Bill Cooper

In a surprise announcement, the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s artistic director, Ethan Stiefel, has said he will leave the company on September 1.
   Stiefel has been with the RNZB since 2011. Under his artistic leadership, the RNZB has enjoyed record-breaking seasons, including 38,000 tickets sold for the Vodafone season of Swan Lake in 2013. His production of Giselle, created in collaboration with Johan Kobborg, was the subject of a feature film. The company also toured China in its 60th anniversary year in 2013, and the US last month, receiving very positive reviews. Under Stiefel, the RNZB increased its number to 36 full-time members (up from 32), while the standards have also risen. During his tenure, Nigel Gaynor was appointed musical director.
   In a release, Stiefel said, ‘Since 2011, I have enjoyed growing alongside the RNZB, and I am fortunate to have been given the opportunity to live and work in New Zealand. Despite how rewarding the experience has been, it has proved difficult on a personal level to be so far away from family and friends. Furthermore, the distance has also made it challenging to explore other professional projects that have been presented to me, without taking too much time away from the company. For these reasons, I will be leaving the RNZB on September 1st. I cannot thank everyone in the organization enough for their support, and I look forward to seeing the company continue to evolve and achieve great things.’
   RNZB chair, Candis Craven, said, ‘Ethan has made an incredible contribution to the RNZB. It was his vision and energy that most impressed us when we interviewed him for the role in 2011 and he has delivered that in spades, and so much more.’
   Programming is in place through to the end of 2015, including two world premières.
   Stiefel’s last season will feature Allegro: Five Short Ballets, which opens in Auckland on July 30. Stiefel’s fiancée, Gillian Murphy, who is the RNZB’s principal guest artist, will dance in Allegro. The RNZB says it hopes to continue its association with her in the future.
   Coppélia, now in rehearsal, will première in Wellington on April 17.
   A new artistic director is expected to be appointed by September 1.

Top Rembrandt is in a blue mood for winter. Above Wayward Heir takes on a indie musical inspiration for the season.

Rembrandt and Wayward Heir have launched their autumn–winter 2014 collections, available on- and offline.
   Rembrandt has a blue mood, with refined tailoring, including a blue dinner jacket to help men stand out this season. Designer Jonathon Hall says the blue ties in with the season’s key fashion colours of burgundy and earthy brown.
   The label says its other key pieces are the Cooper jacket and Lotus trousers, in blue Reda Italian merino, and the navy and red Caxton jacket. The emphasis is on warm, soft looks for the season, with a slimmer fit in the Lewis and Cornwall jackets, and the Astor trouser.
   Wayward Heir, meanwhile, has a musical inspiration from indie, garage, punk and contemporary music in its An Heirful collection.
   Its press kit included a cool electric guitar lapel pin from the range, and an LP with a Beatles-like logo—although playing the LP we were entertained to the sounds of Strauss waltzes for the afternoon.
   But it’s the fashion that speaks greater volumes and designer Suzanne Roff says there’s a Pete Doherty moodiness to her winter ’14 vision.
   There are vintage tweed checks in the Proto jacket and blue flannel for the peak-lapelled Milano-Punk skinny suit. Wayward Heir also has a slim-fit double-breasted jacket which it dubs Carnaby, and narrow is the order of the day with the Punk trouser and Garage jean. Prints feature images of cassettes and ghetto-blasters, and there’s under-collar guitar embroidery on jackets and suits.

Above Looks from Rembrandt’s autumn–winter 2014. Below Wayward Heir has a modern, youthful style.

