Last Saturday was the day for the alternative fashion event of the year. Circa Nocturna is a yearly catwalk show held as part of LMFF that showcases goth, retro, rave, victoriana and all manner of alternative fashion.  It is a smorgasbord of black, lace, ruffles and plaid.  It has become one of my favorite LMFF events as it never fails to surprise with new talent as well as still having that raw, independent quality. Unlike almost everything else you’ll see as a part of fashion week, Circa Nocturna is far less trend driven, less seasonal and much more about fashion as a defining statement

This years line up included some old favorites as well as the launch of new ones, in particular my favorite Darling James by fellow Melbourne blogger HarbourMaster. Full of retro goodness but spiced up with shorter, flirty lengths and glimpses of neon tulle. Trashglam was another surprise that had old skool raver meets Harajuku Girl written all over it.

My perinial favorite Dolly Q did not disappoint with rococo looks, high fashion styling and delightful separates. Vanyanis showed an eclectic grouping of pieces than ran from the retro to the baroque with particularly dapper menswear so as not to be out done by blushing debutantes. Emilie Gray showed just what can be achieved with an update on simple vintage lines and produced a cohesive collection of highly wearable and affordable day wear. Beserk Clothing with their dark anime influences, lit up the catwalk with hot reds and electric blues, blinged out “Love &Hate” knuckle dusters, and the most awesome ‘maned’ legwarmers I’ve ever seen!

The evening was a showcase of paradox, defining what alternative fashion should be, what it should have left behind long before now and where it is headed. It seems that Circa Nocturna gets better with age, attracting more diverse designers, more polished collections and yet more things for me to covet.

If you’d like to find out more about any of the designs or designers seen in the gallery, check out the Official Circa Nocturna site.

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All the highlights of the evening are here for your viewing pleasure and inspiration. Just click on an image to see it enlarge and navigate from there. There are arrows at the bottom of the photos, but you need to change proof sheets from the main page.

Should you wish to use any of these images, please just email me for permission.

So many good things all in one month!  Some of you will just have to live vicariously through the blog for these events, but for those of you in Melbourne there are some treats in store!

The darling Rosy Rabbit is heading to London to shake a tail feather for Burlesque week and in order to get there she is throwing an evening of daring delights.  I will not be missing this one as not only will Rosy demonstrating her legendary techniques, but will be featuring the talents of my most favorite local performers too!

Music dancing and even door prizes will make this an evening to remember,  so if you are in Melbourne the make sure to pre purchase your tickets now as you won’t want to miss it!

Now… What will I wear this time?!

It would look something like this.

Insert Self Here for Blissful Time.

Last Saturday in honor of the delightful Violet Le Beaux being in town, a group of like minded bloggers (and a pair of well trained partners) got together to enjoy and afternoon tea in true girly style. In a little known corner of Collingwood, Melbourne, is a lovely store that is bringing girly back. Christina Re is well known for her stunning DIY stationery collection that let’s you create customised pieces of correspondence magic on paper, vellum and quilted card to name but a few.  To make the experience of selection and creation much more enjoyable, they have recently launched a small in store cafe to supply tea and cakes to weary crafters.  After popping in for a much needed lemonade the other week, I was overwhelmed by the serenity and light of it all, promptly making a note to bring back a bunch of appreciative friends.  And so we did.

left to right: Aurora Hime, Violet Le Beaux, Jimmy America

left to right: Esme and the Laneway, Fables in Fashion, Petite Valse

Super Kawaii Mama and Esme and the Laneway, doing what bloggers do best. Photo by Jimmy America.

Also in attendence were Kitty’s Drawings and Circa Vintage to help us improve the vintage lover versus princess contingent.  I met the two styles in the middle by wearing a 1960’s pink square dancing dress and vintage blue petticoat!

It was as fun and fancy as it looked, there is no doubt we’ll be doing it again. In fact, I think I shall declare this weekend;

DIY Tea Party Weekend

So have a little tea and a cake or two with me.

Last week was the launch of the great new book Our Girls, which I not only had the chance to review as you saw here, but also to model for the pin up parade.  Held in the appropriately themed Order of Melbourne, it was a great night for not only working but catching up with friends, meeting the Author and the original Pin Up Girls!

I made sure to get lots of pics for you as requested, but there is more than you could handle in one place, so there are lots more here. (A thank you to Louise Copper for these shots and some of the ones you see here). Here is a look at all the fun of the evening.

In keeping with the theme of the evening, Circa Vintage Clothing put on a Pin up Parade in faux pageant style. Showcasing swimwear, daywear and evening wear from the 1940’s and 1950’s. Man – I love my job!

Candice Deville (Me!) Niki Blue Eyes and Becky

My favorite 1950’s swimsuit

A brilliant 1950’s atomic print dress

Stunning pink satin 1940’s ballgown. (You may remember this one from the Nuffnang Awards)

After racing around making all those costume changes, ( and yes, I do all my own hair and makeup) It was time to put my blogger hat back on and meet the ladies.

It was clear to see just why these ladies broke so many hearts in their day. Not only did they still work a mean pose, but they were so warm and gracious.

Robin Collins showing that she still has it.

