Black in fashion

Get your tickets now for the Auckland or Wellington A Little Black Cocktail Party which will introduce the New Zealand Fashion Museum’s 2011 Black in Fashion exhibition theme over nibbles and fashionable Black Cocktails, March 15 & 21st…

A Fashionable Little Black Cocktail Party
Tuesday 15 March 6-8pm Hotel DeBrett , Auckland
Monday 21 March 6-8pm The Museum Hotel, Wellington

Get your tickets now for the Auckland or Wellington A Little Black Cocktail Party which will introduce the New Zealand Fashion Museum’s 2011 Black in Fashion exhibition theme over nibbles and fashionable Black Cocktails designed especially for the occasion. This event creates a unique opportunity for you to meet and hear insights from some of New Zealand’s leading fashion designers and commentators on why and how black has come to be such an important feature in our local fashion scene.

Picture left: Beth Ellery. Below: Blak.

The Auckland event, which will be will be hosted by Hotel DeBrett on 15 March, will feature BFM Morning Glory host Charlotte Ryan as MC and fashion designers Liz Findlay (Zambesi), Beth Ellery, Teresa Hodges (Blak), and Black Magazine founders Grant Fell and Rachel Churchwood as guest speakers.

The Museum Hotel will be host to the Wellington event on 21 March which will feature guest speakers Alexandra Owen, Rachel Easting and Anjali Stewart (twenty-seven names) and James Dobson (Jimmy D).

Each designer will bring along a significant black garment and will share what makes them passionate about this particular piece and about the colour black.

These very exclusive and fashionable events are not to be missed, and with only 60 tickets available for each venue you should book now. Tickets are $100 each and are available by emailing tickets@fashionmuseum.co.nz

Funds raised from A Little Black Cocktail Party will go towards the development of the NZFM web portal, which will be the online Fashion Museum. For more information about the Fashion Museum go to www.fashionmuseum.org.nz.

Drawing inspiration from the upcoming Rugby World Cup and the All Blacks, the New Zealand Fashion Museum has themed their year’s events and activities around the concept of Black in Fashion.

Timed to coincide with the Rugby World Cup, the Fashion Museum will stage a pop-up exhibition in September-October which will examine why and how black has become part of our identity as New Zealanders. The exhibition is part of the REAL NZ Festival programme.

The exhibition is likely to explore many themes given the pervasiveness of black in our culture and heritage. Think of the all black uniforms of our sports teams and that icon of kiwiana, the black singlet. Black is also ubiquitous in the New Zealand fashion psyche. Our fashion is often described as dark and gothic, a connotation that ordinary perception would consider to be negative and yet it is a description that we seem to embrace.

In the lead up to the Black in Fashion exhibition the Fashion Museum will also host a series of events including cocktail parties around New Zealand where some of New Zealand’s leading contemporary designers will talk about their use of black. We will keep you posted on these upcoming events and dates.

Perhaps surprisingly Black in Fashion will be the first time the topic of “black as part of our identity” has been explored in a museum exhibition and there is little available published research. Though this doesn’t phase curator Doris de Pont who says that a large part of the success of the Fashion Museum’s first exhibition Looking Terrific: The Story of El Jay was from drawing garments out of private collections, as these pieces often came with fascinating and enlightening personal stories.

The Fashion Museum is currently looking for pictorial and material evidence as to the historical and contemporary wearing of black in New Zealand. So start searching your attic for any appearances of black whether it’s in old family or sports photos, newspaper or magazine articles, Victorian mourning clothes, your grandfather’s black singlet or an iconic black cocktail dress. Your contributions will add to the knowledge of the uses and appearances of Black in Fashion in New Zealand and your personal stories will help to animate and enliven that history. De Pont says “We can’t wait to see what turns up.”

To find out more or contribute contact Doris de Pont on doris@fashionmuseum.co.nz or 021 680 860.