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Curated by NZ On Screen Team
This collection, launched to honour 10 years of NZ Fashion Week, celebrates Kiwi fashion on screen. From TV showpieces (B&H, Corbans) to docos on designers; Gloss to archive gold, from Swannies to Split Enz, taniko to foot fetish ... take a stroll down the catwalk of our sartorial screen past. Beauties include ex-Miss Universe Lorraine Downes and a teenage Rachel Hunter.
In this 1994 edition of the annual 90s show previewing the season's fashions, Shortland Street stars pock the front row, Simon Prast is MC, Alison Mau opines, grunge doesn’t appear to have yet-blunted the à la mode styles, and NZ On Screen editor Paul Ward channels Zoolander as a teenage male model.
The NZBC's premier 60s music show was the ultimate pop confection: hip presenter Peter Sinclair, hyperactive go-go dancers, pop art set and breathless pace. This is one of two extant episodes; regulars (Mr Lee Grant, Herma Keil, Billy Karaitiana) cover the hits du jour, with the help of special guests.
This episode of Pictorial Parade newsreel series, presents three events: amongst them reigning Miss World, Ann Sidney (UK), leads the way in fashion at the 1965 Wool Award and Fashion Parade in Lower Hutt, where Miss Hutt Valley Wool Princess finalists sashay in the latest styles.
Apemen, Barbie dolls, and hairy shoes ... as this doco demonstrates, hair is everywhere (or not, for the balding). Hair's co-director, Auckland artist Judy Darragh, uses a fascination with all things hirsute as a springboard for wit, styles, thought-provoking theories, and some unusual artwork.
As a downtown Auckland street performer — Mesmer — makes a special connection with a cafe customer, it transpires that she can move punters in mysterious ways. Among the spellbound locals in this short film, watch out for future-NZ’s Next Top Model judge Colin Mathura-Jeffree, next to Bjork (!).
The ‘B&H’ was the big fashion event of the year from the late 70s to the 90s. Maysie Bestall-Cohen and Bob Parker host this 1986 Wellington show. Ex-Miss Universe Lorraine Downes, a teenage Rachel Hunter and future presenter Hilary Timmins star. 80s shoulder pads and geometric prints abound.
The 90s showcase of local designers’ upcoming collections was a live event and TV special staged annually. This 1995 edition is narrated by Craig Parker and Alison Mau; then-Fashion Quarterly editor, Paula Ryan, gives style tips; and Geeling Ng and Hinemoa Elder step out for the WORLD label.
Yuppies, shoulder-pads and methode champenoise abound in this cult “glitter-soap”. Kiwis wanted to see themselves as less bottom of the world and more “here we come and we are sailing”, and Gloss was just what the era demanded. Liz Mitchell was the costume designer behind the power dressing.
A fascinating look at NZ fashion from an era now defined for many by the look of US HBO TV series Mad Men. This parade was intended to promote local designs to Australian buyers flown across the Tasman by the NZ government – and Prime Minister Keith Holyoake was on hand to give his support.
This Niki Caro-directed doco (selected for the Venice Film Festival) is a hallucinogenic exploration of the cult of the shoe. A podiatrist, ballerina, cross dresser, mistress, academic, transexual, femme fatale and a couple of shoe salesmen discuss the pain, pleasure and allure of the foot.
Designer Garnet Nelson brings a distinctive attitude to fashion for the rural sector, combining style and practicality with more challenging “after-five combinations”. Even if this might be one of the celebrated Country Calendar spoofs, the buy-in from model-farmers is a sight to behold.
Style Pasifika is the TVNZ showcase of Pacific Island contemporary and traditional fashion design. Stan Wolfgramm co-hosts this show with Sonia Gray. Francis Hooper, Denise L’Estrange-Corbet and Liz Mitchell appear as judges, and performers include John Rowles, Ben Lummis and Moana and the Tribe.
Margi Robertson (Nom*D), Tanya Carlson (Carlson), Veronica Keucke (Keucke) and Juliet Fay (Aduki) fly the Dunedin fashion flag in this Artsville doco. Stacey Gregg talks of Dunedin as the source of the “dark intellectualism of NZ fashion”; the southern styles are suitably set to Flying Nun music.
