By Fiona Hawtin.
Chapter 1: In which Sylvester decides to show at New Zealand Fashion Week after a five year absence. She is hugely influenced by American novelist Donna Tartt’s latest novel The Goldfinch, most particularly the heroine Pippa, as well as the author’s masculine tailoring. She calls her winter 2015 collection Tartt.
Chapter 2: The show closes the trade part of the week and there are great expectations this will be a real highlight.
Chapter 3: After the appointed hour, the show begins and the audience is collectively charmed by the clothes that manage to be signature Kate but also fresh and new. The palette is red, grey, camel, black and a particularly beautiful soft blue and apricot. It is an eminently wearable mash-up of feminine, floaty dresses, French knickers, lace-trimmed lingerie and relaxed, cropped masculine trousers, box pleat skirts and impeccable trench coats. Every outfit is finished with a long, fringed silk scarf wrapped around the neck and hair – so wonderfully louche.
Chapter 4: In which confetti made from pages of the novel rain down on the models and audience. Very atmospheric.
Chapter 5: Conclusion. Kate Sylvester has managed to resolve the dilemma of masculine and feminine, wearable and conceptual, desirable and practical, whimsical and commercial. Can’t wait for the sequel.
