SPARK Week - A week-long festival organised by Wintec's School of Media Arts that celebrates media, arts, design, and music. Inspirational for students and open to the public, the SPARK event brings together industry leaders from New Zealand and around the globe.
With many guest speakers and lectures it can be hard to know which ones will benefit you however, after receiving the SPARK week brochure it was easy to see who was going to be our fashion muse.
Introducing Kristine Crabb - designer of the NZ label: Miss Crabb.
Prior to this I had no idea a label called Miss Crabb existed let alone who Kristine Crabb was. However, after hearing her story, taking some messy notes, and a workshop with this amazing lady I have gathered and collected my thoughts and the inspiration I have taken from her.
The hour question-and-answer session where Kristine Crabb shared aspects of her life, practice, and love for fashion was interesting. Kristine comes across as this shy, genuine lady and what stuck with me was when she expressed, in the most humbling way possible; "I do what I want, when I want".
Referring to this idea of steering away from these 'fashion rules' that have become the norm, so rather than creating a new collection every season Kristine works in a way that suits herself and her life. This in itself has completely changed my outlook on my fashion path.
The workshop, being more intimate, consisted of Kristine showing us her garments; from her personal favourite designs to her customers best sellers. She also elaborated more from her morning talk on where her inspiration comes from and the way she works.
In my opinion, she is an extremely skilled and knowledgeable lady who honestly is producing work that she loves and isn't stressing about her 'target audience'. It's not about commercialism for her it's about designing something she loves herself; wearing mainly only her own clothes.
She has a strong confident vision and this is what engages a certain customer, a certain woman, even though it isn't particularly everyone's cup of tea the confidence and love behind her work is what has inspired me. Kristine has some really unusual approaches to her pattern making and construction which I think is what gives her work that freshness and individuality that people want. It isn't restricting and, although expensive, the versatility in the garments and the freedom for women to make their garments what they want, when they need them, is what makes them an investment. What I took from Kristine was this inspiration to slow down and stop worrying and stressing myself stupid! I need to enjoy my journey as opposed to worrying my way through wondering if I'm really going to make it in this competitive, large industry. My happiness is more important than being successful. In terms of my own work - Kristine's way of thinking when creating her patterns is so out of the box it's inspiring. I want to stop restricting myself - there are no rules in this industry. I need to stop seeing the fashion industry as black and white; realising that there are many ways to make myself happy in this industry doing what I love in a way that I love - even if it's an unusual and different way of doing things.
Thank you Kristine Crabb for giving me clarity and the ability to see that I am my own person, setting my own standards, choosing what makes me happy, at a pace that suits myself because I set the rules for my own future and career.
