Annah Stretton Trend Report Autumn/Winter 2013

Find out the latest trends in fashion and style for Autumn/Winter 2013. Let us be your guide to all things fashion and style related.

One of our favourite trends for Autumn/Winter 2013, that we hope will carry on into the summer season, would definitely be candy coloured everything! Look good enough to eat in our Sorbet Budda Dress or the Georgia Wrap Dress.

Don’t be afraid to try this cute colour palette! You can instantly brighten up your basics (ie: a solid black top and matching shoes), or you can add some flare by picking a colour out of your printed top and selecting a pair of jeans in the same shade.

  

You can’t go past a good coat to go over everything this season. Our Phoenix Jacket is a great statement piece with beautiful blue hues or if you’re after something a bit less dramatic check out the Heartfelt Jacket or Dakota Luxe 2 Jacket.

Be sure to choose a coat that can be cinched at the waist to avoid losing your figure in the colder months.

If prints aren't your thing, then bright blocks of colour are the way forward. This look is simple and oh-so chic. Go as bright as you dare and choose fluid silhouettes or flip it around and wear bright tights with a pared down dress. Our ode to the bright and the beautiful is seen in our Magic Touch Jacket, Ballet Budda and Chiffoni Dress.

Although our gardens may be lacking in colour, our outfits needn’t be the same. With regards to your body shape, always remember that smaller prints are always easier to wear. Bigger patterns go well with people who have a bigger body frame. Large patterns can actually overwhelm people who have a smaller frame. Whatever your size or shape, the Delphinium 3 Dress is a great way to showcase this trend. Some more options also include the Eternal Everything Dress and the Loretta Wrap Dress.

Of all the prints and patterns, shades and colour-ways, none are quite as cheer-inducing as a vivid graphic. Whether strong geometric shapes or juxtaposed scenes plucked straight from nature, it's the perfect pick for a serious statement.

Shown here are the Edna 2 Jacket, Sweet William 2 Top and Sincerity 2 Dress

Proper, tailored pants with proper, fitted waistbands are in trend this winter. Some are jewelled, many brocade, a few rubberized, and just about all of them will end in tragedy should you get caught having to change a tyre on the side of the motorway.

Pants, make no mistake, are the big story for winter: from classic, front-pleated, masculine strides to high-waisted tapered leg lengtheners. 

Our collection of tailored pants are perfect for easing yourself into this tricky trend. Shown here are the Button Up Pigeon Pant, Isa Pant and Pigeon Pant.

 

While fashion's focus remains on the waist, the silhouette has softended.

Last season's flamboyant peplums give way to beautifully tailored curves and belted middles, creating an hourglass line that is smart and super-feminine.

Shown here are the Chestnut Top, Secret Admirer Dress, My Resistance Blouse and Pick a Place Dress.

 

Fashion is a fickle friend, one minute figure-hugging dresses are in but by the time we’ve paid our gym subscriptions slender silhouettes are long forgotten and it’s all about the oversized.

Billowing trousers, cocoon coats, pillow sleeves and unstructured skirts are in trend throughout collections both sides of the Atlantic this autumn/winter.

The Arabella 2 Jacket is our pick of the bunch for this trend.

Why some girls can and some girls can't

I am truly in the company of women. Yes with the 100 plus that I employ every day, I have learnt more about my sex than any man will ever think he knows. My hands-on approach and my open door policy has certainly advanced my learnings.

So after twenty years have I seen it all?

Is there new stuff to learn about my own sex?

Yep! Every day they surprise me. For better or for worse - that’s traditionally my day. The curve balls keep coming.

But why is it that we are all so different when there are so many constants in our work environment?

Why is it that some girls are rock stars in the role that they do and others are not, yet they all work with exactly the same constants (stock, retail environment and support)?

Three words will easily answer that:

PASSION

Great girls love what they do. They constantly seek opportunity in their role if you provide a platform of earnings. There is no glass ceiling in their world, as they will simply smash through!

There is opportunity in adversity for these girls. They don't get bogged down with the detail, they always have the big picture at the forefront. They know if it has to be it will be up to them! They drive their own outcomes.

EXCUSES

They never make them. They step up to the plate and take accountability for the role they love. They want to do better. It will never be anyone else's fault or anyone else’s problem. Yes it’s never easy to shoulder the stuff-ups of others but it’s all part of their success in their role as a leader. They know that their failures simply become the foundation stones of their eventual success.

