Nick Atkinson: Collaborators transcend fine line between disciplines

The Tribal Backgammon print on one of Winter's silk dresses. Photo / Ashley Church

Helen Strevens is best known for her set design and assured draftsmanship, her architectural training giving her a sharp eye for composing patterns and images for her favourite mediums, china plates and wallpaper.

Armed with only a trusty clutch pencil loaded with a needle sharp F lead, Strevens picks out astonishing detail and depth in her designs, although she sometimes lets loose with a blunter HB graphite-core. Her keenness for intricacy and line has become a hallmark of her HMS brand.

Strevens' skill in designing sets took her to Wellywood where she met her aesthetic soulmate, fashion designer Tymone Winter. They have collaborated as part of Showcase, a vibrant counterpoint to the postponed Wellington Fashion Week. "We were both wearing white pants," says Winter of the first time the pair met. They hit it off and it wasn't long before they did some "swaps".

"I gave her a dress and she gave me a picture," says Winter, who made a note to get Strevens to design a fabric print for her label Empire of Genius. When the designer brief for Showcase was passed around it mentioned that each collection would be shown in a different room and each room should have an element of interior design. As Winter arrived home pondering this idea she saw the picture Strevens had swapped.

Strevens' elegant wallpaper would form the backdrop for the models wearing Winter's clothing. Influenced by the prints of M.C. Escher's space-bending lithographs and woodcuts, Strevens has developed a line of trompe-l'"il wallpaper that leans on her architectural roots, but the pair went a step further as Strevens' patterns were printed on four of Winter's silk garments in the Showcase collection.

"We've always had a similar taste in clothing, bold, graphic and geometric," Strevens says. "I'd developed a pattern called Tribal Backgammon and it became a key theme. Tymone's tailoring technique works brilliantly with the pattern as she doesn't break it."

"The pattern took a lot of time to get right," says Winter. "I over-dyed the fabric because the peach and whites were a little bright. That 'tea-dipping' gives it a softer look. The most nerve-racking part of the process was that we didn't have the printed fabric until two weeks before the show."

Showcase hopes to continue annually. Although it aims to "reinvigorate Wellington's retail design scene", the focus on designers from different disciplines collaborating has elevated the end result beyond the confines of a conventional fashion show and Strevens says: "It becomes art when the drive behind it is more to do with something beautiful and exploratory as opposed to simply following a trend to make money."