Fashion shows from SoLily, Peace Couture and k.hendrix coming up

Tampa Bay Fashion Week has passed us by, but that doesn't mean the well is dry. Hey, we're  poets and we didn't even know it!

Uh, that was enough cliche action to last a lifetime (and a couple more for the road in this sentence). Anyway, a few fashion events are happening around town in the next couple weeks we want to let you know about.

This Saturday, you can catch the SoLily Fashion Show & Glitterama at PUSH Ultra Lounge, 128 3rd St. S in downtown St. Pete. Anything with the word "glitterama" in the name sounds like it has potential. It's the debut of the first line from SoLily, from the local design duo Lisa Alban Nicks and Holley Sinn, host of Studio 10. The friends have a "sparkle hippie" aesthetic. You can check out their collection here. The event is from 7-10 p.m. at the club. Tickets are $5 online and $10 at the door. Be sure to print out your purchase confirmation, which is your ticket. The first 100 guests will get swag bags. Proceeds benefit Feeding Children Everywhere.

On Nov. 9, check out Peace Couture at the Italian Club of Tampa, 1731 E. 7th Ave. in Ybor City. Peace Couture is an art, music and fashion show that benefits the Spring of Tampa Bay, a domestic violence shelter.  You'll see fashions from House of Donshey, Sandra Hagen, Spathose, La France, Wicked Betty and the Spring Boutique, plus art from Danny Olda and music from Zulu Wave and Guiltmaker. Tickets are $50 for individual tickets (or $150 for four) and $75 for VIP with a gift bag and a reserved seat. Sponsorships are available from $500-$5,000. Register online.

Finally, check out the Kravitz+Hendrix launch party at 6 p.m. Nov. 15 at the k.hendrix showroom, 531 Central Ave. in downtown St. Petersburg. Kravitz+Hendrix is a collaboration between sports agent and entertainment attorney Ed Kravitz and fashion designer Kimberly Hendrix. They're getting together to launch a new talent management agency for athletes, models and artists, helping local folks in the fashion industry advance their careers. Two nights later on Nov. 17, Hendrix will be showing her new holiday fashion line at Chillounge in St. Petersburg's Straub Park. Doors open at 6 p.m. Admission is $25 in advance and $35 at the gate. A limited number of VIP tickets will be available for $80.

European fashion buyers look to Nigeria for something fresh at Lagos fashion week

 A model struts the runway wearing a flowing newspaper print gown in this African megacity where international high-end fashion buyers are looking beyond the country's bleak headlines to uncover the next new thing.

There have been steady efforts to turn Lagos, a city with a fearsome reputation, into a fashion destination. They reached new heights at the MTN Lagos Fashion & Design Week that ran from Oct. 24 to 27 and drew European high-fashion brands such as the United Kingdom's Selfridges & Co. and Munich-based MyTheresa.com to Nigeria for the first time.

Ituen Basi's newspaper inspired Spring/Summer 2013 collection was among 39 collections spotlighted at the city's latest major fashion week. The Nigerian's collection evoked fun and glamour through its use of print and colour — characteristics which have come to define the vibrant local fashion scene.
With local brands seeking wider platforms and international retailers hungry for novelty, designers and buyers see opportunities for collaboration.

"There's something about the fresh, the unknown, the possibility of seeing a new brand springing forth into the limelight. ... These are becoming interesting to people outside Nigeria," said Omoyemi Akerele, the fashion week's founder and creative director.

An encouraging response to African-inspired designs by top Western labels gives buyers confidence that designs straight from the continent will also sell.

"Over the past few seasons, there's been a strong trend for print," said Bruno Barba, the brand public relations manager at Selfridges. "If you look at the collection of Burberry inspired by Africa last year; there was also Vivienne Westwood, Paul Smith. ... They've made that inspiration quite mainstream now. So, for us, it was interesting to take that trend and take it from its roots in Africa."

Online retailer MyTheresa.com, which ships top designers' clothes including Miu Miu, Givenchy, Lanvin and Isabel Meron to clients in 120 different countries, is also looking for products in Nigeria that will sell well. The company hopes that will set it apart from the competition in a fast-paced industry.

"For me, Nigeria represents a fun individualism," the company's buying director Justin O'Shea said. He also said that MyTheresa.com was looking to work closely with designers and adapt products for their clientele if needed.

