Fashion headliner: the daily muse

FIONA HAWTIN looks at the role of the fashion designer's muse


The role of fashion muse is still in its infancy here. Elsewhere, it seems a designer is nothing without a muse, someone they can credit as the source of all inspiration.

The creative partnership of Hubert de Givenchy and his muse Audrey Hepburn was an early incarnation of such relationships.

Then there is Marc Jacobs and his muse Sofia Coppola, Vivienne Westwood and Sarah Stockbridge, Vivienne Westwood and Tracey Emin, and Zac Posen and Natalie Portman. Karl Lagerfeld named Nicole Kidman as the inspiration for his latest collection at Chanel, but then she's just become the new face of Chanel No 5 in a Baz Luhrmann-directed ad.

Sometimes muses move from designer to designer. Lady Amanda Harlech was John Galliano's muse for a long time. According to Suzy Menkes of the New York Times, her job involved saying things such as "I like red". She went on to get a real job with Lagerfeld at Chanel for big money.

Our own Adrian Hailwood hasn't put one on the payroll yet but he is happy to publicly declare that he has a muse. She is Jane Hatfield, a tall willowy beauty and graphic designer who adores his clothes.

They're not quite sure of their first meeting but it was around six years ago - possibly through Hatfield's sister, who also happens to be a good friend of Hailwood's. Or, it has something to do with Hailwood spending time with his idol, American illustrator Henrik Drescher, who used to work from the Ponsonby Rd site where the 32-year-old designer's shop is now. Hatfield's business is in the same building.

"I remember thinking she was very beautiful," says Hailwood.

In a former life he was an illustrator who started doing his own line of T-shirts. One season on, he branched out and now does womenswear, footwear and most recently, menswear.

"I always think of Jane, Myken [Stewart, daughter of Fashion Week director Pieter Stewart] and girls who buy my clothes when I'm designing. I think about who my customer is, who's wearing my clothes and what they look good in."

He thought of Hatfield as he designed the chocolate brown velvet dress that is part of his Attack of the Dolls collection he showed at Fashion Week yesterday. It's called "the Jane".

"You're immortalised now," he jokingly tells Hatfield.

"Jane's just a really natural person. She is just so down to earth and gets on with people - and she's beautiful, she's lovely and she makes my clothes look good."

It's a mutual admiration society.

"I love Adrian's clothes. I love the fit of them. I love the way they make you feel incredibly sexy. They've got just the right amount of sex appeal. I like the fact that they're a bit more glam than a lot of the clothes in New Zealand. I love the fact that they're never riding on the coat-tails of some big global designer. They're very original," she says.

Hatfield has been wearing Hailwood since the early days and orders a lot from each range but also wears Karen Walker and Scanlan & Theodore.

One of the first Hailwood dresses she bought was a swallow-printed wrap. After she wore it to a wedding he had 10 calls from women wanting the same thing. It's still her favourite Hailwood piece.

As his muse, she gets early access to the collections. She already knows what she wants from his winter 05 range - the velvet dress, a jacket, a striped jersey and possibly the toucan one as well. He'll fit the pieces especially for her, but he is also happy to do that for clients in his own shop at no extra cost.

Kate Sylvester changes her muse with every collection. Last winter there was Julie Christie's character in the movie Don't Look Now with the tweed skirts and slinky knits. This summer it's bohemian artist Lee Strasburg for the collection When Jackson Met Claire.

And for next winter she's channelled the aristocratic writer Nancy Mitford and her five extraordinary sisters Diana, Unity, Deborah, Pamela and Jessica for the Love In A Cold Climate collection, shown yesterday at Air New Zealand-sponsored Fashion Week.

For the most part, her muses are historical figures and women she'll never meet.

"Because she only exists in my head I don't need to worry about her actually liking the clothes," says Sylvester. "As a child I was always dressing up and assuming different characters and I guess that's what I do now."

Her collections come out of whatever she's interested in at the time. "I would have been about 14 when the BBC did a series based on Love In A Cold Climate [by Nancy Mitford] and it was so fantastic. I was so impressionable back then that I remembered so much from it and I read the book again recently. And I read a biography of the sisters and that got me all excited about them. Then I read a couple of Nancy's books and I've just read Brideshead Revisited again and been fully immersed in 30s' English literature."

The draughty old mansions, debutante balls and hunting parties that were their lives have been translated into hunting tweeds, tea dresses, overcoats and ball gowns of Sylvester's collection.

The Unity jacket - named after the sister who lived in Nazi Germany and tried to kill herself when Hitler lost - is a "fantastic press-studded jacket that's quite military but also slightly straitjacket".

"Their personalities have come through in the range. The more countrified pieces are Pam. The incredibly beautiful, feminine pieces are, to me, Diana. The girly aspects are Debo. I've done tweeds that are very tailored. I think they are Nancy. Even Julia and Cordelia from Brideshead have snuck in."

Francis Hooper doesn't just use one source of inspiration for his World collections, the latest of which, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, was shown during Fashion Week on Monday. He's got a whole team. When he and his wife, Denise L'Estrange-Corbet, started World they had only each other. Now they're doing four collections a year and have stores in Australia and New Zealand.

"Today, 15 years later, I have Denise but also three more muses. All are brilliant minds and work in the design room with us," says Hooper. They are Louise Davies, Michelle Ah Kuoi and Benny Castles.

"They all support and inspire Denise and I in everything we do. We work with them in every aspect of the business, not just design. In their job description they have to love World. They're outsiders. They think for themselves. They aren't victims or followers of fashion but true individuals who work outside fashion. I love their smiles. They make each collection better each season.

Though they inspire each other, L'Estrange-Corbet admits they also drive each other mad at times. "All we ever talk about is work. It would be really nice not to talk about it. It's Francis. He's obsessive. I can switch off quite easily but he lives, breathes and dreams it. He wakes me up in the middle of the night saying, 'What do you think about this?' " she says.

As the formally trained designer, her obsession is the detail. She's the one who insists on finishing a garment properly. He is the one that wants it to look a certain way regardless of the hem.

Davies, the womenswear design assistant, has worked for the label for four years.

"Lou is the World woman. I see her as a world citizen. She's got a global perspective. I always love being around her. I know we will lose her to Europe and that's a good thing for her," says Hooper.

He's inspired by the way she throws a $2 thing with a $150,000 piece of jewellery [borrowed for last year's Fashion Week show].

Davies, at 25, came to World straight after finishing her fashion course.

"There's a real creative process between me and Francis. It's a fabulous place to work. I think I'm so lucky. There aren't many places where a graduate gets to work with colour like this," she says.

Castles worked in the shop straight out of high school. At 21, he has been with World for three years working his way up to assistant menswear designer. "I'm here to make men look good, to help Denise and Francis work through menswear and to be camp," he says.

Ah Kuoi is the general manager, who started working part-time in retail as she finished her communications degree. "I see her as an embodiment of Denise and myself. She's an all-rounder. She could be a designer but she knows it's too hard. She's smart and she really inspires me in business," says Hooper.

"I work closely with Denise and Francis and work to keep things running smoothly. I get to wear the samples but the real perk of the job is having the luxury of working with people that resist conservatism, in an environment that allows freedom and creativity," says Ah Kuoi.

Herald Feature: Fashion Week

Fashion Week photo gallery

NZ Fashion Week - official site