Back in June it was announced that Fashion Quarterly would be hosting the first New Zealand fashion awards since the Benson & Hedges awards finished up in the 1980s.
By Murray Bevan
At the time, New Zealand Fashion Week had been postponed (the event’s GM role dissolved), and everywhere you looked there were empty stores and industry lay-offs. Last week the wait was finally over: the awards ceremony unfolded at a glittering event in Morningside, Auckland, following weeks of speculation and a fistful of flustered industry wannabees getting their noses out of joint for a variety of reasons.
As I write this, I am myself the proud owner of a 2024 Fashion Quarterly gong for ‘PR Person of the Year’, an award that I was up for along with finalists Anna Farerra from Pead PR and Diana Marshall from Tailored Studio. I’ve run my business for over 22 years, and never in that time have I entered an awards process, nor have I been nominated for one, so to say I’m chuffed is an understatement. Long live the FQ Fashion Awards!
Regardless of who was going to win the PR award, I was just excited to be there and watch my industry peers get dressed up and raise a glass to each other, and I had hoped that the wider industry would join me in that optimism.
However for an initiative and an event that was supposed to celebrate the industry, the usual ego-driven shenanigans were in full view over the past fortnight as designers and artists who thought they should have been nominated, or should have made the finalist’s list, made their feelings felt to organisers. If you look past the bad behaviour of such a group, one thing is very clear: Sarah Murray and her team at FQ have created a moment in time, a magazine, and an event that is highly sought-after and has brought real value back to the industry in one of its more dire years.
In March we wrote about just some of the fashion industry’s struggles in 2024, and on the day of the FQ Awards it was announced that iconic Wellington fashion boutique Caughley would also be closing after 9 years. It seems to have been blow after blow for the local industry, so the FQ Awards were a beacon of light for a group that has had its fair share of knocks.
For the event’s attendees, the atmosphere was warm and welcoming. Despite the rain outside, the gloss and glamour of The Glasshouse helped to give us all a chance to smile and network. From my quick glance around the room upon entry, there were some notable designer and agency absentees, and predictably there was zero presence from other media. This is something I think can be overcome and maybe needs some constructive re-working: how can the event celebrate writers, stylists and creators from magazines like Remix, Viva, Ensemble, Denizen, Mindfood etc without those creators having to live in FQ’s shadow for the night? Was this a case of the creators simply not having been nominated? Perhaps. But I think for anyone who was questioning why they had not been nominated, my question to you is this: how much time did you spend trawling through your solid Rolodex of industry contacts and nominating your industry peers for an award? I imagine, for most of you reading this, you didn’t nominate a single person, and that would be something for us all to work harder at in 2025.
Some of my highlights from the night included friends such as Kathryn Wilson and Jasmin Sparrow taking home the joint award for Accessory Designer of the Year, as well as nice-as-pie Rebe Burgess winning the Rising Star award. Kowtow scooped the award for sustainability, having produced their first completely plastic-free collection at the beginning of 2024. FQ’s Man of the Hour Rory William Docherty took home the Designer of the Year award, and Kiri Nathan took home the honour of biggest Contribution to Māori Fashion. Ka pai!
My list of misses is small, and probably very personal: I would have loved to have seen Holly Burgess in the finalists list for Photographer of the Year. Although I think Olivia Kirkpatrick was a more-than-worthy winner, Holly has definitely risen to become a lot of agencies’ and designers’ go-to shooters when they want to elevate their look and be relevant. Karen Walker should have, in my eyes, taken out the Lifetime Achievement Award, as I can firmly say that no other New Zealand designer has achieved more on the world stage than Karen has. I love Zambesi, but Karen will always get my vote.
Overall this event was a fitting tribute to our fashion and beauty industry’s leaders, and a solid first hit-out for the event in general. Can it get better? Yes, of course it can. Did everyone have their own point of view on how they would have done it differently? You bet. But did anyone else stick their neck (and their wallet) out to make this happen? No. From here, the only way is up for Sarah and her FQ team who have done a brilliant job in a very challenging climate.
My hat goes off to everyone who attended, those who were finalists, those who took home awards, and in fact our entire industry of creators. We’re only as strong as our weakest link, and if that’s true, then we’ve got a fairly strong chain and it’s only getting stronger.