The Department Store Fashion Show

With new season collections now arriving in retailers, the North Shore’s shopping hot spot, The Department Store was packed to the rafters thanks to their recent spring/ summer fashion show that saw over one thousand of Auckland’s fashionista’s flocking from around the city to view their latest collections, now available in store. The show included over eighty summer looks from a string of highly coveted labels including Karen Walker, Ruby, Black Box, Topshop and I Love Ugly.

Styled by Adam Bryce and Imogene Pyne, the line up of womenswear and menswear capitalised on the sunny season ahead of us, dabbling in an invigorating colour palette of soft and bright hues along with stand out features of polka dots and nautical stripes. Both men’s and womenswear confirmed fashions ongoing obsession for pattern play featured on pants, shirts, dresses and swimwear.

On hand for the evening was renowned make up artist, Grayson Coutts (pictured above) to provide an insight into the beauty trends shown on the catwalk. Make up was created by Nora Mcgrath from Lucy & the Powder Room with the key feature being a bright bold mandarin-toned lip. “The inspiration behind the look was the vibrant 60’s colour scheme shown by Karen Walker at New York fashion week for the “sea monsters” collection,” says Nora “we wanted the models to have a fresh youthful glow, which we achieved using “Becca” opal illuminator.”

Bright lips are big for summer and this citrus shade is great for most skin tones, paired with a sleepy coppery eye, soft brows and skin highlights. The undefined brow is something we’re seeing a lot of at Paris and London Fashion Weeks (along with bright lips and nude eyes). It’s a throw back to the youthful athletic trend we saw in summer 2011, but now even more paired back and softer.

Hair was created by Sky Cripps-Jackson at Stephen Marr, inspired by a combination of 50's rockabilly and 90's grunge. The hair had a gentle fullness to it, with undefined waves cascading from a centre panel and slicked back with a slight twist. “As the makeup was fresh and fun, we wanted the hair to rough things up a bit and give it an understated edge,” says Sky. With the current obsession with patterns, print and colour happening in fashion, the overall beauty concept doesn't compete but pays homage to youthful and fun attributes in a simplistic manner that perfectly encapsulates the essence of ‘Summer-time’.

Images by VINAY CHINNI /  SAM LEE