Retail news: The clash

Sass and Bide's new winter collection has begun to arrive at the Ponsonby Boutique. Photo / Supplied

Sass and Bide's new collection is arriving in store

The new winter collection from Sass and Bide has begun to arrive at the Ponsonby Rd boutique, with stunning prints and lots of colour. Designers Heidi Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke say the collection was "Born from the desire to resist mediocrity and embrace curiosity ... we mixed raffia and metal embellishment in with digital prints and pop colours - which we are loving - to achieve the clash which is very true to our aesthetic". Called Papa Sucre, the collection was shown at London Fashion Week last year - which is where the Sass and Bide team are now, preparing for their show on February 18.

In Vogue
A London-based designer up for a prestigious award in Britain has local connections.

One of the finalists in the recent British Fashion Council/Vogue Fashion Fund, London-based label and designer Richard Nicoll has a New Zealand connection. Aucklander Joanna Knight is the business partner of the designer, having worked closely with Nicoll as director of the company since 2005. (Nicoll's parents live in Gisborne, and he has a New Zealand passport "somewhere", but we can't really claim him as he was born in England and raised in Australia.)

Having lived in Grey Lynn for two years to raise her two daughters, Knight was in New Zealand for Christmas, visiting family in Botany and holidaying up north, before heading back to London and Paris in preparation for Nicoll's show at London Fashion Week on February 20. Her role with the brand involves managing the development and growth of the business, allowing Nicoll to fully focus on design. The pair met through a contact at the British Fashion Council, after Knight decided to move on from her work in advertising and use her business acumen to support creative types and help them commercialise their creativity - a "creative enabler" if you will. Their connection was instant: "People met us two weeks after, and thought we were brother and sister. It was an immediate connection. We appreciate each other's point of view - we have a similar view on life, and where work fits in that and where that dream fits in that; what matters."

Since this first meeting, the Richard Nicoll brand has grown to become one of the top emerging British labels, sold in high-end stores including Net-a-Porter.com, Harvey Nichols (Britain), Barneys (US) and Colette (Paris); Nicoll has also created lines for Topshop, and Fred Perry's high-end Laurel Wreath collection, a fantastic line inspired by Teddy Girls. Knight says they describe the brand as optimistic. "It's based in Richard's tailoring and menswear background, but brought into a really strong, feminine shape. The type of woman who wears it is really sure of herself: an idiosyncratic woman who is really strong, not powerful or domineering, just sure of herself."

The BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund is a prestigious award - it aims to represent the best developing fashion talent in Britain, highlighting labels with potential for significant international growth and providing the winner with £200,000 ($418,399) and a high-level mentoring programme. And though Christopher Kane was announced as the winner last week, Nicoll and his team will benefit from access to support from the fund's mentoring panel, which includes British Vogue editor Alexandra Schulman, Burberry's Christopher Bailey, and Harrods' director of fashion and beauty, Marigay McKee.

Knight herself is a mentor many of our own local young designers would benefit from - if she were to take one under her wing, what advice would she give? "Off we go!" she laughs. She thinks making use of contacts and building partnerships and collaborations is important, but seeing the world would be her best advice. "Not necessarily leave New Zealand forever, but I would say, let's go and see the world - let's go meet people, sit down with Anna Wintour, Sarah Mower; we're going to go to all of the Vogue offices, take your collection and show the world who you are."

Swan fight
Black Swan's costume designer responds to claims that fashion house Rodarte was unfairly credited for its contribution to the filmRichard Nicoll

Much has been written about the Rodarte sisters' stunning ballet costumes in Black Swan, with the fashion world oohing and aahing over the label's contribution to the film - but there has also been some controversy that the designers hadn't received adequate credit for their contribution as costume designers. The film's official costume designer, Amy Westcott, was last week asked by website Clothes on Film about the situation and gave a brilliantly honest, and cutting, response: "Controversy is too complimentary a word for two people using their considerable self-publicising resources to loudly complain about their credit once they realised how good the film is".

"The white and black swan were a collaboration between Rodarte, myself, and [the film's director] Darren, a fact that is completely concealed in the press. In all, there were seven costumes in the collaboration with Rodarte, not the "40" that keeps coming up. The core ballet was designed by Zack Brown (for the American Ballet Theater), and my department and I added some feather detailing to assimilate them with the white swan." Collaborations between the fashion and film worlds are common - think of Hubert de Givenchy for Breakfast at Tiffany's and Charade, and Ralph Lauren for Annie Hall. Neither Givenchy nor Lauren were credited as costume designers either.

Black Swan is in cinemas now.

Black is back

Lisa Black, featured in Viva a few weeks back, and her exhibition of taxidermy with a twist is now on at Simon James Design at The Department Store.

Chicks at the flicks

Once a month Event Cinemas is running a Chicks at the Flicks night which starts tonight with No Strings Attached starring Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman. For $29 you receive your ticket, a glass of bubbles and a goody bag. chicksattheflicks.co.nz

Dream team

Tresemme is the official hair partner of the New Zealand Fashion Festival, and on the lookout for New Zealand's next top hairstylists. Eight spots on their "dream team" will be open to the public, with one stylist chosen to work on a magazine makeover and the chance of a 12-month Tresemme contract. For details visit facebook.com/nzfashionfestival.

Winter report

New season designer collections have begun arriving in stores at boutiques around town: the first drop from Kate Sylvester's "Lost and Found" collection is in store now, as is World's winter range, while new season Helen Cherry, Workshop Denim and various imports - Vanessa Bruno, See by Chloe, Twenty8Twelve, Marc by Marc Jacobs - arrive at Workshop stores tomorrow. Karen Walker's "Perfect Day" collection will be available from her boutiques this Saturday.

Sweet poetry

As featured on Viva's cover, here is the full version of Otago poet Brian Turner's poem Like Lamplight:

One day when you are beside me
invite me to speak
of the secrets I never knew
I wanted to tell you, of the warmth
I never knew I owned
until you released it
by moving close as lamplight seems
to glass. Ask me

why I came to you
with the reverence of one
who sees a flower bloom
where none has bloomed before
By saying what is
I will have said what was.

Sometimes when you are content
ask me what it is
that moves me to want to hold you so,
so often, and laugh when I tell
you the same old
indestructible thing.

One day when you are
where you need no invitation to be
I will tell you
how you flower
like lamplight in me.