What do you get when you combine fashion's young in-crowd with sumptuous food and great wine in a stylish Hawkes Bay lodge? A chic alfresco party. Viva was there.
On a warm Saturday evening, a 30-strong group of designers and friends sat down for an outdoor Greek summer feast, to celebrate a good year.
The dinner party was hosted by Showroom 22, an Auckland based fashion PR agency run by Murray Bevan who represents such fashion designers as Juliette Hogan, Anjali Stewart and Rachel Easting of Twenty-seven Names, Kathryn Wilson, Kirsha Whitcher of Salasai, Sherie Rai of Sherie Muijs and Alexandra Owen - all of whom were there along with their partners and other guests from the realms of food, beauty, design and fashion, to spend the weekend at Millar Road, a 20ha vineyard estate in the Tuki Tuki Hills in Hawkes Bay.
Fifteen of the guests were staying on-site in the three Nick Bevan-designed houses that overlooked the vineyard for local wine label &Co.
The celebrations had unofficially begun the day before, with guests arriving at the estate throughout the afternoon, each oohing and aahing over the art-filled accommodation as they were given a guided tour and shown to their rooms.
From local artist Martin Poppelwell to furniture designer David Moreland, everywhere you turned there was an impressive collection of artwork and design.
Later that evening a smaller group of about 13 made a trip to local favourite Pipi Cafe, a charming restaurant and pizzeria in Havelock North where almost everything - the walls, the tables, the chairs, the artwork and the lamps - is pink.
Back at Millar Road after the meal, name games were played in the lounge of the main house where teams had to guess which famous person was being acted out, from Maz Quinn to Jesus. And you thought fashion was all parties, hipsters and champagne-swilling...
The rest of the group arrived on Saturday morning, with Stewart and Easting heading to the airport to pick up Hogan, who had flown in from Auckland for the night's festivities, while the others visited the Black Barn Grower's Market to taste local produce, breads and fresh coffee.
The food tour continued as everyone regrouped at Havelock North's The Strawberry Patch, where buckets of huge, juicy strawberries were freshly picked. If dinner didn't work out, there would be enough strawberries to last the night, and into the next.
At 6pm everyone gathered poolside for pre-dinner champagne from Billecart-Salmon, and g&ts made with Lighthouse Gin and Quina Fina, a new, locally produced natural tonic water.
Various local producers had donated their product for the evening, ranging from the champagne to the olive oil by Village Press as part of the dinner to the bottles of Dark Horse red wines and the Supernatural sauvignon blanc.
The host, Bevan, wore a smart dinner jacket from Topman, while unsurprisingly, each designer wore their own label: Salasai's Whitcher in an orange shirtdress and black blazer, Owen wearing a dramatic black gown with her own leather jacket with exaggerated lapels, and Wilson in her own shoes.
Hogan's signature pleats proved to be most popular, with four guests wearing it in some form - including the designer who had made herself a backless knee-length dress with soft pink pleats.
Following the poolside drinks, guests took their place at a long table on the edge of the vineyard, which was decorated with Esther Diamond napkins, Jo Malone candles, faux moss table decorations and bottles of 420 Water.
As guests tucked into the delicious dinner provided by gourmet Greek dairy The Milkbar - Mediterranean salad, rosemary potatoes and a farm-kill lamb on a spit (delicious until somebody mentioned what its name had once been) - conversation ranged from the beautiful outdoor setting to Judaism.
Someone joked that the long table setting reminded them of the dinner party scene in Kanye West's Runaway video, although there was no "toast for the douchebags".
Bevan did make a speech to toast the past year, followed soon after by chocolates and handmade liqueur from the Damson Collection, to finish the meal.
Two groups broke off following dinner, with half relaxing over good conversation and cards inside the main house, and the rest gathering around the pool again to make strawberry daiquiris with the bucketloads of fruit picked earlier that day.
A stunning sunset made for a picturesque end to the night's festivities, with a photographer commenting it was some of the best light he had ever seen. Later still, West played from the outdoor speakers and the drinks flowed, but everyone was well-behaved.
No drunken tomfoolery, no one jumping into the pool fully clothed: in fact the closest thing to mischievousness was a practical joke played on the rest of the household by four guests, who shortsheeted everyone's bed. Good, old-fashioned fun.
