New Zealand Fashion Week Day 5 Wrap with Mima Lewis Gourdie
Daily Wrap with New Zealand Fashion Week Head Dresser and Metropol’s NZFW correspondent Mima Lewis Gourdie
Friday, coming to you from Shed 10, the MainStage for NZFW!
Second to last day of New Zealand Fashion Week, and we’re certainly going out with a bang and not a whimper. The day’s schedules are still full of culture, colour, authenticity and trending moments.
The morning started off with ‘CHINA NOW’, a showcase of two renowned Chinese labels, Gu Axin and J by Ho, who brought their individual aesthetics to the runway.
The show started in a collection of evening gowns in white and red, featuring panels of sequins and sparkles and a tulle collar. To break up the designers, we had an assembly of talent from the Guizhou villages, walking the runway in traditional outfits. We had sculptural headdresses and bright colours, but the standout feature was undoubtedly the hundreds of silver coins attached to each of the outfits, complimenting the soundtrack with every move. Gu Axin brought a distinctly different look to the runway, in a fusion of traditional Chinese motifs and streetwear. We saw shirts layered under crewnecks, with massive embroidered dragons, paired with embellished denim shorts and easy fitting skirts.
It was exciting to see our third show of international designers, after Khadi Beyond Borders on Tuesday night and Kahui Collective on Thursday, marking NZFW’s move onto the international calendar.
Next up we had Breast Cancer Cure’s ‘Fashion For A Cure’; renowned for always being a fun show with real purpose. With 18 designers, this was a show full of variety and joy, as models put their own spin on each brand with their walk. Brands to walk the runway included NOM*d, Augustine, RUBY, Storm, Untouched World, Knuefermann and Moochi. The show started with its own finale walk, usually reserved for the end of each runway, with one look from each brand all hitting the floor at the same time, before setting into our more traditional runway.
Kathryn Wilson made a return to the runway with feathered briefs and archive Bendon, from her show earlier in the week, as did RUBY, with some fresh looks from their latest collection. Untouched World was a personal standout, with their possum-merino blends creating soft edges on the silhouette of each model, adorned with fresh flower corsages in their hair and hands.
This runway ended in the biggest slumber party you’ve ever seen, as 25 models danced their way down the runway in pieces from Bendon’s sleepwear collaboration with Breast Cancer Cure, closing the show in their signature pink.
The third show of the day was The ICONIC presents The Front Row. After a very successful debut show at Christchurch Spring Fashion Festival last year, THE ICONIC is back, showcasing brands from their fashion and lifestyle platform, bringing the most shoppable looks right to the audience. The ICONIC is always incredibly chic, and it highlighted some of the major trends for the year. From the label Aere, we saw large tropical floral prints, a motif we’ve seen across brands this week and even from the wider year of trends. We saw fringe, which has been a distinct trend throughout the week, included in the Juliette Hogan show and BY KAI debut.
I even spotted a pair of capris, which have been sneaking their way back into our hearts and feeds over the past year. Headscarves are also most certainly an accessory to watch out for, matching the dresses they were paired with, tied under the chin or at the back of the head, and topped off with sunglasses. Looking forward to The ICONIC’s next runway show already!
Closing out the day, in their tenth year of celebration, was the Pacific Fusion Fashion Show. Always a crowd favourite, Pacific Fusion looks to platform emerging Pacifica designers, in a show that is uniquely theirs.
Ōtautahi’s own Morgan Bradshaw and her label, FUGAWI, opened this esteemed show in a showcase of tailoring and corsetry, bringing hessian, creams and a pop of pale pink to the runway. Bradshaw collaborated with another Ōtautahi local, Charlton Costume, to bring a blend of Victorian-Edwardrian era corsetry to the collection. The show opened to a lone figure pacing the runway in an 1890’s corset and mermaid skirt combination, accessorised with a flax sash, a perfect example of FUGAWI’s fusion of traditional colonial silhouettes, contemporary fashion and Pasifika heritage. Other standout pieces from this collection included the brand’s iconic phrasing ‘We Are Planted In The Soil Of Our Ancestors’, as seen on Stan Walker in his ‘I AM’ music video.
The show continued into a wide variety of Pasifika identities and expressions, with colour, texture, and a whole lot of heart taking on the runway. It was the most fantastic finale thus far, a full party down the runway of all the looks still dressed backstage, to thunderous applause and cheehoos. We are so excited to see another decade of Pacific Fusion in this beautiful showcase of whakapapa and a whole lot of heart.
Mima’s fav moment: The Fashion For A Cure slumber party! The models were all giggles backstage in their pink robes, fluffy slippers and short sets, it was so much fun. So excited to see this show join the line-up, presented by The Crossing, at this year’s Christchurch Spring Fashion Festival!
