!

The process involves taping down individually hand cut panels of Italian lamb’s leather to sheets, which is then painstakingly positioned and cut by the laser, using their Illustrator file as a guide - each top taking just under an hour to cut.

These guys are going to be ready and in-store early March, and are a truly hand-crafted specialty garment… so keep an eye out for them!

8th Feb 2013

Matthew Kovacs x Livia Arena

Photos from a recent shoot by photographer Matthew Kovacs - featuring Livia Arena pieces across seasons past, present and future.

Matt practices a 1850’s technique of photography called Wet Plate Collodion (WPC). A complex process where plates of tin or glass are coated in a solution called Collodion, submerged in Silver Nitrate, then taken to be exposed in a large format camera whilst still wet, and hurried back to the darkroom for development before they dry.
(If you can imaging those big old wooden cameras with the black cloak at the back, your on the right track).

The result is a truly unique, one-of-a-kind image, with a haunting and luminous quality… whilst the clothing looked beautiful when captured in black and white.