When thumb sucking is model behaviour

Children model the Trelise Cooper Kids range of clothing. Picture / Martin Sykes

The models were thumb-sucking tots and towering glamazons, the clothes flounced, frilled and flowed and the audience witnessed a showstopper at Trelise Cooper's Fashion Week spectacular last night.

Fashion's maximalist, Cooper took it up a notch last night with not one, but two extravagant events at Auckland's St James Theatre, produced by international impresario Michael Mizrahi.

The St James was transformed into a medieval chamber of delight. A dark angel, tattooed and in tutu ascended above the T-shaped runway as monks in hooded robes lit the way with flame.

Then the 40-minute show began, ranging through the casual Cooper label, eye-popping ultra-luxe lingerie, the new cute-as-a-button Trelise Cooper Kids range and finally her eponymous collection. A standing ovation followed the first of two shows, each attended by around 750 people.

The 25 children, aged between 2 and 6, were the talking point. Most were toddlers, some a little dazed as an adult angel and jester with an apple lured them towards the photographer's flashes.

"A few had stage fright - I was asked what do we do when they suck their thumbs, but that's what children do," said Cooper after the show.

The models wore impossibly high heels, the individual pieces - layer upon layer of them - somehow lost a little in the spectacle, but for New Zealand's most commercially successful "name" designer internationally, be sure that beneath the styling there were wearable pieces aplenty, including some simple sequin shifts in pared-down shapes with the new bell sleeve.

And her audience experienced that rare moment when fashion becomes high theatre.