Previously, several Nigerian designers have helped put the West African nation on the global fashion map.
Deola Sagoe has gained recognition from U.S. Vogue editor Andre Leon Talley and Oprah Winfrey. London-based Duro Olowu is considered one of Michelle Obama's favourite designers. Maki Oh has dressed American singer Solange Knowles and Hollywood actress Leelee Sobieski from her Lagos workshop. Jewel By Lisa, who has also dressed celebrities, designed limited edition BlackBerry mobile phone skins and jeweled cases for Canadian manufacturer Research In Motion Ltd.

While looking to Nigeria could bring much-needed novelty to clothes targeted to Western audiences, it could also endear a Nigerian clientele. Though the majority of the nation lives on less than $2 a day, the nation's wealthy elite — including upstart business owners, oil industry executives and corrupt politicians — have a growing appetite for top-shelf brands. Luxury goods stores are increasingly opening in a country where seemingly gratuitous displays of wealth are the norm.

"Nigerians are part of our Top 10 highest-spending foreign customers," Barba said. "It felt right for us to try and find a response that would appeal to them, excite them and be over and above what they already buy, almost as a recognition that they're an important part of our consumer base."

NE.TIGER 2013 Haute Couture Fashion Show

NE.TIGER opened China International Fashion Week in style. A host of celebrities and prominent figures from the fashion industry followed NE.TIGER's roar, and gathered in Beijing Hotel's famous Banquet Hall to see China's premier luxury brand opening the China Fashion Week for the 12th time in a row. The theme of the new 2013 Spring-Summer collection is HUA SONG, which underlines the brands ethos of "bringing antiquity to the present and merging Chinese and Western styles" handsomely. For all we know about the Song Dynasty's style, we can sum it up in 2 words, elegant and sophisticated. Elegant in a noble way while showing their sophistication through clean and tidy dresses that are simple and not pretentious. All this in an ingenious partnership with 2013 fashion trends featuring light, transparent and pastel colours that sent the audience on a visual journey, carried away to the tunes of ancient Chinese instruments. A connotation of not just East and West but modern technology and ancient/present day cultural diversity.

A total of 39 spectacular dresses emerged from the shadows accompanied by Song Huizong's famous masterpiece "Ting Qin Tu". At some stage one might feel dazzled by light. But there were no stars, no real ones at least. SWAROVSKI sent the finest crystals to add a Western touch to the breathtaking display of Chinese tapestry, embroidery, brocade, fusion of colours and bronze printings. Culture is deeply enrooted in a brand and only if you tend the roots, can a tree can grow.

Since its founding days in 1982, NE.TIGER has been nourished and inspired by Chinese tradition and culture but has never forgotten to also look ahead. NE.TIGER sees it as their mission to lead Chinese Haute Couture to the 21st century.

However, to see this show as a simple salute to the Song Dynasty and its culture and customs, would be mistaken. First and foremost NE.TIGER wants to exercise gratitude and appreciation of traditional Chinese customs and values.

During the afternoon, NE.TIGER held a Forum in the Hotel. Four famous Chinese Scholars, Li Dangqi, Wang Shouchang, Yu Ximan and Lu Xiao, were invited to be speakers. The discussion was about the renaissance and innovation of national clothing.

NE.TIGER will keep up their hard work to establish themselves as China's foremost national clothing company, while at the same time, preserving its inheritance and further developing it so as to incorporate old into new.

Eventually establishing Chinese fashion, amongst Western fashion, as a global player. NE.TIGER wants to represent a new, young and stylish China that is aware of its heritage and ready to emerge into something new.

Let us conclude with NE.TIGER's founder, Mr.Zhang Zhifeng, own words: " To people of the Southern Song Dynasty, the love for flowers was more than simple admiration of their beauty, but a symbol to embrace life itself. It's beauty and richness, simplicity, nature and openness to the world."

N.C. Museum of Art develops online fashion course for students

N.C. Museum of Art develops online fashion course for students

When Raleigh fashion designer Stephanie Sevilla saw the Anselm Keefer piece hanging in the N.C. Museum of Art’s West Building, it felt familiar. “It has a heavy, yet complex vibe to it,” she said.

Keefer’s untitled work – made of oil, acrylic, emulsion, shellac, lead, charcoal and straw on a photograph, then mounted on a canvas with stones, lead and steel cable – is described as a “vast, cosmic mystery … a scarred landscape.”

