The Hailwood collection delivered some pleasant surprises in unexpected combinations.
The Hailwood collection delivered some pleasant surprises in unexpected combinations.
KEY POINTS:
Yvonne Bennetti:
Break out the champagne, darlings, Yvonne's here!
Now you've probably all heard of ladies who lunch, well it appears that a lot of Yvonne Bennetti's sparkly, ritzy clothes are for the girlies who lunch, the society mademoiselles who want to attend every party on the block (in Parnell and Remmers) and ensure that they get their pictures in the social pages.
Bennetti trained with Trelise Cooper - Cooper's still one of her best mates and was there at the event - and it shows. Although this show seemed to skew a little older than in past seasons, Bennetti is the younger, more design-conscious woman's version of Trelise.
Unlike Cooper, who sometimes lets her freak flag fly by experimenting with over-the-top embellishments, Bennetti keeps her trimmings under control. Partially this must be because she carefully takes inspiration from international designers like Chloe and Prada.
Nonetheless there was something for every lover of glamour here: petals of black lace, deep red and cobalt blue velvets, silver embroidered star bursts, crystal studding and sequins galore.
The show started off with Amazonian women wearing reflective, crystal studded leggings and bras they'd clearly fashioned out of mirror balls. By the end the audience had seen more than one showstopper on the silver-heeled strutters.
A black dress, which unfurled embroidered gunmetal, grey and silver ribbons from the shoulders and ended in black on the floor, caused the woman next to me to stop and gasp with delight - and she's not even into that sort of thing.
Another floor length gown was made out of six tiers of fabric and it looked like the sequin fairy had thrown up on it.
There were also fur trims on lapels, hems, coats and some unfortunate creature had even given its life to make Bennetti some cosy, furry sleeves on a 60s-inspired grey wool dress.
Where Bennetti does best is in her fantastic use of colour - she mixes the traditional-for-dressing-up red velvets with of-the-moment shades like orange, teal and cobalt blue - and in her judicious way with the trimmings.
Where she falls down is that sometimes her clothes look a little bit too much like what we have seen before on international runways - nonetheless that's just fine for the local market, where we can't get (or afford) a lot of those dresses anyway.
Basically these are girlie girl's clothes that are glamorous enough to make any woman with an imagination, or maybe a posh event to attend, stop and want them - even if it's just for one night.
Best thing to wear in a fairytale:
A delicate mint coloured capelet (don't you love that word) that tied with a bow sash at the front and white fur trimming struck the perfect balance between confectionary and fantasy.
Get yourself the leather fringed tunic style dress that looks like, um, last season's Prada hand bag.
NOM*D: 8.05pm
It gets cold in Dunedin. How do we know this? Because the locals - and local fashion labels like NOM*D - really know how to wear a lot of clothes at once. Like, really.
And if, like many other followers of fashion, you have ever wondered how to wear a dress, two jumpers, three jackets and a vintage dress all at the same time, then you should pay close attention to this show. These guys are the masters.
Somehow the NOM*D team made a conflagration of garments on one skinny girl, or boy, look beautiful. But maybe that's hardly surprising, after all they've been doing it for long enough.
This collection marked NOM*D's 21st birthday and rather appropriately it was all about the essential oil that winds this label's wheels and makes for its trademark style.
The latter half of the show was a clever retrospective, a trip down memory lane for nostalgic fans of the label where they showed garments that have never been seen before, as well as signature looks from signature collections - and some of it was even cunningly mixed in with the clothes for next winter.
First up though, was the new stuff - the clothes you'll actually be able to buy next winter.
Designer Margarita Robertson and her team have always liked to fuse vintage garments together, play with proportions and patterns, mutate several garments into one and basically, you know, just cut stuff up, then put it back together again in interesting ways.
Okay, so later on, one guy - he's not a fashion kind of guy, just a well-dressed snowboarder kind of guy and he'd had a few drinks by then - was overheard to remark that he'd love to wear those kinds of clothes if he was sleeping under a bridge. At which stage yours truly had to explain to him that he "just didn't get it".
The way NOM*D makes clothes also extends, quite naturally, to the way they put a show together - layering experiments in dressing on top of one another until in the end what you get is a sort of mutant silhouette.
This kind of look can be difficult to pull off but during this show, it was perfectly executed.
In fact, it was so carefully thought out - the shoes were wrapped with dyed bandages and backpacks were made out of old Oroton bags - that the show required the services of over thirty models.
