Day 3 at NZ Fashion Week 2014

Day 3 at NZ Fashion Week 2014

Thursday 28th August started off well with an invite to the fashion week official charity – and a cause close to Pieter Stewart’s heart – the Endometriosis Breakfast presented by Vogel’s and NZFW. I was moved by hearing about Pieter and daughter Myken’s journeys with Endometriosis and also got quite teary-eyed hearing PR Anna Jobzs share about her story with endo. They encouraged us to support Endometriosis New Zealand and share the word with others. Vogel’s supplied amazing smashed avocado toasts, yoghurt muesli jars, Atomic coffees, and Redcurrent gift bags. Photo below from my iPhone.

Celine Rita

The breakfast theme continued with a very French flavour at the first fashion show of the day, with male models handing our Atomic coffees and Paneton croissants from coffee carts on the runway as guests arrived at Celine Rita. The AW15 range is entitled ‘Cine Club’ and is inspired by 1960s French films with a muse of Anna Karina. The clothes were feminine, yet colourful and a highlight was a emerald lace maxidress. A pretty and cohesive collection signalling a coming-of-age from this local designer.
Below: hair photos supplied by L’Oréal Professionnel. Hair was created by Ann Garrett of Protégé Hair Design, who said she wanted to recreate a sleek and chic Parisian look inspired by the French style of Celine Chapman’s designs for her Celine Rita label.

Below: Pretty florals and sheer polkadots at a beautiful show by Celine Rita, photo on my iPhone.

New Generation Show

Today’s New Generation Show featured new labels on the runway with AW15 collections from Wilson Trollope, Inhale Apparel, Nomsa Mabuto and ITZME.

Trish Peng

We’d recently attended designer Trish Peng’s show at Giltrap Prestige and this was a chance to see her ready to wear collection of in-season clothes for SS14. My favourite piece was a graphic geometric print top in blues and greens, teamed with white trousers. She even showed bridalwear, with three wedding dresses in the finale along with two grooms dressed by menswear label French-83. Makeup was created by Grayson Coutts with two black slashes of eyeliner under each eye on the upper cheekbone, in a graphic, contemporary almost sci-fi look. The hair in this show is one of my favourites of the week: a slicked-back low ponytail with a woven back, put together by Michael Beel of Buoy salon.

Runway photos by Kate Ryan www.ryansdaughterphotography.co.nz

COOP

The highlight of COOP was the Roy Lichenstein pop art-style prints on garments, including the skirt designer Trelise Cooper wore in the finale with “Kiss me” on her behind – perhaps a retort to detractors over the feather headdress controversy from the first night. Below: Model Kelvin at Clyne walks in the Kiss Me skirt. Photo by Kate Ryan. Read more here. Hair by Michael Beel was relaxed and casual. At one stage, models wore GoPro units on their wrists filming the audience and making the watchers into the watched. Models also wore tee-shirts with #The New Army, for her Breast Cancer Research Trust campaign as Patron of the Trust.

Runway photos by Kate Ryan of ryansdaughterphotography.com

Annah Stretton

I must say this is the best Annah Stretton show in ages. It seemed pared back and had really wearable pieces. Annah Stretton featured striking makeup with black eyeliner around the eyes and lips. One of my favourite pieces was a long black pleated dress with pink hem contrast, pictured below. Elsewhere citrus brights gave a pop of colour to the catwalk.

Photos backstage by James Yang www.jamesyangphotography.com

Runway photos at Annah Stretton by Kate Ryan ryansdaughterphotography.com

Hailwood

As the only show that gave us a toy car in the goodybag from sponsor Citroen, this show has a special place in my son’s heart! We watched a short film from Citroen at the start, and then the show began – with a glitzy, glam cast of girls, wearing my favourite eye makeup of the week. Adrian Hailwood’s unicorn logo showed up an a blue embroidered motif on tops, in his latest AW15 collection. I particularly liked the blue rose graphic on tops, too. It was strong on eveningwear, with sequin and lurex dresses reminiscent of mermaids. Leopard print was also a strong pattern, even blinged up in evening mode in a sequin leopard suit jacket. I really loved the beautiful eye makeup. Read more here.

Photos backstage by James Yang www.jamesyangphotography.com

Kate Sylvester

Kate Sylvester is clearly a woman who does not rest on her laurels. She has an internationally-successful company, raises three boys – whom we saw at her show – and is well-read. We know this last fact as she bases her collections on smart well-dressed women from literature, and this most recent collection is no different.

At fashion week 2014 this week, not only did Kate Sylvester come back after a half-a-decade absence, she re-introduced her menswear, and gave us theatrics and a soundtrack and clothes so good that the whole package just kicked it out of the ballpark.

Kate Sylvester’s AW15 collection was named for author Donna Tartt, and wittily had strawberry tarts on the front row seats, made by Little Bird Organics Unbakery. The Autumn Winter collection ‘Tartt’ drew upon the author’s two books The Secret History and The Goldfinch, creating a wardrobe for these girls with a casually-decadent air about them. There were long neck scarves jauntily thrown over shoulders in that careful-to-look-careless manner, furry jackets, lacy dresses, and restrained sex appeal a-plenty. It was all so covetable and I would wear the entire collection and the red lips to boot. It had the best finale, with three men in the rigging above her heads releasing small squares of the novels cut up like word-snow raining down in a text-flurry. Read more here.

Photos backstage by James Yang www.jyphoto.co.nz

Megan Robinson
Thursday 28th August 2014