By Imogen Crispe
Short and full-length playsuits were the stand out trend at the New Zealand Fashion Festival last night, with almost every designer featuring one or the other or both, in sheer silk or other light fabrics.
Other looks included pairing different prints together, including animal print, tie-neck chiffon blouses and a large range of colours including, gold, grey, turquoise, teal, camel, silver, mustard and of course black.
View the photogallery for images from the show
Helen Cherry’s collection was the first to show to an excited, talkative audience. Her line included silk tie-neck blouses, fur jackets, flared high waisted trousers, long skirts and some very stylish 1930s style drop waist dresses and playsuits, in short and medium lengths. There was a mixture of block colours and prints in black, red, gold, white, floral, leopard print and striped. The line finished with a sorceress-style full-length, high-necked, long-sleeved black dress, with a tapered waist.
It was a streetwear-casual look for Workshop Denim. For women, there was a denim mini dress, a navy wool coat, and jeans, jackets and dresses with leather details. For men there was a coat and three-quarter pants in yellow camouflage, a leather sleeved blazer and a Grease-style leather jacket teamed with a white t-shirt and blue jeans.
Ruby was fun and colourful, and some items did not seem like autumn/winter clothes. There were geometric patterned leggings, tops, trousers and a dress - which got whistles from the crowd - a sheer silver velvet shift dress, a sheer teal full length playsuit and a dark turquoise dress with a leather-look top and pleated chiffon skirt. One wintery item was a cute pale-grey fine wool coat. The audience cheered again when Ruby finished.
Sable and Minx had a short show with no obvious theme. There was a top and a pleated-belted dress in dark mustard, a bright orange pleated dress worn with a camel wool coat, a navy blouse, and a large black-backed floral print dress.
There was more mustard in Brady’s ethnic-inspired line as well as native-American style fringed ponchos and an Aztec necklace. A kaftan and Aladdin-look trousers added to the international feel.
Huffer was another casual streetwear line with burgundy and black baseball jackets for both men and women and lots of beanies and chinos. Men’s chinos came in camel, brown and black, and a half blue, half striped shirt caught the eye. For women there was a tan trench coat, a patterned shirt dress and a very wearable lace topped black short dress.
An orange lace dress began Carlson’s invigorating collection, worn with a brown-grey wool coat. Bright orange notes also featured in a dress, a pencil skirt and a bright blazer. There were a number of different cape styles in navy and black velvet, and long and short versions of a pretty shimmery beaded silver dress.
Pearl had long tulle skirts in both black and white, then a range of seemingly random outfits. These included a one-shoulder black and cream dress, a leopard print button down dress, a racer-back simple long-line dress, an off-white suit with flared trousers, and a black blazer which mixed opaque and transparent silk fabrics.
Lonely Hearts really rocked the high neck looks, in a stripy gold and black silk racer-back dress, a school-girl style beige check white-collared dress, and a simple racer-back grey knit dress. It looked like corduroy was back in a navy white spotted short dress and high waisted shorts. Red featured in saucy 1950s style underwear with a matching wool coat, and in an edgy low-cut transparent unevenly pleated dress.
Playsuits dominated Kate Sylvester’s Sylvester collection, in sheer patterned fabrics with lengths varying from full trousers to barely-there hot pants. Patterns included paisley, floral and spots in dark colours. There were also floral grey and stripy knit dresses, and a sheer turquoise maxi dress misguidedly paired with a lime-mustard casual jacket. The collection finished with a cute 1950s style dress in thick pale turquoise fabric.
3 News