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Fashion Week’s new kids

The countdown is on with New Zealand Fashion Week less than two weeks away.

Wellington fashion label Two Wonders has only been going eight months, but its designers Sophea Son, 28, and Sophie Knapp, 23, have grabbed the opportunity to follow their dream of showing at Fashion Week after being accepted into the New Generation show.

Since their selection they have been busy designing and attending Fashion Week boot camp in Auckland, schooling up on everything from model casting to media interviews.

The pair is also preparing to show at Cambodia Fashion Week, after accepting an invitation to take part in the inaugural event in Phnom Penh in October. Son has a close affiliation with Cambodia – her parents came to New Zealand as Cambodian refugees. She and Knapp have travelled to Cambodia many times and are members of the Cambodian Fashion Council.

The winter 2012 collection they will be presenting at New Zealand Fashion Week is inspired by Cambodia. “It’s got an antique feel but with a modern twist and lots of rich silks in bold colours,” says Son.

“It’s very different from New Zealand black,” says Knapp. “Two Wonders is all about exploring new things. We don’t want to follow trends, we want to make new ones.” While their decision to “jump in and do Fashion Week” could seem premature, Son and Knapp have several years’ experience to offer the label.

Son has designed and produced her label Zsabhai (the Cambodian word for happiness) for the past four years, which she sells from her Wellington store Coco.

The pair, who are now “best buddies”, met at the store when Knapp was a student and on a tight budget but still buying expensive Zimmermann dresses. She has finished her studies in Creative Technologies and is now manager of the store, and during the past five years the women have attended New Zealand and Australian Fashion Weeks as buyers.

Knapp “has always been a sucker for beautiful clothes”, and while Son doesn’t have formal training in fashion design, she has been sewing since age 10.

They’ve been described as “two wonders” by Son’s husband because of their insatiable energy and enthusiasm, and this is one of the reasons behind their label’s name. The other references Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, often described as the second wonder of the world.

Why are they doing NZFW now, why not wait until next year when the label has become more established?

“We’re both free and have time now. Sophie has finished her studies and my daughter Chloe is now a year old,” says Son.

MisteR designers, husband and wife team, Ra Thomson, 29, and Mickey Lin, 35, moved to Christchurch 18 months after starting up their label to be near family and nurture their fledging brand. Since then, MisteR has survived more knocks than most. Its Wellington stockist closed its store on the eve of the September quake, and then came the February quake and the loss of their Christchurch store, but Thomson and Lin remain upbeat. Their winter 2012 collection, Not So Grim, will be presented at Fashion Week.

It’s partly inspired by “dark nasty” Grimm Brothers fairytales, and also by MisteR’s first time at Fashion Week. “It’s a nice ending to a crazy 12 months, so it’s not so grim after all,” Thomson says.

That and their summer collection, Shoebox Diorama, which will soon be with stockists, have been designed and produced from their garage. They had to abandon the workroom, which was in the red zone, and it wasn’t until May that they gained access to their machinery, computers and cellphones.

At the time of the quake the couple had driven to New Brighton for lunch. The suburb badly affected by liquefaction, their car drove into a sink hole and broke an axle. They walked through knee-deep muddy water to Thomson’s grandparents place, which, luckily, was unaffected.

The pair are sponsored by Christchurch Polytechnic, where they met and both studied fashion design before moving to Wellington, where Thomson worked for House for Hank for many years, and Lin for Robyn Mathieson.

Fashion Week will also see the official launch of MisteR’s new womenswear line, which stays true to the tailored aesthetic of its menswear side. All garments are made in New Zealand.

Lin is rapt to be finally designing clothes for herself. “I’ve been jealous of Ra having new clothes every year.”

Designer Deryn Schmidt was Andrea Moore’s production manager when that label was produced in Wellington. When the business shifted to Auckland, Schmidt stayed put, and 18 months ago launched her own fashion business under the Deryn Schmidt label.

Originally from Dannevirke, Schmidt trained in fashion design at Wanganui Polytechnic. She worked for Robyn Mathieson for three years before moving to London.

There she worked for Karen Millen and chain store fashion brand Pineapple. At Karen Millen she was a sealer, responsible for checking the sample is perfect before being sent to the manufacturer to be duplicated. At Pineapple she learned the art of cutting the perfect pair of trousers from “a very grumpy English lady”.

“Now I say she was amazing,” says Schmidt, who in the short history of her brand has already gained a reputation for her pants.

“Getting that perfect fit is really important and trousers are the hardest pattern to tackle.”

On her return from London, she worked for Helen Cherry and Workshop. Despite being in business only 18 months, Schmidt, who is showing as part of the New Generation show at Fashion Week, says she didn’t want to wait another year.

“It’s now or miss the boat. It’s the next step.

“Our dream is to export but we’re taking baby steps,” she says.

Her grandmother Beth Paris has been a big inspiration for Schmidt, who was making patchwork cushions at age eight.

“School was all about sewing for me. I went to school to eat my lunch and go to clothing class.”

She has called her high fashion womenswear 2012 winter collection Joy of Life.

Inspired by post-war 40s, it has a French influence and Schmidt describes it as classic, with an edge.

“It’s [about] keeping those classic lines and getting hem lengths right, so that any generation can wear it and feel comfortable in it,” she says.

New Zealand Fashion Week is on fromAugust 29 to September 2.

Deryn Schmidt and Two Wonders will be on the catwalk as part of The New Generation show on September 1.

MisteR’s show will be presented on September 1, after the New Generation show.

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