Summer fashion is on the horizon

Creations by Karen Walker (L), and Trelise Cooper. Picture / Nicola Topping

Prepare to cast off your winter woollies. We can hardly wait to get into summer's lighter offerings, having had a taste of what is to come with a runway show from three of the country's top designers during Saturday's L'Oreal Colour Trophy Awards night at the Aotea Centre.

Karen Walker got the idea for Tree Girl, seen originally at London Fashion Week in February, from Vincent Ward's movie Vigil, about a girl living on a farm in remote New Zealand high country.

"It was all about available materials and mixing up what's immediately available, such as old man's tweed and light taffetas and giving a rugby shirt a crocheted collar," says Walker.

The most important thing about the collection is the big, bold colours, shapes and inclusion of black, which is why she chose to show only dresses to maximise the effect.

Trelise Cooper's spring/summer range - first seen during Australian Fashion Week in May - takes its cue from the Monte Carlo Societe des Bains de Mer during the late 1920s, when the international elite descended upon the Riviera. The range is an interpretation of the wardrobe needed for the constant round of sunbathing, tennis, picnics and tea parties.

Rather than preview summer, World chose to show men's couture and produced six outfits that have their roots in beautiful tailoring. And, because it's World and the label doesn't do anything conventionally, the couture was worn with outlandish makeup. The intention was to give masculinity full-throttle sex appeal.