NZ Fashion Week: Star model debuts at home

Ashleigh Good and her daughter Emily have both appeared in overseas fashion shows. Photo / Guy Coombes

Kiwi modelling star Ashleigh Good opened New Zealand Fashion Week yesterday - the first time she has appeared in the event.

It has been a long time coming for the North Shore-based model, who travels the world's fashion capitals for luxury brands including Chanel, Burberry and Fendi.

She has been in demand this week with many local designers requesting her for their shows, although she has chosen to walk in just five.

"It feels really cool to be home," Good said backstage at Twenty-seven Names' morning show. "I'm super excited - my daughter Emily is coming to watch my first show with my mum."

The 10-month-old has become something of a fashion sensation herself, appearing in the Dolce & Gabbana show carried by her mum in March and featuring in the brand's latest campaign, as well as in a shoot in a recent issue of Australian Vogue.

Good, who features on the cover of Viva's New Zealand issue in today's Herald, was the first model in Twenty-seven Names' opening fashion week show yesterday morning, before walking for NOM*d and in the Mercedes-Benz Presents Kate Sylvester show last night.

Sylvester, whose stand-out collection was inspired by cubism, also chose Good as the first model to appear in her show. "Our character for the 'A Muse' show was strong, beautiful, eccentric and nonchalant," she explained, "and Ashleigh is gloriously all of those things."

After NZ Fashion Week, Good flies to New York to walk in shows for international brands. "But it's nice to be able to do fashion week at home - I'm always envious of the other models in New York or Paris, who live in the city they're working in."

Today's Fashion Week highlights

9.30am Lucilla Gray installation
11am ITZME and Julian Danger
12.30 Her Apparel and Willa & Mae
3.30pm New Generation
6pm Harman Grubisa
7pm Annah Stretton
9pm Stolen Girlfriends Club

• Visit Viva's dedicated New Zealand Fashion Week section for the most savvy, intelligent and dynamic coverage around.