New Zealand Fashion Week Day 1 Wrap with Mima Lewis Gourdie
Start your engines… New Zealand Fashion Week is here. This is your daily wrap with New Zealand Fashion Week Head Dresser and Metropol Magazine‘s NZFW correspondent Mima Lewis Gourdie! @mimalg_studio
MONDAY – OPENING NIGHT ‘The Art Of Style’
In it’s 25th rendition, NZFW is on the resurgence after new ownership, and it’s gotten a makeover. Last year saw an introduction to what a more diverse Fashion Week could look like in Aotearoa, spreading the love to embrace the everyday fashion enthusiast a little more, rather than leaning exclusively on industry-invite events.
Presented by premier car dealer, Giltrap Group, this year’s opening night put a different spin on the runway, as audience members sat flanked by supercars. The show sprawled through Giltrap’s multi-storey showroom, where black carpet met polished concrete and rolling ramps.
In ‘The Art Of Style’ NZFW Creative Director Dan Ahwa explored the idea of personal style in this fast-evolving digital age, where rapid-reproductions are everywhere. NZ Opera and Royal New Zealand Ballet generously opened their archives for this curation – heavy operatic coats, corsetry and velvet gowns paired with pieces from NZ designers, both current and archive.
Backstage is always abuzz before a big show, but opening night sets a specific nervous energy, as our team seeks to set the tone for the week ahead.
The runway set into a distinctly operatic soundtrack, which slowly morphed it’s way into a heavy-bass track, getting everyone moving backstage. The goose-bump raising moment of the night came as the symphonic music returned, harmonising with the sounds of kapa haka, as NZ Artist Rosanna Raymond took the stage in her work ‘Backhand Maiden’; A gown structured in a colonial silhouette out of stencilled barkcloth, with a split down the rear, exposing her tattooed behind.
The standout moments backstage? Meeting other special guest models, such as designer and archivist Doris De Pont, who worked her own jacket down the runway, paired with a pink and red archival tutu from The Nutcracker. Writer, Emma Gleason, made an appearance in archival Kate Sylvester, much to the delight of friends in the audience, while gallerists Tim Melville and Melanie Roger also joined the line up, draped in metallic silver robes and wearing archival KS.
A blend of performance, art and identity set the precedent for the week to come, with a schedule of established and emerging designers revving to take the stage.
Mima’s fave moment: The opening night brief for models was “you’re an art groupie on a night out”. How fun! And what a joyful finale, as models poured out onto the ramp and partied down the runway to thunderous applause.
Photography by Radical NZ. Mima will be back with a day 2 wrap… see you soon!
