Designed to the nines

Jordan Tay says the outfit he designed in Resene Smashing is like a paintbrush stroke: bold and strong to start with, then tailing off with a flick. The 26-year-old Aucklander was inspired by memories of helping renovate his family home; with his design reimagining the wooden framing and exposed wires through the jacket and strong linear foundations in the pants.

“Having a know-how, can-do family, renovations were always going on around me,” Jordan says. “Our house was built in 1910 and my parents loved redesigning, so our house and property changed constantly. From digging up our yard to make way for new plants to smashing down existing walls, I was always asked to do my bit and help. Little did I know, this would become fashion inspiration.”

Each year undergrads in their final year at Whitecliffe Fashion Tech in Auckland and Wellington are tasked to design, make and present to judges a work of contemporary fashion in silk in an array of Resene fashion paint colours as part of their pathway to graduation. A panel of judges selects the top designs to hit the NZ Fashion Week catwalk. This year’s panel included Dame Pieter Stewart, founder of NZ Fashion Week, joined by Ruby General Manager Emily Miller-Sharma, Val Marshall-Smith founder of NZ Fashion Tech (now Whitecliffe Fashion Tech) and Resene Marketing Manager Karen Warman at the judging table.

For some of the students, it was less than five years ago when they sewed their first stitch. Now they have presented their work to some of New Zealand’s fashion leaders.

Not only was this year due to celebrate the 20th NZ Fashion Week, it also marks the 75th year Resene has been at forefront of all things colour. While the judges were on the lookout for super current, cutting-edge designs, many of the looks include references to 1946 – the year Resene started doing business.

In the eight years that the Resene Colour of Fashion project has been in existence, more than 220 students of fashion have been given a highly visible platform. This year’s finalists are:

Whitecliffe Chairman Feroz Ali and new owner of NZ Fashion Week says, “we treasure our long-standing partnership with Resene. Each year, the Resene Colour of Fashion project offers an incredible opportunity for students in the Whitecliffe Fashion Tech programme to showcase their skills.”

Resene Marketing Manager Karen Warman says the company loves giving creative young people a head start in their fashion careers. “They immerse themselves in their Resene colour and produce a stunning contemporary look that celebrates the colour and their talent. We are thrilled the project this year marks our part in the country’s colour story, which started 75 years ago, and can’t wait to see all of the finalists colouring up the runway.”

Earlier this year, BlackWhite editor Laura Lynn Johnston was in attendance for the AUT Year 2 Into the Light fashion presentation – the students’ first opportunity to see their collections on models – and was wowed by their creations. “It was amazing to see not only the creative ways that the students used Resene paint in their projects but also how fashion forward and cohesive the colour palettes they had chosen were.

Some groups were absolutely in sync with the colour trends that we’ll be seeing in six to twelve months’ time, and even though each student designed a unique piece for their capsule, the Resene palette shared between group members really unified their work.”

“It’s been a tough time for everyone over the past 18 months, I was amazed at how resilient the students were considering the lockdown restrictions – especially the way they approached their design development and clever use of colour,” says Lyle Reilly, Senior Lecturer for AUT’s School of Art & Design. “Having the support from Resene for the Into the Light project has been so valuable; it’s encouraged students to take a few risks as they consider colour balance and combinations for contemporary fashion.

“Importantly, it showed that just because a particular fabric colour may not be available locally, it doesn’t mean they can’t dye or print their own. As a result, we are seeing fresh, exciting colour palettes being incorporated into their fashion work.”

› To learn more about these exciting fashion programmes, visit www.whitecliffe.ac.nz/fashion and www.aut.ac.nz/courses/bachelor-of-design/fashion-design-major.

› View the full gallery of Resene Colour of Fashion designs online.

BlackWhite magazine

This is a magazine created for the industry, by the industry and with the industry – and a publication like this is only possible because of New Zealand and Australia's remarkably talented and loyal Resene specifiers and users.

If you have a project finished in Resene paints, wood stains or coatings, whether it is strikingly colourful, beautifully tonal, a haven of natural stained and clear finishes, wonderfully unique or anything in between, we'd love to see it and have the opportunity to showcase it. Submit your projects online or email editor@blackwhitemag.com. You're welcome to share as many projects as you would like, whenever it suits. We look forward to seeing what you've been busy creating.

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