She's A Drama Dress, Seven Sisters Collection

Sisterly inspiration

This sleeveless 'blush' silk dress is from Starfish's Seven Sisters collection, which was inspired by the idea of sisters sharing clothes - 'the lovely rivalry of it all'. In keeping with Starfish's commitment to commissioning locally designed prints and enviromentally friendly production practices, the dress features a floral screen-print dby Greta Menzies, a freelance textile and surface designer, and stylist Barry Betham, and has been dyed using non-toxic processes by North Shore Dyers.  

Fashion Week's first eco show

In 2010 Laurie Foon of Starfish was invited to open New Zealand Fashion Week with Seven Sisters, which was promoted as New Zealand Fashion Week's first eco-show. All of the garments in the collection were made from environmentally friendly fabrics, 30 percent of which were sourced locally, including Suri, an alpaca fibre from Canterbury. The silk for this dress was sourced from a single family supplier in India. The garments were teamed with clogs made from recycled New Zealand rimu from a Lyttleton house.

Starfish offset its power consumption for the show by buying carbon credits, and persuaded the Fashion Week organisers to reduce their power consumption by 15 per cent.

Starfish

'We aim to create well-loved, versatile clothes that peole will enjoy wearing for a long time because they wear well and the style is enduring'. Laurie Foon, 2008

Starfish was founded in Wellington in 1993 by Laurie Foon, who had formerly operated a re-fashioned clothing stall called Jive Junkies in Wellington's Wakefield Market. Throughout her career, Foon sought to take a sustainable and ethical approach to fashion, and to continue to make in New Zealand rather than off-shore. In 2007 Starfish became the first fashion company in New Zealand to receive an NZI National Sustainable Business Award for‘commitment to key sustainability goals, including energy, waste and transport issues as well as social responsibility and family friendly employment policies’. Where possible, Foon sourced locally-produced, organic fabrics, used dyeing and treatment processes that had a far lower environmental impact than the conventional alternatives textiles and used recycled elements such as belts and buttons. Aiming to be transparent, Starfish provided their clients with an eco-folder in all their stores which constained organic certifications, dying and printing standards and fabric information.

Starfish closed in 2013.