Which, in Sevilla’s view, made it a perfect complement to her fall collection of mostly sleek black pieces in silk, wool, linen, jersey and leather, evocative of the danger and mystery of a femme fatale.


“They share a feel and a mood,” Sevilla said. “I like strong contrasts. And texture you can appreciate close up and far away.”

The notion Sevilla expressed – that fashion is art and that art can inspire fashion – was the reason she and fellow local designers Zac Schell, Anthony Wilson and Marissa Heyl had gathered on a recent Friday evening at N.C.M.A. along with museum educators, fashion experts and professionals, art teachers and students. The museum and the N.C. Virtual Public School are collaborating on a creative arts curriculum for the state’s public high school students, in this case, creating a course called “The Art of Fashion,” which aims to launch next fall.

It’s another way the museum hopes to make art, and the N.C.M.A., relevant to young people.

“We’re trying to provide multiple entry points to our works. This isn’t just a museum, it’s a performing arts center, a park,” said Michelle Harrell, coordinator of teen and college programs at the N.C.M.A.

To date about 300 students across the state are taking virtual courses shaped by the museum and Virtual Public School, including ones focusing on the art of photography and the art of game design. The virtual classes are electives with course credit.

“We think fashion will be widely popular,” Harrell said.

To develop a course, a think tank of subject-area experts brainstorms concepts and content – a process that takes six months. The fashion think tank includes Uvo bag designer Gigi Karmous-Edwards and Cynthia Istook, a professor in the N.C. State College of Textiles, founders of Fashion Worx, a nonprofit incubator aiming to help members of the state’s fashion community.

“We’re all about education,” Karmous-Edwards said. “Our whole concept is growing the fashion industry in North Carolina. The more we can educate and get people excited, the more people we get going to schools like N.C. State’s College of Textiles and do something fashion-related.”

Fashion Worx used its ties to local designers to pull in Wilson, Sevilla, Heyl and Schell to show some of their pieces, especially for the recent think tank gathering, and the art that inspired them. Schell showed a fitted leather chain-mail dress as he stood before artist El Anatsui’s “Lines That Link Humanity,” made of discarded aluminum and copper wire. Heyl’s three looks from her fair trade Symbology Clothing line, which features textiles inspired by Indian prints, was paired with the colorful “Raqqa II,” by Frank Stella. Anthony Wilson’s elegant draped dresses matched the feel of “Pi,” by Morris Louis.

And indeed, the inspiration helped. Although originally the models were set up as pieces of art to remain untouched, fashion’s strong tactile pull prevailed. The designers invited guests to feel the fabrics. That gave the think-tankers something to consider: How do you bridge that gap in this different facet of art education?

“I think we’re at the point of what are the possibilities,” Harrell said. “Bringing in local designers might be that tactile element we’re missing.”

In any case, the show and the course are just the beginning of the museum’s look at fashion as art, Harrell said. She hints at a blockbuster fashion event in 2014.

“There’s so many natural connections between art and fashion. I love that we’re pushing to limits of what is art and what should be in a museum. It’s exciting for the museum to be part of that conversation.”

'Fashion police' Twitter account called online bullying

A controversial Twitter account allegedly run by University of Windsor students and described by police as "bullying" has been deleted.

An anonymous "fashion police" Twitter account, with the handle @uWinFashionPoli, was for months tweeting photos and snarky comments critical of what university students were wearing on campus.

“How do we feel about this girl's glitter backpack? Is it obnoxious or flawless?” the fashion police ask in one tweet found stored on TOPSY, a company that stores and provides analyses of hundreds of billions of tweets.

“We didn't know green pastel tweed was supposed to be in this season. #uwinfashionpoli #uwinfashionproblems,” reads another tweet.

Whoever ran the account encouraged fellow students to send their own photos and comments.
Lately, several students took to Twitter denouncing the fashion police account, which began in the summer and shut down sometime on the weekend.

Laura Nicola, a fourth-year philosophy student, was one of them.
"Lead by example! Where are your outfits? Afraid of being treated the same as you treat others?" Nicola tweeted last week.

Nicola called the account "immature."
"It’s very disturbing to think people judge you based on your outfit rather than who you are," she told CBC News. "It was typical of high school, rather than university."
Nicola wasn't alone in her public scolding of the anonymous tweeter.

