When a show kicks off to the dulcet tones of Alanis Morissette’s All I Really Want, you know you’re in for a good time.
As the first show of NZFW 2015, twenty-seven names was charged with setting the tone for the whole week – and despite the fact that it was drizzling, and the show was outside, toes could be seen tapping and heads nodding from the start of the catwalk to the end. The show was an imagined dinner party, a gathering of diverse women based on Judy Chicago’s feminist artwork.
Designers Rachel Easting and Anjali Stewart describe it as “a dinner party of women who question, imagine, challenge, who shake up, who inspire. Women whose songs get us so excited we break into spontaneous dance in the workroom” – we’re looking at you Ms. Morissette – “whose books we’ll loan out to that friend who dog ears the pages. Women who have made the TV shows and films that we rave about to anyone who will listen, who made the art that changes how we see the world, or feel about ourselves. Women who fight the good fight for the rest of us, who live the lives that inspire us.”
The casting alone was enough to evoke this spirit, an inspiring and diverse group of stunning models that any woman could identify with, all looking fiercely cool and so casually nonchalant in their crisp white canvas Vans and Napisan-clean socks.
As someone with a serious linen fetish, Still Life satisfied all my sartorial needs. Linen pant suits worn casually with Still Life slogan t-shirts and sharp white shirts. Button-up pinafores were worn prim and proper over plain white tees and chunky knit scarves were worn not as scarves, but garments unto themselves – slung over arms or pulled tight around cold shoulders.
The sea of peach, sand, navy and black was striking against the grey sky and the backdrop of the Auckland skyline – one of those colour palettes that could slide so easily into any wardrobe that I’m already imagining how several pieces will look slotted into my own.
The makeup was clean and natural (like any cool girl would wear it) and long hair was centre-parted and pulled back behind the ears, secured low with a single gold slide. You know, like the ones you wore when you first rocked out to Jagged Little Pill. Thanks to MØ, Amerie and Haim for kicking off my morning with beats that will keep me going all day. And kudos to twenty-seven names for kicking off the party in such a classy fashion.
Words: Lucy Slight
Photos: Holly Burgess and Supplied
>> SEE ALL THE RUNWAY IMAGES HERE
