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It’s not just gay men who are taking the fashion industry by storm, there’s plenty of not-so-straight girls doing great things. CHERRIE talks to three queer chicks who are rocking it.
 SARA RUNDELL – CELEBRITY STYLIST
www.blackdovemedia.net
Our cover girl Sara hails from San Diego in the US, but spends a lot of time in Australia doing creative work for her company Black Dove Media. She started out teaching hip hop dance at the age of 16, before moving to LA where she “fell into” doing freelance fashion styling shoots for the likes of Christina Aguilera, Pink, Alicia Keys and Prince, even working as the latter’s personal assistant for 18 months.
“I’d start talking to someone and they’d say, ‘Do you want to come and do this?’” she tells CHERRIE. “I met Prince because he liked the way I dressed. It was about meeting people and networking – I just fell into it.”
So, how do you go about styling such iconic artists? “I sit down with them, find out where they want to go, and I bring a lot of different options,” Sara explains. “We get into how they want to be perceived, and I put my little two cents in. On tour we’ll usually have a designer who’ll sponsor the tour. For a photo shoot we’ll articulate what we want and get things custom made. For Prince and Christina that’s the case, otherwise we do a lot of shopping.”
She describes Prince as “a lot of fun”, Pink as “cool and easy like one of your mates” and Alicia as “amazing, so humble”, but while she has “a lot of funny stories” about working with celebrities, she’s diplomatic about maintaining client confidentiality. “I’ve had quite a few laughs,” she grins. “I will tell you on one tour – I won’t say which one – but the artist was very nervous before the show and threw up on my shoe!”
With regard to her own style, Sara says, “I just do me. I’m just myself. I like my earthy stuff, my punk, my hip hop. You won’t catch me in a dress too often though! My style changes; I have so many different looks, it’s about whatever I’m feeling on the day.”
When she’s not on tour, Sara enjoys working with Black Dove – a one-stop shop for photography, fashion and creative concepts in fashion, music and entertainment. “We set it up because we wanted to bring a different element to the Australian market,” she says. “We’re hoping to get involved with Australia’s Next Top Model and I might have some stuff coming up with Madonna, so fingers crossed!”
If that’s not enough, Sara’s also planning to launch her own music career. “I’m writing and recording my own stuff,” she reveals. “It’s trial and error with which sound I want to go with. At the moment it’s a kind of electro pop. Probably the end of this year or early next year you’ll see something.”
When asked what advice she has for young women wanting to enter the industry, she says, “Be true to yourself. You have to love what you do, and remember it’s about the journey not the destination.”
 SPRINKLE MAGIC - DESIGNER
www.sprinklemagic.com
Walking into Sprinkle’s store in Melbourne you are immediately transported to a world of opulence. Vintage red flocked wallpaper covers the generous dressing rooms and back wall, ceramic Siamese cats cast a watchful eye and then there is, of course, the clothes.
Sprinkle’s garments embody a style that would be would be outside the realm of many designers. It is quite simply elegance with an edge. She combines traditional lines while maintaining a true dedication to difference and her growing clientele couldn’t be happier.
“My current collection is called Madam Mafia,” Sprinkle says. “So my inspiration is the likes of Sophia Loren and Isabella Rossellini – European women in general, which is my background. This collection was dedicated to my father.”
Sprinkle was born in Rome to an Italian father and Russian-Polish mother. She credits her heritage for her love of glamorous women and designs accordingly. “My market is professional women in their late 20s to late 50s: women who are discerning shoppers and are happy to spend money on quality. These women are not the kind with no hips, no bum, no boobs and a size six. They are real women who have curves to their body and they are sexy.”
Sprinkle’s talents also spill into costume design and performing. Many will know her from her Gurlesque performances and her seminal Melbourne queer club Ouch. “Costume is about being excessive and over the top and extravagant,” she muses.
As Sprinkle’s label becomes more renowned she has sparked the interest of megastars such as Cyndi Lauper who discovered her label on her 2004 tour. “Her stylist came across some of my pieces in one of the shops I stock and I ended up making something specific for her,” she explains. “This time around on her recent tour I was a little cheeky and emailed her asking if she remembered me. She did and she sent her stylist to collect a whole lot of stuff of mine which she used in a photo shoot.”
Fronting your own label and shop is a bold move that doesn’t always come naturally to Sprinkle. “I’m actually quite shy,” she confesses. “I struggle sometimes to be that bold, but you have to at times. And I love what I do. I had a guy come in with his partner and he turned around to me at one point and said, ‘Gee you really make women happy’ and that was so good – and that’s why I’m doing it.”
 LENYA JONES – STYLIST
www.lenyajones.com
Like Sara, Lenya is also originally from the US, but has called Australia home for the past five years. “I’ve always loved clothes and the drama created by wearing something that may be unexpected,” she says of her passion for fashion. “Watching films like Breakfast at Tiffany’s with Audrey Hepburn stirred my first love of fashion.”
Lenya has worked mostly in fashion marketing both in the US and Australia, including a stint at David Jones, before becoming a full-time freelance fashion stylist. “Whilst still working at DJ’s I started to branch out and offer my services styling fashion editorials, fashion parades and video clips,” she says. “After struggling with all the juggling of working full time and trying to promote myself, I decided to make the leap into freelance. Life is too short to not do what you love.”
The Fashion Institute of Technology states that a fashion stylist should learn the following: art history, fashion design as it relates to clothing design and draping, sewing and mending skills, fashion photography, fashion business marketing, and the names and trends of different fashion brands and designers. Lenya adds that she believes a stylist also needs to be able to anticipate upcoming trends and translate high fashion into a layperson’s terms.
So, what does a typical day in the life of a stylist entail? “I can be doing anything from scouting locations, researching and arranging models, on a shoot making sure the clothing fits properly or out and about organising and/or returning clothes and accessories,” Lenya says.
Fashion is generally much more synonymous with gay men than lesbians and in Australia some queer female designers are reluctant to come out. “Gay men are perceived to be fashionable as they are early adopters of whatever is ‘in style’ at the time,” Lenya proffers. “Lesbians are perceived as un-fashionable because as women, they adapt their style to fit into their life regardless of trends.”
Although The L Word has gone some way to dispelling the myth that not-so-straight women aren’t interested in fashion, that sensibility still has to reach Australian shores, according to Lenya. “I think the Australian fashion business is very different from the rest of the fashion world. There are a different set of rules that probably make it seem not as accepting as the rest of the fashion world.”
For Lenya, who is an out lesbian working in the mainstream fashion industry, her sexuality has never been an issue. “If I show up to a fashion event with a female date, I don’t expect anyone to have anything to say about it unless my date is not dressed accordingly,” she says. So, if you’re a queer women wanting to break into this competitive industry, just go for it. “Become good at what you want to do,” Lenya advises. “No one questions great work.”
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