A Floral Finale Live from New Zealand Fashion Week:
Trish Peng brings the romance of bridal couture to life
with a gown crafted entirely from flowers
Last year, designer Trish Peng made headlines around the world with a Fashion Week dress featuring the longest train
ever seen on a catwalk.
This year, she’s created the ultimate bridal couture dress for the New Zealand Weddings Magazine Collection Show, apart
of New Zealand Fashion Week 2017. At first sight, the spectacular gown seems to be the result of weeks in a seamstress’s
atelier, hand stitching the most delicate details of lace, silk and gossamer thin chiffon.
As the model floats down the catwalk, the air is perfumed with the heady scent of thousands of flowers and the guests
will then realise to their amazement that the entire dress is made from fresh New Zealand grown flowers.
Tiny white blooms contour a close-fitting bodice, then cascade into dramatically large blush and pale pink flowers at
the train, entwined with rose gold foliage.
“Flowers in all their feminine forms have inspired my latest collection”. “For me, this gown is the ultimate expression
of bridal beauty. The dress and the bouquet are brought to life together, in a fresh and stunningly beautiful way,” says
Trish Peng.
The dress, costing an estimated $20,000 NZD to create, is the result of a collaboration between Trish and the National
Flower Promotion Group (NFPG) who promote and proudly celebrate locally NZ grown, high quality flowers and foliage.
Senior floristry students from the Manukau Institute of Technology have spent more than five hours working with Trish to
bring her vision alive. The gown features 12 different types of flowers, including carnations, hellebores, roses,
chrysanthemums, and is a New Zealand first.
“This collaboration with NFPG and Manukau Institute of Technology recognises the importance of supporting domestic
production, and highlights the extraordinary wealth of talent within the New Zealand fashion and floristry industries,”
says NFPG Marketing Manager; Rebecca Jones.
It is a brief, tantalising glimpse of beauty - the dress will exist for just three days out of water.