Kicking off this week’s most interesting and stylish Instagrams is Australian blogger Sara Donaldson of Harper & Harley, photographed by Ana Suntay-Tañedo. Finding the ideal outfit for summer work and socializing is a toughie, especially with the longer days—so to solve this, Donaldson has chosen an ensemble of a Zimmermann dress, Windsor Smith sandles and a Givenchy bag, encapsulating the season’s look well.
   But it’s not summer everywhere. Kristina Bazan of Swiss blog Kayture headed to Paris to shoot a fine jewellery video for Love Gold, and she is snapped outside Chanel at the Place de la Vendôme. The look’s spot on, with the Chanel umbrella, but it’s the pairing of a black coat with stonewashed skinny jeans that’s particularly chic for the cool, zero-degree temperatures in the French capital. (You can see more of the Love Gold shoot on Bazan’s blog.)
   On the subject of black coats, our own Instagram shows the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s principal guest artist Gillian Murphy trying on a Tamsin Cooper coat, especially designed for her. Murphy liked the elegance and practicality of the coat and picked it over two others that Cooper had brought up. Cut at knee length, it’s ideal for this winter.
   The black-and-white trend is really emerging this week. Judged the most influential blogger of the year, Kenza Zouiten has shown off her outfit for the Elle-galan (the Swedish edition of Elle had a gala earlier this month). You can see Zouiten’s own photos in a larger format—she wears a stunning dress by Ida Sjöstedt with a clutch by Malene Birger, and pulls the look off immaculately.
   And coming back to summer, our own fashion editor Sopheak Seng successfully styles with black and white stripes for the races, as he dressed models for the Wellington Cup’s barrier announcement on Wednesday. Taken behind the scenes is one of his models, from Kirsty Bunny Management, wearing Deryn Schmidt, available at Kirkcaldie & Stains.
   While our own Anna Deans is away today, we thought we’d cheekily check in to her ’Gram to see her latest hairstyle, which she posted during the week. It’s inspired by Brigitte Bardot—and she means the youthful French icon rather than the right-wing activist. Australian model Miranda Kerr, meanwhile, has shown off her make-up by Lisa Storey and hair by David Keough, both of Los Angeles, with bright lips and the apples of her cheeks highlighted—skilfully. Both these images, and some of the others that are coming through from cosmetics’ companies, are indicative of a more purposeful make-up look in the Zeitgeist over the natural face.
   Doutzen Kroes, meanwhile, has gone on her Instagram to promote the Victoria’s Secret Sport line, which she also promoted in person last week in Florida. It’s a bit of fitspo this week to get you pumped for the weekend!

Jack Yan

Above Gillian Murphy and Tamsin Cooper, with Murphy donning her choice of coat for her tour, created especially for her. The pattern is an adaptation of the one Cooper created for the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s 60th anniversary.

From January 31, the Royal New Zealand Ballet will go on tour in the US, performing in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Minneapolis, and New York. The Californians will get to see the company perform its acclaimed production of Giselle, with Angelinos enjoying it with a live orchestra; while Minneapolitans and New Yorkers have a mixed programme: 28 Variations on a Theme of Paganini by Benjamin Millepied, Little Improvisations by Antony Tudor, Banderillero by Javier de Frutos, and Bier Halle pas de deux by Ethan Stiefel, in the midwest; and 28 Variations on a Theme of Paganini, Of Days by Andrew Simmons, and Banderillero, in the Big Apple.
   Designer Tamsin Cooper, who has collaborated with the Royal New Zealand Ballet over the last several years, has created limited editions commemorating the tour, which she showed at the company’s premises today. It builds on one that celebrated the RNZB’s 60th anniversary last year.
   Gifted to some of the dancers were a mixture of bags, some from her regular range, while the fancier, beaded designs were from her 60th anniversary one, though in different colours to those at last year’s ID Dunedin Fashion Show. Only black and white ones were shown then, to tie in with the Black Swan and White Swan in the RNZB’s 60th anniversary presentation of Swan Lake.
   Her pièces de résistance, however, were limited-edition designs created especially for the RNZB’s principal guest artist, Gillian Murphy. Three Tamsin Cooper coats were especially made for Murphy, and the dancer modelled each before deciding on the one she would take to the US.
   South Carolina-born Murphy was looking forward to her tour, to ‘sharing a great company with an American audience. Everyone is curious about the Royal New Zealand Ballet, and is excited to see it,’ she says.
   The Royal New Zealand Ballet is ‘off-the-radar and the tour will elevate the profile. I feel they are going to be impressed.’
   Murphy is no stranger to Los Angeles or New York, having danced in both cities, and having lived in New York for half her lifetime—she had moved there when she was 17.
   She stresses that this is the first time the RNZB version of Giselle has been performed Stateside, so Californians will be in for a treat.
   Her family will attend, with her parents flying from Virginia to Los Angeles for Giselle, while her sister will see her in New York.
   Ethan Stiefel, artistic director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet and Murphy’s fiancé, has family from Wisconsin who will attend the Minneapolis performance.
   The tour begins January 31 and concludes February 16.—Jack Yan, Publisher

