KEY POINTS:
Who dresses you when you get up in the morning? You may think that the answer is looking at you in the mirror. But there may be a lot of other people in your wardrobe; individuals and institutions who will possibly impact what you put on today and what the well-heeled crowds will be wearing to Fashion Week shows this week.
Viva has assembled some of the most influential people in New Zealand fashion. Not all of them are necessarily the folks you think would feature on such a list. Some will be sitting in the front rows at the fashion shows, others will be working behind the scenes and others will never be seen near a runway at all. The main quality all of these individuals or institutions have in common, is this: when they do something, others sit up, take notice and then follow.
AARON DE MEY
De Mey left New Zealand and moved to New York years ago; there he managed to get his hands, and his makeup, on the faces of the world's most famous. He's worked with the likes of photographers Bruce Weber and Mario Sorrenti, designers Rei Kawakubo of the label Comme des Garcons, as well as Hedi Slimane. And while he may have been influencing your makeup and beauty choices for some time behind the scenes already - in that time-honoured quiet New Zealand tradition - now he's about to go seriously global. In June, Lancome appointed De Mey their artistic director and he has already created two new products for them, one crimson lipstick called Piha Red and another vampy shade called Piha Black.
XTRA AND IHUG (or your internet provider)
The runways shows in Paris finish and within hours, often less, you can see every single garment that the most influential labels in the world have just made. Okay, so you can't buy them straight away but local rag traders have been online with you and they're already sketching up the dresses that will appear in the shops at your local mall in a matter of months. The other way the internet now influences your wardrobe choices is in the range of shopping options it provides. Want a Chloe handbag from eBay? Or maybe just a second-hand Chanel dress off Trade Me? You got it, ladies.
ELISABETH FINDLAY
The creator, and designer, of the Zambesi label is on this list for epitomising, and perhaps even setting, the New Zealand look that has been described by so many as dark, intellectual, deconstructed and slightly gothic. While there may be many similar labels around these days, both here and overseas, one should never forget that Zambesi have been doing this sort of thing for almost 30 years.
THE SOCIAL PAGES AND THE SOCIAL PHOTOGRAPHERS
Yes, what the celebrities in Hollywood wear may have an impact on you - as do the movies you watch, the musicians you favour and any other aspect of popular culture from overseas that you fancy. But the local folks featured on the social pages probably have just as much impact.
It also comes down to the photographers involved. Some of them go for ultra-fashionable choices, others like to take pictures of scantily clad wenches. And an interesting question arises for followers of fashion: does the prospect of being photographed and then featured in the local newspaper or on a website make you want to wear something more photogenic?
KAREN WALKER
Once she was a designer, now she is a brand to be reckoned with - and it's a brand that's quietly going global. Walker has cleverly brought this country's fashion marketing into the 21st century. Her company has been the first to push many a marketing envelope in New Zealand and all the while she has managed to create a look for "Karen Walker girls" everywhere.
VINTAGE BOUTIQUE OWNERS
They say there's nothing new in fashion and these guys have been called "inspiration peddlers". Mainly this is because often local designers, or their assistants, will sneak down to the best vintage stores in a town and find themselves a little bit of inspiration in the form of a second-hand garment. Boutique owners like Charlotte Rust of Fast & Loose will even allow some, very privileged, designers a peek into her private, not-for-sale collection.
And you may find bits and pieces of vintage clothes incorporated into new designs, or vintage items used as unique accessories. All of which means they end up in your wardrobe eventually, whether you've ever shopped second-hand or not.
TIMOTHY GLASSON
You may recognise the surname. This bloke is the founder of well-known New Zealand fashion chain Glassons; he's now retired. And although Glassons may not necessarily be your favourite chain store - currently brands like Supre, Portmans and Sussan are tough competition for the Christchurch-based company and new Glassons chief executive Shayne Quanchi is making some big changes - there's no doubt that the "House of G" was one of the first places New Zealand's most fashionable went to, when it became downright cool to mix designer with chain store.
STYLE ICONS
Love 'em or hate 'em, there's no doubt that the likes of Trelise Cooper and Paula Ryan are inspirational figures for a generation of local women who don't want to squeeze into Stolen Girlfriend's Club stovepipes. Cooper has launched a thousand ruffles and several dozen imitators, while Ryan will always be an advocate of highly polished grooming and black turtlenecks.
PIETER STEWART
Sure, it's an obvious one but Stewart, who is the managing director of New Zealand Fashion Week, has actually been involved in producing fashion events a lot further back than New Zealand Fashion Week. This cool, calm and collected diplomat for local design was one of the prime movers behind the Corbans and Wella Fashion Collections and she has spent a lot of time trying to get New Zealand media to take local fashion as seriously as they take rugby. It's taken a few years but the cunning plan has worked. This week there won't be a newspaper or television channel that ignores the event Stewart founded.
STYLISTS
These are the design-savvy creatives behind the scenes. They're the ones that put socks with high heels on runway models, or an interesting brooch on that television newsreader, or a strange outfit on that band in the music video. For instance, if flavoursome Auckland-based stylist Karen Inderbitzen-Waller, who regularly works the runways for the likes of Kate Sylvester and Nom*D, decides granny knickers are cool at one Fashion Week, you can bet that next year there will be several labels doing the same thing.
HUFFER
There are plenty of wannabes out there now, but Huffer were among the first of local streetwear labels to cross over successfully into higher fashion. Founders Dan Buckley and Steve Dunstan started off making clothes for skate- and snowboarders but their design smarts saw their garments worn by all the hip, young - and not-so-young - men in Ponsonby. And if you don't think that Huffer was part of a perfectly timed movement where streetwear became high fashion, then just check the Fashion Week schedule to see how many streetwear labels are showing this season. Or look at the guys walking past out on the street.
DAN CARTER
Crikey. This is a rugby player who is interested in fashion and looking good and who is therefore making it okay for New Zealand men everywhere to ask their partners: "honey, does my bum look big in this?"
MARILYN SAINTY
She's not on this list for her design skills, as extraordinary as they may be. She's on this list because her store, Scotties, has always stocked a magnificent selection of international imports. Other boutiques have followed suit. She's also on this list because of the way she has continuously supported new fashion design talent, allowing some of the best new labels in the country to set up under the Scotties umbrella.
