By Kate Rodger
New Zealand Fashion Week kicks off Tuesday, with established and up-and-coming local designers taking their winter 2013 collections to Auckland's viaduct catwalk.
But there's been a pre-Fashion Week breakout of top designers showing their summer ranges and attracting sell-out crowds.
Any fashionista worth her Louboutins is already casting her mind ahead to her summer wardrobe, and to loosen their purse strings local big name designers are hitting the catwalk to tempt with their spring and summer 2012 collections.
Karen Walker, Zambesi, Helen Cherry, Nom*D and Kate Sylvester are all showing their summer wares. And while the inner-Auckland bar venue isn’t huge, the shows have been selling-out.
World too opted for a pre-show last week, again with their summer range, targeting the local consumer, not the trade buyer.
Karen Walker is one of our most recognised fashion labels, stocked at over 600 stores globally.
Walker hasn't shown at New Zealand Fashion Week for years, instead favouring foreign catwalks. But she maintains their pre-shows are no snub.
“We've never really shown at Fashion Week, one show in all the years,” she says.
“Our business works in a different way. We love the idea of the event but it doesn’t fit with our schedule.”
So how do Fashion Week organisers feel about this year's rebellious fashion trend?
“We totally encourage it,” says organiser Pieter Stewart.
“It is in-season shows, Fashion Week is not in-season shows, apart from Fashion Weekend. At the end of that where we have designer selection shows which we've always done. So we don’t see it as that, we see it as a great build up to fashion week.”
Fashion Week kicks off with air-kissing a-plenty at its launch night party next Monday night, with the first shows hitting the Viaduct Event Centre catwalk at high noon Tuesday.
3 News