What's the point of New Zealand Fashion Week?

At the inaugural New Zealand Fashion Week in 2001, Elisabeth and Neville Findlay messed up.

The Findlays, founders of Zambesi, the clothing brand that almost single-handedly created New Zealand’s dark and moody fashion aesthetic, didn't realise no one had brought any of the racks to hang clothes on.

Buyers and fashion editors, including a large international contingent, were left waiting for the show to start at the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

Hilary Alexander, a famed fashion journalist representing British publications, suggested using some trolleys she found to store the clothes until someone could jump in a van to get the racks from Zambesi's studio.

“That was hilarious,” says Elisabeth.

A few things have changed since that first New Zealand Fashion Week almost 25 years ago. With Zambesi's growth and overseas success, the Findlays are no longer in charge of bringing the clothing racks.

What has also changed is the focus of fashion week. It was once an exclusive event directed at fashion editors, buyers, and other industry types who ogled over collections not available for sale to consumers for six months.

New Zealand Fashion Week has had a few rocky years - in 2024 it was cancelled due to economic uncertainty and the inability or unwillingness of designers to fork out the cost to be a part of the event.

In 2023 the event returned to Auckland's Viaduct Events Centre under new ownership and management following a three year break filled with uncertainty.

It was one of many local events impacted by Covid-19, having been postponed indefinitely in 2020, postponed again in 2021 then ultimately cancelled in January 2022. During that time it was sold to Vancouver-based businessman Feroz Ali, who took the reins from founder Dame Pieter Stewart. Yasmin Farry was appointed as Fashion Week’s new general manager.

In 2025, New Zealand Fashion Week is a consumer-facing event where the majority of shows are ticketed for public access. While buyers and editors will still be there to eyeball trends, designers will showcase in-season collections with pieces that are already available for the public to buy. There is a festival-like feel with a fashion film night, panel discussions, and a clothing swap for New Zealand designer pieces.

“Even though there’s been a lot of news about the challenges that designers are facing, the industry has come together to really put on an event,” says Dan Ahwa, a fashion journalist and stylist of more than 20 years. He is on the event’s creative board, which has driven the change that will launch next week.

As evidence of the event’s community spirit, Ahwa pointed to the return of Karen Walker, New Zealand’s most well-known designer. She is showing at fashion week for the first time in a decade in a collaboration with Adidas.

“It’s an event that we can be proud of. Yes, it’s fashion week, but I think the city also needs events in Tāmaki Makaurau and celebrating the city, finding opportunities to get people coming back into our retail spaces and our hospitality environments.”

Emma Gaultier is Parisian pattern maker who is now based in Auckland. She has worked for major fashion houses including Chloe, Louis Vuitton and Margiela, often pulling all-nighters ahead of a runway show when a creative director has a last minute vision. Paris has six fashion weeks a year: spring/summer and autumn/winter for men and for women, and two haute couture shows, where the houses send far-fetched, one-off pieces of art down the runway.

The events are closed to the public, with exclusive seats reserved for fashion editors like Vogue’s Anna Wintour and celebrities such as Lady Gaga and Beyoncé. Buyers from department stores, including Harrods in London, typically go to a fashion house’s atelier to do their orders for the coming season.

“All the world comes to Paris. It is absolutely crazy,” says Gaultier, noting the anarchy at the doors of fashion shows where the public can catch a glimpse of those with the exclusive ticket to enter.

She was surprised that the public could buy tickets to New Zealand Fashion Week, which has been increasingly the case over the years. Tickets are also available for some New York Fashion Week shows, an event that has also taken a public-facing turn in recent years.

“I think it is good because everyone can go, but in Paris, I like the fact that it is not for everyone. It is part of the magic.”

Instead of locking people out, REBE, one of New Zealand’s emerging fashion labels, is inviting its dedicated community further into its process. Instead of a runway show, the brand is hosting a live campaign shoot, says founder Rebe Burgess. The ticketed event is sold out.

“I like the fact that it is sort of letting people into our world, seeing something that maybe not everyone gets to see, and highlighting the community [models, makeup artists, stylists, etc] that works behind the scenes to bring our vision to life.”

The shoot will take place in “The Apartment,” a penthouse in Auckland that the brand is curating to reflect its aesthetic and ethos. The public can book an appointment to visit the brand’s installation and see REBE’s latest collection.

There are only a handful of tickets available to Zambesi’s runway show. The event will take place at fashion week's main hub, Shed 10 near Auckland’s ferry terminal, on Thursday night.

“It's still the same effort and creative thought that goes into every show that you do,” says Elisabeth Findlay, of the similarities between a public and an industry-facing runway show.

“It's very satisfying. It's like a reward after producing the collection,” she added.

Of course, selling clothes is part of the equation that makes any fashion week possible, says Findlay.

“Your brand is only valid if it sells, I suppose.”

However, as Zambesi is already a successful label here and overseas, Findlay views this year's fashion week as a community gathering that can elevate new designers. On the last day of fashion week, a selection of design graduates will be part of a collaborative runway show. Fashion week has also waived the typical $10,000 fee for designers to be involved, says Ahwa.

Most tickets for runway shows start at about $80. Two key revenue streams for the event are public ticket sales and sponsorship from brands such as Porsche, added Ahwa.

Nipping at New Zealand Fashion Week’s heels for emerging talent is Te Wiki Āhua o Aotearoa, a “scrappy” and grassroots fashion week that materialised last year during the traditional event’s hiatus.

Harris Tapper, now a leading New Zealand brand, is hosting one of the few invite-only events on the official schedule. Its presentation will take place in Blue, a Ponsonby bar, where every element from the smell to the sound track to what drinks are served will reflect the theme of this season’s collection. There is room for only 100 people.

“...You’ll be able to see the clothes in situ, so to speak. You could imagine yourself in that space and in those clothes and living that life,” says brand co-founder Lauren Tapper. She is part of a panel discussion on the Friday afternoon titled The New Guard: Rewriting the Rules of NZ Fashion.

The majority of the clothes Harris Tapper is showcasing are already available online and at stockists. A small number of new pieces will be revealed at the event as well as one-off creations that will be priced on application for interested buyers.

Leather accessories brand Yu Mei (pronounced “you may”) is already in New York’s Bergdorf Goodman, the top rung of luxury department stores. The Bergdorf buyers sought the brand out for its buttery soft and locally sourced deer nappa, or leather, says founder Jessie Wong.

Showing locally at New Zealand Fashion Week is a chance to tell the brand’s story to a local and loyal community, she added. The brand has been involved with fashion week here for several years and showed at Australian Fashion Week last year during the hiatus.

“It’s our hour to curate, to bring our world and our vision and what we make and create to the audience.”