“It's always easier to judge people and make rude comments about them anonymously,” tweeted user Ruth U. who goes by the handle @Mumbleduck.

Some Twitter users who claimed to be students were uneasy at the thought they might be photographed on campus and then posted online for anyone to see.

“Who made you the experts? Stop being so creepy and taking people's photos without their permission,” tweeted user Amy Chan who goes by the handle @AmyGleeson2.

"That was one of the things I really criticized. I don’t think it’s fair to take your picture and post it online," Nicola said. "In a world where technology is so well developed, it’s hard to expect people to respect your privacy."

Windsor police Sgt. Steve Lamarche said the fashion police account “is definitely bullying.”
As part of the community services branch, Lamarche works with elementary and high school students. The branch highlights bullying and cyberbullying.

"Cyberbullying is anything that uses newer communications or Facebook or Twitter [and] narrows in on one individual or group and allows others to gang up and demean them," Lamarche said.

He said the fashion police account fit the mould of cyberbullying. It targeted a specific group and posted photos in which people could be identified by their clothes or location.

"The whole problem with cyberbullying is that you can be anonymous," Lamarche said. "There are things you say online that you wouldn't say in front of their face."

Waterfront Fashion Week Night Three [Fashion]

The third night of Waterfront Fashion Week brought punk rock and romance to the runway, along with minimalist styles and dreams of paradise. The night's event kicked off with boutique shows from Boutique Serendipity, Rodes and Sara Simpson.

Boutique Serendipity heavily featured minimalist swaths of black, white and camel, accented with the occasional eye-catching color. The standout for me from the boutique was a teal faux fur caplet by Cartise, draped over a Google Nexus-inspired multi-print dress by Ted Baker.

Rodes split up their set to feature their wares for men and women, beginning with a small selection of menswear from Scott Barber, Georgroth, Hilti and Z Zenga. My pick from this opening act is the red/black shirt by Georgroth, paired with a charcoal jean by Z Zenga. From the headliner came pieces from the likes of Herve Leger, Ali Ro and Halston Heritage, while the set closed with an encore from the men wearing looks by Samuelsohn, Etro and Hart Schaffner & Marx.

Finally, jeweler Sara Simpson sent several selections down the runway, including a necklace composed of red coral sticks, black onyx and pavé crystal beads, an early 20th century brass sash pin, and a vintage piece composed of gold cotton pearls with gold filled ruffles, all accented with red and royal blue faceted glass.

After intermission came the makeover winners, each of whom received services from Z Salon & Spa as well as inclusion in this night’s festivities. This was then followed by the final two Emerging Designer nominees, beginning with the punk-influenced looks of Damian Michael Pearsall, whose cereal-box dress was the centerpiece of his collection. On the other end, Elizabeth Turner’s softer art – including a number of swimwear pieces – had many in the audience dreaming of spring and summer of 2013.

Featured designer Jules Reid of Va. took the audience through dreamland with her resort/holiday styles, ranging from sleepwear that could be worn outside on the beach, to dresses inspired by India’s artistic motifs.

Cincinnati, Ohio-based featured designer Lindsey Lusignolo closed the third night of Waterfront Fashion Week 2012 with bridal and evening pieces, including one bridal gown that would not look out of place at the Louisville Ballet.

Friday night was a decent showing for Louisville’s first-ever fashion week. Did the final shows Saturday night send off the affair in a blaze of glory, or in a more subdued mood? You shall soon find out. Until then, view the slideshow below to see what you missed from the third night.

Fashion Eyewear Launches Their New and Improved, User Friendly Website

Online designer eyewear retailer, Fashion Eyewear, has taken their customer feedback on board and upgraded their website. Here are some of the changes the company has made to improve user-ability:

Designer Frames
On this page the extensive list of luxury eyewear brands are clearly set out in alphabetical order. Users can easily search for the brands they're looking for by hovering over the arrow or tabs to view the brands. Fashion Eyewear has also added more lens options enabling prescription wearers to select the best lens materials, tints, lens coatings as well as select frame sizes.

Designer Sunglasses
Use the special filter tools to find designer sunglasses online. Potential consumers can sort eyewear models by price, frame colour, manufacturer, and even frame shape. For keen bargain hunters, use the price filter tool to find models. Around 60% of the company's existing customers love Ray Ban sunglasses so the company has dedicated drop-down tabs for people who are specifically searching for Ray Ban Wayfarer and Ray Ban Aviator sunglasses only.

