Sophie McComas
Sydney Editor, Broadsheet

Go-to culture guide Broadsheet has become the publication in print and online for witty write-ups on restaurants, bars, bands, art, fashion and events.  Sydney Editor, Sophie McComas sat down with us to talk work, personal style and how she would spend her last $100.

Outline a typical day in your life.

There’s no real typical day at Broadsheet, and I’m really grateful for that. It could involve anything from press showings at PR agencies, to working through articles with writers, briefing photographers, editing all the day’s content and writing features and news, plus working on our quarterly newspaper.

Why do you get a kick out of what you do?

When our newspaper lands in my hands, after months of work, I really feel connected to what I do. I love the to-the-minute style of digital media, and I thrive off the fast pace, but having that presence in print is really special, and it feels great to work on something tangible as well as something digital at the same time.

How did you get to where you are today?

I think the most important part about getting to where you want to go is a fistful of guts. You’ve got to chase people up, push yourself, write all you can and not really take no for an answer. It all sounds a bit gung-ho, but hey, if you really want something go after it like you’ve got nothing to lose, because you don’t, really.

What is your career highlight?

I still have a long list of things I want to achieve in my career, but some real highlights have been meeting people I never would have met otherwise. Writers, artists, musicians, it’s incredible that a job like this affords you those opportunities, I feel really lucky.

What is on your radar right now?

I’m loving all things Australiana at the moment. From native flowers and ingredients, to prints used in homewares and fashion.

How would you describe your style?

I’m pretty low maintenance and I don’t wear much jewellery. I do like to wear a few layers quite loosely, especially in the summer. I experiment with a little vintage here and there, I picked up a pair of salvaged denim jeans in New York that I’ve been living in this season.

What’s the one thing you can’t live without?

As much as I should probably say my phone, it’s also my camera.

How would you spend your last $100?

A ticket to The National at the Opera House. True story.

How do you find balance in your busy life?

At the moment I’m trying to make more time for myself so I don’t stress out too much. I’m dipping my toes into yoga, and I’ve made a decision to have no Internet at home (which my boss can’t believe) but it’s important to me to have that zone-out space.

What is one of your favourite articles to date in Broadsheet?

We’ve covered so many great things, but I really love the images from this recipe for Café Sopra’s banoffee pie that we ran a while ago. The caramel is mesmerising! I also love this piece we ran on the candle-maker Elise Pioch and her husband Pablo Chappell, who makes bikes. They have such a wonderful life in this incredible old renovated church in Lower Portland with chickens running around and pastries baking in the oven. They are both absolutely wonderful people.

Sophie wears  Crepe Wrap Top. Shot on location at The Stables Cafe.

Valerie Norman
DJ / Model Booker, Priscilla’s Model Management

Michaela Sanders
DJ / Graphic Designer

Valerie Norman and Michaela Sanders are Valerie Yum and Lux. With the same appetite for music and life, Valerie and Michaela became ‘inseparable’ after DJing back to back at a Sydney party. Describing their friendship as ‘instant and effortless’, their music is as cool as their eclectic style.

How would you describe your personal style?

Valerie: Depending on how I feel each day, some days lots of colour and some straight black, sometimes femme and others more masculine. I think of a character in my head and that’s what I am for the day. What’s most important is that I’m comfortable.

Michaela: I have fun trying to work pieces together that you might not necessarily think would go… It’s like looking for happy accidents; there is more fun and creativity in that.

What piece from the AW.14 collection can you not live without?  

V: The light grey coat is perfect because it can be worn with anything and everything.

M: Being a sci-fi fan, the White Stretch Double Faced dress totally fits in with my futuristic spaceship visions of living.

What trends are catching your eye at the minute?

V: Pastels, which I’ve been loving as the last time I was wearing them I was a teenager watching the movie ‘Clueless’.

M: I’ve been enjoying the prints that stretch over an entire garment front – one huge image.

What is a typical day like in your 9 to 5 job, as a model booker and freelance graphic designer?

V: Busy and beautiful.

M: I have periods of intense graphic design work, where I spend all day from waking to bedtime intaking visual inspiration, processing briefs, creating design work, back to more inspiration seeking… Listening to music in the background most of the time. As a freelancer I have periods in between jobs where I will work more on my own projects – writing music and painting a lot right now. I believe it’s good to seek inspiration and work across all sorts of mediums, don’t exhaust yourself on one thing the whole time. It all feeds into each other.

