Design Central

Urbis Designday brought the heart of Auckland city alive with design lovers for the third year running.

If you were anywhere near central Auckland on Saturday 17 November, you couldn’t miss Urbis Designday. More than 3000 design-lovers descended upon 16 design showrooms around the central city, Parnell, Ponsonby, Newmarket and Mt Eden to see interior installations created by the country’s top fashion designers. With their bright red shoulder bags and necktags denoting them as part of the Designday crowd, the attendees wandered happily between showrooms or caught a ride in one of the fleet of 40 Jerry Clayton BMWs (saving their energy for drinking champagne and cocktails instead).

This year, the fashion designers stepped the standard up another notch, creating a series of glamorous and extravagant installations. At ECC, Zambesi designed a surreal space where mannequins adorned in Zambesi garments and sporting enormous lights as hats almost seemed to float above the mirrored floor. Smoky, downbeat music drawn from the soundtracks to Pedro Almodovar films played, as in the background the film Women On the Verge Of a Nervous Breakdown flickered ghostily on one wall. Deservedly, the tableau won the Best Installation award, as voted by attendees using the Apple iMacs on hand at each showroom. Close behind in the popularity stakes was the set-up at Apartmento, designed by Taylor Boutique, where models wearing Taylor’s latest collection and zombie-like makeup lolled elegantly alongside a skeleton at a very-last-supper scene.

In Mt Eden, colour was the order of the day, with Ruby creating a glamorous apartment living area, hung about with bright fans and paper lanterns and backed with a wall-size city nightscape. Over at Cite, World’s installation was an over-the-top political standoff, with ‘rooms’ created for ‘John’ and ‘Helen’, and a quartet of outrageously dressed mannequins posing among a riot of coloured balloons in the window box. Out at Bos Design, Sarah Riley suspended shoes in an elegant vitrine installation and adorned mannequins in patterned dresses that matched nearby furniture pieces.

The perfect weather was just right for the poolside lounging theme at Domo, where models clad in Lola by Rachel Hunter bikinis giggled on Dedon chaises while bare-chested cocktail waiters handed around trays of nibbles. The piece de resistance was the enormous paddling pool in the centre of the showroom, with clouds of silvery dolphin balloons floating above. It was no surprise when the showroom won the people’s choice prize for Best Ambience. Downstairs, at Ligne Roset, the mood couldn’t have been more different – the shadowy, futuristic showroom was punctuated with vividly coloured groupings of furniture and dresses from Cybele’s latest collection.

Art, both still and live action, brought colour to the clean, minimal décor at Simon James. Upstairs, Richard Orjis’ surreal floral portraits added mystery to the ‘bedroom’ set while downstairs in the Huffer installation, artist Josh Paki worked on a wall-sized painting. Across in Ponsonby, a Viking in full costume greeted visitors to Design Denmark, and led them in to check out the installation by Liz Mitchell, using the new plastic Woofy puppies from Normann Copenhagen. Down the road at Hafele, designer Lucie Boshier and her team of exuberantly shrieking Amsterdam ‘madams’ led attendees through a red-lit, lingerie-strewn boudoir to a lavish bedroom where saucily clad models played cards and made eyes at their visitors.

For punters whose energy was flagging, the Strand was a great place for a pick-me-up. At Poggenpohl, Lonely Hearts served coffee at an all-day café amid a monochromatic installation of chequered cups, hand-made flowers and crockery still-lifes. The black-and-white theme continued along at Matisse, where Stolen Girlfriends’ Club Factory Girl-inspired installation of studio lights, projected film and a louche, black-bobbed model sipping red wine was accompanied by champagne, candyfloss and opera.

Up the hill at GeorgiGregg Home, the lavish fabrics, vibrant colours, fringed umbrellas and rich scatterings of flowers were inspired by designer Claire Kingan-Jones’ recent trip to India for her brother’s wedding. Turet Knuefermann of TKStore was also inspired by an overseas trip for her installation at Metrix, where lush tropical plants, caipirinhas, colourful butterflies and models in floaty dresses recreated the feel of a Brazilian beach party. The partying was more restrained at Studio Italia, with 1970s-styled Yvonne Bennetti models reclining elegantly next to a pool set-up, nibbling on cocktail snacks.

More than a few punters decided to end the day with a drink at Clooney, and were greeted by an elegant, Nom D-clad mannequin, drenched in white paint and topped with a fringed lamp. For those who missed out this time, be sure to be in early to register for next year’s Designday – preparations are already underway. MW