Crafting a connection to identity

From Here Now, 7:00 am on 6 May 2019

The way we present ourselves to the world is social, cultural and even political. It can send a powerful message about our values, signifying our sense of belonging - or struggle - to fit in.

Clothing can be subversive and a means to react to our environment and can also make a statement about where we fit in the world and how we see ourselves.

Tsega walks with her model at iD Fashion Week 2019 iD International Emerging Designer Awards. Regent Theatre, Dunedin, New Zealand. Friday 15 March 2019. Photo: Chris Sullivan/iD Dunedin

Tsega walks with her model at iD Fashion Week 2019 iD International Emerging Designer Awards. Regent Theatre, Dunedin, New Zealand. Friday 15 March 2019. Photo: Chris Sullivan/iD Dunedin Photo: © 2019 iD Dunedin. All rights reserved.

Steven Park in Christchurch runs a label called 6x4. The label's aesthetic is finely honed and feels personal and considered.

There are no bright or garish colours and his work exudes a timelessness and maturity. The execution is done in a quiet, understated way with just a subtle hint of an Asian aesthetic.

"I like the idea of draping clothing that looks like an abstract painting," says Park of his conceptual design.

Park makes everything by hand, including one-off garments, leather shoes and accessories.

His designs are made from up-cycled fabric, scraps and off-cuts. He favours hand-dyeing as a way of personalising his garments and having more ownership over the fabric.

Park started his brand back at Elam while studying fine arts. He wanted to create functional objects, and through clothing he began looking at identity and the body.

There is no obvious branding or labelling anywhere on his pieces, apart from a patch of fabric sewn inside where a label might be.

"I didn't want to put my name or face to it," says Park of his clothing label, which he also stocks at Ng Space in Christchurch.

Keen to avoid any judgement, he simply wanted his work to speak for itself.

"If people are going to talk about you as a designer and if it's your name, then they'll always say that you're a Korean born New Zealander, instead of just saying I'm a designer," he says. "Your race precedes you."

Born in Korea, Park was just 6-months-old when he came to Aotearoa New Zealand and says growing up in Christchurch meant he had to conceal a side of himself and his background.

"I had to assimilate as best as possible and not be outwardly visible."

Clothing became a way for him to express himself and figure out his connection to his cultural identity.

"Clothing is kind of protective. It feels like armour," he says.

"I had grown up feeling a bit vulnerable in some aspects of my life," says the designer who adds that clothing enabled him to take back some control where he can determine how he wants to look and feel.

"Being able to make that happen by sewing is quite empowering, even if it's a really quiet way to make a statement. I can own the way I look, instead of people projecting something onto me."

Stephen Park is the designer of 6x4.

Stephen Park is the designer of 6x4. Photo: Sonia Sly

Tsega Gebremedihin is a fashion graduate from Massey's College of Creative Arts in Wellington. She moved to Aotearoa New Zealand as an 8-year-old and struggled with the language barrier.

"I hold a few memories of Ethiopia and I speak the language," she says.

The emerging designer was a finalist at the iD Dunedin International Emerging Designer Awards and studying fashion design allowed her to connect with her Ethiopian roots.

Layers of statement ruffles and prints featuring painterly squiggles, dots and circular shapes on lightweight fabrics in earthy rusts, deep browns and yellow from the basis of her graduate collection, 'OMO'. It's inspired by body painting worn by Omo tribes in Ethiopia.

"It's a daily ritual...they decorate themselves with plants and paint one another to dress the naked body," she says.

Ethiopia has around 80 tribes and because of her heritage, Gebremedihin feels connected to all of them. But the people from these tribes are private and not much is known about them.

"The elders will know about them, but not the younger generation," says Gebremedihin who conducted most of her research through conversations with elders from the local Ethiopian community."

For Gebremedihin, OMO has enabled her to reveal a side of herself and her culture that not many people know about.

"I want to [use fashion] to tell stories about identity and culture," she says.

Auckland-based Tongan designer, Lavinia Ilolahia is a graduate of Auckland University of Technology and was also a finalist at this year's iD International Emerging Designer Awards where she won the Viva prize for editorial.

Lavinia Ilolahia

Lavinia Ilolahia Photo: © 2019 iD Dunedin. All rights reserved.

Her collection 'Sidelined' challenges the assumption that all Polynesians are good at sport.

"I had never connected to that stereotype," Ilolahia says of growing up in a sporty family where she was always the odd one out. "I felt like a broken Polynesian kid."

While a lack of physical coordination kept her away from sports, Ilolahia gravitated to fashion and found her own way to connect with sports through clothing design.

"I wanted to take captive of the stereotype, rather than it taking captive over me," she says.

'Sidelined' draws inspiration from the lines on a basketball court, as well as the signature styling that is often seen in sportswear. Although there are no distinguishable Tongan elements in terms of print or design, Ilolahia says the way some of the pieces sit on the body have been taken from traditional Tongan dress.

"I wanted my audience to think about [what they see] and to question it, and then we have that conversation [about the cultural aspects], " she says with a smile.