One assumes this is because there's no way anyone could change out of all those layers in a hurry.
And then of course, afterwards you get to pull the outfits on the runway apart. And what do you find?
While most of us won't necessarily be layering up our looks like this - not unless we have NOM*D's stylist, Karen Inderbitzen-Waller, hiding in our closets - there are actually some great garments with a difference in this collection.
NOM*D referenced a lot of their archive - for instance, they took an older, simpler cardigan and stretched the arms; and they re-made jackets that had started life as two vintage garments joined together.
Other new looks of note included knit corset-inspired dresses, the use of a mutated vintage print and pretty-in-a-dark-way frocks made out of a metallic, black broderie that anyone in Auckland will be able to wear with only one coat.
You've heard the one about "Tim-Nice-But-Dim", haven't you? He's the guy, that friend of a friend, that someone tries to set you up with. But when you meet him you find that he's really nice and sure, he's quite good looking too but he's also little bit dull and you wouldn't want to sleep with him. Basically Tim Nice But Dim, is a perfect example of that very fine line between nice and not enough.
Unfortunately so was this show by designer Juliette Hogan.
Hogan makes the kind of clothes no one would mind owning. They're beautifully made, use lovely fabrics, pretty pastels and muted floral prints. But there's no way any of these garments are about to set the fashion world alight and glamorista's hearts aflutter.
Last year Hogan's show was fairly heavily themed so she got away with displaying some of her plainer frocks and still received a fair few positive reviews.
This year, every single dress was out in all its subtle glory. In some cases that glory was too subtle.
As Hogan had said previously, her collection was inspired by the quiet, lovely sounds of alternative band, The National, and some of the looks were just a little too hushed.
Hogan was at her best when she pushed her detailing.
Her new erogenous zone is the collarbone, with slinky tops cut low, to perfectly show off every woman's skinniest bits.
A floor-grazing satin dress looked plain from the front but the back revealed that it buttoned all the way up the back.
All in all, this was a perfectly pleasant and beautifully executed collection of fairly basic dresses. But it would be lovely to see Hogan take her excellent cutting techniques and go a little wilder, even if it was just to keep the front row entertained for ten more minutes.
Any designers wanting lessons on how to work a theme should contact designer Michael Pattison. The handsome young man about town called his first solo show, Yoko Homo, and unsurprisingly there were plenty of Asian references.
The appearance of Oriental blossom prints, Thai fisherman pants, kimono-style wraps, satin and silk should not have surprised anyone, considering the theme. And some of the womenswear didn't really surprise anyone either.
However there were also some pleasant surprises. When it comes to menswear Pattison seems to be moving away from the flamboyant Dolce and Gabbana styles and heading toward the more sober menswear - although still incorporating flashes of bold colour - that New Zealand blokes might actually touch with a barge pole.
And in fact, some of his tailoring was surprisingly enterprising - his best work seemed to be in vests, with several cleverly cut masculine versions in grey as well as a particularly good looking silk, wrap around version.
Sera Lilly and Love Lies Bleeding: 5.45pm
Girls who like pretty dresses like Sera Lilly. Big bows, tiers of satin, velvet and gold and a mixture of garden party florals will take fans of the label from cocktail party (the shorter dresses) to formal (the velvet and floor-length frocks).
Meanwhile, the Wellington-based label, Love Lies Bleeding attempted to elevate their streetwear into more fashionable realms, apparently taking inspiration from the 90s. Some of their ideas were, what in the 90s, Janet Jackson would have called hits - the suiting, the denim revival (you have been warned!). And others where what, in the 90s, Janet Jackson would have called misses - the oversized denim shirt under an oversized white jersey just looked nasty and the striped cotton dresses were unimaginative.
Adrian Hailwood: 5.03pm
Don't ask me why, but Joan and Jackie Collins came to mind during Adrian Hailwood's show. Or possibly an older Debbie Harry.
Maybe it was the sheer black and white blouse, with double ruffles over a plunging decolletage.
Maybe it was the silver mini dress flaunting luscious cape sleeves, that Joan would wear with high heels and diamonds.
Or it could have been an outrageous, layered cape in pleated black organza that you can imagine Jackie wearing to some red carpet event.
Yes, we're talking sex here but not kitten - more like hot, older cat woman. It seems Mr Hailwood knows how to make a lady blush knowingly.
But that wasn't all he could do. It may be because fashion in general has placed more importance on playing with proportion and construction over the past few seasons.