Prescription Sunglasses
For people who are looking for prescription sunglasses online, take advantage of customizing your prescription sunglass lenses. Whether the desired lens is fully tinted and grey or graduated and brown, the choice is completely up to the user. There's also additional boxes where one can add in the prescription reading, saving time and money.

Help & Info
For any common questions, take a look at the 'Help & Info' page. Here, the company lists their most frequently asked questions (FAQ's). To search for frequently asked questions, simply click on the given links i.e. delivery, about products and services, etc to be directed to the correct section of the page. If there is a query that has not been answered, simply contact the company via email, telephone or Live Chat.

N.Y. stylist Field pushes Korean fashion

Famous fashion stylist Patricia Field, who served as a costume designer for "Sex and the City" and "The Devil Wears Prada," hosted a Korean fashion event last Thursday in New York.

The celebrated stylist attracted more than 200 people in the fashion industry to the event titled "K-fashion Sensation" held at Dream Hotel, a modern luxury hotel in Manhattan, and introduced Korean fashion brands by having models wear clothes designed by Korean brands such as Buckaroo and Morine Comte Marant.
The event drew buyers from major U.S. department stores including Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Bergdorf Goodman and fashion reporters from Fox TV, NBC, Elle and Vogue.

The event was organized by the Korea Fashion Association, which asked Field to take charge of the event, from selecting local brands and clothes that would be worn by models in the planning stage to hosting the event to utilize her influence in the fashion industry in New York.

Field chose two out of several local Korean brands and chose clothes that would work well with New Yorkers. She also asked 50 famous people in New York's fashion industry to wear clothes of her choice to the event.

James Van Der Beek and Krysten Ritter Star in Fashion Photoshoot at FIDM for Los Angeles Magazine

Los Angeles Magazine chose the award-winning interior of FIDM/Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising for a fashion shoot with the stars of ABCs Don’t Trust The B---- in Apt 23, James Van Der Beek and Krysten Ritter.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) October 13, 2012
When the editors of Los Angeles magazine decided to create a fall fashion layout entitled “Power Plays,” they came up with the idea of a modern take on the 1940s classic His Girl Friday, which features a fast talking female reporter who gets things done. The stars of ABCs Don’t Trust The B---- in Apt 23, James Van Der Beek and Krysten Ritter, starred in the photo shoot and online feature with FIDM/Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising’s Downtown Los Angeles campus as a backdrop.

“We decided to do the shoot at FIDM because we found these amazing spaces designed by [architect] Clive Wilkinson,” said photo editor Amy Feitelberg. They shot the actors in the fashion college’s classrooms, design studios, and computer labs. Along with the photography team of Sara Hirakawa and Mark Williams, the magazine staff wanted to create cinematic scenes that would show off the power suits and dresses for women along with telling a story of female empowerment.

In the workplace-inspired shoot, Krysten wears fall 2012 looks from Lanvin, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, and Donna Karan, while James dons Ermenegildo Zegna and Prada suits. “Both Krysten and James did an amazing job playing out their parts,” said Hirakawa, who wanted the men in the photos to look slightly scared of Krysten’s character. A behind the scenes video of the photoshoot is featured on Los Angeles’ website.

FIDM/Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising is the West Coast’s premiere fashion college dedicated to educating students for the Fashion, Graphics, Interior Design, and Entertainment industries. Known as a one of the top fashion design schools, FIDM is also a leading graphic design school and interior design school.

WA fashion designer Ruth Tarvydas quits Perth as company flounders

The WA designer, who rose to success after Rebecca Judd wore her red dress to the 2004 Brownlow Medal ceremony, said yesterday that “astronomical and unsustainable” rents, along with the “retail slump” were to blame.

Today she told radio station 92.9 that she stopped receiving support from her bank and the time was right to move out of Perth - for now.

"It's like leaving a bad lover, it's always for the best," Tarvydas told the radio station.

"At this stage, with my experience, you recognise when the time is right and we can't go on in King Street the way rents are.

"I'm a major believer in going forward in the future with Perth City ... we might come back into the city one day.

"The demand for the brand is incredibly strong around Australia. Unfortunately it's just the way things are, the landlords don't seem to recognise there's a retail slump.

