Tluxe Blog

Hello and happy Monday! Today we thought we’d introduce you to artist and designer Ann Lightfoot, the creative force behind our range of up-cycled silver jewellery. After re-locating from Bondi to the small coastal town of Tathra, south of Sydney, Ann is finding inspiration in the calm of her natural surroundings to create some great accessories.

The Tluxe range Perpetual Motion is my first jewellery collaboration with a fashion designer like Rebecca Powell. I love her designs and attitude to sustainable production. I also appreciate that her products are made in Australia, which is increasingly rare.

I’ve always been a maker of things. I studied art in Lismore and went on to major in sculpture and painting at the Canberra School of Art.

Coming from a visual arts background I’m influenced by abstract impressionism. I also adore Rothko and Anish Kapoor. These days the people I meet drive my art practice and the ideas created from those encounters. I’m also driven by the aesthetic of an object, which is as important to me as its function. 

The Tluxe jewellery girl is confident and relaxed, a lady who knows who she is. The snake chain and bar necklace (pictured above) is one of my favourite pieces. It’s elegant and modern. I love the way it moves and sits on the body. It’s a piece I will always be happy to make. 

My inspiration for the Tluxe accessories came from the name Perpetual Motion, and of course the clothes. I’ve incorporated movement and light into the pieces using sterling silver, flowing chains and moving repeated shapes. I’ve also created something solid and still - the leather and solid silver bar necklaces - to contrast against the flowing fabrics. Tess Schofield, the costume designer, used these particular pieces for the opera La Triviata, which was recently performed, live on Sydney harbour. The matadors wore them.

Xchain and bar earrings

 

I try as much as possible to use recycled materials. It just seems to make sense and appeals to my practical sensibility. I feel it’s my responsibility as I am making more stuff for a world that’s already very full. I’m not into mass production and prefer to keep my entire making in-house. 

Here in Sydney the streets have been alive with the click of heels and some pretty fantastic styling tips, thanks to Australian Fashion Week, which came to a close late last week. Below you’ll find a few of our favourite looks from the past few days, from how to wear siren red trousers to the laid-back cool of the contemporary tux, worn with a loose-fit T-shirt. All great ideas from the experts, which also happen to have a touch of our own relaxed Tluxe style. Enjoy! (with thanks to Tommy Ton, Harper's Bazaar, and Fashionologie.)

Love that top! Check out the Tluxe version here.

The new tux needs the perfect white T-shirt.

Bang on-trend in siren red trousers.

A little bit rock'n'roll in laid-back leggings. 

And just because we love Yasmin Sewell's style.

As the days grow cooler we're swapping beach time for a little culture. Right now you will mostly find us:

Listening to: The new Jack White album. Out last week and already album of the week in the Tluxe studio.

Looking at: The Daily Nice. Pictures that make you smile care of photographer Jason Evans.

Visiting: The new and improved Museum of Contemporary Art on a Thursday night. It’s free. It’s inspiring. You can eat dinner upstairs with a view of Sydney harbour. What’s not to love?

Reading: The School of Life’s books for modern living. They’re not out until next week but we’ve got them on pre-order. With titles like How to Change the World, How to Thrive in the Digital Age, and most importantly, How to Stay Sane, we’ll want the whole series. And the cover artwork isn't bad either.

This autumn we’re more about evolution than revolution. With this in mind we’ve taken last season’s trend for wearing vibrant blocks of colour and turned it into a subtler look by using tones of charcoal and navy blue.  We’ve also taken the hard work out of matching individual colours for you by combining them all into one piece. Cue our W t-shirt, Clarence maxi-dress, and One Aldwych pencil skirt.

And with our choice of blues a hit at the most recent round of catwalk shows for next autumn/winter, as seen above at Anne Valerie Hash (right) and Gianfranco Ferre (left), the Tluxe take on a more subtle, tonal colour block is a fashion-forward look that’ll see you well into next year and beyond.

Heads up people! We’re super excited to announce the arrival of our Australian Merino wool pieces online this week including our super fine, silk-trimmed Merino wool cape (pictured above).

This season we’ve upped the chic factor on many of our wool cardigans and tops by trimming them in silk. So you get the warmth, comfort and sustainable qualities of wool, with a little added glamour and shine.

For those of you who may not already know, Australian Merino wool is undergoing a renaissance as the world’s most luxurious natural fibre and is prized the world over for it’s super fine quality. For a taste of its reinvention we’re loving Woolmark’s exhibition Wool Modern (pictured top), which started off in London and hits Sydney later this month. From Alexander McQueen to Vivienne Westwood and the king of ‘80s sharp silhouettes, Thierry Mugler, the exhibition shows wool at its most avant-garde. Yes, the humble Australian sheep is a little more fashion-foward than you’d expect. And recent innovations mean wool fabrics are now incredibly soft too... Suddenly the imminent arrival of winter doesn’t feel so bad after all.