Seventh Wonderland: 4 wonderfully quick questions, post show

We caught Carlos and Bonnie after the show with four – count them – wonderfully quick questions!

Question 1: Bonnie and Carlos, what story is this collection telling?

Bonnie: It is very much about an experience, going to another wonderland. We wanted to present a different world that wasn’t your normal traditional swim/beachwear. We have put together a story of pale girls in a 1930s spa – this is where the marble print comes into play.

Carlos: We were looking toward choreographer Busby Berkeley. There is a clip in particular that is called ‘By a Waterfall’. It is a beautiful sequence of girls in a type of underworld. It had plays on reflection, beautiful mirroring, and many different kaleidoscope-like components. It created such amazing effects, and is something that Bonnie’s been able to use in her work for the season.

Question 2: And how did this inspire the show?

Bonnie: We really wanted to bring in the water elements and glass with faceting: we were looking at old perfume bottles from those days. The Busby Berkley clip was in a fantasyland - it had all Art Deco pillars and girls coming down on waterslides into marbled swimming pools, kind of like a spa. This is where the marble came into the prints, we brought water in with the ice sculpture, and a dreamscape-like feeling with the music.

Question 3: Was there a particular piece that you most connected with, or found most difficult to execute?

Bonnie: The macramé features! That macramé took me forever to do. Thirty centimetres alone takes me about two hours by hand.

Question 4: In the mad lead-up to today’s show, who or what have been your daily heros to help get you through?

Carlos: We’ve got a really good support network. I guess Bonnie and I are trying to do four people’s jobs with two people. Having the Raes of the world, our fantastic sales agent, and all the people that support and believe the vision we have is really comforting.

Bonnie: And I think family as well. My mum and dad were up all night gluing all those jewels on the shoes …

[Pause]

Oh, and each other! [as support]

Carlos: Yeah, of course! Each other.

* * *

Get out your noseclips and take the plunge into Busby Berkley’s ‘By a Waterfall’. The sequence that inspired Seventh Wonderland’s SS 2010/2011 collection is from the 1933 musical ‘Footlight Parade’ starring James Cagney. Look!



x Samone and Jaye