"I've sold my house, I'm selling my car because I love my creditors (but) when the bank stops supporting you, and unfortunately that was the situation, and the rent is too high you just have to know the best time to exit before things get worse.

In a statement released yesterday, Tarvydas said the company would appoint an administrator to “look after” creditors and “maintain business relations” with any owed parties.

“The inner-city road works (whilst necessary for the City of Perth in the long term) make it difficult for potential clients to reach our destination,” the designer said.

She will continue to produce rolling collections but will focus on local and international wholesale, as well as the global USA venture.

Tarvydas joins a range of iconic retailers, including Wasteland and Subway DC, which have all closed up shop in the last month - blaming high rents and construction in the inner city.

Periscope also closed its King St store and moved to William Street because of high rent.

Pierucci executive designer Roberto Pierucci also shut his doors with rents too high to stay in Perth and road works destroying business.

The Tarvydas store will shut its doors for the final time next week.

Updated: Former M&S fashion boss Kate Bostock joins Asos

Kate Bostock, former Marks & Spencer fashion boss, is to join the board of etail powerhouse Asos.

Asos confirmed this morning that Bostock will join in January as executive director, product and trading.

She was previously executive director, general merchandise, at M&S, and has also previously held senior roles at George at Asda and Next.

The appointment comes almost a year after speculation first emerged that she would join Asos, and follows her departure from M&S at the start of this month.

Bostock, 55, joins Asos as product director Robert Bready exits the business to “pursue fresh challenges”. In July, Asos denied Bready was set to leave the business after selling 143,125 shares for £2.6m. He has been at the retailer for seven years.

Speculation surrounding Bostock’s new role began in November last year but died down before reigniting in July.

Asos chief executive Nick Robertson said: “Our product and trading team now exceeds 350 people. We are fortunate to have Kate bring us her wealth of experience from some of the biggest names in retailing as we strengthen our retail disciplines and put in place the structures needed to manage the next phase of our growth.”

Bostock said: “Asos is a phenomenon and I’m in awe of the story. With its unique mix of own label and fashion-forward brands delivered online and increasingly through mobile, the potential for Asos globally is huge. I’m very excited to be joining at such a time of immense opportunity.”

In her time at M&S Bostock drove a more fashion-led offer across the retailer’s labels as well as sharpening up navigation of the sub-brands which include Autograph, Limited and Blue Harbour. Despite the bulk of her experience lying in clothing, she made great strides in improving the non-fashion offer, recognising the opportunities open to the retailer.

She was also in the running for the chief executive role before it went to Marc Bolland in 2010.

Dunedin students to show at Shanghai Fashion Week

Dunedin students to show at Shanghai Fashion Week Will also undertake a collaborative project with Shanghai fashion students

Six Fashion Design students from Otago Polytechnic have been selected to show at the prestigious Shanghai Fashion Week in China on Monday 22 October. The annual event attracts top designers, media and buyers from all over the world.

Third-year Bachelor of Design (Fashion) students Hortense Rothery, Carolyn Taylor, Olivia Bloxham, Rakel Blomsberg, Sam Ralph and Soohee Moon will showcase garments from their final year collections.

The School of Design’s Fashion department was invited to select students to participate in Shanghai Fashion Week by the International Fashion Academy (IFA) Paris, based in Shanghai. The only stipulation was that each contribution had to be inspired by the theme, ‘green’.

"Each of the students has interpreted the green theme slightly differently, which means there’s a sense of collective diversity among our contributions," explains Otago Polytechnic’s Academic Leader - Fashion, Margo Barton, who is one of three staff members accompanying the students on the trip.

"Green is represented as a colour in one collection, while it reflects nature and growth in another. Being fresh and new is another interpretation, and of course the concept of sustainability is represented as well."

While in Shanghai, the students will also embark on a cultural collaboration with fashion students from the IFA (Paris) Shanghai campus.

The Dunedin students’ outfits will be worn by models and photographed in some of Shanghai’s most interesting and iconic locales. IFA Paris students will be coming to Dunedin in November to show as part of Otago Polytechnic’s end-of-year fashion show, Collections 12. During this time, their garments will be worn and photographed around Dunedin, and the images from the sister cities will be compiled into a book. The project will also form the basis of an academic paper.

"We have a great partnership with IFA Paris in Shanghai, which opens doors for our respective students and staff to explore different cultural outlooks," says Margo Barton. "This collaboration is an exciting one which has considerable scope from both academic and fashion perspectives."

