Adrienne Winkelmann has been designing high-end women’s fashion garments for in excess of thirty years and she is known particularly for women’s suits and evening wear. One-off garments fashioned at her Auckland atelier are worn by many prominent women throughout New Zealand and further afield.
Rejigit was impressed with the vibrant, avant-garde stock in her Auckland boutique in the Chancery shopping precinct at Courthouse Lane in Central Auckland.
Adrienne Winkelmann Ltd currently employs twenty five staff and their inventory is made and tailored in New Zealand.
Her published life commentary suggests a tenacious nature together with a determination to succeed and her talent is self evident. As a consequence of learning disabilities, she could not adequately read or write until she was age twelve and she subsequently left school at age fifteen with no formal qualification.
At age nineteen she was accepted in Auckland University of Technology’s design course and achieved an Institute of Management Diploma. She launched her own label and boutique in 1978 in Mayfair Mall adjacent to Queen Street in Auckland.
In 2016, AUT University awarded her an honorary doctorate recognising her influence and pre-eminent position in the New Zealand fashion industry and her ongoing commitment to AUT students and graduates.
Dr Winkelmann has provided invaluable assistance in the development of many aspiring fashion designers. She routinely offers AUT students opportunity for employment within her business in order to train in all facets of the fashion industry.
Some of the more than one hundred garments comprising Adrienne Winkelmann’s Winter 2018 Collection.
Images via Adrienne Winkelmann Winter 2018 catalogue (with the exception of the title image which is from the Summer 2018 collection). Photography: Melanie Jenkins - Flash Studios.