Mizrahi adds drama to chic

Michael Mizrahi

Success has been a double-edged sword for creative director Michael Mizrahi.

After organising Louis Vuitton's giant 150th anniversary parties in Tokyo, New York and Hong Kong two years ago, the Grey Lynn-based events impresario has done little locally.

So when Trelise Cooper approached him last month to direct her Fashion Week show, Mizrahi was more than happy to oblige.

"It was really nice to be asked to do Trelise's show because I get to play with all my mates. It's nice to work locally," he said.

The show is only Mizrahi's second Auckland event in the past four years.

"For a little Kiwi company out of Grey Lynn to score the biggest event in the world was huge. There was a lot of media around then and I think people thought 'oh those guys, they're so expensive, no way!' So the phone just stopped ringing.

"The only people who ask us to work are people who live overseas," said Mizrahi.

The runway show was the creative director's second venture into the world of high fashion; his last effort was more than five years ago for a Collette Dinnigan show in Paris.

From London, Mizrahi and his Kiwi partner Marie Adams share backgrounds in theatre which continue to inspire their work.

Cooper's show was an mix of fashion and theatre inspired by the venue, the St James Theatre.

"I'm hoping you end up with quite a strange experience, a hybrid between a piece of theatre and a fashion show."

This is the first time he has co-ordinated a Fashion Week show, a project he would agree to only if the show took place off-site. "If someone just wants a catwalk, anybody can do that. But to do it in an interesting way, at the St James with the audience on stage with the actors, then it's fun."

Shows at the official Fashion Week venue are limited to two hours' set-up, not enough time for Mizrahi.

Last night's show included a T-shaped catwalk with flaming logo hung above the stage. As Mizrahi says: "We're all about painting pictures."