CONNECTION

They know that positive and ongoing connection with their team mates and customers equals their success. They take their likable pills each and every day. They have the gift of making people feel special which is all in the name of achieving their success. It truly is a very clear pathway for them.

Simple stuff really yet so underrated and under practiced but it truly is the difference and the reason why some girls can and some girl can't!

Valentine’s Day. Americanism at its best… or does it have a place in NZ??

What is the best gift you could give this Valentine’s Day?

Annah Stretton shares her tips

http://www.classichits.co.nz/manawatu/player/ondemand/rk-podcast-as

How important is Valentine’s Day really in NZ?

Surely we don't need another day that presents as a rampant opportunity for retailers to sell us stuff.
I, for one, believe the several celebratory days we have already certainly put enough pressure on our nearest and dearest to mark the day with a gift.
Not that I advocate taking away Mothers nor Father’s Day, because when we look beyond the commercial speak, we really do have days that celebrate incredibly important people in our lives.

I suppose it just comes down to what we do, how we celebrate this day and all that it stands for.

Me, I'm a big advocate of TIME … time is the most important thing that you can give anyone. Ask any person ailing in a rest home what they would like most from their nearest and dearest and I'm sure that you'd get this very answer.

Given that I am now well entrenched into my second marriage, oddly enough Waitangi Day this year heralded what would have been 31 years of my first marriage should we have remained together, I am however in the 15th year of my second relationship. So how do I feel about Valentine’s Day and how important is it to the fabric of my relationship (any relationship)?
Think back to the heady days of the start of any courtship, reflect on the soulmate statements that we all make, the eternity messages that we scratch out on cards, the flowers that we send and yes… the time we elect to spend just hanging out together.
Falling in love is one of the most powerful experiences of our lives yet most of us are at a loss to explain what it means or how it feels. We have even less idea when it will happen and when it does happen we often let it slip away all too easily.
Sure, as time marches on our lives get busy (but weren't we busy at the start of this relationship too????), we trust in the permanency of what we believe we have and we think we have done enough to ensure it will always be there.

But have we?
Why are divorce rates so high, families so disconnected and social problems in this country so prolific such as family violence, broken homes, kids without values? All products of once heady unions between two people that have fragmented as a result of placing an initial soulmate on the back burner while everything else takes priority, perhaps?

Would you do this to your child, to your business, to your friends, when very little investment in them could possibly mean big future challenges for you? No, yet so many of us neglect our relationships.
So yes, a day to invest in each other is paramount. Not the cards, nor the flowers or any other material gift that supposedly signifies the moment... IT’S TIME… give each other time. Remember what it was that brought you together in the first place, embrace and celebrate who you have now both become, make Valentine’s Day one of your most important days, a celebration of two people that have grown within a relationship to trust and respect each other. This day isn't about or for the young and newly in love only, it's about being loved and loving another. And there is not a person alive that doesn't thrive when they are LOVED! 

Most doors are closed but if you find one that is open, you better have an interesting knock

It’s a new year and you have a new business idea. It’s time to give that dream of yours, the one that’s been hanging around for so many years, a real nudge and bring it to fruition. So where do you start?

I for one, if I was doing this all over again, would certainly seek a lot more help than I did in the past and learn from others who have been through the school of hard knocks avoiding a few of those knocks myself. The difficulty in this day and age, in a country full of budding and very real entrepreneurs, is knowing whose door to knock on and how do you prepare if they do say yes?

Firstly you have to get the door open. Then you have to be able to engage with relevance and authenticity.

Rather than wanting to procure their intellectual property, ensure your contact is all about a general plan of assistance that may peak their interest. 

What’s in it for them? Is there a possibility of opportunity in your pending success? I certainly look for them when budding entrepreneurs sit in front of me to pick my overused brain.

Reduce the platitudes. Sure the person you aspire to be is sitting in front of you,but they know they are good at what they do. Their bottom line tells them that each day.

There has to be a two way opportunity. Even if it never comes to fruition and most don't. A ‘what if’ is also more interesting than a ‘me me me’ conversation.

And while you are doing the knocking, why not make it a big one? Imagine if you get a yes. Sure there will be many no's but there is always a yes looming somewhere out there. Believe me, it’s your job to find it.

