Anticipating Autumn: with Zoe Walker

Zoe Walker is not only the Fashion Features Editor of the NZ Herald's weekly Viva magazine - she really knows her stuff, is totally hilarious and has nailed that preppy-feminine dressing. No one pulls of a dress like she does.


What aesthetic are you being drawn to with regards to your own wardrobe and way of dressing now cold weather is imminent? 
My style is quite classic and doesn’t change much season to season. A newspaper newsroom isn’t exactly the most appropriate environment for being all 'fashion' either. Autumn and winter are definitely my favourite fashion seasons though. This year I’m really into matching, co-ordinated pieces – I like the primness of it, and the idea of a ‘look’ – and I hope this winter I’ll finally find a pair of trousers that suit. Every winter without fail I’m drawn to the preppy/1970s professor/ Love Story aesthetic - tweed, corduroy, big coats, knitwear, anything brown and dowdy. At the moment I’m also into the Marni art bitch look: massive earrings, ugly shoes, sweaters, prints. Basically whatever Consuelo Castiglioni wears to take her bow at the end of a show.

What pieces have you bought / want to buy for autumn/winter? 
It's an embarrassingly long list... But a few new things in my wardrobe: a matching pink wool skirt and swing coat from Pardon my French, an amazing Karen Walker dress coat, Juliette Hogan tweed coat, green tartan wool dress and matching jacket from Twenty-seven Names, pie crust neck blouse, also Twenty-seven Names, blue polka dot jacket from the Marni at H&M collection. Lots of coats and jackets. I really want an angora lilac t-shirt from Ruby, a classic cable knit sweater from Ralph Lauren, and a quilted jacket of some kind (Barbour ideally). Country Road has some really good knitwear this season too. And Kate Sylvester’s lemon slubby silk dress is one of the most beautiful pieces of the season, but, sadly, it doesn’t look very good on me.

Clockwise: TwentySevenNames, Kate Sylvester, Juliette Hogan & Karen Walker

Any dream pieces from international designers? 
Christopher Kane pool shoes. Jil Sander Picasso face sweater. Marni earrings. Anything Marni actually. Structured Prada bag. If I’m really dreaming, Prada rose earrings. I have a list of all-time dream pieces that I hope to buy, one day, like a Moschino jacket and a pair of Salvatore Ferragamo “Vara” flats.

Clockwise: Prada, Jil Sander, Prada, Christopher Kane

Any bargains / epic scores? 
 I’m a lazy shopper and prefer to order directly from designers, so not really. Sometimes I buy "vintage" Karen Walker pieces at Tatty's – my most recent was a printed jacket from the Queenie was a Dog collection. I hope one day I'll stumble across an original KW red skating dress. If someone has one they'd like to give/sell me, I'd probably cry.
What cool-weather basics do you rely on? 
Black stockings from Glassons.

Consuelo Castiglioni

Marni

Ruby
Images from Zoe Walker