You’ve mentioned an interest in working with music beyond being DJs, can you tell us more about that?

M: As we’ve both continued developing and growing as DJs… we both separately realised how much we enjoy creating soundtracks as an enhancement to an experience – as much as playing sets as the focal entertainment. The creativity involved in working on a larger vision like that that is incredibly satisfying. After being asked to create the soundtrack to a Dion Lee show, we both felt a strong connection to this type of work and wanted to work further in this area. As I (Lux) am already writing music and have composed soundtracks to video art works, we have the ability to create unique soundtracks as well as mixing music and want to engage in this more along the way.

What excites you about fashion today? 

V: I love that there is so much out there. If you feel inspired by a certain thing you have seen or a song you heard, you are sure to be able to find it.

M: The way everything is converging so much more than I think it used to. The feeling that sculptural and architectural forms are able to be brought into fashion much more easily as technology and the means of production progresses.  I feel like I’m now seeing garments being created that I only dreamt about years ago.

What is the one song you could listen to on repeat forever?

V: ‘Love on a Real Train’ by Williams (it’s a Tangerine Dream cover).

M: ‘Rain’ by Tones on Tail.

What new music are you in to right now?

V: Blood Orange and Connan Mockasin’s latest music and Suzanne Kraft.

M: A friend sent me a song called The Heat by a relatively new Berlin based duo called Easter. I was obsessed with the song and then them, both the boy and girl have incredible faces and sing songs about the weirdest things.

If you could see any music act in history live, who would it be?

V: Frank Sinatra for sure, my Dad used to sing all of his songs to me. I’d like to see if he was as good as my Dad.

M: Michael Jackson – I already have been incredibly lucky to see him live when I was about 11, I think it was the highlight of my life. I am eternally grateful to my parents for surprising me on the day with tickets, seeing him materialise on stage in a haze of smoke is etched into my memory forever.

Who in music has a style you admire?

V: The girl group TLC. The 90s have always stuck with me!

M: My friend Dev Hines – Blood Orange. I admire his songwriting skills, as I think they are truly timeless and irresistible, and he has a great sense of fashion.  In my eyes it’s kind of understated but experimental and referencing really cool moments from the past along the way.

What was the last thing you tried for the first time?

V: Archery.

M: Getting a mani pedi not too long ago. I’m a bit of a tomboy, even if I cry really easily reading the newspaper or watching a film.

Valerie wears the Soft Crepe Top. Michaela wears the Sonograph Cocoon Dress.

Valerie and Michaela photographed at the Veronika Maine AW.14 Press Launch. See the photos from the event here, shot by Lester Jones.

Crista Cober
AW.14 Model

How did you get into modelling and what is your favourite part about the job?

I got into it accidentally on my way to nursing school and someone scouted me in my hometown in Canada. My favourite thing about it is never knowing what modelling entails – it’s like living your life as a scavenger hunt with one clue at a time.  There’s an adventure around every corner – some you love and some you hate but it’s never the same.

If you weren’t a model you would be…

A writer, a midwife, a mother and probably a better daughter

How would you describe your own personal style?  You’re surrounded by fashion everyday but what do you love for you? 

I love classic, simple and not expensive as far as price goes but expensive quality-wise – white t-shirts, vintage jeans, combat boots that sort of thing.

What is your pick from the campaign?

The long grey coat – it’s incredible.

What’s on your must see and do list for Australia?

What are the fish with the huge blue lips called?  A groper?  I really want to see one of those and I would love to do a road trip in an old car or a motorcycle.   A sunset is also a must.

If you could curate your own concert what three bands would you have play and why?

The first would be Credence Clearwater Revival because it’s my one go-to band when I hate my day and it instantly makes me happy.  The second probably Fleetwood Mac and the third I would pick someone I’ve never heard but someone I loved or trusted recommended in the name of listening to something new.

What was the last book you read?

Shantaram – a fiction novel about a notorious Australian

View the AW.14 campaign featuring Crista here.

Behind the scenes images shot by Jake Terrey.