Young Whangarei designer takes silk road to Fashion Week

Kaylee Powell with her silk dress worn by a model. Photo/Craig Ray

Kaylee Powell's Whangarei beginnings are sewn into her silk showstopper chosen for the opening three shows at New Zealand Fashion Week.

Ms Powell's jewel-hued turquoise dress is one of 16 students' works made from 80 metres of glistening silk in Resene paint colours.

Taught to sew by her neighbour while growing up in Whangarei, Ms Powell first interpreted her paint colour, She'll Be Right, literally - basing it on the word "right".

"I started out with right angles and then played with line and shape to achieve asymmetry," she said.

"I gave my garment depth by pleating and layering the fabric, creating shadows and bright highlights."

Each of the original 36 pieces in the project reflected a paint colour that had to be central to the New Zealand Institute of Fashion Technology (NZ Fashion Tech) students' design rationale.

From those, 16 were chosen for the Resene Designer Runway event in three public shows.

The words of the brief given to the students were clear - ordinary wouldn't do.

The judges wanted: "Colourful looks that shimmer and swish, and whisper secrets ... that refuse to bow to the convention of ordinary."

The Resene NZ Fashion Tech Colour of Fashion education-meets-colour collaboration has been staged in the lead-up to Fashion Week for the last four years.