One of the great things about covering Wellington Fashion Week has been putting a face to the name of many people I only know online or from email conversations. Here are photo highlights from the week…
Carrying on from the first diary of highlights, here’s day 3 and 4 at Wellington Fashion Week 2013. Read Wellington Fashion Week highlights from Day 1 and Day 2.
Friday 5th April, sees Remix Magazine photography editorial workshop at noon, the Starfish individual catwalk show at 4pm, a Group Show at 7.30pm with The Oblivious, Philippa and Alice, highnoontea, Frantisek, Silence Was, Mardle, Love Hotel, and My Boyfriend’s Back.
Then at 8.30pm we’re heading offsite to the Bright Black event in association with The Service Depot presenting Jimmy D ‘Gloom Generation’ AW13 in an installation.
One of the great things about covering Wellington Fashion Week has been putting a face to the name of many people I only know online or from email conversations. One of these has been Jo Fletcher, of blog Lost in the Haze – newly arrived in Wellington to live from Christchurch. Jo and I walked the waterfront to Thorndon to Kowtow’s workshop.
It was a lot further than anticipated and about two hours return but worth the walk to meet the lovely team at Kowtow Clothing. Below: wearing Kowtow’s new Spring Summer 2013/14 collection are Adrienne Marsh and Megan Bourke.
The REMIX magazine seminar on editorials and photography was excellent; read our full story here. I always enjoy training and education at the fashion festivals and it’d be great to see this section grow and grow for the fashion industry to take part in.
Next up was the Starfish individual catwalk show at 4pm, which showed their in-season AW13 collection ‘Queen of Extreme.’
This was followed with a sneak peek at Starfish’s SS13/14 ‘Wildflower’ collection, in which models walked carrying sprigs of wild flowers which they dropped at the end of the catwalk.
Below: ‘Catwalk Crunch’ nibbles amongst the eco and sustainable brands in the Starfish goody bag.
The Group Show at 7.30pm with The Oblivious, Philippa and Alice, highnoontea, Frantisek, Silence Was, Mardle, Love Hotel, and My Boyfriend’s Back showed spring summer looks.
In the front row: Jewellery designers Jane Venner and Lisa Scott of label ‘Jane + Lisa’.
Below, in the front row: Designer Jacque Shaw and her friend Lara Jones (left.) Jacque Shaw’s eponymously-titled label is stocked at Coco, Goodness, and The Design Loft.
My pick was highnoontea, designed by Sheryl White who I hear used to work for Deborah Sweeney. Lots of prints in jumpsuits and dresses, and overall a fun and on-trend collection entitled, Lover You Should’ve Come Over, named for the Jeff Buckley song.
I also really liked most-everything in Silence Was – great use of graphic prints, leather short dungarees and a polkadot dress – and a black and white maxi dress in Mardle.
Elsewhere things were pleasant enough but some reminded me a bit of other labels and some were lacking in wow-factor. My rule of thumb for this at fashion shows is to look around and see if the audience is more interesting than what’s on the catwalk.
It’s alright to be commercial and want to sell but it needs a point of difference. I wonder if they have good mentors and support from within the fashion industry. Does FINZ provide this, or the fashion schools? I think they would benefit strongly from mentoring and input at this stage to take it to the next level.
One label that did a great job with their branding and marketing was The Oblivious; obviously savvy in graphics and design and had a full complement of stickers, lookbooks, and the best goody bag item with a box containing playdo to ‘create our own world’ with. They did womenswear with georgette prints and also menswear in the vein of I Love Ugly.
Below: The Oblivious collection ‘The Wolf Cub’.
Below: Philippa and Alice.
Below: Silence Was.
Below: Mardle, by designer Shiana Weir, with SS13/14 collection ‘Bisou Bisou’ (kiss kiss) seen in its XX motifs on some garments. www.mardle.co.nz
Below: Frantisek.
Below: highnoontea loves monochrome, using black and white in spots (below), stripes, and houndstooth prints. www.highnoontea.co.nz
Below far right: highnoontea designer Sheryl White.
Below: My Boyfriend’s Back showed SS13/14 ‘The Lust & Found’, featuring ‘Found’ jewellery by Juliet Ramson.
Below: Love Hotel sleepwear.
Then at 8.30pm we headed offsite to the Bright Black event in association with The Service Depot presenting Jimmy D ‘Gloom Generation’ AW13 in an installation. It was very ‘fashion’; crowded and buzzy and very dark. Models walked from the back of the store, through guests, and took a seat in the store window in a mock camping style set up with a black tent covered in symbols, a screen of flames, and stones. The cameras went crazy.
Below: Models toast marshmellows over a TV fire at Jimmy d’s camping-themed installation at The Service Depot.
Below: Thread’s Reema Alfouir and Megan Robinson at Jimmy d at The Service Depot.
Saturday morning: beautiful view of Wellington harbour and Te Papa museum, from apartment at Museum Hotel.
On Saturday I had the best muesli ever, at Joe’s Garage behind Museum Hotel. I definitely recommend it.
After breakfast we headed to Michael Beel’s salon Buoy for a blowdry with Wei, and then on to the Starfish customer event to chat to their lovely team and sip a Good As Gingerella soda.
Thanks for having us Wellington! It’s been great. I can’t wait to see you all again, next year.
Megan Robinson 7 April 2013
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