day three air nz fashion week...

Day three starts off with three group shows to attend, a diverse variety of interesting garments to view and the wild weather down at the tents to contend with...

Miromoda Awards Showcase - This show featured eight Maori designers. The show started off with live performances from two powerfully voiced singers, singing in of course Maori. It was a good attention grabbing start to the show. Samara Vercoe's range of silk and cotton hand dyed dresses, body suits and leggings was by far my favourite and the most successful of the eight designers. There was a consistency and focus to her pared down range of dresses, leggings and bodysuits. But also  a lightness in design and a soft feminity. Screen prints onto fabric were subtle  and  I liked the controlled colour palette of blues and greys that had been hand dyed to achieve their delicacy. There was a diversity of clothing styles covered, everything from gowns to street wear. Elements of Maori design were incorporated into screen prints onto fabric, as in the case of street wear labels Wiremu Barriball and Shane Hansen and men's wear designers, mother and son team of Rerahau and Tutina. Or in surface detailing like the beading on the elaborate gowns of Kiri Nathan. The designers focusing on woman's wear Junette Ward and Liz Andrews and Keri Wanoa were the most directional in terms of fashion focus. Unfortunately though the quality of some of the labels was  err... patchy. And sadly it was sometimes something as fundamentally silly as not having a pressed garment hit the catwalk.

 

Group Show - Featured four designers. First up was long established Christchurch designer Barbara Lee with her range of formal tailored clothes that owed a lot to the  structured look of the 1940s. The range was divided into three segments, the first featuring soft leopard print, fake fur jackets and coats. The second part was a kind of sexy secretary look, with high waisted pencil skirts and shirts with a horizontal pleating detail at the top of the sleeve. The colours were predominantly black and white. The hot pink and burnt orange  coats brightened things up. The third and final part was evening wear, with a few more pencil skirts, this time with bustier tops, sequin jackets and corsages used to decorate the neck and waist. My gripe - Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" on the soundtrack. Wellington label Starfish showed their environmentally friendly Eco range. Soft tunic style dresses, short volumous skirts and a little bit of mixing of styles. Like the slouchy pants paired with a short structured jacket. The idea of contrasting styles was followed through with the accessorizing, like the masculine military style hats teamed with long strings of beads. It was a girly, without being too frilly, soft and pretty range. Mild Red from Dunedin showed a range of predominantly black, long layered knits. The layering and deconstructed shapes often belted  at the waist reminded me of the knit wear that Comme d' Garcon created when they first appeared in the eighties. The final pieces moved away from the dark layered looks with long grey tartan tops belted over full white contrasting skirts. There was very little skin shown in this range everything between the neck and the feet (apart obviously from the hands) was covered in clothing. And finally, from Australia there was Under Construction. The collection was entitled Mute emphasised by the soundtrack that stopped twice during the show and a t-shirts bearing the slogan "Shut Up Please" and "Silence". There was a quietness set by the muted colour palette of greys, blues and backs. Shiny fabrics were contrasted with matt and there was a lot merino knits.

 

Adrian Hailwood - The collection that Adrian Hailwood presented this year was still very lady like but less like the '60's debutante looks of last year's show. There were  lots of dresses - in jersey knits, tunic styles and some clever horizontal pleating. Colours were predominating fuchsia, blue and purple. By contrast a strong scarlet embossed satin was introduced by way of a short skirt and then in the final dress - a maxi length dress belted at the waist, with a horizontal neck line. Hailwood was originally a graphic designer whose first fashion pieces were screen printed t shirts and since then every season always features a couple of  prints. This collection's prints were a movie star couple that looked like they were from the golden age of Hollywood printed onto a silk tunic and a print that looked like it would also work on bone china in Wedgwood Blue. There were eighties references with a short cropped leather jacket in a metallic pink, high waisted pants and straight-legged paneled jeans in washed out grey. There was even a bit of menswear thrown in. I particularly liked the black and white floral print shirt teamed with a heavy camel wool coat and the high platformed courts. After a day of listening to "serious fashion" soundtracks, it was great to hear some cheesy, south of the border-style music. A soundtrack that didn't take itself too seriously.

