Along for a wild ride

By FIONA HAWTIN

Designers are keen on telling a story with their clothes. It was almost like a Hans Christian Andersen tale on day two of Air New Zealand Fashion Week with audiences thrust into Napoleonic France one show only to be treated to a trip round a 1930s English country estate at the next.

Kate Sylvester, Sabatini White and Hailwood took the audience on the best rides of the day.

For her Love in a Cold Climate collection Kate Sylvester managed to find a way of channelling the beautiful, eccentric spirit of the Mitford Sisters. Her clothes, always crowd-pleasers for their wearability, ran the aristocratic gauntlet from feminine full gored skirts and dresses with tulle petticoats, jade and coral silk camisoles, metallic panne velvets perfect wear for a debutante to sensible chunky knitted vests, cardigans, metallic-flecked tweed skirts and coats, hunting jackets and pants to military-feel coats and jackets.

And, in true aristocrat style, the idea was to mix all elements in a single outfit, so the pretty dresses had camisoles on show and tweed, silk, velvet and knitwear went together in a single look.

Sabatini White's collection, The Enchantress, made knitwear beautiful, delivering lightweight herringbone-look lace in tops and dresses in delicate colours like pale silver and mauve. Satin maple leaves were stitched into the sleeves of bolero jackets. Capelets were worked into the back of cardigans, shawls on to the dresses and long tails on to the back of chunky argyle coats.

The feather-strewn runway really made sense when the audience got a back view of the drop-dead gorgeous blue silk-satin halter top embroidered with peacocks. The magic kept coming with red and green poncho versions.

Hailwood delivered one of the knockout shows of the day with Attack of the Dolls. Designer Adrian Hailwood previously said he was going down a death metal-cum-Loretta Lynn scenario with his edited collection. Aside from a few full-length evening dresses in chocolate velvet and a turquoise woven halter, he showed his mastery of graphic design with recurrent moon-faces printed on to men's shirts and women's blouses and toucan design onto knits. His super-skinny stovepipes gave proceedings a touch of head-banger reality.

Knitwear label Insidious Fix took the delegates on a smooth ride with their aircraft-themed show. After the cheesy trolley dollies served tea and coffee to guests, the men's and women's textured knitwear, including some well-engineered dresses, kept them entertained. The colour palette included red, chocolate, olive, baby pink and lemon.

Wellington's Andrea Moores' A Holiday in Napoleonic France went into overdrive with a large collection of finely-pinstriped suiting, velvet and ruched dresses, a lot of them worn with Napoleonic sashes and military-inspired double-breasted jackets and coats in a Josephine wears Napoleon's gear way, although the empress would have looked better in Moores' standout soft pink and blue tweed coats.

World had a lot to live up to after last year's breathtaking show at the Northern Club, which earned the design husband and wife duo Francis Hooper and Denise L'Estrange-Corbet a spontaneous standing ovation.

They took their show Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark off-site from the old Team NZ base to the Mason's Ara Lodge in Airedale Street and packed in loyal clients like Georgina Te Heu Heu, the odd drag queen and charity queen Rosie Horton as well as the expectant fashion set.

World had colour and weren't afraid to use it, hauling out the brightest pinks, yellows and greens known to man using them in satin tops, pussycat bows and pleated chiffon skirts against their signature tailored tweed jackets and pants. Some of the little numbers were so short you could see the gusset of the day-glo yellow, purple and pink tights.

Worldman was a wearable clash of comfortable sweatpants, worn-in jackets with satin elbow patches, tailored suits, velvet and the occasional floral shirt in a non-threatening hobo-chic meets British toff.

But the big finale the audience has come to expect was more pared back than previous years. Makeup artist and hairdresser Brent Lawler still has a thing for Swarovski crystals, trailing patterns over the model's faces and he did attach butterfly head-dresses to their hair but it wasn't quite the full-on theatrical experience we've come to expect.

In a party mood, Doris de Pont was the last show of the day, but it was an audio visual experience that offered little detail to buyers.

Many fashiongoers opted instead for the off-site Little Brother show where the D4 and Mint Chicks played well into the night.

* Coverage of Liz Mitchell and Nom*Ds late shows will run in Thursdays paper.

Now & Not

Tweed is made modern with a hint of lurex thread woven through muted checks.

Classic coats make a comeback, with nipped in backs and subtly flaring skirts.

Avoid nana-style pre-war dowdiness by looking for embellishments: braid on tweed, velvet or satin under suiting.

Watch for empire lines and matador pants for winter. If that's not your style long-line knits and fluid gored skirts are more forgiving.

Covered cleavage beats gratuitous breast flash any day (though the photographers might disagree) .


Herald Feature: Fashion Week

Fashion Week photo gallery

NZ Fashion Week - official site