Ice TV trio Jon Bridges, Nathan Rarere and Petra Bagust go behind the scenes of the fantastic fashion catwalk extravaganza. They meet the creators of garments inspired by everything from Alice in Wonderland to roadkill. Nathan and Jon trial bizarre bras, and Petra tries on a possum-skin bikini.
A classic music video for a classic song. Features Noel Crombie's art school-infused clothes, make-up and surreal sets, giant beach balls, a hula hoop, and a young and endearingly-geeky Neil Finn. The video was one of the first (the 12th!) broadcast on US MTV after it launched in August 1981.
In clip three Douglas Lloyd Jenkins and Fiona McDonald visit designer Kate Sylvester in her High Street boutique. Douglas posits Sylvester as “almost the brains behind New Zealand fashion”. Sylvester muses on origins and inspirations – birds, boxing matches and Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock.
twenty-seven names is the fashion label run by irrepressible friends Rachel Easting and Anjali Stewart. Here they prepare for their first major solo show, at Fashion Week in 2008. Their Crazy Horse collection was inspired by Patti Smith who they admire for her “mean-as androgynous style”.
This 1970 NZ tourism fashion presentation designed for Australian audiences was shown at Auckland Museum and covered by TV show This Day. It featured traditional Māori motifs combined with contemporary fashion – still a novelty then; they were the work of young Taumarunui designer Ann Rupe.
This high-camp colonial melodrama is set in an imaginary 19th-century town called Hope. 'Draper of distinction' Dorothea Brooks is desperate to save her sister Rose from the clutches of opium, sex and the dastardly Fraser. Sumptuous and ripe, and with costumes to match, The Piano this definitely ain't!
Director Mark Albiston takes viewers on a tour of the work of artist Tanya Thompson, aka Misery. The award-winning film explores her early years as a graffiti artist and looks at the rise of her art and fashion empire, ending in a visit to the Taipei Toy Festival to showcase her 3D collectible characters.
Indie legend Chris Knox puts the posturing of Movember to shame in this animated single-frame clip. Knox goes from long hair to no hair, hairless to hirsute, bald to bearded, and every style in-between. Has there ever been a more effective choreographing of one’s own personal style and grooming?
Sally Tran's delightfully ramshackle clip ramps up this raunchy Charlie ASH number with a succession of stunning sets, Alice in Wonderland costuming and animation, and spellbinding colour. Winner of Best Overall Video at the 2006 Radio Active Handle the Jandal Music Video Awards.
Amongst the bevy of Aotearoa creatives in arts show The Living Room are multi-talented designer, filmmaker and show-woman Sally Tran (cruising in heels); Auckland fabric artist Rachelle Pedersen (stitching stains into beauty), and Whanganui designer Maianga Waitai (turning op-shop into opulence).
In Stewart Main's comical coming of age short film 14-year old Steve is caught between two parents with different ideas about the suit he should wear to his school dance. Meanwhile everywhere he looks, images of men are taking over his imagination. “I do hope your pimples don't let you down ...”
This jandal-shod journey through Kiwi pop culture takes a light-hearted look at the fashion, art, architecture, attitudes, and icons (Buzzy Bees, Edmonds, Swanndri, Pavlova etc) we call our own. It features personalities Gary McCormick, Ginette McDonald, John Clarke, Peter Jackson, and others.
In this Hollie Smith music video, director James Soloman makes Smith loom luminous via light, texture and effect. Hollie Smith's seductive performance, inhabiting several art-inspired multicultured personas, is complimented by exquisite costuming.
Te Papa senior curator Claire Regnault and Fashion Quarterly editor Fiona Hawtin give front row reports on NZ fashion on screen. Read >
Designer Liz Mitchell talks about her designs for screen, memorably crafting shoulder pads, stilettos and gel-spiked hair in Gloss. Watch >
This Te Ara entry briefly surveys the development of local style, from work clothes and Swanndri to Karen Walker. Read >
2010 is the 10th anniversary of the annual catwalk showcase of NZ fashion and style. Celebrate >
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The ONYAs 2010 & 2011
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Qantas Media Awards 2009
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