Pedestrians on Ponsonby Road were privy to the odd sight of 25 models walking along the pavement wearing paper bags on their heads last night.
The models were en route from Stephen Marr’s hair studio to Golden Dawn for the second of this week’s Marr Factory spring/summer 14 shows by leading Dunedin fashion label NOM*d.
The paper bags were in keeping with NOM*d’s underground style, though the primary purpose of the bags was to protect the make-up if it rained as well as hiding the hair and make-up to maintain an element of surprise.
And what a surprise it was – a stylistic Stars Wars clique inspired by the fictional alien race the Hutts complete with mask-like make-up and galactic braids. Garments from NOM*d’s ‘No*Sense’ collection featured Star Wars icons with slogans like ‘Stay on the leader’ and many named after ‘Huttie’ characters and words.
“That’s where the name No*Sense came from because Hutties are very intelligent, they understand all languages but they choose to only speak their own,” NOM*d designer Margi Robertson said. “This is what the philosophy of NOM*d is, it really doesn’t matter what else is going on [in fashion]. We just choose to do our own thing, not really following trends but also setting some ideas.”
The presentation was a perfect melding of cult-tures – NOM*d and Hutt, while maintaining the essential elements of the NOM*d silhouette. “It’s important that the garments look NOM*d. We need to be really diligent as far as maintaining our signature look,” Robertson said.
Hair stylist Jason Chong Li of Stephen Marr described the look he created for the collection as “a little bit Star Wars, a little bit alien” and a “little bit weird”. “It’s not about making a girl look pretty,” he said.
Lead make-up artist Kiekie Stanners, national artist for M.A.C Cosmetics New Zealand, brought the Star Wars vibe to life by creating mask-like effect with make-up.
“We wanted it to look like it was stuck on as opposed to painted on make-up,” Stanners said. “The key product we used was M.A.C Full Coverage Foundation in white. By building that up on the skin and then layering it with a lot of invisible set powder it’s really flexible and long-wearing. It doesn’t crack or move too much.”
That’s not all. It also glowed in the dark too, which was revealed during the show’s finale when the lights went out.
We’re picking that many pieces from this collection will become collectors items, not just by fans of the label but also Hutties who are apparently out there, somewhere in the galaxy not too far, far away.
Main picture credit: Olivia Hemus
