Last week in Sydney, the night before I flew to Melbourne, Diesel held an amazingly thematically designed party to launch their SS11/12 collection. The collection and its accompanying campaign imagery is titled "Diesel Island" with the citizens of the island fed up with the fucked up world, decamping to an island to be free, getting bored of the freedom and then making their own constitution (which turns out to be boring too) coming up with motto's such as the sign above "We prevent terrorist attacks by not pissing them off". A lot of thought has obviously gone into the story and it certainly made for a great night.
I'm not too sure about the use of live animals for events, especially after reading Jonathan Safran Foer's On Eating Animals and knowing how scared they must be. Hasn't anyone learnt from the infamous Ksubi Dove incident? The goat was only there for the first hour for photos, but yeah dyed pink, taken to a loud scary event...not exactly a goats normal night.
Being greeted by pillow fight ready citizens of the island.
Yummy cocktails.
Someone famous's daughter dj-ing. Ok, just checked and apparently this is Rolling Stone member Keith Richards's daughter Alexandra Richards.
I felt like I was at Disneyland in the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse.
Again, I felt bad for the poor Rooster.
Male models Gadir and Luca.
Leah the editor of Fashion Journal was in Sydney for the party and my lovely assistant/friend Sofie from The Milk Club who was my +1 for the event, much more fun than taking my hubby.
Phoenix Keating and Byron Spencer, the it boys of the Sydney fashion scene.
Gadir's fabulous accessory, he got the toy soldier at Chapel Street Bazaar.
Sofie's awesome tights, socks and creepers combo.
What I wore:
Tee Dimepiece sheer hands t-shirt
Skirt Gorman $150 new season on sale for one day only at The Strand Arcade last week
Socks American Apparel $14
Mary-Jane Creeper's Sportsgirl on sale for $13
Necklace Make Believe gift
Bracelet Elke Kramer gift
Ring MoMA design store in NYC $10
Bag vintage from Thank You Mart in Tokyo $3.90
Belt Ebay find $6
This necklace always gets me a lot of attention, people are drawn to it.
I have had this bag for years, its been on my blog every now and then when I'm in a smiley face bag kinda mood.
I found this belt on ebay, not too sure about the white belt itself but love the banana buckle.
Still loving these mary-jane somewhat controversial creepers (a previous commenter reckons they're not creepers, but hey I'm just going by what the Sportsgirl box said).
In closing I want to say I had a lot of fun, it really was a great event, but please wont someone think of the animals? They didn't seem distressed and I'm by no means an expert, but I just don't feel right about it especially after seeing it go so wrong once before.
Photos by Sofie from The Milk Club and me.
It worries me that someone would put a rooster in a cage without any room to move about and think that would be 'ok' or 'cool'. The goat....I know fuchsia is 'in' for Summer, but not on an animal. He/she looks really frightened!
ReplyDeleteLove this outfit on you, though! That skirt is gorgeous!
<3 Cait
www.closet-confessions.com
Hey Hayley, I know you're a vegetarian and you obviously care a lot about the wellbeing of these animals, but an easy action to take would've been to just leave. By staying, having your picture taken with the goat and then advertising the party on your blog—which is read by a lot of people—you're giving attention to something you say you don't support.
ReplyDeletexo Brodie
Hey Brodie, as you say a lot of people read my blog, by "advertising" the party and putting my thoughts on the issue out there I think I'm doing a lot more than if I had just left. If I just left and didn't report on my feelings about the animals being at the event then no one would know and nothing would change. By letting Diesel, the organisers and my readers know I felt uncomfortable hopefully people stop seeing animals as props for events.
ReplyDeleteWhy would you stay at an event where you could see there were distressed animals? I mean you've witnessed animal cruelty before during fashion events but you seem to condone the behaviour by not standing up against it. Writing part of a blog post about it a week later is not good enough. Have you reported it to the RSPCA? Have you spoken to Diesel about their treatment of animals?
ReplyDeleteAll you've done is express faux outrage on your blog/twitter.
Anon, blogging my thoughts is my way of standing up against it. Have you seen any other blog posts or news articles from people attending pointing this out? No, of course not. (Lots of magazine & newspaper people and bloggers were at the event) This post is probably going to get me in trouble with the PR agency who held the event. I'm doing my best, I'm not an activist, I'm not a hero. I am a blogger and this is my platform.
ReplyDeleteAlso I'm just questioning the use of animals at any event, not just this event.
Your blog post is really insightful. What a bold and daresay outrageous Diesel collection launch! You've done the right thing by addressing the use of live animals in an event such as this. I feel the same as you, and do not feel comfortable with the idea. Pink goats? Wrong!
ReplyDeleteLove your banana buckle belt, very cool
Hmmm I feel bad about the way animals are treated by humans in general. It's sad. You looked awesome btw and Sofie, your assistant, I freaking love her style.
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't look like outrage:
ReplyDeletehttp://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc186/fashion_hayley/IMG_4706copy.jpg
It looks like selling out for a free invite. "faux-outrage" - perfect.
yep. that has got to be a terrible idea. dyeing it is bad enough. they've done studies on levels of the stress hormone cortisol in certain animals and found even just being in the vicinity of them, let alone dying them and putting them in a noisy room full of flashing cameras.
ReplyDeletei don't suppose petting zoos are a good idea either.
thanks for raising this Haley.
p.s. on the whole dove incident... i think it would of been a terrible idea to "rip down the net and try to free them" like some people commented. i honestly think that would of been just as likely to kill them and cause them stress. animal activism can cause more damage than good when done without thought
cool pictures though. you make sydney look like a place i might want to move to. which is lucky as that's in my future