2nd summer 2010

shibori romance asymetric tee
shibori frilled tee and little cardi, hanky skirt
white voile pleat smock top, white filligree hanky skirt
this is a small injection collection of pieces designed to supplement the summer wardrobe. All too often as the weather hots up we are left wondering how to cope with the question of what to wear...how does one pull off the miracle of looking cool and sophisticated when it is a sweltering temperature outside? These pieces are light, loose and edgy. Nothing too resorty here..save the beachy voiles for the beach!

summer 2010 cyndy ellis wears shapes swing cardi

self portrait 1990
portrait of Kevin Robertson 1988
self portrait 1985
maritime painting 1985
this is a short distraction from fashion to talk about my earlier career as an artist.
Last sunday I had to give a short talk with a few of my artist colleagues at the Holme's a court gallery in East Perth. It was an artist forum chaired by Thomas Hoareau called 'the school of perth'. Among my colleagues were Richard Gunning and Kevin Robertson and we were all giving our take on the fact that there was a strong group of artists in the mid eighties who were returning if you like to a realist style of painting after a predominant push of colourfield and abstract work from the 60's and 70's. I know from my own experience that there seemed little else that I wanted to do. I was captivated by the desire to paint faces and portraits because of the amazing amount of information one could capture. I was aware that my colleagues seemed all very interested in painting from life whether it be landscapes, interiors or people yet I didn't really question why. Looking back I see that it was one of those inevitable happenings due to the line up of inspirational tutors we had at art school as much as a desire to be different from the generation before us...whatever the syndrome was I am very happy to be known as one of this group...the school of perth.

Wednesday's West Australian

Sarah Pauley wearing "Atmosphere Dress" at Russell James launch, Perth Fashion Festival, 2010 photo: Songy Knox

Perth Fashion Festival, designer collections1, Sat 11th Sept, 2010

Caris wearing roses skirt and stripe tee with tassle scarf
Sarah Langley wearing shapes sculpted dress/skirt with summer parka
Emily C wearing silk strapless dress
Steffanie Roberts wearing crochet dress
Suzy reid wearing crochet skirt, silk tied jacket and tassle scarf
Kira wearing silk ruched dress/skirt with shapes and stripes swing cardi


Sat 11th Sept, 2010 Designer Collections 1
held at Fashion Paramount, Perth Fashion Festival

these are highlights from my show. I was really happy to find that Pip Christmass, fashion editor of The West Australian wrote a glowing review of my work
see below
"For me however, the real highlight of this group was Megan Salmon. It was inspiring and refreshing to be re-aquainted with this talented designer's work.
She showed the most beautiful flame red and intense amber draped and gathered skirts, amazing black, orange and white prints, and one astounding crochet dress(and crochet dresses are not normally my thing, I admit). It was an absolutely unified, extremely polished capsule collection, one of the most distinctive of the night and it managed to have an artistic edge but be completely wearable at the same time."
Thewest.com.au sept 12th,2010

Atmosphere

Melissa Dobson walking througth the crowd wearing tassled wool cape and fitted jacket, styling: Hannah McGrath
mozart shirt and silk pleat skirt worn by Bec Jones at Atmosphere launch, styled by Hannah McGrath
Atmosphere dress Atmosphere dress in front of wall piece in Victoria hall, Fremantle

Atmosphere, Victoria Hall, High St, Fremantle Sept 11th -16th 2010
I was invited to be a part of an exhibition of Fremantle collective designers by Hannah McGrath called 'atmosphere' and chose to take advantage of the 7m high ceilings in Victoria hall by producing a backdrop wall piece and a sculpted dress suspended from a hoop.
The wall piece is actually all the pattern pieces of various sculpted garments including the dress featured, sandwiched between 2 layers of silk organza. My idea was to somehow deconstruct or demystify the process of making such a sculpted piece of clothing by using the patterns as the exhibit. I felt the dress itself needed to be made using a calico- like cloth that would demostrate the purity of the idea and then proceeded to hang it using many threads of line so that it felt held in space.
Other designers in the show were
Ashe:Batchelor:Chinky wooster:Cocoon textiles:Kartique:Leah Tarlo:Loop:Love in tokyo:She seldom blushes: Totomoto

2nd from the right
lace top and orange roses skirt
Wednesday was the launch of the Perth Fashion Festival and I proudly watched as this beatiful model paraded my outfit. Yummy styling by the crew at PFF.

