NZ Fashion Week - My take

Michelle Yvette is one of the designer that I noticed in New Zealand Fashion Week's Fashion Weekend Garage Sale in 135 Halsey Street. The weather was perfect, the sun was out for a change in the weekend. I looked at their winter collection and picked two fascinators out from a bunch of feminine designs this year. The fact is that only three stalls interested me in 2010, and I guess their products appeal to my age group and my professional eyes. I love shopping in town and shopping malls, but my pet peeves is the "copying" mode that the cloth shops are in at the moment. When the season is changing, all the shops in the mall copies one another and roll out similar tones for the season. What if you don't like light pink in spring, and want to stock up on heavier colours like blue or grey? It is a trend thing, but as a business owner, I look at the trend sometimes and think to myself: I will never put those clothes on my self, let alone the other women in town! Fascinators are what we call "love hate" items. You either love them or you hate them. The Queen holds races and women flock to these events wearing different hats, including elaborate fascinators. Personally, I've never put this fashionable accessory on top of my head, but I will do it for my friend. I picked one that has the traditional black and white colours, and the other one has similar colours to my dress, turquoise, blue and purple. If I don't have this dress, I don't think I will purchase this fascinator! You can make them yourself, you know, the voice in my mind keeps saying. But I am sure that the two I bought will save me time and also teach me a lot about how to construct them from scratch. You will need colourful (broken?) hosiery in colours that goes with your outfit, feathers, the hard backbone can be bought from Spotlight or David's Emporium. Spotlight is a shop that we buy all the haberdashery here in New Zealand. These shops are great, and are similar to Mood in Project Runway U.S. I am not so sure about purchasing these items from Mood, and if you live in a small town, you may have to purchase the items from a haberdashery shop in the main centre. It also depends on whether horse racing is a popular sports in your country or not. I think this rules out Taiwan and most part of China except Hong Kong. The other designer that I noticed on that day is Oyl. I was surprised by how sincere the lady was and checked out her website as well. It is here: Oyl, and I love their dresses. I talked with Vicki on the stand. She told me she needs to recruit more machinists! I enjoyed the day, and the experience. I also talked with the Worldwear owner from Wellington. She is such a nice lady, I got a very economical dress from her, and a pair of red sandals for summer. Her website is: Worldwear, with two children under her care, I admire her hardworking ethics and her products are gorgeous. No bags, just like my shoe shop at the moment, with paper bags to carry the wedding shoes without much fanfare. New Zealand, it is the way to go for us, not just eco-friendly, but because we know that you don't need an extra bag at home to clog up your space. We are minimalistic and beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed the sale experience and made some contacts with the designers/shop assistants. You can't do that in Milan Fashion week or New York Fashion week unless you pay big bucks! I love New Zealand.