Fashion Week 2010: Some of the best moments

A model wears a creation by World. Photo / Babiche Martens

From fashion to fantasy to reality, it's a wrap for 2010. Fashion Week wound up with the last scrambling for bargains at the NZ Herald Designer Garage Sale down at the Viaduct venue yesterday.

This week everyone will be totting up the cost. For some the hangover comes from the string of after-parties, for others they're just fashioned-out for another year, but for designers it will be wait and see if the expense was all worth it in building their brands and attracting buyers.

For what should have been a 10th birthday bash, this year's event was subdued, reflecting the tough climate in retail. Few shows had the wow factor and even just a few days on, many blur in my mind.

The Retrospective of Friday night only served to remind of some more vintage seasons. But over 10 years there's been plenty to celebrate, including that despite massive shifts in manufacturing we still have a creative local fashion industry.

New Zealanders, for so long adrift from mass market global fast fashion, have developed a real pride in wearing their own clothes. Our best stand up anywhere, our less inspiring are at least our own, though at a premium price.

Fashion Week has made our designers household names, has taught more of our models how to walk and has provided hair and makeup artists and stylists with a new outlet for their skills. It has also encouraged the goodie bag culture, an A-list obsession and a new generation wanting to work as agents, publicists and bloggers.

From its early days at the Auckland Town Hall, to what has been the final year in the old Alinghi sheds, Fashion Week has defied the doubters.

This peculiarly Auckland mix of hype and hustle is even going on the road, touring the Designer Selection shows to other centres.

Plans by organisers to repeat an autumn public festival are also in train. Determining or repackaging what appeals to the public and what appeals to the fashion set is vital; they're very different markets as is obvious wandering around Halsey St mid-week and then at Fashion Weekend.

In season looks, including from Karen Walker, were shown at The Department Store in Takapuna on Saturday night as the final off-site show of the week.

Saturday's most popular shows weren't the pricey and lengthy Designer Selection overviews, but the likes of Phoenix House of Makeup's fantasy show featuring Shortland Street stars body painted and decorated with Swarovski crystals.

It was the runway debut of Kimberley Crossman who plays Sophie. She appeared with her equally scantily clad cast mates Faye Smythe (Tania), Sally Martin (Nicole) and Frankie Adams (Ula).

Afterwards Crossman said she'd love to do it again: "If someone is looking for a 5'3" model, for sure."

New Zealand Weddings magazine's bridal show also drew them in with some of the professional models positively shimmying down the runway, probably in relief that after a week of looking fierce or fey, soon they could kick back.

Bars that had more traffic than trade exhibits between mid-week shows were all but empty, with interest moving to bargains and advice on the likes of appearance medicine.

Seminars by New Zealand's Next Top Model hairdressers, Servilles, drew them in. For Servilles staff the final Designer Selection show was the end of a long week of 11 shows, with a common theme of pretty, feminine hair.

In fact hair and makeup stood out across the shows this year, with soft and wearable being the order of the day.

Clothes-wise this prescription was less inspiring, giving plenty of girlish little frocks cut, grunge-style, overly large, and too many shapeless shifts.

Tailoring is an old-fashioned notion, but when you see it reinterpreted (masterfully at Zambesi, a little at Juliette Hogan, artfully at Alexander Owen, extravagantly at World, nattily at Crane Brothers) then everything falls into sharper relief.

If Fashion Week hasn't exactly left me lining up to order my winter 2011 wardrobe, I can tell you the DIY way to blend in with the prevailing trends.

Find some midnight blue velvet pants - shouldn't be too hard, plenty of designers seemed to be sharing the same bolt of fabric - dig out a cotton lace tablecloth, leave it vintage cream or dye it black, and turn it into a mini shift dress or maxi skirt, then find a faded floral to make into a flippy hemmed number and a shot of coloured silk to attach some giant shoulder ruffles to.

Layer up the black or nude georgette and silk pieces and top off with a little leather jacket, a shearling bomber, or a honeycomb weave knit. (Boys best stick with the same velvet pants and a duffle coat to disguise how little else is going on).

If you're brave add a dash of powder blue or blood red to a mostly nude or black palette for day and the odd block colour jewel tone or fluoro floral for evening. Or stick with black, but avoid going goth by keeping hair flowing and makeup fresh.

Women, forget the international trend to 1950s ladylike: here hems were hitched peculiarly high, even by those few designers who did cinch waists and go a bit princessy.

Skater skirts rather than knee skimmers seemed to be the order of the day. By production time hems may come lower, but more than likely we'll just layer away to keep Kiwi thighs covered, wearing mini dresses as tunics - again.

Biggest pre-show buzz: Kathryn Wilson for staging a show about shoes (which clipped along nicely). Stolen Girlfriends Club for keeping the crowd at the Mercury Theatre waiting.

Biggest after-show buzz: Salasai for stepping up and surprising with a bold, original take for men and women.

Best newcomer: Ruby: Sassy and spirited, everything a young label should be.

Best dress: Cybele's yellow silk, Hailwood's green lurex and World's trio of gowns. For body-con: Turet Knueffermann.

Best venue: Huffer outdoors at the Auckland School of Business. World at the Langham Hotel's Great Room.

Best set: Trelise Cooper's lit backdrop of Botticelli's Primavera which matched an elegant more restrained collection with standout hair and makeup.

Best guest: American designer Nicole Miller who took a genuine interest in other shows and will file about them for style.com. She also underlined in her own smart show that our best designers can foot it with name designers.

Best freak: Gold shoes and seven cocktails rings one day, a duvet for a wrap another, yes, it was a "style blogger," the fun and friendly self-styled lifestyle guru Derek Warburton who doesn't seem to have mentioned New Zealand on his dereklovesshopping.com site yet.

Most fun: Matchi Motchi's space aliens - few came along to enjoy this fantasy show, they missed something to smile about.

Worst line: We belong to the Stolen Generation - no Stolen Girlfriends Club sales expectations for this T-shirt over the Ditch then.

* Check out our individual show reports and hair and makeup looks.