BEHIND THE SCENES
Fashion Quarterly hit the road and wound up in Rotorua’s Redwood Forest
On location at Rotorua’s enchanting Redwood Forest
While Rotorua is famous for its natural phenomena, traveller-friendly hot spots and – we have to say it – sulphuric scent, this issue we sought to put a fashionable spin on New Zealand’s most loved tourist hub. With the wondrous Redwood Forest set to be the backdrop for our ‘Free Spirit’ shoot (p. 102), our six-strong crew packed two vans and four suitcases full of winter coats, thigh-high boots, and snug knits and left Auckland with adventure on the brain. The journey itself made us excited to be venturing out of the big smoke, stopping for thickshakes in Tirau, and picking up local produce to snack on along the way.
Our arrival in Rotorua three hours later was signalled not only by a field of bouncing Zorbs but a sky filled with tumultuous grey clouds, an ominous sight considering our outdoor shoot was to kick off in less than 24 hours. While creative director Marcel Gull and photographer Michael James Rooke headed into the forest to scout (hopefully dry) locations for the shoot, stylist Tyla McKenzie and model Georgie Salmon chose to sneak in some pre-shoot R&R – Tyla unwinding with a Purifying Mud Body Wrap at the world-class Polynesian Spa and Georgie kicking back at the Novotel Rotorua Lakeside watching Friends reruns.
Waking early the next day, grey clouds still hung low and full of precipitation, but it was nothing that wouldn’t add to the mood of the shoot. The Whakarewarewa Forest (or The Redwoods as it’s more commonly known) provided an enchanting setting to showcase this season’s rich green and berry-red hues and the bus load of tourists who stopped to watch (and take their own behind the scenes snaps) would surely agree. With umbrellas in tow and watchful eyes following us wherever we went, eight hours traversing the forest really paid off in the final product. But as it turns out we weren’t the only ones who had the idea to bring style to The Sulphur City. That evening, Marcel ran into Rotorua local Billinda Connolly-Tevendale, the creator of new mobile app, The Fashion Decider. Taking indecision out of getting ready each day, the app sees you upload photographs of two outfits and lets other app users make the call for you. A tool we could have done with deep in the bush, when Tyla and Marcel were both adamant that their choice of leather boot was the better option…
Our arrival in Rotorua was signalled not only by a field of bouncing Zorbs
but a sky filled with tumultuous
grey clouds