Stretton's ode to erotica at Fashion Week

Last updated 18:12 22/09/2009

JOHN SELKIRK/Dominion Post

GOLDEN TOUCH: Annah Stretton pays tribute to a New Zealand erotica legend in Freda Stark with gold painted models in her New Zealand Fashion Week show.

JOHN SELKIRK/Dominion Post

SHOWING JOINTLY: Juliette Hogan put on a joint show with Twenty-seven names at Fashion Week.

JOHN SELKIRK/Dominion Post

DOUBLE UP: Trelise Cooper, who was judging the Couture Challenge with Fashion Week's Pieter Stewart, had to race home and change because TVNZ's Michiko Hughes was wearing the same dress.

JOHN SELKIRK/Dominion Post

FEMININE AND DRAMATIC: A model wears an outfit from Cybele's Winter 2010 collection.

Lonely Hearts at NZ Fashion Week

New Zealand Fashion Week 2009

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JOHN SELKIRK/Dominion Post Zoom

PERFECT PAIR: Richie Rich and Pamela Anderson take to the runway at the end of their A*Muse show at New Zealand Fashion Week.

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Waikato fashion designer Annah Stretton is no stranger to controversy.

For her winter 2010 collection she transported the audience back to the mid-20th century in an ode to legendary Kiwi exotic dancer Freda Stark. Previously Stretton has sent everything from fa'afafines to taxidermised boars' heads down the runway.

In the prelude to the show, ushers gave out icecreams to the audience before Stretton sent models with tousled hair and come-to-bed eyes down the catwalk.

Her collection featured lingerie as outerwear, diaphanous tea dresses and figure hugging pencil skirts.

For the finale she sent models down the runway wearing little more than gold body paint, a trademark of Stark when she entertained New Zealand and American troops at Auckland's Wintergarden cabaret and nightclub during World War II.

JOINT SHOWS A HIT

Juliette Hogan and Twenty-seven names put on a joint show at this year’s Fashion Week to cut costs.

Hogan’s collection was ladylike and demure with a twist.

Twenty-seven names took John Lennon and Yoko Ono as the inspiration for their range.

But the oversized shirts and fitted jackets the label is known for were also still a big part of the range.

The Sable and Minx Winter 2010 collection earlier showed a very pretty feminine collection featuring a palette of lilacs, pale blues and sage green.

The first show of New Zealand Fashion Week was always going to be a big draw.

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Cybele Wiren sent elfin models down the catwalk in fluid, beautifully draped clothes, in a palette of inky blues and nudes.

For Winter 2010, Wiren said she found her inspiration from the formality of the Victorian era and the sculptural qualities of flowers and insects.

Standout pieces from the collection included skirts and dresses which were panelled and fluted to resemble the petals of a lily.

The lily was also strongly evident in prints – a navy silk mini-dress is bound to be a bestseller for the designer.