 

Stolen Girlfriend's Club venue was the old  Masonic Hall on Benedicts Street. The Hall had its own, worn charm which made the usual on-site venue for Fashion Week seem a little sterile by comparison. Before the show started there was a soundtrack of the wind ripping through a desolate land, it set the tone for the collection entitled Welcome to Nowhere with its theme of nomadic travel and tribal identification. Cross cultural references were pulled together in a cohesive and ultimately commercial collection. Lots of chunky knits - sloppy long cardys and jackets, stripy sheath dresses and a pair of cable stitch hot pants. Knitted accessories too with thick scarves and satchel style bags. Colours were kept to warm earthy tones, with the exception being a pale pink blouse with a v -shaped frill detail that later in the parade was taken through to a shirt dress in a soft light cotton. Long Johns were used like body suits and leggings. Lots of hats for both males and females. Sheep skin wedge heels with ripped laddered skin coloured fish-net tights. Fur was used at the top of boots for males and females. Also liked the cheap looking gold watches sometimes two on the wrists of the boys or used like brooches at the neck of shirts. The make up was kept pared back with shiny outdoorsy looking skin - the make up not only fitted the theme of the show perfectly but also didn't overwhelm the clothes. And it was a show. Lots of pretty people in the audience who at the beginning didn't seem to mind waiting for the show to begin, they just sipped their drinks from  jam jars and checked everybody out. 

 

GHD New Generation Show - Eight designers showed as part of the New Generation show.
The first designer up was relatively new comers ISBIM (the abbreviation stands for I Still Believe In Miracles) It's been only the short space of a few years that  designer Joshua Jang started his label that initially focused on t-shirts. Joshua has moved well beyond that starting point to clean tailored men's and woman's wear. I have to admit I preferred the menswear as I thought the severity of the tailoring gave the clothing an edgier quality.
Emma Ford was next with a range of "trans seasonal" pieces. The pieces ranged from body suits, long maxi length sheath dresses, short dresses and minis and leggings, all figure hugging, well cut and fitting like the proverbial glove. The signature prints ranged from spotlights, volt meters and a wiggly abstracted leopard print that had a kind of Keith Haring 80s look. Michael Pattison's  previewed his new cheaper range Trix and Dandy which was introduced by a noirish film. I think Pattison's strength is his clean, precise tailoring and what is basically a classic style of clothing. All of which seems to be at odds with Pattison's  showman personality. Not only did he star in the short film he was also the last model down the catwalk. Its about the clothes, Michael.
Chapel presented a range of loose drapey layered woman's wear. The loose shapes were contrasted with delicate gathering at the shoulder seams in tunic like tops, often pared with leggings. All in a muted blacks and silvers. 
Serena Fagence kicked off her range with Bionic Pixie creating the music. The models all filed out along the catwalk before appearing individually, a kind of reverse order of staging. Triangular pieces of fabric like a series of small flags ran down the length of sleeves, the backs of jackets etc. Liked the boldness of the clothes and simple graphic colours of mainly blacks and whites.
Next up was Whiri, a street wear label. I kept thinking that some of the designs looked a little familiar then realised that these designers had also been part of the Miromoda show. For me, the best pieces where the silk tunic dresses with a sleeve detail that reminded me of drift nets.
House of EZIS is an Australian label that has a heavy layered deconstructed look. Lots of contrasting fabric like lace with raw edged wool. There was a surreal touch with the accessories with a mannequins hand used as a necklace, a little sinister and surreal.
Last up was recent Whitecliffe school of fashion grad Tara Cunniffe. Tara cites architecture as one of her main influences and that's not an empty quote. The range which focused mainly on dresses were amazingly constructed with fine pleats that started at the centre wrapped around the body. Technically pretty tricky and could have ended up a disaster on less competent designer. Nice clean colour palette of whites and candy pinks and blues.

 

Sarah-Jane Rowland