From top The Stoneleigh pop-up bar at the Auckland stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race. Scenes at sea over the weekend during the Volvo Ocean Race: from the all-women Team SCA, where Sam Davies and crew sail past a traditional Vietnamese fishing boat; and on board Dongfeng Race Team.

When the Volvo Ocean Race hits Auckland, Stoneleigh will host a pop-up garden bar from February 27 to March 15.
   The bar will be located at Te Wero Island on the Auckland Viaduct, and Stoneleigh will serve its Latitude wines from Marlborough’s Golden Mile, complemented by food from Masu restaurant.
   It will open from 11.30 a.m. to 10 p.m. during this period.
   ‘We’re thrilled to be associated with such a highly anticipated event,’ said Stoneleigh winemaker, Jamie Marfell. ‘The Auckland stopover of the 2014–15 Volvo Ocean Race is being held in a superb location and we look forward to taking in all of the in-port action.’

Tom Schirmacher

Karen Walker Eyewear has announced its summer 2015 collection, and, in the brand’s inimitable style, sees Toast, a King Charles cavalier spaniel, as the model.
   Brands all over the world want celebrities with strong social media followings, and Karen Walker is no exception. The rescued “it” dog has 154,000 Instagram followers and has already donned shades on her account. Now as the spokesdog for Karen Walker Eyewear, she’s expected to be wearing her new brand on the streets of New York.
   In a release, Walker cheekily says, ‘We were after a model for this campaign who could fit with our caramelly colour palette and also someone whose hair would work with our three wind machines hitting her from every angle to create a slightly ’70s vibe. Toast ticked every one of those boxes.’
   The new campaign, hashtagged #toastmeetskaren, has been photographed by Tom Schirmacher, and creative-directed by Mikhail Gherman. Grooming for Toast was by Hannah Raymond, and hair by Gavin Harwin.
   The collection has five new styles, featuring two-tone patchwork with gold trim, dusty colours, and CR39 lenses for UV protection. The eyewear is double-polished and cured for strength.
   The company can claim Beyoncé, Rihanna, Scarlett Johansson, Lena Dunham, Gwen Stefani, Alexa Chung, Lady Gaga, Lorde and Florence Welch among its wearers. The range hits stores in February 2015.

Tom Schirmacher

Above The home page of the Spark My Potential website.

Following on from its Spark Lab Fashion Month announcement, the New Zealand telco will support one New Zealander who wishes to start in the fashion industry.
   The successful applicant, to be announced on February 27 as Fashion Month concludes, will be supported through the crowd-funding initiative, Spark My Potential. They will receive access to coaching, publicity and top-up funding through the Spark Foundation, says the company.
   New Zealanders are invited to apply by emailing fashionmonth@spark.co.nz before February 20, 2015, detailing the project, goal, funding target and timeline.
   ‘Whether you want to create your own fashion line, you need help entering this year’s Fashion Week, or you want to do something completely outside the square, we’d like to hear from you,’ said Spark GM for Home, Mobile and Business Jason Paris in a release.

The Body Shop’s first official release this year is sure to make its mark on 2015 with the introduction of the scandalous Red Musk collection. A fiery statement to kick-start the New Year will surely shake the foundations of convention and tradition. Following on from the classic 1981 White Musk collection, regarded as the first fragrance with man-made cruelty-free musk, the Body Shop’s latest release is set to challenge conventions by composing a feminine fragrance which men can wear, too.
   The malleability of this scent is immediately captured within the bottle itself. A classically rounded vessel with a minimalist stopper seduces the eye with a gradual blend of tones from black to a zesty red, to a deep orange ending with a clear finish. This visualization perfectly echoes the smouldering scent within. A blend of pepper, cinnamon and tobacco teases the senses with a subtle yet spicy aroma. The pepper immediately adds a sparkling dimension introducing a sensual bite, immediately followed with the sweet yet savoury notes of the cinnamon; finally, the tobacco amplifies a mysterious allure with a smoky finish.
   This suitable combination is unusual for a fragrance specifically for women and, as a result, challenges the tradition of men’s scent as well. The interchangeability of this musk provides a feminine edge whilst soothing the masculinity of the aromas, culminating in a dynamic scent that transcends the traditional label of unisex. The campaign stresses ‘No Flowers, Only Spices’ to emphasize the significance of not merely breaking the rules but making their own.
   This scent has been perfected throughout the collection including a body lotion, fragrance mist and body wash as well as the perfume. The collection will reach stores next week, on January 26. The sensual fragrance makes it the perfect gift for Valentine’s Day and the radical positioning and smouldering scent make it the ideal statement fragrance of 2015.—Elle Wright