One of the participating students, Sam Ralph, says the trip presents some fantastic opportunities.

"This is such an exciting adventure for us. Shanghai Fashion Week is an amazing platform for exposure for a young designer. It’ll be a lot of fun, a lot of hard work, and absolutely worth it."

Sam is also looking forward to the photography project. "The resulting images will be so valuable for our portfolios. Some of the other designers are planning to shoot their garments amongst Shanghai cityscapes, and I’m hoping to find a setting with traditional Chinese buildings and gardens."

The Otago Polytechnic designers leave Dunedin for Shanghai on Monday 15 October, returning on Wednesday 24 October.

Dunedin audiences will be able to see the graduating Fashion students’ collections on the catwalk at Otago Polytechnic’s end-of-year fashion show, Collections 12, to be held on Friday 16 November. IFA Paris (Shanghai) students will also feature in the show.

Winter Pastels Fashion Trend

Sleek, chic and minimal, from collarless coats to dresses with clean lines, Jil Sander toughened up prim pieces and pastel shades with an array of clean cuts.

Follow suit and give the fiercely feminine trend a modern edge with pared-down pieces. Look out for buttonless coats, hidden zippers and seamless tops.

With winter fast approaching, now’s the time to be thinking about investing in a coat but with a flurry of pastel cover-ups hitting the high street, there’s no need to stick to black this season.

With its powder blue shade and oversized fit, Reiss’ jacket will keep you warm and stylish all winter. Team it with neutrals; try a white shirt and pale grey office trousers to give your work wardrobe an on-trend finish.

With its structured shape, Paul Smith’s zip bag makes a great new-season alternative to an oversized clutch.

The perfect way to give a cocktail dress a colour pop twist or to lend skinny jeans and a Breton top an edge, with its buttery soft, pastel leather this versatile piece is worth investing in.

If your eveningwear is in need of an update, there’s no need to reach for a little black dress; a pastel frock makes a stylish, seasonal alternative.

With delicate appliqué detailing on each shoulder, a crew neck cut and gently draped skirt, Zara’s dress will flatter any figure.

For easy styling, slip on a pair of peep toe shoes, add chandelier earrings and belt it to whittle your waist.

If you can’t be parted from your ballet pumps update your look for autumn with Bloch’s luxury leather flats.

Available in countless colours, we’ll be investing in this pastel lilac pair. Team with skinny jeans and a classic t-shirt for easy weekendwear or trade in your trainers during your walk to work.

Mixing mint separates with patent leather, sports luxe trainers and the odd flash of neon; Acne’s autumn winter 2012 show proved that pastels don’t have to be sugary sweet this winter.

With cocoon coats and loose trousers the shapes of the show, follow suit and pick up boyfriend style pieces on the high street paying close attention to textures, fabrics and fit.

Winter’s chill calls for cosy knits. Affordable and cut from 100% cashmere, from lilac to lemon shades, Uniqlo’s range of pastel sweaters stylishly tick the box.

A forever piece, slip this pale pink jumper over a white shirt buttoned up to the top to give your skinny jeans a preppy spin or under your high street winter coat to subtly nod to the winter pastels fashion trend.

If you’re colour-shy and usually stick to neutral shades, why not tie up the winter pastels fashion trend with Black and Brown’s lilac belt?

Used to cinch a shift dress, or to belt chinos or skinny jeans, crafted from aged leather with a brass buckle, it’ll subtly add a new season feel to a myriad of wardrobe basics.

From chunky bangles to chandelier earrings, with the high street teeming with pastel coloured accessories, there’s no need to work the look head to toe.

A go-to for on-trend pieces, H&M’s pastel stone necklace has been broken up with black and grey beads making it the perfect way to give a classic t-shirt or white shirt a fashion-forward finish.

A perennial wardrobe staple at Red HQ, coloured jeans look set to stay this season.

Updating its skinny denim design in a pale periwinkle hue, teamed with a high street cashmere jumper and studded smoking slippers, Juicy Couture’s jeans are an effortless way to work pastels into your weekend wardrobe.

For an easy way to trial the trend, hit the high street and replenish your wardrobe with pastel accessories. With its colour block finish and gold trim, New Look’s envelope clutch looks more expensive than its modest price tag.

Team it with a black cocktail dress or white shirt, skinny jeans and high heels for easy evening style.