Image Credit :: Bams & Ted

Rachel and Claire Fuller, aka bams & ted, are two sisters with style so good it’s fictional. Their vintage-inspired pop-up stores have taken over unlikely spaces around Sydney, turning them into lavish dens of cult-film character charm. This time round they’ll be sifting through the vault of indie filmmaker Wes Anderson for a night of character dress, themed cocktails and live covers of David Bowie in Portuguese. FBi caught up with the darlings of The Darjeeling Limited, The Life Aquatic, The Royal Tenenbaums and more to share a whiskey, swap family stories, and maybe even steal a chicken or two.

FBi: What was your favorite item in your costume-box as a kid?

Rachel and Clare: Our Dad built us a cubby house when we were kids and we were known to spend months at a time holed up in there with our suitcase filled with dress-ups – mostly old fashions from our grandparents. One particular favourite was a Davey Crockett raccoon hat which never failed to be incorporated into family plays!

Tell me about the bams & ted concept.

bams & ted is a vintage store cum dress-up box! With no fixed abode, bams & ted temporarily sets up shop in various locations around Sydney – from 19th century police cells to ex-locksmith premises on the Redfern/Alexandria border. Each month bams & ted surrounds a different character of conceptual interest with the store transforming itself into an immersive, theatrical space inspired by the film or novel in question. Past collections include Miranda from Picnic at Hanging Rock and Sebastian from Brideshead Revisited. Our first shop for 2011 will be in Paddington in July when we will be focusing on Dylan and Caitlin Thomas from Edge of Love.

Where would you say your projects fit into the scale of art and fashion? Are the two exclusive?

A little from column A, a little from column B. We don’t tend to think too much about where we lie in the whole scheme of things.

There’s something a little less, uh, glamorous about Wes Anderson’s characters than the themes of your previous pop-up events. What is it that makes Wes-sters special?

We think Wes is actually more glamorous! The attention to detail in Wes Anderson films, especially in terms of the ‘uniforms’ that Wes characters wear, speak specifically about their failings and history as people and for us, that is a really interesting thing to explore. Imagine picking one outfit and announcing to the world, ‘This is me.’

If the Green Line Bus could take you anywhere, where would you go?

We would take the Wes Anderson cocktail party on the road and travel Australia Wes style. Whiskey and cigarette in hand. And perhaps a full set of Louis Vuitton suitcases for our loot.

Which Wes character would you take along for the ride and why?

Definitely Pagoda. He can handle himself in a crisis. And pink pants! We love them.
 

What: By Way of the Green Line Bus – Wes Anderson Cocktail Party

Where: The World Bar, 24 Bayswater Rd, Kings Cross

When: Wednesday 22 June, 7.30pm