inspiration

I'm involved with some amazing projects with some very talented people at the moment and I could not be more inspired! The upcoming year is shaping up a lot differently than I thought it would but I'm really happy with the direction I am going.

This year has truly been one of the best so far and I'm determined 2013 will be even better!

So without saying too much I'll just post a few things that are helping me along the way...

unknown, Ah Young Choi, Gareth Pugh fall 2009, New Zealand Tui, unknown, Gareth Pugh for MAC Cosmetics, unknown, Jacques Dequeker 'Angels', Alexander McQueen, Paulina Bojór, Elena Kalis Underwater Photography.

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Mix Tape #1

- side one -

- side two -

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Visual Diary #1

Rad Hourani, welvet hearts, 60s hot girls, Nga Waiata Jewellery, albino peacock, aastle, power to the people, Desperately Seeking Susan, Pamela Love, Velvet Docs, Pink Ladies, avenue of trees, unknown, crows in Yoyogi Park, The Fall, Rad Hourani, summer holiday...

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New Zealand Fashion Tech Diploma Runway Show 2012

Sorry for my long absence readers! but when you read this you'll understand.

Tuesday night was the end of year show for my diploma class at NZ Fashion Tech and despite all the hard work and long hours leading up to it, it was all worth it and the show was amazing!

I'm intensely proud of all of my classmates and myself. We each created a mini range of three looks in about a month to a very high standard and every garment that went down the runway could be sold in stores. It gives me great hope for the future of all of us to see the hard work, determination and great designs we came up with.

And just so it shows this isn't just shameless self promotion we got a lovely review from the lovely missmeagankerr over at nzgirl.

Hot off the press are the first photos of the show taken by the talented photographer Brian Lowe and you can see more of them in this album. Here is a tiny sneak peek:

Designer: Amy Duan

Designer: Suzie Eggleton

Designer: Kapiliola Fonua

Designer: Kimmery Fotuhetule

Designer: MJ Grieg

Designer: Sali Hafeedh

Designer: Ghissy Gascoine

Designer: Kei Ho

Designer: Orlene Enoka

Designer: Tyrone Tautiepa

All photographs © Brian Lowe

I'll be blogging about this again as any new media or photos come out so stay tuned!

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Kleenex Cottonelle Paper Dress Challenge

As part of my course we were set an amazing challenge to create beautiful couture cocktail dresses out of Kleenex Cottonelle toilet tissue with an emphasis on showing the softness and luxury of the brand. While this may bring to mind images of models wrapped up mummy-like in toilet paper, make no mistake - the standard was extremely high. Here are the three finalists - Tanya Jeffrey, Kapi Fonua & Kei Ho with the winner in the centre:

The three finalists went on to have their dresses shown at New Zealand Fashion Week where the winner was announced. In this video Tagata Pasifika talk to the winner Kapi Fonua about his journey.

The project was massive and the learning experience was incredible and best explained in our school video diaries. See the full list here (with a video of me explaining how the tissue was made into fabric) and the judging day here. I think the videos truly show how much passion and talent went into the dresses and I expect big things from our final collections at the end of this year!

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The Marr Factory

I had the pleasure of being involved with The Marr Factory which ran from 26th - 30th August. This is a slightly late post but I was also tied up with New Zealand Fashion Week last week (post about that to come too!). Below I have posted about Karen Walker and NOM*d but you can see videos and photos of all the shows here.

Karen Walker

The first night of the Marr Factory was Karen Walker and I got to work back stage which was extremely fun and everyone was lovely. Because I was working (and forgot my camera) I didn't take any photos but here is one from Stephen Marr (click for more), and here is a video of the show from Remix Magazine

The prints are all amazing as we have come to expect from Karen Walker, with gorgeous Beau Coops to match - see!
My favourite and most coveted items though were the sunglasses! they come in a number of different styles and in either gold or black filigree here is a selection or you can view the whole collection here

 NOM*d

The last night of the Marr Factory was NOM*d, whom are by far my favourite New Zealand label so I was pretty excited to see the show. The best part of it being that it was at Golden Dawn which is a cosy venue which made everyone feel like they were front row. This time I did remember my camera so I'm thrilled to present my photos of the show. I have to say I truly loved it, NOM*d have done it yet again with layering of textures, interesting silhouettes and some truly great prints. The best print was the beige "NOM*d - Land" with iconic New Zealand imagery inspired by Margi Robertson's collection of souvenir scarves. It's lovely to see some kiwiana get a cool makeover.To view the whole collection in closer detail "A Raven's Tale" click here

xx