Los Angeles
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, LA Music Center
January 31–February 2

Santa Barbara
Granada Theater, University of California
February 5

Minneapolis
Orpheum Theater
February 8

New York
The Joyce Theater
February 12–16

Publisher’s note: If you want to enjoy more ballet-related content, head over to our serialization of Stanley Moss’s novel, The Crimson Garter.—JY

Jack Yan

Christine Min

Top Gillian Murphy checks out Tamsin Cooper’s bags. Above Tamsin Cooper.

Christine Min

The concept for this week’s style profile began while I was shoe shopping at local Wellington-based store, Shoezies. This shop is full of exquisitely made, usually hand-crafted, European brand shoes. I came across these forest green, sling-back, pointy-toe, kitten heels and fell in love. I am celebrating the comeback of kitten heels as they are über-chic in every sense. The sophisticated quality of these delicate heels reminded me somehow, of classic style icon Audrey Hepburn. Audrey, coincidentally, also wore a lot of kitten heels over the years.

   Audrey’s style is timeless elegance. Simplistic, chic tailoring mixed with the exact right amount of originality. Here, I have shown some of my favourite looks of hers. Audrey was one of the initiators of the little black dress, and she really knew how to nail it with a structural cinched waist, ’60s square neckline and straight-down skirt. Her pairings were always simple. She usually matched her dress to kitten heels or flats with a classic up-do and fine jewels, usually earrings. Audrey also nailed dressed-down chic with Capri pants, sweaters, ballet flats, short-shorts and man-style shirts. Her make-up look is also to die for, consisting of super-strong brows (which I am rocking at the moment, only less extremely!), flawless skin, dusty pink lips and slight cat eyes. Gorgeous!

   Here’s the look I came up with inspired by Audrey’s timeless style and starting with my to-die-for kitty heels.

   When researching Audrey’s looks, one of my favourites was most definitely her cute-as-a-button short-shorts and shirt look. I also happen to think kitten heels look extra-good with a pair of tailored shorts. Phillip Lim 3.1 was the obvious choice to me for shorts, as in my mind, Phillip is the king of modern tailoring. I found these textured, white and tailored shorts by him and was sold. I also love the forest green-and-white combo.
   I wanted to bring in an element of pattern or texture to the look. This super-stunning Isabel Marant top I came across the other day immediately sprung to mind: the colours tie in well as it includes white and green, but in minimal amounts resulting in nothing too matchy. I also like the late ’50s–early ’60s Chanel vibe it projects, which is very Audrey, but in a modern way. Ladies will be also glad to know the inward-pointing arrows in the print will also effortlessly flatter your figure, projecting a more hourglass-like frame.
   I couldn’t resist adding the classic flap-front Chanel bag in a low-key taupe tone. It screams ’60s while still being relevant today. I would kill to have one of those babies: they literally look good with anything and everything.
   Audrey was known to wear little pearl drop earrings so I decided to incorporate a modern and more edgy version. This pair by Taranaki-based designer Jennifer Laracy combines a classic top half of pearl and silver, with a more edgy and out-there black stone and chain bottom half. I love the edged-up but still classy vibe. I feel Audrey may consider these if she were to be dressing in 2014.
   Nails-wise, I decided to just do it and go for the classic ’50s- and ’60s-style bright red. The red also brings out the other colours in the look as a contrasting tone as well as a more sexy vixen element. I like to think Audrey had a more wild side we don’t know about.
   As I love a good pair of one-off vintage sunnies, I decided not to include a specific pair. Why not go to your favourite local vintage shop and pick up an Audrey-inspired pair of your own to go with the look? Be sure to consider you face shape when picking your pair.
   How do you feel about my more sophisticated-than-usual look?—Anna Deans

