Fashioning the Seams
“My work always tends to be about throwing extremes together,” says edge-designer Karen Walker. “I always find that the most exciting thing is when you take a $5 T-shirt and elevate it into something…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Properly Done
New Zealand designers Ashley and Wende Fogel know how to get it right for this season’s “lean and proper” look.
Sexy Collette
Wellington-trained Aus-based designer Collette Dinnigan’s international reputation makes her Australasia’s most prolific fashion designer, conjuring for all shapes and sizes “unashamedly feminine, decorative and sexy creations that hug your body and delight your spirit”…
Furry Good Idea
The fur is soft, warm and stylish. The leather feels so good you can wear it as underwear; Tiger Woods refuses to play with a glove made of anything else. It’s true: the best…
Everybody Wants a Piece of You
“New Zealand has given us plenty of stuff. Russell Crowe, Crowded House, Maori bouncers who scare the crap out of you. They can have it all back if they will only let us have…
Smartwool
New Zealand’s long-fibre merino makes “Smartwool” – outdoor clothing that’s itch-proof, and “works better than anything else you can find”.
Maximum Coverage
Prodigy frontman Maxim sports New Zealand-made jewelry – two Ms, also the cover art on his new album Hell’s Kitchen.
Deva Diva
New Zealand-born Cherry Bishop’s signature fashion boutique is a headline act in New York’s East Village, a place with a history of “anarchy, counter-culture and edginess”.
Skin Jewels
Seen on Gwyneth, Bjork and Lauren Hill, New Zealand-educated J Maskrey’s Skin Jewelry described as “one of the most original innovations of recent years”. Also check out the fashionUK feature.
Fruity Retraction
Ten years ago, Rod Stewart declared to Rachel “I found the girl I want, I won’t be putting my banana in anybody’s fruit bowl from now on”.
Bax Facts
“I am a supermodel. I worked damn hard to get where I am. I’ve been on many Vogue covers. I’ve done all my jobs well, and I worked damn hard to get that title….
Power Dressing
The Powerhouse Museum’s Fashion of 2000 features New Zealand designer Karen Walker’s “it” broken pearl dress, alongside work by Stella McCartney, Galliano and Versace.
Power Dressing #2
Dress for Success provides smart clothes for UK, US and NZ women looking for jobs. “This isn’t about ‘ladies who lunch’ sprinkling love and charity on the poor. The Dress for Success thing is…
Idiosyncratic Mambo
Designer Reg Mombassa, “the quintessential idiosyncratic Australian artist, even though he’s from New Zealand,” is a key part of Mambo’s international success.
Wearable Art to Edinburgh?
Nelson’s Wearable Art Awards “come close to sensory overload … dazzling light displays, innovative props … and the exceptional Wearable Arts creations”. Organisers are hoping to show the creations at the next Edinburgh International…
Taylor Tailor
“Citrus silk wool bell-bottoms, lilac silk lace cardigan and a soft grape lace print cami-dress with lavender shearing were eternally pretty,” in Kiwi style-queen Rebecca Taylor’s New York Fashion Week show.
Zambesi Zen
Relax, salute the sun: this summer warm to the meticulously designed, unstructured, ‘new age’ look picked to capture the fashion mood. Yoga inspired spiritual materials for contemplative consumption. Leading the pack of new-agers are…
Sheep Shearer’s Delight Strolling the Paris Catwalks
Watch out Rod: “you wouldn’t want to mess with a girl like Rach. She is an Alp of a woman. Throw in the facial features of a young Judy Finnegan, a formidable Sports Illustrated…
On Top of the Brief
The Times profiles New Zealander Carrie de Duluin, Personal Assistant to Serena Rees and Joseph Corré (son of Vivienne Westwood), creators of Agent Provocateur, the label that gave new meaning to “naughty, but nice”…
TimeOut Gets into NZ’s Real Crown Jewels
Time Out’s Mary Ann Percy provides an insider’s guide to New Zealand’s recondite attractions. Everybody knows about New Zealand’s tourist standards (Jonah and the whales), but “get your A into G: have you slipped…
Rebecca Taylor’s Urban Femininity Nominated for Prestigious Perry Ellis Award
New York based New Zealander Rebecca Taylor’s signature brightly colured cardigans with sequin trim have seen her nominated for the reputation-making Perry Ellis Fashion Award. She will be hoping to follow in the fashionable…
Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport – They’ve Done It Again
In the “Cool places to shop (and what to buy)” section of the South China Morning Post’s “Cool guide to Sydney”, Williams Street is noted for Collette Dinnigan, and Janine Edwards is mentioned for…
Home-style Kiwi dressing leads to urban-style success for Designer Rebecca Taylor
In a New York Daily News Mother’s Day special, New York based Kiwi Rebecca Taylor (recently nominated for the prestigious Council of Fashion Designers America Perry Ellis Best New Talent Award) credits her dressmaker…
Sweet Child China Rose Heads for Seedy Weekend in Brighton
New Zealander Kate Sylvester was one of the week’s most thoughtful designers, declaring a Graham Greene inspired theme from her Brighton Rock “no cigars or pipes please” invitations to the cried myself to sleep…
Australian Fashion Week: “The All Blacks Are Well Ahead of The Wallabies”
Karen Walker and Collette Dinnigan’s shows at Fashion Week gain the highest praise. Among those gushing were eminent Sunday Times fashion historian Colin McDowell, and fashion director of Vogue Nippon Kim Stringer.
Sideline Sneers No Music to Ears at Fashion Week
Karen Walker has created another visual and aural sensation. Things got interesting when she provided the fashpack with a CD player and headphones from which they could select their own music. The only trouble…
Australian Style the New Zealand Way
“If you look over those lists of favourite shows, as picked by two key international delegates, something even more interesting emerges: a third of the top-scoring designers were born outside Australia. Kiwi born and…
Voon New Zealand Fashion Showcased at Lucire
Wellington designer Sophie Voon brings her distinctively antipodean dresses to the world; from the ‘Pavlova’ (left with buzzy bee) in white, to the ‘Southern Cross’ in mauve. Her latest edition of influential fashion magazine…
Urban Look and Funky Charm
Designer John Varvatos (former darling of Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren) creates cozy-old look with svelte New Zealand Shearling.
Destination: Style
“This first-hand look at Louis Vuitton’s new Cup Collection, and the glamorous models that showcase the high-rolling styles of the super yacht world, is based in Auckland, New Zealand, home of the Louis Vuitton…
Dinnigan Takes Hip-elegance to London
In Australia, Collette Dinnigan is famous. In Europe, it is her clothes – pretty and sexy in the sophisticated manner that is loved by women for whom femininity and style outweigh the need to…
Colette Dinnigan Brings Down-under Chic to Chelsea
Designer Collette Dinnigan is bringing a slice of Sydney chic to the Northern hemisphere, with the opening of her Chelsea store, the first outside of downunder. You may find you have to fight off…
Playing Possum with Beachwear
New Zealand has finally found a use for their pesky marsupial pest. Possum leather bikinis are the sexy, fashionable and expensive Kiwi import about to hit Australian beaches.
Escorial Eases into Esquire Style Guide
New Zealand elite wool makes the Esquire A-Z for 2000. “With Wall Street having doled out $13billion in bonuses last year you can bet your cashmere socks that luxury fabrics will fly high in…
Swimsuit Edition 2000
Supermodel Kylie Bax was born and raised on her parent’s horse breeding farm in North Island, New Zealand.
