Swimwear makes waves in Paris

Press, 5 September 1989, Page 27

Swimwear makes waves in Paris

NZPA Sydney A New Zealand fashion designer has captured the attention of a significant French buyer for her new swimwear.

Galeries Lafayette, a prestigious Paris department store, liked the swimwear collection of a former Dunedin designer, Margo Barton, and her Sydney colleague, Susan Colquhoun, when it was paraded in Paris recently.

The current trend for high-cut hips is dispensed with in their designs reminiscent of 1940 s styles. Barton and Colquhoun were design students together at the East Sydney Technical College, where Barton now teaches fashion design.

Another member of the college staff, John Scriven, visited Europe in June and July with his own team of fashion promoters to show the work of six Australian-based designers.

After the collections were taken to London, Paris, Barcelona and the Greek island of Mykonos, Austrade (the Australian Government’s export promotion organisation) officials in Europe re-

ported back to Sydney on their Impact. Although several European magazines and department stores expressed interest in the Australian collections, only the swimwear of Barton and Colquhoun attracted buying interest from the fashion mecca of Paris.

Galeries Lafayette asked to be sent their swimwear to examine it more closely. But by the time their request came through Scriven and his team were in Greece and, after doing costings on exports to France, Barton and Colquhoun have decided to concentrate on the Australian and New Zealand markets before tackling France again. Barton said that the cost of freight, duty, taxes and small production runs would currently mean that their swimwear would be priced at five times more than their competitors in Paris. “After manufacturing in Australia and New Zealand we hope to be able to get our prices down,” she says.

The international recog-

nition has attracted the attention of the Australian editions of Vogue and Harpers’ Bazarre, who plan .to feature the swimwear designs in forthcoming issues. Barton, aged 31, has worked in the fashion industry since 1975, firstly as a model in Dunedin and was highly commended in the Benson and Hedges Fashion Awards in New Zealand before moving to Sydney in 1980. For two years she designed evening and daywear for the Cruise and Pierre Cardin labels in Sydney.

Now planning to return to New Zealand and start her own business in Dunedin or Christchurch, she believes New Zealand designers were more daring than their Australian counterparts.

“In the shops here if one colour is in, everyone uses it,” she said.

"In New Zealand everything is different. The designers are more European influenced, whereas Australians use colours that are bright and bold.”