Nikita Brown/Nikita Brown Photography

Sopheak Seng, fashion editor of Lucire, is one of the judges for Wellington Cup Day’s Fashion in the Field. As a preview event, he will helm a mini-fashion show for the Cup’s barrier launch this Wednesday, January 22, at Midland Park, on Lambton Quay in Wellington, New Zealand.
   The barrier announcement will commence at 10 a.m., and Seng will show labels including Rembrandt Suits, Cutler & Co., Miss Selfridge, Carlson, Crochetta, and Deryn Schmidt. All the fashion has come from Kirkcaldie & Stains, with whom Seng has worked closely for the show.
   He follows this up with the Gazley Fashion in the Field event for the Trentham Racing Club’s Wellington Cup Carnival on Saturday, January 25, with the first race scheduled for 12.30 p.m.
   Known for his styling ability and pushing the envelope to international standards, Seng says he is looking forward to judging. ‘Wellington is known for being very creative, and Gazley Fashion in the Field is the perfect opportunity for us to let those energies flow. I’m truly expecting to be surprised.’
   The show is the first 2014 public event put on by Seng, after a hectic 2013 that saw him continue his work with actress Evangeline Lilly and helm the fashion and beauty departments for both print and online editions of Lucire.

Bruno Ehrs/Kungahuset

Above HRH Princess Madeleine of Sweden was the person you searched for the most this year.

We’ve told you who we thought 2013’s newsmakers were. But who did you want to read about this year?
   In first place: HRH Princess Madeleine of Sweden. The younger of HM King Carl XVI Gustaf’s daughters was married this year, to Anglo-American financier Chris O’Neill, and there was plenty of interest from you in the Royal Wedding.
   Keira Knightley and Penélope Cruz held your imaginations in second and third place this year, followed by Kylie Minogue, Leah Remini, Sonam Kapoor and David Gandy.
   Olivia Newton-John proved that she could still get readers’ interest a generation after Grease, while last year’s World Miss University Mia Hasanagic found herself in ninth place after an influx of searches in January. Fearne Cotton and the new Miss France, Flora Coquerel, manage 10th and 11th respectively, with Jay Kay, Honor Dillon and Adriana Lima following. Jeremy Renner and David Beckham were tied at 15th.
   Our top news items of 2013—unless something drastic happens in these final two days—were, as usual, the election of Miss France (right), while you were also very interested in GHD’s Candy Collection of straighteners.
   Pandora showed that it was a favourite among fashionistas, with its Black Friday charm getting plenty of attention.
   Given that Princess Madeleine was the most-searched person, the Royal Wedding slipped in to fourth and fifth on our charts. Another Royal Wedding story, on the couple’s honeymoon destination, was ninth.
   The current James Bond, Daniel Craig, launching the Range Rover Sport in New York came sixth, followed by Lana Del Rey releasing her new film Tropico last month.
   The top Kiwi story was on the Brancott Estate World of Wearable Art winners, in a year where New Zealanders took the top prizes.
   There remained plenty of interest in last year’s World Miss University, with our story on Mia Hasanagic’s win coming in 10th.
   Last year, Whitney Houston’s death made it into our top 10. Bad news, sadly, still sells, though it was the death of photographer Kate Barry (the cause remains unannounced) that came in at 11th.

Jason Merritt

Carrera y Carrera may have spent a good part of the last 12 months targeting the Chinese market with its snake-themed designs, but it’s also captured the imagination of younger celebrities. It pointed out today to Lucire that Modern Family’s Sarah Hyland chose its Granada ring for the première of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire recently in Los Angeles, which we showed in our Lucire TV snippets.
   Meanwhile, the British Fashion Council announced that seven of London’s emerging designers will receive sponsorship to show in the autumn–winter 2014 shows at London Fashion Week (February 14–18), from Newgen, sponsored by Topshop. They are 1205, Marques’ Almeida, Lucas Nascimento, Simone Rocha (below), Ryan Lo, Claire Barrow, and Danielle Romeril.
   In Wellington, a new lingerie brand, Now or Never, has launched, founded by Emma Lodge and Olivia Lacey, using exclusively silk fabrics. They’ve had the good taste to approach Sarah Burton (the Wellington photographer) and model Ella Esau for their launch images (bottom), and appear to be growing organically, with online sales their first retail channel.
   In Birmingham, Bohem has launched experimental jewellery for nails, envisaging that a celebrity such as Rihanna might don its latest design, called ‘Nails for the Stars’ (left). No word on whether Rihanna has gone for it, though it’s certainly a clever way to get noticed.

Shaun James Cox/BFC

Sarah Burton