With Lois Traill (centre) one of the original Pin Up Girl’s

From left to right – Former pin up Linda Browne, Author Madeleine Hamilton, Former pin up Lois Traill, and of course Me – Candice Deville

Author Madeleine Hamilton in the centre

Sadly, I didn’t get a chance to catch up with all the ladies, but I was very honored to chat with Linda and Lois who has the most twinkling smiles.  Of course, I couldn’t miss the chance to have my book autographed not only by the author, but by the girls themselves too.  That makes this one an extra special addition to my vintage collection!

Phew! So after all the preparation, walking and talking that day, I went home exhausted but happy for a well deserved sleep.

Well, after that unexpected and extended delay in posting, I am finally back on deck. It seems that technology has been conspiring against me as I couldn’t upload photos and barely tweet while away, I also came home to find that my house was undergoing a power outage!  But now that it seems to be finally sorted, let’s get down to business with the Nuffnang Asia Pacific Blog Awards wrap up!

Official photos courtesy of Mike Yip

As most of you will know by now, I headed off to Singapore last Thursday as a guest of Nuffnang and a finalist in the Best Fashion Blog category.  The finalist were chosen by a panel of industry judges from 13,000 nominees, so needless to say, being one of the five finalists was a HUGE honor!

The Asia Pacific region is comprised of bloggers from all across Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Australia. It was a great thrill to see Australia so well represented in the categories as compared to the population of bloggers in the other countries, we are tiny in comparison. But even in a crowd that big, it was easy to pick the Australian’s – we were the ones that kept partying all night!

After reaching Singapore at 1am Friday, we hit the hay in the hope of getting a little beauty sleep before the big night. I have to say, that with all the excitement, sleep was not an easy thing to get for the entire trip and I subsequently handled Friday and Saturday as a 48 hour straight adventure!

Getting ready for these events is half the fun, and even more fun when you get to do it with a friend. I was thrilled to finally meet up in person with Erica Bartle from Girl With a Satchel and Violet Le Beaux, so after a big breakfast we hit the shops to warm up the credit cards and indulge in a relaxing pedicure. These girls are just so much fun, and we really hit it off. Running around Zara, finding the perfect pieces for one another and making a significant dent in the budget in the first half hour! (See the evidence here!)Then it was back to the rooms for naps, facials, hair and makeup.

With Violet Le Beaux and Erica from Girl With a Satchel

Putting an outfit together for the night required a lot of planning.  Not only in deciding what to wear in such a hot and humid climate, but how to handle the frizz factor of the humidity.  I’d planned to set my hair and had come prepared with all the rollers, pins and lotion.  But after stepping out of the plane that first night, I realized that unless I planned to go with a wild a crazy look, the humidity was not going to be my friend.  So I quickly changed that plan and opted for a sleek French roll with a ton of spray to keep it together.

I have to say a huge thank you to Circa Vintage Clothing for my amazing shell pink, duchess satin earl 1940’s gown and Mr SKM’s delicious cravat. It certainly helped to amp up the glam factor of the evening, and you know me, I couldn’t possibly just go for a little black dress for such an occasion! I paired it with my Great Grandmother’s necklace, and a 1960’s silver lame evening bag – so it was a total mix of eras but I think it was a success.

Arriving at the awards was a somewhat humbling moment. Entering a throng of bloggers and guests over 400 strong, via the red carpet was both exhilarating and surreal. I don’t think I’ve ever had my photo taken so much in my life and after about five minutes was beginning to feel just how big the scale of this event was. Coming from Australia where blogging is not yet the widely recognized phenomenon that it is in other parts of the world, it was overwhelming to meet so many people who knew us and what we did. If you tell most people here in Australia that you are a blogger you’ll most likely be met with a quizzical look, or in one case a response of, “Is that like someone who cuts down trees dear?” So yes, wow…!

The night went off with a bang. Delicious dinners, local celebrities, bands, magicians, T.V crews; the works. And then we reached the part of the night that everyone was itching to get to – the Final Announcements! This is the part of the evening in which I couldn’t stop beaming. As the winners were announced, it became clear that the Australian bloggers were punching above their weight, taking out awards in three categories! The Best Parenting Blog Award went to Childhood 101 from Perth, The Best Tech Blog went to Mr Gadget from Melbourne, and the Best Fashion Blog went to none other than Lady Melbourne from right here in my own city!

I also want to give a special congratulations to my lovely Singaporean friend Xia Xue who took out not one but Three awards – for Most Original Blog Design, Most Influential Blogger and Region’s Best Blogger! Truly, the whole thing was amazing, and as was said many times during the evening, everyone came away a winner. When you consider just how many blogs were nominated by readers (over 13,000), to make it to the finals in each category was no mean feat.

For me the memorable moments of the evening were meeting some of my favorite international bloggers, being able to represent Australia with such a talented and delightful group of bloggers, and… being able to pose for photos with MR SKM in a suit! I haven’t seen him in a suit since our wedding day so this was indeed a night to remember!

I have so many pictures and so much to share with you about this trip that I’m going to break it up into a little series of travel log posts.  I had hoped to do this along the way in real time, but doing it from home now means I have much more to show and tell.

So stick with me, tell a friend and enjoy a bloggers adventures in the East!