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Lotus Belle Visits NZ Fashion Week

Posted by Ben Viall on

After gallivanting around the world for the past few years and eyeing up festival chic from Secret Garden Party to Burning Man, it seemed fitting that my first New Zealand Fashion Week Show in 5 years was by the stalwarts of NZ street wear; Stolen Girlfriends Club.

Music and fashion have always shared a very symbiotic relationship, but this is always very true of a Stolen Girlfriends Club show. The shows are held in underground and industrial areas, where the drinks are served in jars and you feel like you’re waiting for some maverick DJ or an underground rocker to come on stage (and start eating a bat) rather than a fashion show. This adds to the experience and so it should! It’s why I always look forward to their shows. It’s not just about fashion it’s about having an experience and connecting with what you are seeing.

I watched the show and harked back to a time when I used to save my pennies for concerts and spend hours on end getting ready, teasing hair, ripping clothes and putting guy-liner on my male friends. All part of a very brief dalliance with the punk ascetic which I played around with briefly as a “yoof”. What I liked about this show "Dirty Magic" is that it took me back to this time, when people were playful and adventurous with clothes and it actually incorporated two of my favourite styles “the punk thing and the hippy thing” as one. Black boots adorned the models with tartan ribbons and safety pins holding them together, leather prints and plaid. Then there was this juxtaposition with boho styled jumpers and floppy hats, all more reminiscent of Mary Quant or Biba from the 1960s. I loved the blended aesthetics and the bold theatrical make-up. I think if you’d been to a punk-only Glastonbury and it had rained a lot, you might look a little bit like the models in this show, and that their bloodshot eyes were a result of staying up all night from listening to too much Black Sabbath and waking up a little too close to the camp fire.

I reckon if Stevie Nicks were performing as a 20 something today then she’d definitely be a big fan of Stolen Girlfriends Club. I reckon the Stevie Nicks of today would have big admiration for the lads behind SGC, Dan Gosling, Luke Harwood and Marc Moore, and what they’re doing with fashion and music. I can see the ultimate gypsy rockers at festivals far and wide rockin out in these digs. If my studded black Hunter wellies go with the look, I just might have to start rockin out in them too.

#NZFW #stolengirlfriendsclub Check the SGC website for more www.stolengirlfriendsclub.com

Special thanks to Keisha Castle Hughes and Phoebe Phalome


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