I’m exceptionally lucky to get to see some of the country’s beauty launches, blogger and media events, and fashion shows, and it’s been such a busy year. Here are some of the top events and highlights of 2014 for a snapshot of some of my favourite fashion and beauty industry events in the past wee while. Sorry I’ve been so slow to load it as I’ve been on holiday! You’ll find the link for each one listed beside the blurb if you want to see each full article.
January
Lollitint Benefit launch
We attended the launch of Lollitint, a beautiful, lilac tint for lips and cheeks, at Benefit Newmarket and met Annie, daughter of Benefit’s co-founder, Annie Ford Danielson, as well as top New Zealand beauty You Tube stars Shannon and Sally-Jo. Read more on Thread about Lollitint at Benefit.
Nevada Rocks fashion shoot
Photographer Johanna Macdonald shoots Anna Hagood on location in the Nevada Desert, USA, wearing New Zealand fashion. See the whole article and all credits here: Nevada Rocks fashion shoot
Belles Of Antonia Hall
Photographer Petra Mingneau shot this editorial in a beautiful, broken-down building in Christchurch, Antonio Hall, in vintage clothing styled by Keren Armstrong. See the full Belles Of Antonia Hall shoot here.
February
Kagi Jewellery launches “I Am”
Thread attended the Kagi Jewellery (www.kagijewellery.com) launch of ‘I Am’, the Autumn/Winter 2014 Collection, at the French Kitchen at the French Cafe this month, over a selection of incredible savoury and sweet dishes created by their talented chef. Read more on Kagi here.
As well as New Zealand Fashion Week each September, Thread.co.nz attends the odd show at New York and London Fashion Week in February.
London Fashion Week
Antipodium showed at London Fashion Week 2014 in the historic Institute of Contemporary Arts building, with a collection aptly titled ‘Times New Roman’. Thread’s reporter Alia Gargum was there to tell us all about it. See her review here of the Antipodium show
New Zealand brother and sisters Morgan Sibbald, Zoe Williams, and Ruth Sibbald’s label Zoe & Morgan www.zoeandmorgan.com showcased their jewellery brand in Somerset House at London Fashion Week 2014, with a collection titled ‘Eye of the Tiger’. Read more about Zoe & Morgan at London Fashion Week on Thread here.
New York Fashion Week
I want to be able to describe how special it was to be able to be backstage at the Karen Walker show. There were moments of stress, sincerity, humour and awkwardness…Day 5 from New York Fashion Week Fall ’14 from ThreadNZ’s reporter Iris Chan on location at NYC to bring us daily highlights, streetstyle, and backstage reports.
Read her NYFW 1 Diary on Thread here Day 2 at NYFW here Day 3 at NYFW here Day 4 at NYFW here and Behind the Scenes with MoroccanOil at Cushnie et Ochs here.
Pictured below: Backstage at Karen Walker, photo by Iris Chan for Thread.
Watch our New York Fashion Week Streetstyle Youtube video by Iris Chan here.
M.A.C Trends Presentation
We had the pleasure of hearing the latest makeup trends from Nicole Thompson, a.k.a. Pinky, at the M.A.C SS2014 Trends presentation.
March
Melbourne Fashion Festival
A highlight of Melbourne Fashion Festival was the colourful show by Nixi Killick. Photo by Diane Pantoja.
Read our VAMFF highlights here and we met Gary Pepper Girl, Nicole Warne.
KELLY THOMPSON AT THE TOWN MOUSE
The lovely – and uber talented – illustrator Kelly Thompson chatted to Thread at her husband Christian’s Melbourne restaurant The Town Mouse on Drummond Street in Carlton. Over an endless supply of small plates we chatted a bit on and off around the subject of insights Kelly has for young illustrators starting out and how to deal with the industry.
April
April is HUGE in fashion; we covered iD Dunedin Fashion Week, Australia Fashion Week and Wellington Fashion in a short time. We were incredibly lucky to have talented photographer Sam Lee and wife Dana Lee covering Mercedes-Benz Australia Fashion Week for Thread.
iD Dunedin Fashion Week
Thread headed to the deep south for the 15th iD fashion week, to see the emerging awards, Railway Station show, the store openings, the fashion, and quite a lot of coffee. This event is definitely one of my greatest highlights of the year. Read about iD Dunedin here.
