FRIDA LAS VEGAS x THE MILK BARS BOOK!
Put down the Wagon Wheel, shut the fridge door and take a trip back in time to your neighbourhood corner shop - the FRIDA LAS VEGAS x The Milk Bars Book collection is here!
A cross-medium collaboration between artist and photographer Eamon Donnelly, author of The Milk Bars Book and myself, the FRIDA LAS VEGAS x The Milk Bars Book collection is a riotous celebration of the signs, symbols and mythology of that halcyon stalwart of our collective childhoods, The Great Australian Milk Bar.
I first came across Eamon's work through the dark wizardry of Instagram and fell head-first into his world of Australiana-inspired photography and illustrations. Sensing a kindred spirit through the fibres of the Internet, we met in person at the on-brand (but sadly now-defunct) Golden Tower Restaurant, exchanging stories of our memories growing up in suburban Australia during the 1980s.
Topics we discussed included head-scratching pearlers such as: which flavoured coffee milk was truly superior (Big M vs. Farmer's Union), the true delight of savouring a Chiko Roll (it's all about the crunchy burnt ends) and other such chatter that a couple of deeply nostalgic fellow artists are likely to get into (which Bronson was the one who high-tailed it to the cast of Ship To Shore?)
To say I was incredibly inspired by Eamon's photography and historical research, which later found its physical form as The Milk Bars Book, is an understatement. Eamon's documentation of milk bar facades around Australia became an anthology of photographs, stories and ephemera that touched on my own memories of summer days spent chowing down on Eskimo Pies, Dixie Cups and choccie milkshakes.
Realising we shared more than a fleeting common passion, I knew we needed to join forces and work together on a project. Two artists, one shared obsession and BOOM: a collaboration was born!
Eamon's photography served as the primary inspiration behind the FRIDA LAS VEGAS x The Milk Bars Book collection, which I both directly referenced and remixed in the textile designs of each garment. The garments were photographed by Eamon and worn by myself in front of milk bars that, as of April 2021, proudly resist urban gentrification in the sprawling suburbia of greater Melbourne.
The end result unites fashion, photography, memory, culture and identity into one powerhouse package of wearable art that is proudly designed, printed and made in Australia for anyone who remembers the joy of a 50c paper bag brimming with dangerously high levels of sucrose.
Check out Eamon's incredible work here, follow The Milk Bars Book on Instagram and rejoice that The Milk Bars Book 2 is coming soon with more juicy morsels of eye candy!
I had a ball designing the FRIDA LAS VEGAS x The Milk Bars Book collection and delving deep into the miasma of milk bar mythology. If these garments don't make you want to swish your hand in a giant jar of killer pythons, well, I don't know what will.
Mwa X Stavroula aka FRIDA LAS VEGAS
