Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Ye Olde Fashion Week Roundup 2 - Wednesday

World flowing like the September winds

Come Wednesday morning we were very keen to catch Ruby and even made the effort to get up early at Muriwai but time, traffic and a bunch of phone calls about the impending Huffer show transpired against us making it in time. More Huffer pre-prod meant that we weren't able to make it down for Jimmy D, although from all accounts it was a great collection for the young designer.


The weather forecast according to World






We did make it along to World however at the Great Room of the Langham Hotel. What a perfect venue for World with its faux chandelier lights, classic round conference tables and high tea/champagne waiter service. We were sat at the same table as John Banks and his wife which was a first for sure and possibly a last. It was great to see World showing again as NZ fashion needs the label's extravagance and flamboyancy. Utilising yet another raised catwalk (surely they are not back in fashion?) World didn't disappoint with more brash colour, flowing, fizzing, and glittering than fans could hope for. It may have been something to do with the horrendous weather we experienced in September but World had such inclemency covered with shiny, transparent men's rain coats, polka dot umbrellas and enough sunshine colours to light the drowsiest of days. There were some classic World styling moments with too-large heels adorned in fur, woollen bow-ties and even fur-framed glasses. Classic World.




After World, it was down to Halsey Street to catch Alexandra Owen. Quirky quilted pieces were ubiquitous. Ruffles, ruching and a series of scoop-collared jackets with signature Owen tailoring ensured the on-going hype about this emerging local designer will continue. A special mention must go to the stylist who created head pieces that enclosed the models in sheer fabric and put others behind pretty masks seemingly inspired by fencing. An assured step forward.




Back to the MAC/ghd room for a glass of Soho before making our way to Nom D. Set in the adjoining building to the Zambesi show the previous night, this was however, an entirely different deal. Installations are not new to the world of fashion and notoriously difficult to pull off. Pull it off they did. Wrecked cars, brass beds and a dinner party environment set the scene for the models to do what many of them probably secretly want to do - act. Dressed in a puffed-up leather ensemble and battered spaghetti western hat, beautiful Auckland singer Rebekah Davies' ethereal singing was a high point of any NZ fashion week to date, Avril Planqueel's French reading, perfect, and a mix of pashing girls, dominatrix performance and Karen Inderbitzen-Waller's fantastic styling offered much to the occasion. Given the limited opportunity for rehearsals that fashion week's schedule affords, it would not have been easy to choreograph and direct this show. Overall it was a bold decision and congrats must go out to Margi and the crew for taking a risk, mixing art with fashion and injecting something totally different into fashion week.

Ye Olde Fashion Week Roundup 1 - Tuesday

Video shot at Kathryn Wilson show

Okey dokey, we've been pretty slack on the blogging front over FW partly because we are on deadline, partly because we put a lot of time and effort into the Huffer show and partly because we'd rather blog about the week as a whole. We didn't get to see anywhere near as many shows as we would have liked but we did see a few. So here we go, these were our highlights of the week starting with Tuesday:

Hands across the catwalk at Cybele

Popped down to Cybele on site. A large wooden effigy/totem akin to the Burning Man stationed at the end of the runway lent a pagan tone to the room for a collection entitled Nieriya. A mix of bustier belts and bras mixed neatly with printed singlets and dresses, silk fringes, knits, jodphurs and a series of hoods added to the pagan mysteriousness of the show. Cybele is going from strength to strength each year, and with a uniformity that was personified by the models linking hands around the catwalk during the finale.





In your face footwear at Kathryn Wilson

After a quick glass of the fabulous Soho Pinot in the annually fantastic MAC/ghd room it was off to the main tent to catch a first for New Zealand fashion week, or perhaps NZ fashion in general, a shoe show - and a big one at that! Kathryn Wilson's debut was highly anticipated by the many friends and fans of the local shoe queen and she delivered a show built fairly and squarely around eighties gloss, and more exactly Robert Palmer's famous multi-guitar-playing-model video. Leotard-wearing, ponytail-swinging hot chicks strutted down a raised catwalk. For Kathryn it was really all about the shoes and the new range, visible close-up, was a party to match the bust-a-move 80's show music with bold, bright colours everywhere and plenty of bling - including a collaboration with jeweller Boh Runga. Brilliant to see a shoe designer showing and loved the video intro which timed up perfectly with the arrival of the first model.



Zambesi 2010. Images: MSN

A quick dinner with the wonderful Jodie Matthews, M.A.C Australasia supremo, and it was off to Zambesi in one of the sheds at Rhubarb Lane, as it is soon to be known. What a shame these beautiful-for-fashion-and-art buildings will soon be no longer. Zambesi as usual was big, powerful and strong. The massive runway framed some fine silhouettes as they ghosted up and down to the effortlessly obscure strains of Sophie Findlay's show music. Standouts in the women's range included woollen dresses and college bomber jackets, shiny, oily fabric leggings and dresses - and some great casual-for-Zambesi oversized sweats. The men's range featured the classic tailoring that we are increasingly attracted to under the auspices of Dayne Johnston, great pea-coats (yes, the more the merrier as a winter staple) and a fab painted cotton coat. Zambesi, great since 1979.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Genius. Cheap. Looks Good.



