WORLD history

WORLD’s Denise l’Estrange Corbet and Angela Lassig led a conversation on the history and ethos of WORLD at a FINZ event, following a lecture by Angela on NZ’s fashion history leading up to where her book NZ Fashion Design starts…

WORLD’s Denise l’Estrange Corbet and Angela Lassig led a conversation on the history and ethos of WORLD at a FINZ event, following a lecture by Angela on NZ’s fashion history leading up to where her book NZ Fashion Design starts.

Mapihi Opai of FINZ introduced Angela Lassig to the audience at Auckland’s AUT theatre, sadly only two-thirds vfull despite turning people away due to a full house of RSVPs. This would have been a shame to miss as it was inspiring and informative on both women’s counts.

Angela, herself a curator, lecturer and now author, shared some of her extremely extensive and ongoing research in the talk – which ended at the point in recent history where her book begins – focusing on the rise of the named designer in the New Zealand fashion industry and how roles and attitudes have changed over time in the 20th century. Angela kindly allowed Thread to publish our talk notes and share some of the evening’s information online.

The ‘named designer’ cncept didn’t exist until WWII in New Zealand, despite being well established from the late 19th Century in France. "Fashion Design" happened in Paris, with home sewers here emulating the designs. Magazines showed styles in order to be copied by the home sewers. Beinbg a "good copyist" was a strength rather than a liability. The aim of a society woman was to be "fashionable" rather than to be "original."

Graduates of dressmaking academies worked for manufacturers, such as Gus Fisher’s El Jay label which will be featured in an upcoming exhibition curated by Doris de Pont.

There was an important shift after WWII from the role of Dressmaker to Designer. This happened in NZ about fifty years after the same cultural shift took place in France.

In the 1950s in NZ, individuals started to emerge identified by their garments’ unique "handwriting." Today, we might call this a designer’s "signature style." 1963 NZ Vogue acknowledged the emergence of the NZ fashion industry with a feature on five designers of the time, shot at an Auckland art gallery called Icon, making a statement of fashion as art. However, the work of the first wave of these 1950s NZ designers was interchangeable, limited by fabric available to them, overseas trends and public consensus.

There was a noticeable move from dressmaker to draughtsperson to designer to couturier. In the 1960s and 1970s, the burgeoning youth market saw key players such as Neville and Liz Findlay, Margi Robertson and so on cut their teeth and set the stage for the new designers of today.

For the rest of the story up to the minute, buy Angela Lassig’s new book, NZ Fashion Design, published by Te Papa Press. Thread.co.nz highly recommends it!

Next up, Angela Lassig joined Denise l’Estrange Corbet of WORLD for a conversation about the origins and inspirations of her label.

Reflective Denise.

Denise started from the very beginning, outlining how she, as a bored retail assistant at Zambesi, and FrancisHooper as a bored retail assistant at Workshop, started putting on extremely popular and now legendary Tuesday nightclub nights called SEX for maximum impact and shock value, keeping the $5 door charge and saving enough to start a store. The tiny retail space, "as big as a toilet" in High Street cost $100 a week for 100 sq feet.

Early WORLD was like an emporium, which it’s like again now; art cards by Tracey Collins amongst jewellery, candlesticks, iD magazines and hats which Denise sewed at night to replace those which had sold during the day. When Denise arrived in NZ from London, there was nowhere she wanted to shop. "There were lots of manufacturers; Peppertree, Thornton Hall, – but very mass market. Retail was so different then; we expect to shop 7 days a week now, but you juct couldn’t then."

"It was just about wanting to do something different; fun fur, astroturf – just to experiment" says Denise. "When we won the Benson & Hedges award using $10 of cardboard from Whitcoulls in 1995, it put the spotlight on us. It was about an idea – origami – not about the fabric."

"Benson & Hedges was the best $70 we ever spent, for the national exposure and it gave designers an outlet for creativity beyond their own fashion lines."

Denise and Francis entered WORLD in the conservative fashion televised show, Wella. "It was just six outfits and all so boring so we used Buckwheat and Bertha! We were warned it may not be shown on live TV as drag queens had never before been used on NZ television. Buckwheat and Bertha got their own cooking show – drunk the whole time in drag trying to make a cake. It spawned a whole culture of gays on TV."

WORLD also got political with its clothing, using slogans such as "Nuclear Free Fashion" printed on a flag "which we were told we may be arrested for, as defacing a flag is illegal! Fashion designers never commented on political events. They’re fence sitters. We’re never afraid to say what we think!"

Other highlights in the history of WORLD:
Meeting and working with Brent Lawler on stunning hair and makeup at every show, since colloborating on the SEX nights, 23 years ago.
Being one of the first four designers to ever show internationally, at Sydney in 1997 (along with Moontide, Wallace Rose, and Zambesi), and having Anna Piaggi (Creative Director of Italian Vogue) come backstage to praise them.
Having a documentary screen on TV about their Ara Lodge Freemason’s Hall show in 2004.
They sell complete outfits to museums, particularly the NGV Melbourne, including the shoes and headpieces.
The last show, at ANZFW 2008 with a finale of seven garments encrusted with crystals including a suit costing $30,000 in Swarvoski crystals.

Sadly these stunning looks last a few moments and get washed off models’ faces, never to be worn again. Denise sums it all up saying, "Fashion is all about the moment. It’s capturing the moment."

And Denise got the shock of the evening, when Angela Lassig revealed to her for the first time that her Benson & Hedges award winning cardboard origami dress was almost thrown in the trash by a museum assistant who thought it was scrap cardboard. "But we rescued it!" says Angela, to a visibly shocked Denise!

Designer Glen Yungnickel and fashion blogger Hannah McArdle of aychblog.

Guests at the lecture.

By Megan Robinson, 19 May 2010.