Seasonal Delights

Seasonal Delights, Consumption of trends and worlds around us was a collaborative project that Ryan Foote developed that brings together creatives from different fields to play with relations and cross-influences between food, fashion, art, design and events.

"We are creating an exhibition and event that is slightly Chinese whispers in style and a meta data of inspiration, where motivation is drawn from the person before and then goes on to inspire the next, yet no one person solely controls the outcome of the world they are creating."

The project began with Ryan Foote developing the concept and then engaging Sarah Willcocks to select 6 local fashion designers, asking them to commit one of their signature garments from the current season (labels involved where Limedrop, Kathryn Beker, Tettmann.Doust, Aaizel, Christina Exie, NEO DIA). The garments are then shown to Ryan Foote, who will create 6 food dishes that are inspired by the garments. After this the dishes are shown to the stylist Emily Ward who then comes up with 6 styling directions inspired by the food and works with Stu Morley to photograph the resulting combination. All of this culminated into the Seasonal Delights event and exhibition as part of Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival 2014 Cultural Program.

This collaborative project explores the meta world we live in and how seasonal trends and unlikely sources of inspiration can both influence and inspire each other. We live in an ever-changing world constantly filtering excessive amounts of information and live in surroundings that develop at unprecedented rates. We consume information from the direct world and people around us, all the way through to the now pervasive smart phone, which lives in our pocket or purse if not in our hand. Within just a few clicks we can see what our friends and strangers are saying, doing, wearing, eating and thinking. We occupy a time where trends and inspiration can change faster than the seasons.

Inspiration no longer requires a vast journey across seas, trips to museums, to escape to the countryside or wading through hundreds of books; it can now be found with a simple web search or by just glancing at your social media news feed. This can be both liberating and problematic.

We find ourselves drawing influence from new places and in new ways, things that might not have been on our radar in the past, now infiltrates our lives to motivate us in new and exciting ways.