Each day this week our fashion team will look closely at key garments of the season and tell you the story behind them.
Six Classic students attending an elite college in Vermont, New England was the perfect starting point for Kate Sylvester's beautiful winter collection Tartt. Named after Donna Tartt, the author who's debut novel A Secret History inspired the range, it's a story that highlights an obsession with beauty, referencing classic Greek tragedies.
When the collection came down the runway at New Zealand Fashion Week last September, it stood out as one of Kate’s greatest collections. The “Live Forever” T-shirt in particular is a key piece, taken from one of the many inspired passages from the book:
‘There is a recurrent scene from those dinners that surfaces again and again, like an obsessive undercurrent in a dream. Julian, at the head of the long table, rises to his feet and lifts his wineglass. “Live forever,” he says. And the rest of us rise too, and clink our glasses across the table, like an army regiment crossing sabres: Henry and Bunny, Charles and Francis, Camilla and I. “Live forever,” we chorus, throwing our glasses back in unison.
And always, always that same toast. Live forever.’
Cut with a boxy shape, rolled sleeves and raw rib neckline, the T-shirt is made in New Zealand from black and grey cotton T-shirting. Kate chose grey marl as it is one of her favourite colours and often finds its way into every collection.