Connie McDonald went backstage at iD Emerging Designer Awards on Thursday 3rd April at Dunedin Town Hall to meet and shoot Polaroids of several of the designers, crew, and models. Read them on Threadnz here: Model Agency head Ali McD, iD’s Margo Barton, designer Mook Attakanwong, and model Grace.
Below: Victoria Thaniotis of Australia at iD. Photo Megan Robinson.
Wellington Fashion Week
Highlights from Wellington Fashion Week 2014 by Simonne Walmsley on location for Threadnz at the 3rd annual WFW, held in Shed 6, on the Wellington waterfront. Read more here. Photo Brady Dyer.
RUBY AND LIAM AT WELLINGTON FASHION WEEK
It was a full house for the first ever event at the newly opened Pre-Fab hall, the off-site venue for the RUBY and liam show off-site at Wellington Fashion Week, and what a way to get things started. The hall was literally packed to the rafters. Read more here. Photography Izzie Austin
Words Simonne Walmsley.
Australia Fashion Week
Day 1 at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia 2014 on location with Thread’s Photographer Sam Lee and Writer Dana Lee. Photo by Sam Lee.
Here’s day one at MBFWA featuring Carla Zampatti (pictured above). Day Two (below) saw us attending collections by Aurelio Costarella, Bec and Bridge, NLP, Gail Sorronda, Alex Perry, Karla Spetic (pictured below) and Strateas Carlucci. Photo by Sam Lee.
Day 3 at MBFWA featured collections by Ginger and Smart, Leroy Nguyen, Cameo, and Maticevski. Photo by Sam Lee.
Day 3 at MBFWA included collections by Jayson Brunsdon, Lan Yu, Suboo, Dion Lee II, and Haryono Setiadi. Photo by Sam Lee.
May
Semi-Permanent Auckland
Here are just a few of our highlights of day 2 at the 10th Semi-Permanent Auckland on Saturday 3rd May 2014 with some of the memorable soundbites, photos I shot, and some top Tweets.
Zambesi Summer Presentation
Beautiful models ate cake at a decadent feast laid out at the Zambesi Summer 2014/15 Launch. The tableau of the heavenly picnic on clear plastic clouds saw The Caker Jordan Rondel feeding layer cream cake and a table of food and wine as models lounged in the upcoming SS14/15 collection based around a print collaboration between the New Zealand designer label and the iconic Liberty of London, creating two prints: a floral daisy print, and a zodiac signs print, in Liberty lawn cotton. See more Zambesi SS14 here.
June
Kelly Thompson art class with Maybelline
it was such a thrill to get to attend an art class at Artstation in Ponsonby with Maybelline New York for beauty writers to create their own pictures over a Kelly Thompson line drawing, using actual makeup. Read more about Kelly Thompson art class with Maybelline here.
July
Nike and Lunarglide run on Waiheke
I got to go on an epic mystery run with Nike to launch their new Lunarglide 6 running shoe, with a dinner and hotel stay at Sofitel then a launch ride to Waiheke and a run over the island and return boat ride home. See photos here.
WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg
Meeting someone who has effectively changed the world through their invention is pretty rare. We had the privilege of hearing 30-year-old WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg speak in Auckland on 18th June at ‘A Conversation with Matt Mullenweg’.
Meeting the cast of Annie the musical
Leaping Lizards! It’s opening night of the West End musical Annie, which has arrived in Auckland after a popular season in Wellington. We met the cast of Annie the musical in Auckland’s Civic Theatre at the media call to ask questions, hear about the production, and take photos of a few live performances.
August
NZ Fashion Week 2014 was a bit earlier than before, beginning in August to avoid clashing with overseas fashion weeks. Day 2 began with a relaxed start with coffee and muesli yoghurt cups down at Huffer Basement in an offsite installation to reveal their new dressed-up womenwear collection, Aim. Read all about Day 2 at NZFW 2014 here.
FASHION WEEK HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE HEART OF THE CITY
I was the Heart of the City official blogger at NZ fashion week and live-tweeted shows on their Twitter account, it was so much fun. Here’s the round up I did for them. Below: one of my favourite fashion week shows: Stolen Girlfriends Club at Western Springs Speedway.
Disney On Ice
The major, major highlight of the week and indeed the whole year, was having my daughter play a tiny role in Disney on Ice in Auckland. She was invited to let off a lantern and hug Rapunzel on the podium. We were all so excited. Thanks, Disney!
We met the author of Advanced Style – Ari Seth Cohen at The Department Store. Photo by Sam Lee.
