The dress is called ‘Brooke loves that fashion’ and is from the Hale Van Traa autumn collection for 2011.Here we have the season’s colors of peaceful blues and leafy browns – tones which lead us into wistful, hopeful autumn thinking. These are calming, slow-down shades rather than the dense colors of squalls and approaching thunderheads.
The colors are lightly inked onto the fabric. Close up, as we enjoy the patterning, we may well discern in the bands such impressionistic depictions of coast lines, city skylines or geological layers showing where dinosaurs became extinct. The material is wool; a tactile, chunky wool yarn whose unusual weave provides a brilliant texture almost akin to a very fine chain mail. Hale Van Traa is represented by Goodness at 19 College Street, Wellington, and the illustration comes from photographer Russell Kleyn who did the designer’s look book.
