World adds 'wow' to runway show

By LEANNE MOORE

Candyfloss hair from London, eight sleazy sailors and $20,000-worth of Swarovsky crystals - just another day at the office for World.

These outlandish ingredients made the Auckland label's runway show one of the hottest tickets on the opening day of New Zealand Fashion Week.

World designers Denise L'Estrange-Corbet and Francis Hooper, in collaboration with international makeup artist Brent Lawler, can be guaranteed to come up with a runway show that has the "wow" factor.

"I'm not interested in sending 18-year-old skinny girls down the runway," says Hamilton-raised Lawler, 35, who spends half the year based in Sydney and the other half in Paris.

"I want to stage something that will make people sit up and wonder. They might not necessarily like it, but it will be challenging and creative."

For the record, each candyfloss wig arrived from the UK the size of a tennis ball and was combed out to become an ethereal pastel mop adorning the heads of the couture models.

The cast of eye-catching characters also included eight men made up as over-tanned Cuban sailors.

"I wanted them to look hot and sweaty and kind of sleazy," says Lawler.

Lawler's signature touch, Swarovksy crystals, decorated the legs of one of the models, who ended up washing the $20,000 decorative tights down the plughole because they can't be re-used.

The ready-to-wear section featured three 60-plus models, discovered by Hooper on the catwalk at Dunedin Fashion Week this year.

One of the trio, 63-year-old Pamela, who believed her modelling days were over when she retired from the catwalk in Sydney 35 years ago, says the experience was a lot of fun.

She wore three outfits, including a gold-and-black jacket worn as a dress.

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