NZ Fashion Week: An insider's diary

We made our way along the waterfront to the venue for the Zambesi show, a huge boat shed warehouse near Westhaven Marina. Although the show was originally due to start at 6.00pm, when we arrive at 6.10pm we were directed by usher supremo Ricardo Smith to a nearby bar for a drink as the venue wasn’t quite ready. He told us to "come back at 6.25pm to avoid the seat fight".

But no, we got to our seats in a perfectly civilised fashion, surprising really when everyone was left to their own devices by being given a section, but no seat number. The seats stretched what we estimated to be about double the length of a normal runway, making for a lot of front row seats.

Before a slowly melting ice sculpture spelling out Z-a-m-b-e-s-i, the

Jaws

theme music played and under some damn unforgiving fluorescent lighting (for those of us in the crowd that is), models trotted out the label's winter '07 collection. If there was an acceptable time to wear sunglasses in the front row, this was it.

The front row was made up of Auckland's most stylish, as well as a few All Blacks (Dan Carter, Ali Williams) movie stars (Melissa George and

Lord of the Rings'

Karl Urban) and TV personalities (Petra Bagust and Mikey Havoc). Causing a mini disturbance as they arrived were rock band INXS, in town for their gig this weekend. Singer JD Fortune had charisma to burn and voiced his approval of the collection to a Herald reporter after the show.

Zambesi's range was a dark and divine mix of textures (thick wool, velvet, sequins) including long thick black and charcoal grey sweater dresses, capes with slits for the arms to poke through, and navy and gold tulip shaped and pleated skirts. Zambesi's understated leopard print made a return this season in a floaty shirt pulled in at the waist with a wide rust coloured belt. The rusty orange colour featured as the main highlight colour, in sequined shift dresses, men's pants and leather boots.

When the luxe black satin trench coat hit our end of the runway, we looked at each other and mouthed 'I want that!'

Models wore choppy, mussed-up blonde or black wigs, heavy black eyeliner and an amazing coral orange lipstick, that had fashion editors raving after the show.

Continuing the nautical theme, the crowd enjoyed fish and chips in paper cones handed out at the show's conclusion.

Fish and chips and bubbly in hand, the fash pack were ready to party, mingling and gossiping by the waterside.

All Black boys Dan and Ali gave the show the big thumbs up, with Ali telling us he "loved it… it was amazing."

We thought so too.

- - - posted at 10.58pm by Kelly and Megan |

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Obviously the hot ticket to have this week was the one to the Yvonne Bennetti show. Well, it certainly seemed that way given the wait we had to endure as over 1000 people queued up to get inside The Tent.

There was a fair amount of toe-tapping and watch-checking going on. My neighbours in the queue developed a game whereby if any of them complained (about the queue, sore feet etc etc) they had to put a dollar in a 'fine jar'. To their credit they didn't raise too much money.

The ushers must have been getting a little irate after all the questions they were being asked… we heard through the grapevine Yvonne's father was nearly denied entry because he had turned up without a ticket!

The rich jewel tones Yvonne tends to use must work well on the telly, as TV personalities Petra Bagust, Kerre Woodham, Carly Kirkwood and Jayne Kiely were all in the audience, perhaps scouting out possibilities for their work wardrobes.

Two faces we didn't expect to see among the throngs of Yvonne devotees were All Blacks Dan Carter and Ali Williams - Ali obviously dragged along to see the ultra girly collection by girlfriend Casey but Dan was without his Black Sticks hockey-playing partner Honor Dillon.

Just when we were wondering what the attraction was for these staunch rugby types (surely Little Brother or Huffer are more their thing?), a

pair of gold hot pants

being marched down the runway gave us our answer.

The Yvonne-ettes in the crowd (who can be easily picked out with perfectly coifed hair, expensive highlights and pretty camisoles) are after luxe... and the military coats, velvet jackets, sequinned hot pants, beaded dresses and fur trims we saw are most definitely luxe.

Yvonne makes the status pieces that every woman is dying to get her mitts on (and creating giant waiting lists in the process).

Two that I'll be adding my name to will be for the kermit

green military coat

and black wool flared mini. I think I'll leave the gold hot pants to some braver souls.

- - - posted at 10.23pm by Kelly |

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It's been a long (but enjoyable) week and earlier on I felt I was in need of some pampering!

I headed straight for the Herald Inkroom after the Showroom 22 group show, thinking I'd have time for a quick manicure and cocktail (there has been one invented especially for the Inkroom, containing apple baby food!) before going to Yvonne Bennetti.

I had a nail colour in mind (a similar shade to the one stylist

Rachel Zoe was seen wearing at NY Fashion Week

just recently) but was planning to let the OPI girls tell me what's big in the way of nail colour trends, thinking I might be swayed.

When I got there, to my dismay I found that I'd left it too late and the pampering teams from OPI were packing up to go home! I guess I'm just going to have to live with my raggedy nails for another day.

I was still interested to know what has been popular with the Inkroom guests so I asked OPI's Heather Birtwistle what people have been asking for…

Apparently the 'Lincoln Park After Dark' shade (almost black, with a hint of brown) has been popular. The OPI team used this shade on Trelise Cooper's models and it looked amazing.

We've been seeing a lot of black nails lately on starlets such as Lindsay Lohan, Kate Bosworth and Mischa Barton but I was wondering if it's a shade that just anyone can pull off...

Heather's tips for wearing dark shades such as black: