Fabulous white is at the top of the summer fashion hit parade. Jude Hathaway catches up on some of the delightful styles.
Dunedin retailers in recent weeks have put them on display in windows and on store manikins - and within a couple of hours they have been transferred into big shopping bags and whisked out of the stores.
These are white summer garments that have taken first placing in the 2014-15 summer season stakes.
They can be dresses, some packed with the flirt factor, others with unadorned elegance and some with simple style. These beautiful pieces come in crisp cottons, in tactile organzas, feminine lace and grounded linens. All have their own definitive shapes and silhouettes.
Some will take their place at formal Christmas dinners. Others will be in New Year's Eve party mode and there are those that will look as appropriate at the Christmas Day church service as at the Boxing Day barbecue.
From the casual corner come the big white shirts, short summer shorts and wide-legged pants. They're on the hit list along with asymmetrically shaped silk and organza tops that will lift jeans to a cool new level.
And with the recent European pre-fall shows (northern hemisphere) providing a glimpse of the future, it is quite possible that autumn and winter in New Zealand will also feature more than a few white outfits.
Raf Simons for Christian Dior in his Spring 2015 Ready to Wear collection a couple of months ago grabbed the attention of reviewer Tim Blanks who wrote that ''the white cotton smocks touched with broderie anglaise were like bed shirts in some highwayman's fantasy, a wicked combination of the virginal and the salacious''. Blank also mentioned Simons' ''clinical white futurism''.
White is like that. More than any other tone (and white has more than 100 tones) it has the extraordinary ability to walk a fine line between the sweetly demure and the seductive. And, because there are so many tones there is a white that will look good against any skin shade.
If there is one tip to give wearers of white - particularly those with fair skins - it is to turn up the density of eye and lip makeup. And go easy on the jewellery. Overdoses of bling are just not appropriate. Just be secure in the knowledge that white is right for the festive season and beyond. Go well.
