nz designers
Company of Strangers produce some cool stuff including this vintage leather babysitter satchel up-cycled from an opportunity shop leather jacket. We like very much.
Descendant produce beautiful organic cotton and bamboo tees which are designed by creative director Sam, who is very fussy about the cut and printing of his items. The tees are all printed using non-plastic eco happy water based inks which has proven to be a challenge for the printer because of the detail and fineness of the prints. The result is fine garments with extraordinary prints with a subtle soft hand.
MisteR do fun shirts and this summer is no exception with a collection of graphic and playful range. All made with the high standard you come to expect from this young south island brand.
Awa Jewels by Ngawaiata available at the Aroha store. Made from Citrine crystals and up-cycled black maire, this ring helps dissipate negative energy, helps with awareness, awakens mind and radiance within.
David Moreland has produced a few new products and while i was in AK we hooked up and shot some product. Here is one of the shots showing some of his good stuff including the ‘Step’ barstool.
The base is powder coated in either white or black and the seat can come in either white lacquer or natural oak finish, there is also an upholstered version being worked through as well. It comes in two heights, 730mm and 650mm.
Uma means horse in the land of the rising sun and is the new design from local furniture designer Chad Heays. The Uma comes in several different finishes including theses two, blonded and a dark charcoal stain. It is able to be flat packed which makes it good for shipping around the country or even the world and is made from American Ash. Available in store.
NOM*d presents Turncoats / Winter 2010 / “We used to be good children. And then we grew up and we ran away… ” Margirita Robertson, Kirsty Cameron, Curious Films, Matt Noonnan, Dean Roberts, J Lange, Karen Inderbitzen-Waller, Grant Adams, Luke Haigh, Leon Woods
watch it here
here are some hot pics from backstage at the salasai show photographed by andrew k.
If you want to see photos from the catwalk go here.
Nom*D always puts on a great show and this year was no different. It started with a short film ‘turncoats’ directed by Kirsty Cameron from Curious films. The film showed a group of models isolated within a big house. It seemed they are trapped within this house but discover a way out, freeing themselves form their captivity, running through a forest to the edge of a lake. I imagined they were left overs from some cult where they were the only ones left and discovering the outside world was new and wonderous.
The film was seductive and beautiful and was a prelude to a short and unconventional show with a small group of models using the aisles as the catwalk which must of been a nightmare for the photographers who i think were a little frustrated by not getting that perfect runway shot but hey, that’s Nom*D. They are doing it their way.
The Village
S/S 2010
Saturday 12 September 2009 saw Karen Walker’s 7th showing at New York Fashion Week.
The Spring / Summer 2010 collection, entitled ‘The Village’, has as its centralinspiration the cult 1960’s television show The Prisoner.
Karen says: “We’ve been re-watching The Prisoner and have always loved the look it has – a 60’s take on Edwardiana seaside – all navy blazers, tan chinos and stripy t-shirts.
Even more so though we love its central idea of a seaside holiday resort that’sactually a prison for retired spies.”
This inspiration and its throwing together of extremes is the perfect starting pointfor a Karen Walker range. The Prisoner’s mood is clear in the collection’s manyshrunken navy blazers, skinny cream, navy and tan ankle breezers and cream and navystripe jersey tees.
The navy and cream colour palette extends into a story of navy cotton dresses, shirtsand skirts with, in a nod to the 60’s take on Edwardiana seaside, frill detailing, often with cream trim.
The Karen Walker signature of throwing opposites together is seen beyond the holidayresort / prison inspiration in many places including, as in the T.V. show, thecontrasting of the controlled and the psychedelic; here in the form of contrasting the classical navy and cream against a bright green psychedelic floral.
Karen says: “The Prisoner often played with the idea of mind altering drugs andpsychedelia. It was a 60’s show after all. We liked the idea of the trippy elementsplaying off against the controlled façade in the show as well as in the collection.” Also contrasting against the classical navy, tan and cream cottons are high tech parkanylons in yellow, teal and navy.