'england' getting reinvented to look really sassy!
'Africa' and 'Engish rose'
'roses shirt' and chinese brocade skirt..butterfly tutu and imperial skirt

these shots all feature in Perth Woman issue 37 - The Carnival edition July 2010

here are a couple of shots from my new collection- upstream by megan salmon. Now this is really a sneak preview cos this collection hasn't even been put with the agents to sell yet...but I thought you might like to see what is up and coming!
Lots of lovely soft textures and folded shapes that make winter dressing really fun and very stylish.

winter 2011
studio shelf
various buttons for winter 2011
I am designing winter 2011 at the moment. My inspiration is coming from inside my studio. Have collected many trinkets and trims up to now and feel it's about time I put them to use. Romantic victorian details will feature but I am using them in a comfortable way. Shapes are triangular and user friendly though I will always sneak in the odd fitted jacket.
Stay tuned for a sneak preview of this season. Am shooting pictures tomorrow.

'katherine blouse' 2010 silk organza,shibori dyed and handstitched
GET smART
The John Curtin Gallery is planning an exhibition and auction featuring select international, national and local artists and designers who have participated in the gallery's exhibition program since its inception in 1998.
Get smART( a play on the words 'get some art' and the 1960's TV show, GET SMART) is a fundraising show giving art lovers, collectors and gallery supporters the opportunity to 'get some art' acquiring quality contemporary artworks by established and emerging artists.
I have been invited and have submitted the above piece to the show which is running from 10 June - 13 August 2010.
The show culminates with an auction on the 13th August.
Be sure to check it out.
John Curtin Gallery,
Curtin University, building 200A
www.johncurtingallery.curtin.edu.au

With the weather finally giving us a change into the winter season we have just dropped into
store our second series of winter items. This collection is a group that features an original
monchrome print that I designed called Geisha Medallion. it is one of those prints that features
a wonderful geisha girl and a fantastic floral yet within the print there is a lot of space so that
when you wear one of these pieces the design has a beautiful rythmn that travels over the body in a really flattering way. Each piece promises ease of wear whilst looking elegant and interesting.
When I think back to what inspired me for this series(we are talking a year ago, for I design
12 months ahead) I had just visited Bendigo, Victoria where there was a fabulous exhibition on
called The Golden Age of Couture. Essentially it was a wondeful show displaying designs of
Paris and London from 1947- 1957. There were many Dior designs to feast my eyes on and mostly it was a collection showing the incredible hands on details of construction
required to make clothes of this nature. I was struck by the difference in structure of clothes of that period yet was fascinated by the shapes that were created by these methods. I wanted to take something of this yet use a soft cloth like viscose lycra that is so beautifully easy to wear and create draped shapes that could translate into the wardrobe of women now. Designers of this time
were also inspired, like me, with translating prints from other exotic cultures like Asia and colour seemed to be used as a liberation from the sombre tones of the war years before
then. I like to punctuate winter dark tones with rich colour and the colour that I used for this winter was also inspired by that trip to Victoria. Whilst driving through the countryside on the way to Bendigo, I was taken with the colours of the pastoral landscapes before me that were quite different from Western Australia.I took from my observations a green that is more olive than lime, a purple that I saw in the moody clouds over the scenery and a rich rust that was echoed in the earth of the goldfields of Daylesford and Castlemaine.

megan salmon is launching a new label for winter 2011.
Its called 'upstream' and it focuses on sensitive fabric choices, bold prints and handmade details.
Be on the lookout for great knits with forward thinking shapes and dynamic prints.

The Garment Shop

The Garment Shop by megan salmon- is a store dedicated to selling the designs of megan salmon. Currently Megan is designing a few labels, all of which can be found in the Fremantle and Subiaco stores. Her main game is i woman i love which is a label that was conceived to be produced off shore in order to pass on all of the atributes of a designer label at affordable prices.
Passionfish is a label of selected' i woman' pieces that translate into larger sizes. (16-24) This label reflects all of the desires of the larger woman to look fashionable and fabulous.
Tease is a brand new art tee shirt label that will be debuting into store for next summer. We are sneaking a few designs in as early as May so check out the stores regularly for surprise drops of these great tee's.

Fremantle: 55 Queen Victoria St, Fremantle. 08 93358858
Subiaco: cnr Bagot and Rokeby rd, Subiaco 08 93828866

wedding dress

Megan Salmon-"England" silk organza dress designed for 'skin to skin'
an exhibition curated by Lia Mcknight at the Fremantle Arts Centre,2008)

wedding dress for Becky Webster, 2010. pics: Sigrid Ranze

I haven't designed a wedding dress in a little while, yet from having designed the dress for skin to skin I have had requests from a few clients to recreate such a look for their special day.
I created this ivory silk organza dress for a beautiful client, Becky Webster who was married a few weeks ago to her man, Ed. I am delighted with the resulting photos of the day and wanted to show
them. For those who might be interested, I will be accepting commissions to create wedding dresses of this nature in the future.