Because like everyone else who's already shown today, Hailwood too took a more obviously innovative approach to the way he makes clothes.
A black and white checkered smock-style dress featured panels through the sides; a transparent black blouse with a plunging neckline unexpectedly hung an oversized hood from behind; and slim cut, cotton track pants boasted longer, mildly-quilted pockets, among other subtle changes.
And the slim fitting tailored pants suit with racer-back tailored vests, all in grey pin stripe, make for office wear with a bit of smoulder.
Hailwood also experimented with fabrics, working his sex magic on soft plastic that arrived in the form of a fitted, black cowl-necked dress and a frosted PVC coat.
The menswear was even more adventurous in parts, with one model sporting a tailored waistcoat that had grown to well past his waist and another arriving in a combination motorcycle jacket-wind cheater.
All in all, an eminently wearable collection of clothes as always, incorporating bits and pieces of a lot of current trends - sportswear, futurism, lady clothes - but arriving with a strong undercurrent of Hailwood-scented glam and sexy.
Make everyone stare:
A silver jumpsuit with quilted shoulders.
Seduce your best friend:
One of the black, strapless, prom-style dresses that boasted a fitted bustier above and a flouncey skirt below.
Designer Cybele Wiren's choice of inspiration and colours came from three decades ago - apparently the whole thing was inspired by a silk weaving made by her crafty, bohemian father back in the day.
But you can forget about hemp-clad hippies or ruffled, floor length frockage - the result was not what you'd expect when you hear about such historical influences.
Wiren is a designer who builds upon her work - rather than switching themes and moods every six months, each season she evolves.
So there were the short, easy-to-wear, floaty dresses with an empire line that so many New Zealand women have already bought as well as the interesting detailing - everyone loves a Cybele cut out - that set her clothes apart.
But this winter Wiren has taken a step further; in some inexplicable way her clothes have grown up.
She's always cut an innovative pattern, this time there was more structure rather than just a lot of flattering floatiness.
For instance, a cape with cap sleeves, an oversized hood and in between, a collar that stood up despite the soft fabric.
And then the model turned around and you saw that the back was not exactly pin tucked, but somehow scrunched together - but it was a highly disciplined scrunch. Huh? Now that's what you call pattern making magic.
Additionally, when seen as a whole, Wiren's collection reminded very, very subtly, of cheesy 70s pursuits like Ikebana (that's the art of Japanese flower arranging, for those who don't know), studio ceramics and crafty weaving.
Her colour palette included mustard, bronze, beige, orange, cobalt blue and black as a back drop.
One major print looked most like some terracotta-coloured explosion in outer space that Wiren has said previously reminds her of pottery from the 70s.
But despite all of that, it was about a million metaphorical miles from cheesy or unwearable.
Retro clothing can be a bit of a goldmine for some designers. And in the past, Wellington-based Deborah Sweeney has definitely been spotted down a long mine shaft with a big old pick axe and a giant lantern attached to her safety helmet.
In other words, at times it felt like she took inspiration a little too literally from vintage styling.
But like other designers who have mined this rich vein for a while - Marc Jacobs, put your hand up - Sweeney is moving on.
Mainly this was obvious in the details and in the colours that literally rocked down the runway (strangely enough, the collection was inspired by ginger bearded, hot rod lovin' rock band, ZZ Top).
The dresses that Sweeney has always done so well, were all there, but little things like small, frilled pocket flaps at the breast, bat wing sleeves, and double breasts with oversized buttons on everything from coats to trousers to bib-front overalls were new developments.
Sweeney's choice of colours also made more of a statement than ever.
The designer hedged her bets with her usual cute signature prints but she also used a lot of block colour, ignoring everything your Nana ever told you about not putting blue and black, or pink and orange together, and then adding silver and gold.
Perhaps best of all though was Sweeney's brand new bag of garment construction tips.
She'd taken some of the best things she's done in the past and put them all together.
So now she's got a cape-style coat that's sprouted a big buttoned, double breasted front. And all in bright fucschia-pink too.
Or a black and grey patterned, soft wool cardigan with the most flattering bat wing sleeves you've ever seen and an unexpected trimming of bogan gold.
Sweeney is doing what she's always done well - eminently wearable clothes, pretty dresses well made - but by mixing up her references, various decades and some pretty interesting construction techniques she's moving it into the 21st century. Retro is dead, um, long live retro.