Arrange Marriage

Arrange Collective of five young designers – Georgia Pratt, Glen Prentice, Jack Roy, Thistle Brown and Emma Gleason – showed their first group show at Flagship Studios…

Arrange Collective – five young designers and recent fashion grads – showed their first group show at Flagship Studios upstairs in Grey Lynn on Friday the 19th of October.

I’d searched #Arranged (sic) on Twitter after Emma Gleason had tweeted it and come up with all these Tweets on arranged marriages – and, after having a laugh, then I thought that was sort of appropriate to use as a title, as the eclectic combination of these designers’ styles came together so well in a sort of fashion marriage that was a very good arrangement.

The very well-produced and professional catwalk show is just one of the many recent initiatives we’ve noticed in the local fashion industry, and it is great to witness. Despite the recession, labels not stocked in stores are taking the initiative of presenting direct to the fashion media, trade and friends and followers. It is even more impressive that they’re doing all this outside of any established forums such as fashion week or a fashion festival.

Hair and make-up was created by the industry leaders Stephen Marr and MAC Cosmetics, indicative of the high batting power of the well-connected designers involved, and this gave the show an edge not seen in most independent shows.

The five designers were Georgia Pratt, Glen Prentice, Jack Roy, Thistle Brown and Emma Gleason.

Below: Fashion media and guests before the show.