NZ Designers Give Tweety Bird The Kiwi Treatment

Media release 17th July 2007

NZ Designers Give American Icon Tweety Bird The Kiwi Treatment!

Air New Zealand Fashion Week favourites Tanya Carlson, Adrian Hailwood and Cybèle Wiren are among the international fashion stars chosen to design for an exclusive Tweety Designer Collection sold in the US.

Tweety Bird, everyone’s favorite wide-eyed, cheeky yellow canary of Looney Tunes fame, will have his own exclusive Tweety designer collection to be sold at a new limited-time boutique located on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills.

Through collaboration with 45 designers from across the globe, Warner Bros. is seeking to push beyond junior and contemporary brands and cater to a more sophisticated female shopper. The Tweety collection is an exclusive collection of clothing and home accessories based on the animated icon that celebrates Tweety going designer and puts a new twist on the character collection, with a more upscale and chic approach.

The collection will debut with a kick-off party at the Tweety Boutique and the entire designer collection will be available for purchase exclusively at the Tweety boutique from July 25th – September 3rd 2007.Items from the Tweety collection vary in price from $US 23 for a pair of Havianas flip-flops to a $US 8,000 Jean Yu couture gown.

The opportunity for Kiwi designers to be involved in such an exciting project came courtesy of NZ Fashion Week Managing Director Pieter Stewart. Ms Stewart was on a research trip to New York when she was asked to recommend some of Air New Zealand Fashion Week’s top designers to be part of the international promotion.

The spirit of Tweety is highlighted in Tanya Carlson’s design for the collection, which features a flirty, playful cocktail dress in signature lace. “The intense colours of honeydew green and sunflower yellow are inspired by high summer in California and the fun spirit of Tweety,” says Carlson.

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Cybèle Wiren says she derived inspiration for the shift dress she created for the Tweety collection from the Tweety Bird character itself. “I found Tweety’s eye the cutest and most engaging detail when designing the dress!” she says.

New Zealand fashion icon Adrian Hailwood created a girly pink dress with a floaty feel for the Tweety collection. The dress features an intricate Tweety design print placed on either the back of the dress or the front left hand side.

“I used a design from my summer range that would translate well with the American market,” says Hailwood.

Expensive one-of-a-kind couture pieces are features of the collection, in addition to fashionable home items and accessories. Renowned international designers Alexander Wang, Havaianas, Inca, Jaime Pressly, James Jeans, Junk Food, Miss Davenporte and SCOOP are among those designing for the collection.

Tweety began an around-the-world fashion adventure two years ago after trend-setting US shops Kitson and SCOOP sent shoppers flocking to specialty stores to feather their nests with merchandise from the trendiest product manufacturers. Since then, Tweety has partnered with international designers and retailers to debut Tweety fashions in other markets such as Italy, Mexico, Spain, France, Brazil, Singapore and Hong Kong.

“Tweety has really taken the world of fashion by storm since we launched our first exclusive collections more than two years ago,” said Karen McTier, Executive Vice President, Domestic Licensing and Worldwide Marketing for Warner Bros. Consumer Products.

“It’s appropriate that as Tweety takes a step into the rarified air of designer fashion, we highlight many of those international successes as part of the collection while adding new interpretations from other leading designers,” she says.

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