New Zealand Fashion Week & Indigenous ingenuity
New Zealand Fashion Week (NZFW) has returned.
After a three-year hiatus and a change in ownership from original founder Dame Pieter Stewart, the five-day spectacle reappears for the 2023 season with a completely reimagined show. Allowing more of the public to attend more collections is part of this altered blueprint of a typical trade-only event, as is their focus on Te Ao Māori.
NZFW has been a catalyst for Māori designers since its origin in 2001 with fashion icons Adrienne Westwood, Dr Bobby Luke and Nichola Te Kiri emerging from fashion week as creative forces.
This year, NZFW appointed designer Kiri Nathan to open the show, becoming the first Māori designer ever to do so. In a press release from NZFW, Nathan revealed her collection is, “based on the haeranga of fashion for Māori,” and will be “showing our respect to the Māori makers and weavers of kākahu and clothing based on environmental impacts.”
Campbell Luke, the brain-child of Taranaki’s Dr Bobby Luke, unapologetically promotes Kaupapa Māori led design and defies dominant Western design paradigms and pedagogy. Dr Luke expresses his appreciation for NZFW in a press release, saying “Fashion Week has enabled designers a platform to showcase their work, particularly being able to share what is important to me and the natives through a presentation of Collections.”
Tessa Londt, creator of fashion label Lontessa, is pleased to see Campbell Luke and Kiri Nathan headlining, saying this year, “NZFW has made a huge effort to involve Maori designers into Fashion Week [...] I feel we have strong representation and acknowledgement this year,” she said.
“Mixing Maoritanga with the modern world is actually very exciting, Aotearoa is on the right path by continuing to embrace tikanga.” Seeing her brand on a global stage has led Londt to believe there is a place for Maori design internationally, and she feels “very proud to be a part of it all.”
Long-time darling of NZFW and the ‘King of Glamour’ himself, Kharl WiRepa, returns to the show after his debut at London Fashion Week last year. In an open and frank phone call, WiRepa speaks with unabandoned passion, freely expressing his thoughts from New Zealand’s “quite boring” fashion scene to his own fashion icon, Miss Piggy.
Fashion and WiRepa are synonymous, or as he puts it, “I never got into fashion, I always was a part of fashion.” His European ancestors were shoemakers for Queen Victoria, and his Māori ancestors were always into arts, so a career in the fashion industry for WiRepa “came naturally because my whole life, I’ve been a part of it.”
His win at Miromoda in 2014 landed him his first show at New Zealand Fashion Week and catapulted his name into the national fashion design scene. WiRepa went on to show his work in Australia, extending laterally to work with Miss New Zealand and eventually on to the Miss World stage. He’s done showcases at Paris Fashion Week, making his debut at London Fashion Week last September with a stunning collection of crystal-covered gowns, an amalgamation of traditional and contemporary aesthetics.
When asked about his biggest milestones, WiRepa humbly leaves his most career-defining feat last on the list, behind his pageantry work and fashion week features, “Another big milestone was being the first Māori designer to feature in British Vogue.”
He omits mentioning that the feature appeared in their September Issue, the most illustrious and salient of any other issue due to its publication occurring during the shift from Summer/Spring collections to Autumn/Winter.
Pacific Fusion Fashion Show at NZFW 2022.
Growing up in Aotearoa, WiRepa says his designs were influenced in a vastly different way than by what he is inspired. Frankly put, WiRepa always saw “New Zealander’s as quite boring when it comes to fashion, and honestly quite dissatisfying.” Comparatively, he went through his adolescence enamoured with Old Hollywood and glamorous figures like Paris Hilton, Kimora Lee Simmons, and Miss Piggy. The dull fashion he saw in Aotearoa inspired him “to do the opposite and go into the glamourous world…I wanted to bring glamour and romance into the world.”
Despite his less than flattering depiction of New Zealand fashion and the global attention he’s garnered in previous years, he still keeps coming back to NZFW. He speaks of it like an old friend, adoringly and with an unmistakable sense of affection.
“New Zealand is my home. You know, people ask me all the time - why didn’t you move to New York? Why didn’t you move to Paris?... I could have had a much more successful career but I want to be in the land of my people. It’s very important for me to be home and inspire new generations of artists.”
So there you have it. Kharl WiRepa, here to stay and to inspire.
As for the influence of Māori culture on his designs, WiRepa says his business practices is where you’ll find Māori influence. From having a whanau-orientated environment in the workplace to how he operates and communicates with people. “I do have a very indigenous worldview in my practices, but in my design, I’m inspired by my European ancestry, and I believe that is the perfect mix of what New Zealand is - Māori and European.”
“We put our hearts and souls into our artforms because we’re all about showcasing Pacific excellence to the world. We’ve been here all this time, but we’ve never really taken a stand until now and I feel we’re ready for it”
Back in a 2017 interview with Māori TV, WiRepa said he thinks “Pacific designs will definitely have a huge influence on the modern world and the next generation of fashion.” Six years on, he still stands by his predictions, saying “indigenous design is 1000% growing on the global stage and that’s because it’s unseen by the majority.”
To encourage more indigenous designers to pursue their fashion dreams, NZFW hosts showcases specifically for Māori and Pasifika designers like Miromoda and the Pacific Fusion Fashion Show (PFFS).
Founded by the Indigenous Māori Fashion Apparel Board in 2008, Miromoda has raised the artistic and professional standards of Māori design. The shows’ influence in launching Māori designer’s careers is unparalleled, with big name designers Kiri Nathan, Kharl WiRepa, Bobby Luke and Mitchell Vincent all either winning or participating in Miromoda. Go Media Miromoda 2023 is scheduled for Thursday 31st August at NZFW and will feature Otautahi’s own Sofia Heke and Francesca Flynn.
Self-proclaimed fashion junkie, Nora Swann, created PFFS back in 2016 due to the lack of platforms for Pacific designers to “authentically and unapologetically showcase Pacific designs.” In a short interview, she outlined that the shows’ main objectives are “to celebrate Pacific designs, worn by indigenous models and to create awareness in mainstream fashion that will hopefully convert to sales and growth for Pacific designers.”
Founder & Director of the Pacific Fusion Fashion Show, Nora Swann, at their 2022 New Zealand Fashion Week show
But PFFS is more than just a fashion show.
It’s about setting up Pasifika designers for a successful career through capability building workshops and connecting designers with New Zealand-based and Pacific designers who have achieved international success. Swann acknowledges how difficult it has been to be recognised in the mainstream, but the work speaks for itself.
“They continued to be bold when we celebrated Pacific fashion and the movement has grown to the point now where it’s gaining so much attention that we don’t have to work so hard to get the attention that Pacific fashion deserves.”
Looking outwards to an international market is on Swann’s radar for PFFS, advocating for Pacific designers’ competency to compete on the world stage. She believes a showcase to an international audience should be on every designer’s to-do list.
Despite the Pacific fashion community being a minority, they punch well above their weight. “Hosting the largest high-end Pacific fashion show in New Zealand definitely comes with its challenges but it’s also extremely rewarding,” she said.
“When you’re starting to hear that it’s the one event in the NZ fashion calendar that people really look forward to and that’s because they know that we know how to bring the heat.”
Indigenous designers are taking NZFW by storm and there’s no better way to sum it up than with the parting words of Swann.
“We put our hearts and souls into our artforms because we’re all about showcasing Pacific excellence to the world. We’ve been here all this time, but we’ve never really taken a stand until now and I feel we’re ready for it.”
