The Viva team reports live from New Zealand Fashion Week Kahuria, with coverage of the major shows on the schedule.<\/p>\n
\n It\u2019s the final day of NZFW and there are still some big highlights on the schedule. The day started over breakfast at The Shelter, Vicki Taylor\u2019s contemporary department store, and
\n finishes tonight with our own show \u2013 Viva Presents Greatest Hits Vol 1 and 2.\n <\/p>\n
Viva Presents Greatest Hits<\/p>\n
Jasmine Mexted, daughter of Lorraine Downes, owning the runway at the Greatest Hits show. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n
With 35 events packed into just six days, NZFW can feel like a whirlwind of fashion moments, where each day\u2019s excitement can overshadow what came before. Viva Presents Greatest Hits Vol 1 and 2 is the final hurrah to cement the week\u2019s highlights. <\/p>\n
Split across two identical back-to-back shows \u2013 it\u2019s a popular item on the NZFW schedule \u2013 the collection, curated by NZFW\u2019s creative director Dan Ahwa, showcases looks from a range of designers who have shown over the past five days. <\/p>\n
Photo \/ Michael Craig
\nPhoto \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n
The show opened with a live performance from Geneva AM, singing her feelgood banger \u2018T\u012bpuna R\u0101kau\u2019. She wore a Peni Taehia headpiece, a Zheyi Ruan dress and Bared Footwear. Following Geneva\u2019s soulful piece, Sonique\u2019s \u2018It Feels So Good\u2019 blared through the speakers, paving the way for a couple of blurred-floral looks from Juliette Hogan.<\/p>\n
The show then moved through all of the week\u2019s designers, with Ahwa picking two looks from each collection. The mood felt like a carefree afterparty; loud music, deadpan model gazes kept to a minimum, and some of the week\u2019s most whimsical looks. <\/p>\n
Photo \/ Michael Craig
\nPhoto \/ Michael Craig
\nPhoto \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n
This week\u2019s special Viva edition, The Style Issue, was woven into a handful of the looks; one was folded into a paper sailor hat, another model carried theirs while wearing headphones. The models interacted with the crowd at regular intervals; Molly Kate Dennis, a model with Down syndrome, wore a Winnie Catherine cream blouse with a flouncy butter yellow tutu, and worked Shed 10 with smiles and a whoosh of the tulle. Former Miss Universe and national treasure, Lorraine Downes \u2013 who officially started her modelling career at 60 \u2013 took to the catwalk wearing a Dominique Healy black maxi. Murmurs of recognition and a chorus of cheers met her pace.<\/p>\n
Lorraine Downes at the Greatest Hits show. Photo \/ Michael Craig
\nModel Molly Kate Dennis. Photo \/ Michael Craig
\nPhoto \/ Michael Craig
\nPhoto \/ Michael Craig
\nPhoto \/ Michael Craig
\nPhoto \/ Michael Craig
\nPhoto \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n
To finish, all the models came out on the stage for a final boogie to \u2018Be My Lover\u2019 by La Bouche. Everyone was a little giddy, a lot flamboyant, and seemed genuinely stoked to be there. And we\u2019re sure, ready for a good, long sleep.<\/p>\n
Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n
The Shelter<\/p>\n
One theme crystallised throughout two hours of mingling, speeches and croissants-for-breakfast at The Shelter: resourcefulness. Up-and-coming Aotearoa designers don\u2019t cut corners on their way to success. They\u2019re often quite literally cutting fabric, sewing buttonholes and hand-dying their own garments.<\/p>\n
Finn Mora-Hill, designer from local label Fringes, at The Shelter breakfast as part of New Zealand Fashion Week Kahuria 2026.<\/p>\n
Take Finn Mora-Hill of Fringes. He couldn\u2019t remember how many buttons were on his hand-crafted jacket, but he says that, when worn with the matching pants, there are 6000 in total. He sewed every one by hand.<\/p>\n
The Shelter\u2019s creative director Vicki Taylor has become something of a fashion godmother to the New Zealand designers she stocks. When she started Taylor Boutique in 1999, there were 45 businesses she could source fabric from in New Zealand. Today, there are just five. She\u2019s painfully aware of how tough the market is for young designers.<\/p>\n
Moderating the live panel of up-and-coming designers, Vicki recalled how Julianna Jung, the designer behind Outerlines, first arrived at The Shelter as an intern.<\/p>\n
Vicki Taylor hosted a breakfast panel Q&A at her contemporary department store The Shelter as part of NZFW.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were so impressed that we asked ourselves, \u2018How do we get to keep her?\u2019\u201d she said. She called Jacob Coutie of J\u2019ake Studios\u2019 work \u201cexquisite\u201d, while describing basketballer-cum-denim designer Oscar Clive Darling as \u201cmultitalented\u201d.<\/p>\n
The perceived glamour of the industry was also playfully scoffed at. Jojo Ross summed it up: \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a glamorous job at all. I hold a baby and have three rolls of fabric under my arm and have heels on. We\u2019re glamorous when we come here, but total chaos elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laughing, Mora-Hill agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy studio has holes in it, so it\u2019s the same temperature as outside. In the winter, making this collection really sucked.\u201d<\/p>\n
The message was clear: design is a labour of love, and for the industry to thrive, it needs support.<\/p>\n
Winnie Solomon, accepting the Helping Kiwis Fly award for her lable Winnie Catherine at The Future of Fashion NZ Fashion Week show. Photo \/ Corey Fleming <\/p>\n
When Winnie Catherine, winner of the Giltrap Group Helping Kiwis Fly award at this week\u2019s Future of Fashion show, was asked how Kiwis can help, she had a simple answer: share designers\u2019 work, attend their events and tell them when you like what they make. <\/p>\n
Chloe Giles of Anthurium jewellery agreed: \u201cEvery single designer pours their heart and soul into what they make, so if you buy something local and support the industry, it\u2019s really meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Designs from Anthurium. Photo \/ Corey Fleming
Designs from Anthurium. Photo \/ Corey Fleming <\/p>\n
Giles was thrilled that fashion is increasingly collaborating with the rest of the art world. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve really enjoyed watching this shift of how we integrate the wider arts and culture into fashion. Even this week we saw so many dancers and artists incorporated into these shows. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs artists, we take inspiration from everything; we all talk and we all try to collaborate, so I\u2019ve really enjoyed seeing this wave of recognising that fashion really is art.\u201d <\/p>\n
William Fitzgerald of Jung-Ying captured the optimism: \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of hope in New Zealand; there\u2019s a really wonderful community here. We have a small market that allows you to be yourself.\u201d <\/p>\n
More on New Zealand Fashion Week Kahuria 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Viva team reports live from New Zealand Fashion Week Kahuria, with coverage of the major shows on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2246,59518,5972,156,1438,71,15312,4508,26634,4960,661,117,111,139,69,11663,766,1306,9434,418,7187,223,159,686,102,80],"class_list":["post-577083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-2246","tag-coverage","tag-day","tag-entertainment","tag-fashion","tag-from","tag-greatest","tag-hits","tag-kahuria","tag-live","tag-major","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-presents","tag-reports","tag-schedule","tag-shelter","tag-shows","tag-team","tag-the","tag-viva","tag-week","tag-with","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}