Inspiration behind summer designs

By CAROLYN ENTING - The Dominion Post

Seven of Wellington's leading designers reveal the inspiration behind their summer collections, and their hottest looks.

1 - Robyn Mathieson

Summer range name: Carousel.

Inspiration: Vintage hues including bright blue, cherry-pie red and carnival prints that reflect the ornate carousel on Brighton's seaside pier. Thoughts of candy floss, liquorice and marzipan influence the shape of sweet cotton skirts and holiday frocks in silk, cotton and linen. Garments and colours are named in theme Trapeze, Carousel, Lemon Drop, Mellow Yellow, Funhouse and Pick Up Stix. It is all about embracing colour and treating each design as an everyday garment, rather than saving them for special occasions.

Key pieces: Trapeze dress made of silk georgette. Its hexagon shape at the waist, draped from six points, makes it deceptively simple, yet flattering, with no need for a belt.

"The Ringmaster cropped coat is another favourite, made in linen and featuring printed binding. It's a no-fuss jacket in a weight that is perfect for the New Zealand summer. The Chintz skirt is also a goody, it has a mixture of floral and geometric fabrics all panelled together into a fitted skirt."

2 - Twenty-Seven Names (Rachel Easting and Anjali Stewart)

Summer range name: Jimi James and Blue Flames.

Inspiration: "This season's summer collection is loosely based around the work of an iconic musician, Jimi Hendrix, and a provocative performance artist, Vanessa Beecroft. The name is taken from the wild child of rock's first band, and Hendrix's revolutionary folk-chic resounds across the collection. We also were influenced by artist Beecroft's eerie works, which raise

questions around how models function as works of art, and we attempted to recreate a Beecroft style for our photo shoot."

Key pieces: Jimi jacket and Beecroft capped trench – which reference our two main influences for the range.

3 - Ashley Fogel

Summer range name: Shapeshifter.

Inspiration: Shapes that make women look beautiful and feel feminine. The summer dress is strong, along with the tunic that was so prominent in winter, and they're far from shapeless, with nipped-in waists, fine tailoring and subtle nods to eras gone by.

Fogel offers beautiful options for special occasions like summer races, parties and weddings to gorgeous summer dresses, tailored jackets and pants, and more casual sportswear for weekends and relaxed dressing. Bright colours – pomegranate, lipstick pink, marine-blue and chartreuse are mixed with neutrals – stone, ivory, gun-metal grey and black.

Key piece: Mosaic dress. This combines two timeless trends – lace and the classic shift. It's a multifunctional dress that can be worn to the office, out to drinks or a wedding. You can wear it with a jacket or cardigan. It can be dressed up or down.

4 - Starfish (Laurie Foon)

Summer range name: Flight of Fancy.

Inspiration: Katherine Mansfield's playful poem Butterfly Laughter, and Starfish's commitment to producing sustainable garments. The designs bring sophisticated elegance to environmentally friendly fibres that feature heavily throughout the collection – organic cotton, silk-like tencel, New Zealand knitted pure merino, silk bamboo and recycled polyester.

The collection is a mix of nostalgic, shift-style dresses and blouses, and nautical styling, and features a native butterfly print in water-based ink.

Key pieces: "Garments I love include the Worlds Away Lace Tee, made from certified organic cotton. It's so soft and feminine and easily washable and every time I wear it I always get great comments. The other garment I can't live without is my Sweet Surrender Skirt. It is a lined, viscose, lycra mix and it's fitted and ruched up the sides, and I wear it with everything, especially the long, masculine Linen Tranquility Jacket. These two garments are nearly like my uniform.

"They are so comfortable and easy to wear, yet good in a work environment. My all-time season frock is the Glide on the Wind Gown. It's made of a bamboo-silk, eco-friendly dyed, so not only is it divinely timeless, but it's also environmentally friendly. The frills have a wonderful volume, but it feels as light as a butterfly."

5 - Deborah Sweeney

Summer range name: Gypsy Disco.

Inspiration: A compilation of world music Sweeney bought while travelling. Pared-back bohemian styling mixes with sparkle and bold colour. Emerald and sky, orange and pink mix and match with a magpie mix of acid-wash denim, sequin sweatshirting, and soft-to-touch washed back linen and silk.

Shapes are easy and feminine, with emphasis on draped and folded sleeve shapes, ruffles on skirts and across the fronts of tops, dresses and jumpsuits. There is attention to detail – bright little triangles inset at the neckline of jersey dresses and tees, contrasting coloured draw cords pull in at the waist, and metal buttons fasten at neck and shoulder.

Key pieces: "I'm loving the bright colours, so favourites are the silk Electric jumpsuit with the long straps that bow at the back and the Tinker green silk dress with the floral bird motif print. Being six months pregnant, however, I'm wearing the shift dresses a lot at the moment .. the Lydia dress with the green lace trim and the Le Freak knit dress with the colour triangle insets are both favourites."

6 - Andrea Moore

Summer range name: Take the Cake.

Inspiration: Cooking, which has become a big stress release for Andrea Moore, whose personal belief is that the world can always be set right over a dinner table.

"There is something about sitting at a table of wonderful good food, made with fresh ingredients and cooked with attention and love," Moore says.

Like a recipe book from the 1940s and 50s, her summer collection deconstructs tried, tested and true trends and signature styles of this era. Style names include Honey Spiced Pear dress and Dinner Plate coat.

Colours include mouth-watering butter cream, ginger kiss, custard, watermelon, vanilla and cinnamon; all with patterns sprinkled like confetti or swirled like jus across a plate.

Key pieces: "I love the At Home dress. It's a floaty silk number that can be layered up. One of my other favourites is the Regatta shrug, from the Silverdale by Andrea Moore range, inspired by the French Rivera. It has a drawstring that gathers the cotton up around the neck, creating a very modern neck ruffle, and the cotton drapes beautifully."

7 - Alexandra Owen

Summer range name: Untitled.

Inspiration: The history of British gentlemen's tailoring. Both the tailored form and British etiquette were key focuses in outlining this range, a concept later refined and abstracted.

True tailoring has inspired the blazers, day coats and evening coats. European linens have formed luxuriously draped trench coats and cravat-like skirts. Fine cottons and silks have created shirts as light as air. Minimalism and cut take centre stage in this collection.

Key piece: "The London dress. It has so many facets and folds and manages to form a different silhouette at the shoulders from every angle. I also love the bow-tie shirt with all the delicate bow ties rustling as you walk."