Lucky Mag has done a great service. Instead of spending close to $1,000 or more on an expensive new leather jacket with fur trim, layer your stuff. Get some cheap faux fur vest and pair with an already awesomely amazing leather jacket that you have and call it a day! I did this with a denim vest and leather hoodie pairing during the denim and leather jacket craze caused by the genius that is Alexander Wang, and honestly, it's amazing. Genius and way cheaper than following the big money spending trends.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

So much To Tell You & Twenty-Seven Names Party

The lovely girls behind So Much To Tell You (Natalie Smith and Zoe Walker) and Twenty-Seven Names (Rachel Easting and Anjali Stewart) held a collaborative party yesterday down at Britomart. It served as a nice hiatus from the chaos of Fashion Week and everyone got to mingle and enjoy freshly popped popcorn, pizza and cakes. There was a polaroid camera to take everyone's pictures, a tarot card reader and a lucky dip! This was my kind of party. 


The baby cakes I made - lemon vanilla with rose water infused meringue icing




Books tied to balloons

Rose water syrup with champagne

Kate Moss flavoured pizza

Lucky dip goodie bags

Me!

By Jordan Rondel

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Shooting Sherie Muijs with Lauren


Russ Flatt shot the new Sherie Muijs look book at Kingsize on Friday with Rachael Churchward, Greg Murrell and Karenina Jackson on make-up. Model was Lauren @ Nova. During the week lovely Lauren is an illustrator and graphic designer, and shares offices with the good folks at No Magazine. We think, as the saying goes, Lauren's one to watch. Sherie's new AW2011 range is one of the strongest in a fledgling, but highly promising career. Sherie is most definitely one to watch as well. We'll post images of the collection by Russ Flatt when they come to hand. Happy fashion week...

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Black 13: Derek Kettela shoots Pauline van der Cruysse


It's great to have Derek Kettela shooting again for Black. Derek has supplied more individual issue covers than any of our photographers bar Michael Schwartz and we have always loved his work. This issue he has shot gorgeous new face Pauline van der Cruysse. Pauline, a Belgian who has smokey Latin attributes that Penelope Cruz or Frida Kahlo would be proud of, is most certainly one to watch having walked this week for Marc Jacobs in New York and shot recent editorial for Vogue Russia, Vogue Portugal and Vogue Germany with Thomas Schenk among others. Mert & Marcus are right onto this girl so we are more then a little chuffed to have her in Black 13. Michelle Cameron styled and Black NY editor Valery Gherman did make-up.




Pets on Set; Ultratech and Lady make our day


They say that animals in the work environment can ease the stress and in the lead up to NZ Fashion Week, and Black deadline, that has been true for us twice this week. Ultratech, the in-house miaower at Kingsize Studios is already a much loved addition to the place and this week whilst we were shooting Black Beauty with Craig Owen, Amber D, Jason Chong-Li and Lizzy @ Nova, Ultratech (below) made herself right at home on the studio floor. For the second year running Rachael Churchward is styling the Huffer show and yesterday she snapped this picture of Huffer girl Ella Henry's beautiful Doberman puppy, Lady (above) at Huffer HQ...awww...

Karen Walker Spring 2011 RTW - Perfect


Karen Walker's Spring 2011 ready-to-wear showing at New York Fashion Week on Wednesday was inspired by the amazing photographer William Eggleston. Eggleston is a genius, and given that his  cinematic, colour-film, Mid-West photographic foresight is the range's genesis, it is apt that NZ photographer Derek Henderson should not only contribute a hydrangea image/motif to the range but that he should also be exhibiting in New York at the same time as Walker's show. All New Zealanders interested in fashion should be proud of Walker's continued official presence at one of the world's biggest fashion weeks. Year after year she fly's the flag for New Zealand creativity and design - and never disappoints. This year's range, Perfect Day,  invokes Eggleston's daring as the first photographer to break out of the black and white haze that had engulfed fine art photography for so many years by embracing bold colours and prints, and celebrating the extremes of daily drudgery and a night on the town somehow at the same moment. Her footwear collaborations; with the talented Carrie Cooper and with British footwear company Pointer, saw the models sauntering down the runway in fab Beau Coops for Karen Walker pumps and rubber-soled creepers respectively. All-in-all a Perfect Day for Karen Walker.

A few of our favourite looks...









Sunday, September 12, 2010

Black 13: On set day two RCM/Workshop retrospective

Becky and Derya

Another good day shooting the RCM/Workshop retrospective for Black 13 at Kingsize. Russ Flatt shot Michael Whittaker and Declan @ Clyne, Ngahuia and Derya @ 62 models, Maalan and Teva @ Nova, Tim @ August and Becky @ Vanity Walk. Rachael Churchward styled with assistance from Derya Parlak, Jessica Grubisa and Yun Do. Greg Murrell and Tom from Ryder let themselves loose with the hair and Ambika and Olivia applied the make-up.



Tim

Becky

Teva

Declan

Rachael working on Michael

Workshop, See by Chloe, Converse

Tom, Teva, Greg and Teva's hair