Fête

Fête Magazine – a new free Australian online magazine about event styling, entertaining and party planning!

Pagespreads from issue 1 of Fête Magazine – PEONIES are so perfect, aren’t they?

Mexican-flavoured teen pool party – SO cute!

I find myself stumbling across more and more incredible design talent in SA recently – first it was our darling pals Daniel and Emma, then the immensely talented glass artists at the JamFactory, then cooler than cool Collect Mag and of course, more recently the clever boys at Mash.  I get the impression Adelaide is a secret land with all these very clever people tap tap tapping away at these super inspiring projects behind closed doors, without any fuss or fanfare… and then when we finally catch on in Melbourne and Sydney it’s like BAM – where did that come from!?  Sheesh.  We really are hopeless. :)

Today we’re sharing another stunning new SA-born creative project – Fête Magazine!  Fête is a free bi-monthly online mag with a focus on all aspects of entertaining – from food to flowers and decorations, from kids to teens to grown-up dinner parties. Whilst there’s no shortage of online magazines popping up these days, I must say it is SO great to see one that has a distinctly Australian feel to it.  The parties pictured in Issue 1 of this beautiful publication are unmistakeably Aussie in their execution – I especially love the Mexican-flavoured teen pool party with it’s sepia toned shots!  SO cute, yet so natural and relaxed – and all too familiar!

It was actually my dear offsider Jenny Butler who brought Fête to my attention (thankyou JB!), and as with any new discovery, my first instinct was to scan the credits to see which clever team might be behind this polished project.  Turns out Fête is the creation of no one I had heard of (until now!) – Adelaide based event stylist and ‘big picture person’ Annabelle Kerslake, and ‘obsessive, details-focussed’ graphic designer Jane Cameron.  Needless to say – these two make the perfect creative match!

We love to  learn a little more about special self-starter projects like this, so we asked Jane Cameron a few questions about Fête -

You have crept up on us unawares with Fête!  So we’re curious… what are your career backgrounds?

Annabelle’s an entrepreneur at heart and started her career by opening a corner florist shop – after three years she was ready for a bigger challenge and moved on to build one of Adelaide’s leading event styling companies. Annabelle’s a people person and this endearing quality earned her a loyal following.

Meanwhile, I was running my own graphic design studio where my clients would wing me across the country as their corporate high flying designer. I’d lectured design to eager young students and served on the AGDA committee for what seems like forever (still!) – I even judged the awards one year which was pretty special. To satisfy a creative hankering I started a little personal stationery business on the side.

That’s how I met Annabelle – she was looking for someone to design stationery for her clients. Not long after meeting, Annabelle came up with a hair-brained scheme to get in to publishing and we started a printed wedding magazine to international acclaim. After five years we decided to leave to start our next big project, fête.

Annabelle’s the grand plans, big-picture type girl and I’m the obsessive compulsive, details person. By some miracle we work really well together and feel more like sisters than business partners. It’s a collaboration that has turned in to a life-long friendship.

What inspired you to come together to create Fête?

We both love entertaining and celebrating but are so seriously time-poor we wanted to find a way to do it quickly, easily but still do it well. With our collective backgrounds in design, styling and event management, we knew there was a better way and we wanted to pass on these ideas to every other person we know who is trying to juggle their hectic life, like we are.

We are especially loving the distinctly ‘Australian’ feel of the magazine – what do you feel is fresh / different / fabulous about Fête?

It’s important to us to present our ideas in an authentic way, that are relevant to our lifestyles – it has to be achievable and accessible.  It has to be easy – after all, Fête is pretty much just the two of us, with the help of some fantastic family and friends.

We like to think we present an Australian aesthetic, after all it’s what we know and we’re proud of our lovely country and its customs. This is something we strive to emulate – our laid-back, not-too-serious attitude to life.  It’s who we are and what makes us special in this world.

It’s such a laugh when international inquiries work out we’re based in Australia. We love it even more when Australians realise we work out of Adelaide!  We still get a laugh from the fantastic emails we receive from all parts of the world singing our praises when we are just two girls from SA doing our own thing. If only they knew!

Keep doing your own thing ladies – you’re on to a winner!

Massive thanks to Jenny Butler for sourcing this excellent story  :)

More pagespreads from the current issue of Fête Magazine

Fête Magazine

Fête Magazine