Into the Light

The garment is the ‘Phedra dress’, done in a crepe-textured silk. An application of ruffles, and the use of multiple panels for the skirt allows the colouring to appear both filmy, as well as in solid blocks depending on where the light falls.

Phedra is from Kate Sylvester’s summer collection called ‘Into the Light’. It applauds the emerging into summer light after months of sombre winter. Summer light brings brilliance, radiance, and a feel of expansiveness. For the designer’s campaign, the notion of light is not just that provided by the sun, but also the light of theatre spotlights and banks of floodlights. The collection is a celebration, and lyrical at that.

Terence H

World Man

There is an assuredness about World’s summer collection of men’s garments. Fun, unexpected materials and jazzy compilations make this showing a wardrobe of possibilities.

Done in a rich, harbourside-blue brocade, this is World’s ‘Perfect Beat’ blazer. Excellent pattern-making and tailoring has turned what was once deemed the fabric of an occasional adventurous cushion into a parading piece of modern couture.

 

Like a work of abstract art from a Manhattan studio, this jacket proclaims its paint-drip patterning with no explanation. It’s pure take it or leave it.

Threading through this collection are references to music – particularly the world of 1980s Bronx-based hip hop performers. Many of the garments’ names celebrate such recording artists as Tone Loc and Afrika Bambaataa. These references are not strident, but exist in their own underlying layer. Such themes and vibrations also feature in World’s summer collection for women.

The Halo Dress

Halo Dress is from Derryn Schmidt’s summer collection. The fabric is a tightly woven silk-cotton, providing a background for colourful print work and some subtle details like the run of pin-tucking down the spine.

The print is a tumbling design of big peony/chrysanthemum blooms among cascades of cool coloured petals. It is serenely suggestive of oriental lacquer work and the imperial colours of oriental hand painted porcelain.

The name of Schmidt’s collection is Around in Circles. The phrase carries with it the idea that in creating something new, the spirit can often go around in circles, looking at things seen in the past, and techniques learnt, and then, behold, something fresh appears.

Terence H

Fun from Cooper

The dress is the ‘Frocktail Shaker’ -- a work in silk with four fringed belts done in soft gold cotton threads. Taking a cue from its name, it is indeed like a quenching built-up cocktail full of citrus curls and zests, topped with opaque lemon fizz.

The jacket is called ‘Kiss my Asp’. The pattern of reptile skin is done in leather, then overlaid and heat-set with a thin plastic skein. Here is a stunning replica of the fine textures and flashing iridescence of snake skin – both charming, and alarming.

The garments are from the summer collection of Cooper; a sub-collection of Trelise Cooper.

Cooper is a label dancing with the jazzy, the youthful, and the irreverent. It is a label of spirited collectables.

Terence H

Bird in Cage

 

 

The sheer amount of invention shown by a new

wave of New Zealand jewellery designers is

stunning. Here is the work of dedicated individuals

following their own paths of imagination, themes and

choices of materials.

One of the many trends to captivate designers is the

enjoyment of working on a small, almost microscopic

scale. These are the pieces of jewellery you get close

up to; they become the objects which carry the patina

of heirloom about them.

This delicious work, titled the Bird in Cage locket, is by

Rebecca Fargher and revels in minute execution. It is

modelled in sterling silver which has been oxidised, then

the surface highlights have been polished back to give

the gleam of silver. As a locket, it is a charming sphere

which opens to reveal a bird swinging from a collar against

a background of finely-etched trees.

For much of this jewellery, it has been the rise of specialist

dealer galleries offering featured artist exhibitions which have

allowed such works to be viewed and sought after by a

global public. In this case, the dealer gallery is Quoil of

Willis Street, Wellington.

Captivated by WOW

The World of Wearable Art as an event began as a fascinating idea in the mind of Nelson artist Suzie Moncrieff. It was an idea which took art from the walls and wrapped it around models. It was in 1987 that the original show was presented in a community hall with prize money donated by a local cafe owner. It soon became a fixture on the local calendar, then moved to Wellington where it has now become its own fabulous machine.

The show is now a brand, and an international event. It is a two-hour performance full of dreams, surrealism, humour, the macabre and the fantastic. Upwards of 170 creations are shown and a crew of 400 attends to all the details of lighting, sound, choreography and stage management.

It is seen live by 50,000 people, and a press contingent ensures the world can partake in the magic as entrants come from over twenty different countries including Germany, India, Israel, Korea, the UK and USA.

A Certain Brilliance

In 1892, young Czech entrepreneur Daniel Swarovski patented a machine for cutting and polishing lead crystal. While the machine vastly reduced the time taken to polish, it also allowed a precision control over faceting so that crystal could now really dazzle. The present-day heirs of the Swarovski founder still pursue this experiment-and-patent mindset, yielding a fantastic array of products – especially in their business of providing stones for jewellery designers. 

In 1985, Danish designers Gitte Dyrberg and Henning Kern established their jewellery design house DYRBERG/KERN in Copenhagen. Their particular attention to clean lines and quality, flawless construction have become absolute baselines from which their collections of jewellery, watches and eyewear emerge. Their sourcing of materials is global, as is their retail reach with outlets in more than forty countries including their concept store at 1 Grey Street, Wellington.