Left to right: Kleenex® Cottonelle® paper dresses by Kapiliola Fonua, Tanya Jeffrey and Kei Ho
Model: Grace Owen, 62 Models Photos: Marissa Findlay
19,500 lineal metres of Kleenex Cottonelle toilet paper have been tucked, teased and tailored into 34 beautiful feather-light paper dresses by students at top fashion school NZ Fashion Tech. Judges have chosen three to grace the runway at New Zealand Fashion Week’s six Designer Selection shows in Auckland in September.
And the winning designers are: Kapiliola (known as Kapi) Fonua (19) and Kei Ho (30) both of Auckland, and Tanya Jeffrey (27) of Wellington.
But this year there’s a fresh new twist.
When the show-stopping little white dresses first appear, whispers from the public gallery are expected to audibly lift as many in the crowd will have influenced which of the three flirty white dresses gets to step onto the runway first.
In 2009 and 2011 when the Kleenex Cottonelle Paper Dresses first graced Fashion Week, there were three equal winners. But this year a fashion front-row of 4 million is being given the opportunity to vote for the nation’s favourite dress, and that dress will lead 2012’s Paper Dresses into the opening Designer Selection show at the Viaduct Events Centre in Auckland on 4th September at 5pm.
On 29 July 2012 at www.tvnz.co.nz/paperdresses the nation-wide vote goes LIVE.
Fashion-mad Kiwis from the top-to-toe of New Zealand will get the call to vote. They have three weeks, and if they vote they are also in with a chance to be among the champagne bubbling, air-kissing throng at New Zealand Fashion Weekend In Auckland on the 8th and 9th September.
To view the three beautiful, white, paper-light dresses LIVE on the runway, tickets are on sale to New Zealand Fashion Week’s six Designer Selection shows and New Zealand Fashion Weekend at www.iticket.co.nz from Monday 23rd July.