Rising fashion talent: A whole new wardrobe

Jaimie Webster models her own high-waisted pants.

The pattern-cutters and outworkers who make new designer Jaimie Webster's clothes are often treated to a movie before they start work on her clothes. Well, bits of a movie anyway.

Webster says the ideas for the garments in her first collection for her label, Jaimie, came from a variety of things - movies, music, colours, fabrics and her life experiences are all part of the mixed bag from which she draws inspiration.

"And usually I know exactly what I want, so I'll take a package of stuff to show them.

"I know from experience that it's all very well explaining to people how you want things done, but it's always interpreted subjectively."

Webster will arrive carrying fabric swatches, colour palettes and possibly even an old movie or two so that everyone involved in the process knows exactly what she is aiming for.

For instance, with this collection, she says the dress called Kim was inspired by one of the final scenes in the Hitchcock film Vertigo, where actress Kim Novak enters the room wearing a black dress and asks, "How do I look?"

Webster's colleagues all got to see parts of that film. But these are just some of the more overt influences on her work.

A lot of the collection also seems to be a reflection of Webster's own style. "I guess it is pretty quirky.

"I wore some hysterical outfits when I was at school. I had no shame," she laughs.

But now, after working as a model, studying photography and serving time as a retail sales assistant here and overseas, the girl whose family has been in the fashion business for many years, says that this isn't really too crazy and out there.

"Because I'm not really that into fashion. It's more about the fabric and the textures.

In general, I think it's upbeat and modern - but timeless too."

Confident. Feminine but not too girlie, she comes up with variety of terms.

"For me, it's more about the way that clothing makes people feel."

With pieces such as a very high-waisted trouser, a turquoise suit complete with waistcoat and jacket and an olive-coloured linen top, this label's garments might just make you feel a little bit like you're dressing up in your mum's clothes - if your mum was Katharine Hepburn, that is. Considering that this is a first collection, it's a remarkably clever thing for this 25-year-old art school graduate to have done so effortlessly.

For more: Scotties Boutique, 270 Ponsonby Rd, Auckland, ph: (09) 361 4000.