September
NZ Fashion Week
Rotorua Road Trip
With the fountain of well-wishes that is my hope springing eternal, I packed the car and set off with my family on our road trip to Rotorua. I needn’t have worried. We had the BEST time! I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again – now I’ve finished all the laundry – or recommend people take their family to Rotorua. It is far enough to feel like you’re going somewhere quite different, yet close enough to get there by lunchtime and not go stir crazy. Read about my Rotorua road trip to Millennium Hotel, Polynesian Spa and Skyline gondolas here.
October
Amber Whitecliffe
Young designer Amber Whitecliffe held a Bloggers event instore in her pretty Parnell Road boutique on Thursday night to showcase her current Mrs Pinto collection and host fashion journalist Evelyn Ebrey.
Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk
On Thursday we were invited to attend the media preview of The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk on Thursday 16 October at NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road, in Melbourne. Kelly Thompson, New Zealand-born illustrator now based in Melbourne, attended the opening for Thread. Read Kelly’s article on PJG at NGV here.
Trip to Melbourne
Melbourne is an incredible city and by far my favourite I’ve visited in Australia, so when I had the opportunity to tag along on the boy’s business trip and do some shoppercise and culture touring of my own, I leaped at the chance. Here are some highlights of my Melbourne trip in October 2014.
KAREN WALKER EYEWEAR
Karen Walker Eyewear celebrated 10 years with a luxe party with Lexus at Sapphire Room upstairs in Ponsonby Central on Friday 10th October. It was really interactive: there were two photo areas for guests. First we had photos in a confetti explosion in front of a wall of gold helium balloons (which we all got to take home) wearing the new golden commemorative frames – one pair for each year of the brand. Secondly we had photos at a replica of the 2006 launch ‘Dictator’ photoshoot campaign, complete with microphones with Karen Walker and LEXUS on them.
November
Semi-Permanent Wellington
We sent Morgan Ashworth of Hyacinth Girl along to Semi-Permanent Wellington 2014 for Thread.co.nz and she has reported back with this story of her highlights of the international Creatives conference. Read more here.
Matakana Botanicals
I love the artisan sustainable brand, Matakana Botanicals, and most of all the ethos of its owner, Danvers Devereux, who has re-imagined the brand from a much-loved classic that his mother Colyn Devereux began 25 years ago; Les Floralies. I was lucky enough to head up in a shuttle on a road trip as part of Auckland beauty editors on a famil, to see firsthand the premises, have a tour of the farm and gardens with Danvers, and then enjoy an amazing lunch featuring local artisan produce and wine. Read more.
RUBY AND LIAM AW15 AT THE ENGINE ROOM
On Wednesday – on that day of galeforce wind you wouldn’t take a dog out in let alone attempt hair and makeup for a clutch of models in a restaurant carpark – the brave and professional souls at RUBY and Liam did exactly that; staging a perfect show at The Engine Room. Read more here.
ROOMS TO LOVE
It was a huge honour to have my home included in new local interiors book, ROOMS TO LOVE by LeeAnn Yare and Larnie Nicholson, from the original photos they came and photographed here for Your Home and Garden magazine a couple of years back.
MAC ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW
We headed along to MAC in Britomart on Tuesday 4th November for the most anti-ci-pated launch of all. Dammit, Janet! I love it: the brand new Rocky Horror Picture Show. The 40th anniversary of the 1975 cult classic tribute to sci-fi and horror films, set to music, was the perfect alliance for MAC cosmetics, the brand known for drama and glam. What was really cool was the completely fabulous three actors/dancers hired to host the event: Riff Raff, Frank n Furter, and Magenta. They even broke into song for the Time Warp in the store! Read more here.
December
Some December highlights included ASB Santa’s Bach, Benefit Brow Wow tint, Auckland art fair in Shed 10, Blaze hair, Caci clinic, Lush VIP Bloggers night, the XYNZ.com Beauty Bloggers Workshop, Disney XD Sky launch, and more. Read about December highlights here.
Well, that has wrapped it up for 2014 with a fashion-filled year that has left me feeling yes, exhausted, but also exhilarated about the future of the local fashion industry and the amazing talent we have here. It is a personal passion of mine to support the local industry rather than order everything in from overseas; there’s a place for that, but you know what they say, use it or lose it, and so let’s keep supporting local designers!
Megan Robinson
14th January 2015
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