Spark, having rebranded from Telecom New Zealand, is giving itself a fresh start in 2015 by connecting to the world of fashion. Spark Lab will host 14 free events from the fashion industry in Britomart, Auckland, hosted by the likes of Zambesi, Levi’s, Juliette Hogan, Huffer, Crane Brothers, I Love Ugly, MAC, AUT and Showroom 22.
   Spark Lab’s intent is to share creative ideas with all New Zealanders, providing them with first-hand access to mentors.
   It is open to non-customers and follows on with its Music Month from November 2014. RSVPs are open now, and the full timetable can be seen at www.spark.co.nz/sparklab.

Winter came to southern California, and with it much needed rain and chilly air. Tents went up, covering the storeyed courtyard of the SLS Hotel, making the Secret Room Events’ Golden Globe Style Lounge an actual room filled with sponsors focused on healthy treats, sustainable and wearable style, natural products and, of course, animal activism and rescue.
   Given many celebrities are vegetarian or vegan, Farm Sanctuary had a fantastic opportunity to turn their message into a cause célèbre. This unique organization operates three shelters in New York and California providing lifelong care for nearly 1,000 rescued farm animals. While the animals are rescued from abuse and starvation, the organizers hope their practices will change the way society views and treats farm animals, and encourage compassionate vegan living.
   Hope For Paws, meanwhile, hopes to accomplish a similar mission with cats, dogs and other homeless pets throughout California, North America and elsewhere via widely circulated videos as well as encouragement of pet adoption events.
   Platinum sponsors Derma E and Big Slice were predictably a huge hit among the diverse talents in attendance. Big Slice, a family-owned company, transforms baked apples into luscious, nutritious snacks, integrating everything from tropical fruits to sesame, chocolate and other healthy indulgences into a healthy packet that goes from the kitchen to practically anywhere. Derma E bills itself as food for your skin, through a series of vitamin-rich, high-performance antioxidant skin care products that are 100 per cent vegan, cruelty-free, gluten-free and GMO-free.
   Other natural, and naturally appealing products for body and hair, included Younique, RX Clinical Cosmeceaticals, Body & Soul Natural Haircare, Bellivita Body and Haircare, and Ioma Paris.
   DelGrosso Foods’ pasta sauces and Heat Holders’ thermal socks provided warmth for guests on that chilly Friday while Stella Carakasi allowed VIPs to select a toasty sweater from their current winter and spring lines. There were also some nice little items perfect for the frequent fliers in the room: the B Belt, created by Nelson, New Zealand native Becky Larsen, is the perfect carry-all for women who want their hands free. The sash-like belt holds mobile phone, Ipod, money, ID or even a compact. Though the name Golden Girl may spark memories of the 1980s television show about sprightly and sassy seniors, Montreal, Canada-based Golden Girl Clothing’s jean leggings appear to be designed to flatter women of all ages and shapes.
   While Dallas-based Kathy Fielder is best known and loved for her interior design accents, she’s successfully broken into fashion, with chic faux fur vests, fabric handbags and eye-catching lace infinity scarves with a jewellery-like feel. Australian jewellery designer Jennifer Reeves, meanwhile, showed that natural stones could be as flattering and fashionable as opals and other precious gems.
   Celebrities attending included Adina Porter (True Blood), Ashley Argota (The Fosters), Jason Ritter (Parenthood), Jenji Kohan (Orange Is the New Black), Josh Brener (Silicon Valley), Mark Feuerstein (Royal Pains), Mekhi Phifer (Divergent), Neil McDonough (Suits), Omar Dorsey (Selma), Beau Casper, Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz (both nominated for Gett: the Trial of Viviane Amsalem).—Elyse Glickman, US West Coast Editor

Two fantastic works exploring very different aspects of New Zealand culture and identity have come across our desks here at Lucire, from the Auckland University Press.

