Starfish's Queens of Extreme

Starfish showed its in-season collection ‘Queens of Extreme’ and gave us a sneak peek of spring 2013/14 ‘Wildflower’, at its first solo show at Wellington Fashion Week, on Friday 5th April…

With an audience wearing Starfish garments from the recent to the quite vintage, Starfish showed at its first solo show at Wellington Fashion Week, on Friday 5th April.

In fact it’s testament to the staying power of garments coupled with the loyalty of its customer base that so many historic-Starfish pieces are still going strong and being worn with pride at the show, and that they can be mixed and matched with their latest pieces and built upon in one’s wardrobe.

On the runway, Starfish showed its current in-season AW13 collection ‘Queens of Extreme,’ and gave us a sneak peek of spring 2013/14 ‘Wildflower’. Starfish showed in a group show last year for the inaugural year of Wellington Fashion Week in 2012, and decided to hold an individual show this year – and at the same time give us a glimpse of the upcoming season.

In keeping with its Queens of Extreme theme, models had extreme hair, and styling was over-the-top.

Similarly in keeping with the spring theme, ‘Wildflower’ saw models walk the runway holding sprigs of wildflowers in their hands which they dropped to the floor at the end of the catwalk.

After the show, we went backstage to chat to the designers Tessa Bradley and Laurie Foon. Laurie said they styled the show taking inspiration from the Queens of Extreme title and using their lookbook as a starting point, taking it literally ‘to the extreme’. Hair by the Pureology team was teased out very full, jewellery was oversized, and lips were strong in bold reds..

All of Starfish’s collections are created very mindfully of the environment, which is reflected in their new name, Starfish New Materialism. Read more about Laurie Foon’s aims towards environmentally-sound fashion production on Thread here.

Here are some of the highlights…

Below: Autumn Winter 2013 ‘Queens of Extreme’