Kate Sylvester's Road to Fashion Week

Strong women. Kate Sylvester has repeated the phrase over and over in the months ahead of next week’s Mercedes-Benz presents Kate Sylvester show at New Zealand Fashion Week. It must be her workroom mantra by now.

It is what her Winter 2016 collection, A Muse, is all about.

Ever since Sylvester formed the elite partnership with Mercedes-Benz months ago she has been planning just how she’ll bring these strong women to life on the runway. Like Mercedes-Benz, the design is a fusion of creativity and integrity, taking the time to get the details right, forging an emotional connection to a design born out of intellect. For Sylvester, the show’s the thing — a creative expression of the essence of her clothes. “It’s about telling a story,” she says.

All this has made her diary busier than usual.

Two months out
Sylvester starts thinking about putting on her 2015 show. Last year's Tartt' show at Fashion Week was incredibly well received, as was her ' Romeo 4 Juliet' Summer 2015 show in May at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Australia.

The German based Mercedes-Benz has been involved in the world of fashion for over 20 years, starting out as naming sponsor for fashion weeks in Sydney and Melbourne. Recognising the strong synergy between fashion and cars — the creativity, the craftsmanship, the technical expertise — the company works to support and nuture fashion designers around the world.“It’s a real validation of what we’re doing. Also, the work they do supporting fashion globally is beneficial for us,” Kate says.

Besides, Mercedes-Benz is her “dream car” and their design philosophies dovetail perfectly. “We have the same core aesthetics.”

Sylvester starts assembling her team. Sydney-based stylist Naomi Smith, who styled her successful Romeo 4 Juliet show in May at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia, helped pull together the lookbook for A Muse. Auckland-based stylist Paris Mitchell will use that lookbook as a guide to styling the show.

She enlists hairstylist Matt Benns from Stephen Marr and M.A.C’s national makeup artist Kiekie Stanners. Hair and makeup are a particularly important element this year — all the better for empowering the models.

A Muse will have its own set, so Sylvester’s partner, creative director and show director Wayne Conway, gets a set designer on board.

Jewellery is pivotal also, but is proving to be an “ongoing mission”. She has managed to find some of what she’s after in Canada. The rest is being designed in-house.

One month out
Sylvester's show and prestigious partnership are announced at a stylish event at The French Café. Just as the sleek lines of the new Mercedes-Benz CLA Shooting Brake enhance its sporty elegance, this is a match made in design heaven. Local media react excitedly to the news, as her shows are always a highlight.

It’s now or never: Sylvester, Conway and her three boys escape to their Mangawhai bach in their Mercedes E 250 Sedan for a relaxing weekend. “It’s just glorious driving through all the country roads,” she says confessing both she and Conway want to drive.

The couple share a love of music and choose the tracks for the show themselves over the next few weeks. “We have nights where we get home, have a glass of wine and start playing music. We meander around all sorts of different tracks and the music tends to edit itself.”

Three weeks out
Fashion Week holds a mass model casting for all the designers taking part. Sylvester is looking for 20 "really strong models who will play a character".

Show invitations are emailed to media, buyers, bloggers and key industry players.

Two weeks out
With the models booked, fittings start in earnest at the workroom. Sylvester has briefed Benns and Stanners on the collection and the direction she wants hair and makeup to go. They arrive at the workroom to trial their takes on possible looks and see how hair and makeup work together.

By now, it’s clear her “strong women” vision is coming together nicely.

“As a designer there are two parallels in what I do. On the one hand, I’ve always strived to design clothes for living in. It’s incredibly important for me. My collections always show extremes of masculine and feminine, high art and low art.

“In my design, I’m extremely pragmatic, making clothes for women to live in and love but, on the other side, there’s a strong concept that comes through and, with the show, I can focus on the concept side of design and tell the story of the collection to the audience.”

Which is why the partnership with Mercedes-Benz is so natural. To paraphrase Mercedes: “Perfection happens when the impassioned power of innovation and distinctive style merge”. It applies to both fashion and car design. Just as Sylvester’s designs are pragmatic and conceptual, Mercedes-Benz luxury is all about mobility with style.

One week out
Now the RSVPs are in, working out a seating plan is the job of PR and sales manager Sophie Donovan. A template is created and juggled until she's confident she has it right. It's an exercise in diplomacy.

The day before
The clothes will be bagged with photographs of each look detailed for the dressers ready to go to the venue. A backstage model mood board is made to help models get into character.

Everything has been meticulously planned. Now it’s up to the models, hair and makeup teams, dressers and technical support to do their job and collectively tell Sylvester’s story of strong women “celebrating individuality”.

The result will no doubt mirror the wisdom behind Mercedes-Benz. You don't want to miss out on the Mercedes-Benz Presents Kate Sylvester show.