Bluesfest 2016
Images by Mel Carrero
Story by Lizzy Abegg
Spell Spotting:
Helen Janneson Bense wears upcoming samples from our Revolver range, Annalise McLachlan, Anita Ghise and Emma Gurr wear Festival 16, Spelly wears upcoming samples from our Bridal ’16 and Wildflower range (yep, we’re talking about the studded khaki jacket!!)
Walking the gauntlet into Blues, through (very relaxed) security, the dust hitting that magic afternoon light, your Hunter Boots strut in full swing, the echos of some legend band floating through the air – you’re taken on a journey back in time… not because some of the acts playing were around before we were born… but because you re-live that pre-festival buzz from every festival you’ve ever walked (strutted)… It never tires, it never fades. It’s just festivals – and they get you every time.
Bluesfest. 27 years later, and it’s still magic… Last weekend, entering the festival, a friend of mine got sniffed out by a police dog, and got busted with a few green little buds in his pocket, the cops laughed and said ‘it’s all good mate, on your way’… and in he went to smoke a few spliffs to Mick Fleetwood, I laughed when I heard the story – it’s so Blues. It’s all about the chill. The crowd are notoriously chilled (except for during Kendrick Lamar, that crowd was absolutely nuts.. in a good way), the vibes are relaxed and everyone just gets along. (We’ve covered a few blues style run-downs over the past few years and it’s always loved up vibes to the moon and back!).
Our feeling on Festival Style for 2016 is it’s still largely about challenging the party gods in all white (#festivalwhites), and of course the bigger the skirt the better, mixing soft feminine shapes with an army jacket or chunky boots (our fave!), and embellishment. Annalise McLachlan even sewed bold black tassels to our rainbow Carnaby Crochet set to create the dreamiest outfit and definitely best on field in our opinion! Oh and special mention for my Johnny who wore his Love Child Shirt that we made especially in ‘man-size’ for him!
Our highlights this year were dancing to the Wailers, krumping to Kendrick, hearing some of our fave ever songs at Brian Wilson, discovering Lucas Nelson, (yep that’s Willie Nelson’s son), meeting our gorgeous customers from far and wide and hanging with some old pals Bambi Northwood Blythe, Helen Janneson Bense, festival princess Annalise McLachlan and our mumma bestie Elsa Pataky. (And bonus, this year Johnny and I took the kids, and they fell in LOVE with the festival – so it would seem another generation of festival-junkies are on the way!)
I know this is the longest blog post in the history of the world (so many outfits!!) – but it was a 5 day festival and we couldn’t not snap all that gorgeous #spellfestivalstyle!! We hope we’ve inspired other festival outfits… festival season, ahoy!