The right place at the right time

Press, 26 August 1977, Page 7

The right place at the right time

Ry

LEONE STEWART

She spells it Pezzaz ‘•because it looks bette that way.’’ But it mean: pizzaz. the old jazz tern popularised during thi 1920 s to describe the truly stylish. reallj “now” woman of thi era. Peta Carseldine decided i' matched the feeling sh( wanted to express in het fa.hion designing so wel that it became her label spelt with an “e”. Now that she has moved from Auckland to Christ' church the feeling has changed, but the chic is still there. “1 feel as though I’ve fallen on my feet.” she says “Christchurch seems to suit mv style.” Some of the clothes from the first collection she has made in 18 months will get their soring showing al the Tonee Travel parade on Saturday evening. When she considers the lovely, elegant lines of her restaurant dresses. Peta Carseldine finds it difficult to believe her new mood. Now her dresses are more like collectors’ items, classical, beautifully detailed, designed to be worn with ease. Where she once conjured up a swirl of excitement in swishy chiffons, now her own designer’s handwriting shows in the subtleties. “My dresses aren’t ritzy any more." she muses, “but they are still exciting.” It must have something to do with the environment for she gets vibes from her surroundings. When she was making for affluent private clients in Auckland she specialised in cocktail dresses, special-occasion dresses for the young as well. They were the sort of clothes in which you could make an entrance and be instantly known. But they were never flashv.

, Now she is really respond’l'PS to the time and place. She finds life in Christchurch less “flighty” than in > the Queen City, and her ‘ dresses are less ephemeral. > Class, she calls it. • * s n °t just that Christchurch, of al! New - Zealand cities, seems made lor cream silk. People’s 1 taste, she believes is changing with the economic recession. "It’s no longer done to flaunt your clothing. The days of the elaborate ball dress are over. Once it was smart to wear a dress only once. Not any longer.” she says. KEPT AWAKE These days the challenge of producing a distinctive dress from a simple, softlymoulded body line is keeping her awake nights. “I ■ reaiiy must keep a notebook beside the bed. Good things come from sleep.” A clever, bound-rope collar is her signature this season. Crystal pleating is also a feature because it adheres to the gentle, slender line she wants while providing t of movement she ; loves. | Although the feeling is :different from her earlier 'success, culminating in a ; highly-commended award in : last year's Benson and Hedges Fashion Awards, i (which will be shown in to-j morrow evening’s parade)) her dresses are selling better than ever before. While her designs are those of a romantic at heart and she is certainly sincere about what she does. Peta Carseldine understands the practicality of her art. For as long as she can remember she has had a feel-' ing for clothes One of her most beloved presents was a miniature sewing machine, I i worked by turning the handle. i But fashion was not an i option for a country girl! I who grew up in Cambridge.' So she dutifully went off to' training college at Hamilton,! and began university studies.! The reality of teaching, she soon found, could not match her idealism. So she bought hs-rself a sewing machine ! and turned her talents to , home dressmaking for . clients. , INTO FASHION < Then, overnight — “which ( is usually the way 1 make! my most important deci-I i sions” — she decided to! I pack up. go to Auckland, 11 and break into the rag trade. 11 “I answered an advertise-!i ment for a machinist andu fumbled into fashion thatit way,” she recalls. if In 18 months, by changing !v

- jobs progressively, she ac:.,quired the skills of machin- - ing, cutting, grading, and i pattern making. In the r.course of her “apprentice- ■ ship,” at 21 she took over management of a small t clothing factory. "Dropped 'lin at the deep end” is her 3 description of learning the Sj business of costing, and at -' the same time revolution--hsing the “drapery design” > range into a successful line 3 of body shirts and slacks. 1 “We actually sold in Queen 5 Street,” she remembers with a smile. “That was a big ’ deal for the company. The .other manager hadn’t dared (go there.” : A few months with one of : lAuckland’s top name designers proved an eve opener. ■ Believing then, as she still 'does, that the ability to : | design a pattern is basic to 5 1 creative fashion, she was astonished to find him using a •(well-known brand of home I dressmaker patterns. “You 1 jwould be amazed.” she says, 5 (“how many boutiques do “that.” >i “In the brst week I designed a cowl neck, and he | thought that was amazing.” ' But she learnt from his flair for fabric — she is l ! frequently motivated by an I attraction to differing tex-i-tures — and added touches. J And she picked up a feel for j fashion outside the manufacturing mould. So she set up in business on her own, free-lancing for ! manufacturers, often making • up sample ranges. Gradually ' she acquired some staff, and 1 then came the stimulus of a trip to Sydney. It was just a few days around Sydney’s multitude of boutiques and fashion stores. But she came back telling herself: “I can do that.'’ Her first public parade was followed by a steady (stream of private clients, -then the second parade, and jthen the first, wholesale j order for Pezzaz. ! “I just developed the confidence to be a designer,” she says. “When you work for a manufacturer "you have guidelines, and seasons for which you have to design a range and you just get on I with it. I could alter designs I ei but when it came to creating b on my own I had an inferi- f< ority complex.” o Now she has a agent sell- tl iqg throughout New Zealand. But the distribution of the o label is carefully monitored, fr For store buyers it is “first |B in first served.” While it is jot no longer economic to make F model, one-only garments ir for stores, Peta Carseldine!d( wants to keep her label sel-lhi

active. She also wants to build up a private clientele, for in spite of the “hassles” bf meeting individual needs, he satisfaction is “terrific.” And the first wholesale 3rder for Pezzaz? It was Tom Mr Bill Lonie, of Beaths, and she still has the order book dated: “8/4/75.” For a young woman with an nferiority complex about iesigning. Peta Carseldine tas come a long way.