Karen Walker’s signature fabric prints are present this season as ever, this timecontinuing the seaside mood with navy, red, white and turquoise bunting and oversizedpolka dots. There’s also navy and white in many different prints – stripes, polka dotsbig and small, and a recreated 30’s seagull print.
Denim is seen in indigo boyfriend cut, worn with this season’s cropped tan trench, andskinny and cropped in indigo and white. Cashmere silk knits in grey and scarlet arealso key.
Hats are once again a strong part of the collection. This season there are navy, natural and bright yellow straw bucket hats and sloppy navy cricket hats.
Next season’s Karen Walker Eyewear also makes its debut. Shoes this season are in collaboration with hip shoe brand, Pointer who’s classic boat shoes were reworked in Walker’s own colour palette. These shoes, as the first of the Pointer for Karen Walker collaboration, will be sold as part of the Karen Walkercollection this season.
Heels were once again by British shoe designer Jonathan Kelsey who, in addition to hiseponymous line, designs for Mulberry and Pucci and has, prior to launching his ownline, designed for Cacharel and Jimmy Choo.
The collection was styled by Karen’s long term collaborator, New York based stylistHeathermary Jackson. This is Heather and Karen’s 16th season working together.
Hair director on the collection was Rolando Beauchamp for Bumble and Bumble. Thisis Rolando’s third season on the Karen Walker team. He’s also worked with TerryRichardson, Patrick Demarchelier and Ellen von Unwerth.
Make up director was Jenna Menard for Shiseido. Her work has appeared in the bestpublications including U.S. Vogue, Vanity Fair and U.S. Elle and she’s worked with manyof the world’s greatest photographers including Annie Lebowitz and Arthur Elgort.
This season’s models included the superb Hyoni Kang, Kelli Lumi, Rachel Clark, Charlotte Hoyer, Mathilde Frachon, Angelika Kocheva and Skye Stracke who, betweenthem, have walked the runway for every major designer including Marc Jacobs, AnneDemeulemeester, Christian Dior, Lanvin, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Yves Saint Laurent, Marni, Junya Watanabe, Chanel and Chanel Couture. They’ve been in the pages of everyimportant fashion magazine including V, Harper’s Bazaar, i-D, and Paris and ItalianVogues and the face of brands including Lacoste, Benetton, D & G, Louis Vuitton, DKNY and Vivienne Westwood.
we have sarted updating the spring/summer collections online… you can jump over to the store to see our progress. so far kate sylvester, karen walker and nom d have made it up and we will be updating daily.
native wood rings with lots of different Brazilian crystals…natural, organic shaped, warm,lovely to wear……beautiful.
each ring has a wooden box and a sweet silk bag, all part of it’s handmade with arohanui in Aotearoa .
We now stock Kate Sylvester and her new spring/summer collection for 09-10 has started to arrive. The collection is called “Take a Hike” and as suggested there are some woody themes coming through.
Karen Walker Runaway has started to land with these items arriving. Some great pieces here for the street including these two great pleather jackets.
The sweatshirt dresses are back with new bold graphic prints, something that went really well last season. The high waisted pleated jeans are a bit of a hit for us.
The colour palette holds together nicely, moving from grey marles to red floral prints to dark navy and accented with a bit of magenta and orange.
Go Karen!
It’s time for a bit of spring clean. Winter stock is now reduced from 30 – 50%. We need to make some space for spring 09 season which is due to arrive in the coming weeks. It’s a good time to come and get that item you have been thinking about all winter.
We have some new works on paper from the Cut Collective as a part of our current Paper, Scissors, Stock exhibit. Here are a few of my faves from the show. hyper jump over the the store to see all the works from the show.
Our good friend David Moreland was featured in the Viva section of the NZ Herald yesterday and picked two of our prints in his top 10 design picks. We came in at number 2 just behind his own creation, the Knight Light. We own one of David’s Knight Lights and it used to sit next to my bed until my daughter decided she liked it so much and claimed it for herself.