Puna Wai Kōrero: an Anthology of Māori Poetry in English
Earlier this year, the first anthology of Maori poetry in English was published featuring a wide collection of prominent Maori poets. Edited by two leading Māori writers and scholars, Reina Whaitiri and Robert Sullivan, who previously edited the award-winning Whetu Moana: Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English (winner of a Montana New Zealand Book Award) and Mauri Ola: Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English II (finalist in the New Zealand Post Book Awards), Puna Wai Kōrero offers the most diverse range of Māori voices ever published.
   The poems themselves are organized into chapters featuring short biographies about each writer, providing a richer background to the history of Māori poetry. They combine the traditional forms of oral poetry—including waiata ringaringa, waiata tangi and waiata aroha—with the influence of western poetry and the English written language to create new poetic genres, developing alongside modernist and postmodernist movements. Their assemblage of styles provides a unique perspective on numerous outlooks on life and modes of writing, laments for koro and hopes for mokopuna, celebrations of the land and anger at its abuse, retellings of myth and reclamations of history. The rich ensemble of established writers and exciting newer poets, examines political and social commentaries from early days of contact to the present, from Aotearoa and the wider world.
   This comprehensive anthology presents one hundred and twenty years of poetry written in English by Māori poets. The authentic lineage of each poet enriches the engagement with these poetic forms, Puna Wai Kōrero traces this past whakapapa and celebrates its present–day strength. This anthology strives to bring together Māori writers and editors and through language and ideas, through stories and shared experiences, this books offers an opportunity for the readers to discover or rediscover what it is to be Māori.

How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes, by Chris Tse
A début collection for New Zealand-born Chris Tse delivers a lyrical narrative, focused around the 1905 Wellington murder of Cantonese gold miner Joe Kum Yung by white supremacist Lionel Terry. Tse’s poetry has previously been featured in numerous journals, magazines and anthologies. This collection demonstrates his emotive power of language and creatively striking narrative coherence. This new addition to New Zealand literature offers an expansive collection from a unique cultural and historical perspective.
   Tse’s poetry serves as a vehicle to give a voice to the dead man, by paying respect to the many lives consumed by the crime. Tse uses ‘the year of the snake’—1905—as a symbol to focus the narrative through a moment of culture contact and to consider the time gap between then and now. Tse’s collection provides an emotionally driven occurrence of a cultural and historical event by summoning the ghost of Joe Kum Yung to question justice, empathy and tolerance and how they remain today. The poetic memorial effectively challenges the reader to ponder over who owns the stories, what can we learn from the past and what should we take forward to the future.
   The works are organized around the central narrative of the murder, intertwined with poems focused on contemplating and provoking ideas from the author’s perspective, the perspective of the characters, and the nation as a whole. Tse’s language invites the reader to explore and discover truth and meaning behind this episode and to bring focus to the significance of this tragic event within New Zealand history.—Eleanor Wright

The Marlborough Falcon Trust Falcon Valley has opened at the Brancott Estate Heritage Centre this week, a memorable destination for travellers in New Zealand this summer. The result of a partnership between the Trust and Brancott Estate, visitors can check get up close with a kārearea (New Zealand falcon) for a donation. The donations will go toward falcon awareness and rehabilitation at the Trust’s aviary in Marlborough.
   The Trust has two advocacy birds in flight that visitors can see as part of the Brancott Estate Falcon Encounter. The birds help keep grape-eating birds away from the vineyard, and can reach 200 km/h when hunting.
   There are fewer than 3,000 pairs if kārearea in the wild, and they face a number of threats, including loss of habitat, electrocution on power poles, collisions with turbines on wind farms, predation by cats and hedgehogs, and stoats and rats preying on eggs and nestlings. They are listed as a threatened species by the Department of Conservation.
   The Falcon Encounter also includes a tasting of wines from the Brancott Estate Living Land range of organic wines. The range has raised a good deal of the NZ$500,000 that the winery has given to the Trust, where NZ$1 from each bottle is donated to the Living Land Fund. The funds have helped finance a 16-pen rehabilitation and breeding aviary, and the ongoing care of falcons.