New Zealand Fashion Week: Deborah Sweeney, Cybéle, Sera Lilly, Love-Lies-Bleeding & Nom*D

By Carol Lee

Day 2: Tuesday, Sept 18, 4:35 a.m.

Today was the first day of New Zealand Fashion Week: Autumn/Winter 2008 Collections (They're two seasons ahead of us -- it's spring right now). I went to Deborah Sweeney, Cybéle, Sera Lilly & Love-Lies-Bleeding and Nom*D -- four out of eight shows ain’t bad. This is only a fraction of the volume of New York Fashion Week and I’m liking it! All the shows (except for a couple of off-site ones by the most well-known NZ designers like Karen Walker, Kate Sylvester and Zambesi) are happening at the tents where the party was last night.

This is NZ’s seventh Fashion Week, but it still has the bubbliness and the quaintness (I don’t mean this in a patronizing way) that reminds me of my very first Fashion Week in New York in 2000 when PAPER did this thing called "Lab, Launch Pad and Lounge" at the Bryant Park tents. I was just a bright-eyed intern then and had so much fun running around trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Like in Y2K, here I don’t know who anyone is or what’s going on but I have an assistant and Audis at my disposal. I love not knowing! Everything is a discovery and it’s so fresh!!

For the most part, all the collections I saw today were too casual and too young for my taste. Leggings and berets were big and some of the fabrics looked Forever-21-cheap (one of my biggest fashion pet peeves!). I think the first rule of becoming a good designer is being able to transcend the material no matter how Bargain Basement it was when you first found it.

At Deborah Sweeney, I finally saw Gina and Sachiko from Opening Ceremony. They had just flown in that morning. Yikes! I felt like I was in NY for a sec. Cybéle was more sophisticated and directional but the styling was weird. I didn’t like the shoes. I met Brit Bardo (her real name for real), a celebrity stylist at the “Fashion Plate” restaurant. She does everyone from Cameron D., Kate Hud to the Olsens. Incidentally Brit was wearing a black tank top from The Row’s last collection. We sort of bonded over how much we love The Row. She told me that one day a box of Row stuff just showed up at her door and she had no idea what it was. I was sort of jealous. We sat together at Sera Lilly & Love-Lies-Bleeding. The LLB makeup was very Amy Winehouse if she was into sparkles.

Kitty, my host, is the best helper ever! She’s so on top of it and takes care of my lost soul and my tired ass. If it weren’t for her I’d be sleeping through most of this. She took me to a little Japanese joint called Sushi Train (one of those conveyor belt situations) for dinner. Sushi’s got to be the most popular food in Auckland. It is literally everywhere you look. After a little fishy din-din we went back to the tents for Nom*D where I sat next to TOAC, The Other Asian Carol. We finally broke the ice. Everyone was talking about Nom*D so the anticipation level was high. The show itself was a shred fest of Mad Max, Rick Owen and Comme des Garçons but not in a way you’ve never seen before. All the models were wearing Doc Martens and I thought of the Bunny Report we ran a while ago.

Oh, I finally discovered the VIP Lounge. It’s my new favorite place. The view from up there is gorgeous and waiters come around and serve you champagne and little noshings. It’s another cherry on top on a pile of many delicious cherries on this trip. NZ native and former supermodel/ex-Mrs. Rod Stewart Rachel Hunter was there strutting her thang in a body-hugging, mini, sequined, black tank jersey dress and white fur which dangled over her arm. Rachel is the celeb designer du jour -- her line Lola will be showing this Thursday. I’m going to try to get an interview with her. I’ll let ya know what happens!

Above: designs from the Nom*D collection