Walker Ahead
Karen Walker’s most recent London show has been labelled one of the top five trend setting collections for 2006 by the world’s leading fashion forecast agency, WGSN. Walker’s fellow style leaders include current buzz…
Tag Archives: Karen Walker
Walker Sampled
Karen Walker features in the latest Sample publication by Phaidon – 100 Fashion Designers: 010 Curators. The idea behind the Sample series is for industry insiders to curate a selection of their favourite work within…
Must-see Designs
An impressive write-up in hip Italian trend forecasting magazine, Sport&Street, describes Air NZ Fashion Week as “a must-see fixture on the international fashion calendar.” Highlights include Zambesi (“Elisabeth Findlay, the epitome of an individualist…
“Shining a Light on the Edge of the World”
Oyster takes a behind-the-scenes look at the “Invisible Heroes” of NZ fashion. Featured are Benny Castles and Lou Davies (Assistant Designer for WORLD Man and Woman respectively), Jenny Cook (Karen Walker), Gregory Brooks (Nom*D),…
Aotearoa in Vogue
The November issue of Australian Vogue contains a sumptuous 30-page spread on NZ. Topics include our “so hot right now” film industry, the best places to eat and drink in Wellington, Auckland, and…
Flights of Fashion Fancy
Telegraph writer Emma Forrest reports on NZ’s fledgling Fashion Week and finds that many of the shows are more than deserving of an international stage. Highlights include Zambesi (“in the Dries Van Noten/Martin Margiela…
Elegance with Edge
Karen Walker and Zambesi turned many a well-coiffed head at last month’s London Fashion Week. Guardian critic, Jess Cartner-Morley, picked Walker’s show one of the highlights of the week: ” … took as her…
Karl’s Eye View
Australian Vogue’s December 2003 collector’s edition includes NZ designs hand-picked by guest editor/fashion icon, Karl Lagerfeld. Featured are Karen Walker’s baby-doll dresses and op-art minis, Zambesi’s cutting-edge sportswear and metallic accessories, and Kate…
Big Ups for “Small but Perfectly Formed” NZ Fashion Week
The Age calls L’Oreal NZ Fashion Week a thorn in the side of its Australian counterparts, warning that its “peculiarly talented protagonists” are in danger of showing up bigger fish across the Tasman. “Fashion…
Teen Queens Fly High
The latest designs by Deborah Sweeney and Karen Walker feature in Oyster magazine’s August/September issue. Sweeney’s aviatrix-inspired ‘Fli-Girl’ collection – a salute to original fly-girls Amelia Earhart and Jean Batten – teams mini parachute…
Walker Fesses Up
Karen Walker grilled in Australian Vogue about her annual wardrobe expenditure. “I spend about $10,000 a season on my own ranges and another couple of grand a year on shoes, plus loads of vintage….
Walker’s Goes AWOL
Nylon magazine is all praise for Karen Walker’s gender-bending Runaway collection, calling it “a perfect blend of daddy’s old fishing jackets and backless chiffon mini-dresses.” Based in Auckland, Walker attributes her edgy designs to…
Attack of the Warm Fuzzies
Kiwi designers are ahead of the pack in prefiguring the global “mood of softness and warmth” hitting catwalks around the globe. According to the Canberra Times, the “feast of beautiful, well-crafted and intellectual winter…
Karen at the Cutting-edge
Work by leading NZ fashion designer Karen Walker is currently on show at Seattle’s Bellevue Art Museum. Walker is featured alongside fellow rule-breakers John Galliano, Issey Miyake and Alexander McQueen in Fashion: The Greatest…
Survival of the Hippest
Karen Walker continues her reign as NZ’s leading fashion export, scoring extensive coverage in some of the international media’s hippest publications over the past month. She was profiled in i-D as one of their…
Blown Away by Windy City Styles
“Dull (never)” The Australian takes in the sights, sounds and tastes of Wellington in a glowing weekend feature. On a “perfect summer’s day” they breeze through cultural institutions (Pataka Museum and Te Papa), funky fashion (House of Hank,…
Karen’s Kiwi Christmas
Observer “unwraps Christmas in NZ” from the comfort of Karen Walker’s Waitakere Ranges home. “It’s a guaranteed white Christmas … the manuka trees are frosted with delicate white blooms so that the hillside appears…
“Great Things Come Out of Splendid Isolation.”
“It’s not just about the Datsun’s, you know …” Style bible i-D devotes a section of its Cruise Issue to Kiwi creativity. As well as the obvious candidates – Karen Walker, The D4, Natalija…
Runaways and Jean-genies
“Maverick NZ designer” Karen Walker is to return to Australian catwalks, showing a variation on her Runaway collection (recently acclaimed at London Fashion Week). Walker plans to modify the Runaway range for her southern…
Walker Talks Trends
In a bid to understand the fashion industry’s “pandemic schizophrenia,” SMH picks the brain of Kiwi style guru, Karen Walker. “It’s all about zig-zagging. If it was white last season, it’ll be black this…
“If It’s Made in Auckland It Looks Like the Future”
Spurred by the America’s Cup (“couldn’t be in a more fabulous setting”) Travel + Leisure checks out the evolving new world styles of Auckland: “The city has evolved over the past two decades from…
Tokyo Girl
Karen Walker has recently returned from a promotional stint in Japan, where her popularity has reached new heights. After four years, she has more than 50 stockists in over 25 cities, and shares a…
Karen Walker: Back Yard High Casual
6 page Observer spread: Walker uses her distance to advantage, preferring the hilltops of Auckland to the glamour and pace of Europe. “Karen Walker’s lived-in fabrics and homely knits evoke her idyllic New Zealand…
Sheedy Chic
Karen Walker’s latest collection – “Dust” – profiled in Oyster. The look is inspired by Ally Sheedy’s character in The Breakfast Club : “the indoor girl who hides behind her fringe and bites her…
WorldEdge: Sydney Fashion Week
The Australian Review headline: “Kiwis upstage hosts at fashion week”. WORLD’s youthful postmodern colour blast made the cover of the all the major papers. And Zambesi’s bomber jackets coupled with their trademark structuralist dresses…
Strike an Edge Pose
In a 30 page feature Vogue Australia’s August edtion focuses on edge culture. Fashion designers Karen Walker and Zambesi feature alongside artist Michael Parekowhai and muscian King Kapisi. Editor Kristie Clements muses on the…
Fashioning the Seams
“My work always tends to be about throwing extremes together,” says edge-designer Karen Walker. “I always find that the most exciting thing is when you take a $5 T-shirt and elevate it into something…
Power Dressing
The Powerhouse Museum’s Fashion of 2000 features New Zealand designer Karen Walker’s “it” broken pearl dress, alongside work by Stella McCartney, Galliano and Versace.
Australian Fashion Week: “The All Blacks Are Well Ahead of The Wallabies”
Karen Walker and Collette Dinnigan’s shows at Fashion Week gain the highest praise. Among those gushing were eminent Sunday Times fashion historian Colin McDowell, and fashion director of Vogue Nippon Kim Stringer.
Sideline Sneers No Music to Ears at Fashion Week
Karen Walker has created another visual and aural sensation. Things got interesting when she provided the fashpack with a CD player and headphones from which they could select their own music. The only trouble…
Australian Style the New Zealand Way
“If you look over those lists of favourite shows, as picked by two key international delegates, something even more interesting emerges: a third of the top-scoring designers were born outside Australia. Kiwi born and…
