Learning how to leg it from one of the best

By ALAN PERROTT


It's not every day you hear someone ask a group of teenage models if they are comfortable with their trousers down.

But of course, the remark was meant in the best possible taste.

If you are throwing some extra ba-boom into your hip sway, a fashionably flared trouser can be perilous on the catwalk.

This unappreciated detail explained why the wide-eyed, thin-figured girls at yesterday's pre-Fashion Week boot camp had their jeans rolled up as if for a stroll on the beach.


Getting the right walk is serious business, and there is plenty at stake, according to model casting director Marissa Findlay, daughter of Zambesi fashion designer Elisabeth Findlay.

She was determined to avoid any repeat of last year's show, when some designers were let down by the ham-footed efforts of amateurish models.

To prevent further problems, all this year's models have been offered the chance to attend remedial walking class with runway queen Angela Dunn. A snip at a mere $100 a pop.

The 42-year-old redhead will make her first Fashion Week appearance this month after catwalking across the world's fashion capitals for the past 20 years, wearing the most exclusive labels and appearing in the glossiest magazines.

Under her expert tutelage, 16 budding clothes-ponies sashayed in and out of the same room for three intensive hours, trying to satisfy demands for the correct stride, energy level or emotion - thirsty work judging by the way they ripped through the bottled water.

It was a monotonous, if highly attractive, procession.

Each model entered in turn, eyes locked into a thousand-yard stare, arms swaying just so, fingers loose, and legs swinging to some vintage Michael Jackson.

Then stop, prop and pose ... wait for it, wait for it ... spin to the left, strut out and join the back of the line.

After about 40 repeats, a few graceful walks deteriorated from Naomi Campbell to John Campbell, but the instructors seemed well-pleased.

After two classes, Ms Dunn said she was tired but impressed by what had been on show.

She was confident Fashion Week would launch a few girls to stardom, but if she had to pick one, her money was on the long and lithe Karla Devine, who could be set to topple almost-NZ Idol Michael Murphy as Taupo's most famous export.