I have often marvelled at who is supporting who in the NZ business landscape. Don't underestimate the power of these connections, but you will have to be interesting to get the attention.To enlist the help of the business superstars in this country should be your number one goal as you set out on your business journey. 

Remember,MOST DOORS ARE CLOSED BUT WHEN YOU DO FIND ONE THAT IS INTERESTING YOU BETTER HAVE AN INTERESTING KNOCK.

Whose birthday is it really?

22 years ago, at exactly this time, 7.30am, I gave birth to a perfect little boy weighing 10lbs 6.5oz, in the Morrinsville Maternity home. It only took an hour, I guess I've always been one for getting things done quickly and efficiently and he's turned out to be one of the biggest highlights of my life.
At 22, he's blossomed into a wonderful young man and I'm incredibly proud. I think he looks a bit like Bradley Cooper. My partner thinks that’s a bit inappropriate, given I've possibly got a crush on Bradley and this is my son after all. 

I have however, got a massive crush on my son, for all the highs and all the lows, we have done so much together and apart; I've dealt with so many incidences, got him out of plenty of tricky situations, funded so many of his whims and supported all of his dreams.

His gap year saw him travel the world and truly grow into a man. From the boy that never ate anything, he's now that intrepid traveller that tries the sheep's eyes in the Moroccan markets.

I've got to marvel at these 22 years and wonder how the hell they all went so quickly. I have to consider what is left and what these years will look like for me and him. After all, this was the first Christmas that we spent apart as he decided to work in Perthand live with his girlfriend’s family.  Yes, it’s all part of his life's journey and a further distance between us.
Motherhood; one of the toughest roads I've had to travel but one of the best gifts I have ever had - and it never really belonged to me.
So what happens next? Do we ever really know?
Today, as a I complete my early morning Pilates class, it feels like my birthday as well, as what better gift could I have had than my little boy all those years ago.
So happy birthday to me! I have so much more to celebrate than I do on my actual birthday.  I have enabled and provided for a boy that I know will eventually go on to follow up with so much that I have started. His absolute passion for making a difference will mean that he contributes to so many others as his life moves forward.   Will my job ever be done? Hell no, I'm here for the long haul. For better or worse, our lives will always be inextricably linked.  

Most things that you think are important aren't

I can't help but think that 2013 is going to be my annus horribilis year. After all, it is the year of the snake for the Chinese and surely that can't be a great omen. Not that I am one; I’m a pig. It would possibly be a lot worse if I was a rat.

I know that I work hard. In fact,the bench mark is possibly set at its highest level right at this very moment as I sit here typing on the flight home from Hong Kong. It is two o'clock on Sunday morning in NZ,the team on board have made several references to the office (this is the seat that I’m seated in), I have papers scattered and the laptop screen up as I type this blog.

Too many of the people and the animals that I care about do not enjoy good health given their advancing years, and I suspect this will be the year that I am forced to say goodbye... in many cases I am even questioning my ability to cope.

Death and bereavement and caring for an aged member of the family has also been an interesting development in my workforce. As I watch the leave applications flood in from those that suddenly need to care for older or unwell parents, a new reality for us as an employer appears. They are often attached to those in fundamental positions and frequently with no set duration, time of return or an instant departure from their role. Never before have I seen so many of these absences...

I know that they, as I’m sure I will, have nothing more on their mind than getting their loved ones through this time with dignity and a big part of that will be investing time to strengthen their bonds before they depart this world should this be the destination at this time.

 

For someone like myself, work is and has always for the last twenty years been all consuming. Given that I love what I do, it’s possibly not been such a problem for me,yet I know it has for those closest to me. Ideas that spawn in the middle of a holiday break can become a focus all too quickly,even with the best of intent they are hard to park. We tend to conquer the problem, yes, it is a problem to those around me,by allocating a set discussion time but for me it can be hard to think of anything else.

I know this will be the year that I'm forced to slow down, want to slow down and forced to smell the roses and I will start to prioritize what is really important. No it’s not work; work will always be there as long as my systems and processes remain robust. It’s the people and animals around me that will be important this year - my environment outside work.

 

So let the year of the snake begin and already it has started to unfold with difficulty.I can only hope that as they always say… out of every bad situation, good will come. Yes, I know… most things that you think are important AREN'T.