ABBEY LEE: Step aside Gemma, there’s a new Aussie-born beauty poised to prance down runways this season. The Next Model, who actually got her start on a NYLON Australia cover in ’05, is the new face of Dolce & Gabbana’s spring 2008 campaign, shot by Mario Testino.
nextmodels.com

PERKS AND MINI: Husband-and-wife design duo Misha Hollenbach and Shauna Toohey have left their outré fingerprints on everything from crazy-printed clothing to music compilations, not to mention they curate an annual art exhibition in a different city each year. What’s left? Housewares. P.A.M. collaborated with Undercover designer Jun Takahashi, and the result is this ghoulish lamp (below).
Read more about Perks and Mini HERE.
Lamp available at I Heart in NY, iheartnyc.com.

BIG DAY OUT: Nirvana and the Violent Femmes headlined the first ever Big Day Out music festival in Sydney in ’92, and fifteen years later, the motley lineup is no less amazing. Rage Against the Machine, Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, Kate Nash, Dizzee Rascal, Midnight Juggernauts, and more play in Melbourne this Monday… Too bad the six-city tour sold out in five minutes!
bigdayout.com

ROMANCE WAS BORN: In two years, Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales, the mad scientists behind Romance Was Born have shown their John Hughes-inspired “Weird Science” collection at Australian Fashion Week, gleaned nods of approval from John Galliano and Belinda Seper, and dressed Deborah Harry, Lily Allen, Karen O, and Cyndi Lauper.
Read more about Romance Was Born HERE.

VAN SHE: Modular Records describes Van She as, “fresher than Flavor Flav, fresh like coriander, fresher than the Fresh Prince…” And the band’s music—part ’80s punk, part ’90s grunge, part techno-sampling psychedelia—lives up to its label’s rhetoric. The quartet have toured with Yeah Yeah Yeahs and fellow Aussies the Presets and Cut Copy, and their remixes of everyone from New Young Pony Club to the Klaxons are all the rave.
myspace.com/vanshe

DASHENKA PROCHAZKA: Sydney-based, by way of Switzerland, artist and musician Dashenka Prochazka paints and sculpts darkly beautiful spider webs and skeletons, and tours with her artist-musician boyfriend Ozzie Wright’s band, the Goons of Doom…dressed as a bunny. Her quirky, folksy style could have something to do with being born on Halloween, but is also an amalgamation of influences from her travels to Biarritz, Sri Lanka, and Tokyo.
myspace.com/dashenkabunny

LIFE WITH BIRD: Sass & Bide. Camilla and Marc. Lover... Australian design duos have a pretty good track record, and Melbourne’s LIFEwithBIRD—who are Alice McCall’s sister Bridget and Nicholas Van Messner—are following suit. After debuting their line of sweatshirts with plastic bangles wrapped around the arms, metallic leggings, and winged T-shirts emblazoned with “SHOUT” at Australian Fashion Week last year, their latest attention getter is an Escher-inspired, black-and-white geometric printed weekender bag that we can’t wait to get our hands on.
lifewithbird.com.au
Bag available at the boutique at woodleyandbunny.com.

MUSCLES: Melbourne’s techno rapper, real name Christopher, won us over with his rhymes about ice cream, guns, babes, and lemonade that he layers over enigmatic, electro beats. Armed with a keyboard and computer, this one-man show makes fans from his hometown to Hiro Ballroom, where he played as part of CMJ’s lineup, just wanna dance.
myspace.com/musclesmusic

Need more reasons? Check out australiaday.gov.au.

SAMANTHA GILEWICZ

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