Tickets for The future of fashion seminar are on sale now. Image by Katherine Teunter.
We’re excited to be presenting The future of fashion: In conversation with NZ’s leading fashion experts seminar at New Zealand Fashion Week this year. This August, FashioNZ celebrates 20 years online and we are spending the month of August celebrating 20 years of New Zealand fashion and how far things have come. This seminar ties up our month of celebrating nicely as we look to the future and where things are heading.
Fashion is changing at a rapid pace and technology, social media, influencers and sustainability are just some of the factors that come into play for brands and consumers. With so much going on there is a lot for designers to consider and this seminar brings together some of New Zealand’s fashion leaders to discuss the current issues and share their insights on the future of fashion.
The event is hosted by presenter and producer Sonia Sly from RNZ National’s My Heels Are Killing Me podcast. She and the panel will dive into a thought-provoking, entertaining and inspiring conversation during this hour long session.
Panellists include footwear designer Kathryn Wilson, Augustine’s designer and co-founder Kelly Coe, veteran designer and head judge of iD Dunedin Fashion Week Tanya Carlson, Maggie Marilyn’s designer and founder Maggie Hewitt, director and founder of Showroom 22 Murray Bevan and Whitecliffe College of Art and Design’s HOD fashion design Belinda Watt.
Don’t miss your chance to hear from some of NZ’s leading voices and join the conversation on the future of fashion.
Tickets are available now on iTicket.
Find out more about our panel of fashion experts:
Kathryn Wilson (left) and Kelly Coe (right). Images supplied.
Kathryn Wilson
Kathryn Wilson established herself as New Zealand’s premier footwear designer in just a decade, growing from a fledgling designer to becoming an influential business woman with a brand that is constantly in high demand.
After graduating from Massey University and winning an AMP Scholarship, Kathryn honed her design skills and set about creating her own line of footwear. In 2003, under the guidance of successful New Zealand design house Caroline Sills, Kathryn Wilson the label was born.
Since then, Kathryn Wilson has emerged as one of the fastest-growing fashion brands in New Zealand. Stocked in over 100 local boutiques and with an ever-growing online market, the label is on the front foot in the fashion industry.
Her acute business acumen has also meant Kathryn is in demand as a leader and brand ambassador, garnering the attention of global brands like Volvo, Veuve Clicquot, Vodafone and AMP to become long-term supporters of herself and the brand.
Kelly Coe
Kelly Coe is the designer and co owner of the fashion house ‘Augustine’. With 9 labels under their umbrella, 5 flagship stores including 2 mega stores in Auckland and 70 stockists nationwide, Augustine is the go-to fashion house for all things colourful. With a loyal fanbase, Kelly’s New Zealand Fashion Week show has once again sold out in a day with all 680 tickets hotly snapped up within hours. Augustine has a huge social media following with the largest Facebook following of any NZ women’s clothing brand at 160k and a growing Instagram following of 36k.
Kelly has always aspired to bring more colour, sparkle and bling to the NZ fashion scene and the wardrobes of kiwi ladies, with the mindset that her labels are for the ‘everyday’ NZer that wants to live a more colourful life. Augustine is inclusive of all NZers with sizes from 6-16 and labels to cater for all style aesthetics. Kelly and her husband Nathan own the company as a husband and wife team, and live in Auckland with their 3 young daughters.
Maggie Hewitt (left). Image supplied. Murray Bevan (right). Image by Reagen Butler.
Maggie Hewitt
Born to an Irish Father and South African Mother, daughter of four Maggie Marilyn was born into one of New Zealand’s entrepreneurially successful sawmilling families. The contrast of being brought up in a remote but idyllic coastal village in the far north of New Zealand and then a big city boarding school threw creative Maggie towards her passions.
Immersing herself daily in global fashion magazines and dreaming of creating beautiful clothes for modern women around the world. That highly polished interpretation of fashion and luxury waned, when she learnt of some of the negative impacts the industry that she loved, can have on so many lives and the environment. So, with great ambition and passion Maggie Marilyn was determined to make a positive and powerful contribution to the future of fashion. Desiring to create an honest and ethical fashion brand built on collections that have both a fresh newness and innovation whilst remaining commercially viable; promoting a positive alternative to the current consumerist culture in the fashion industry. The Maggie Marilyn brand will not only be a luxurious, modern, innovative and inspiring brand but will also make ethical fashion covetable and cherished.
The conversation of raw fibre to finished fabric and final garments draws on labour, energy, water and other resources that cumulatively contribute to what can be a broken business model. Maggie Marilyn aims to ensure the traceability of the entire supply chain of all their garments in order to produce ethical and sustainable and beautifully modern collections.
Maggie graduated top of her year in fashion from New Zealand’s Whitecliffe University for Fine Arts and Design in 2015 and launched her first collection with Net-A-Porter. com in September 2016.
Murray Bevan
Murray Bevan is one of New Zealand’s most experienced fashion and lifestyle marketers. As the Founder and Director of New Zealand’s first dedicated fashion showroom and PR agency, Showroom 22, he has helped to steer almost 100 different brands through the local market over 16 years.
Adapting to ever-changing consumer patterns and behaviours, Murray has worked behind the scenes to create balanced strategies that craft local exposure as well as echo global trends. Counted as key clients past and present, Murray and Showroom 22 have worked with Karen Walker, Deadly Ponies, adidas Originals, Levi’s, Barkers’, Camilla and Marc, Kathryn Wilson, twenty-seven names, Topshop, Harman Grubiša, Georgia Alice, Bendon, Heidi Klum, Le Specs and David Jones to name just a few.
Belinda Watt (left). Image supplied. Tanya Carlson (right). Image by Carolyn Ebrey.
Belinda Watt
Belinda Watt joined Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design in 1990 as Head of Department Fashion Design, and introduced sustainable and ethical fashion practices into the Whitecliffe Bachelor of Fine Arts, Fashion Design programme, and the Master of Fine Arts, Fashion and Sustainability programme.
She is the International Director for Seed to Self Matatika, an innovative project that endeavours to change the way people engage with the clothes they wear. Final year Fashion Design students from Whitecliffe participate in Project Matatika, embracing sustainable practices, and addressing social, environmental and ethical issues in the textile and garment supply chain. Matatika is the Maori word for fair and ethical.
In her own creative practice she is focusing on hand weaving and natural dye materials and methods, many produced from locally grown plants. She produces designs that represent minimal waste, and can be composted at the end of their life cycle because the fabrics are made from natural fibres and organic dyes. She also embeds artisanal and heritage craft into her work, placing emphasis on slow and mindful practice, to raise the value of the craft of creating clothing.
Tanya Carlson
For over 20 years, the Tanya Carlson’s eponymous womenswear label has been synonymous with superb tailoring, clever design details, and a quality finish that have garnered many loyal customers. Each seasonal collection marries a strong concept with classical elements that ensure longevity and ease of wear.
Growing up in the Otago Peninsula, designer Tanya Carlson recalls a childhood with an element of romanticism, her imagination fuelled by the area’s windswept landscapes and playing dress-ups with vintage satin ball gowns. These romantic influences can still be seen in the flowing gowns and opulent fabrics of her more recent collections. It is perhaps these historical references and classical elements that ensure Carlson’s designs transcend ‘fast fashion’ and become treasured items worn season after season, yet never seeming out of style.
We look forward to seeing you at The future of fashion: In conversation with NZ’s leading fashion experts seminar.