Facing the high costs of cancelling for a second year running, the new owner of the showcase event vows to do whatever is necessary to secure the company’s future
Yesterday, NZ Fashion Week was meant to truck in its first runway to Auckland’s Aotea Square; it was time for take-off.
So the announcement of a seven-day lockdown was devastating news for Fashion Week’s founder Dame Pieter Stewart, who had expected this would be her swan-song after 20 years. Last month she signed over control of the company to a new owner; this year was to be her last event.
With less than a week to go before the 20th Fashion Week, Covid-19 forced its cancellation for the second year running. It’s a costly blow; it couldn’t be insured against the impact of Covid-19, so much of the expense will be borne by the company, its sponsors, and those Kiwi designers who have been working towards this moment for months.
“That’s how you can support New Zealand designers and retailers and other small businesses – stay home, follow the rules at level four, and that will allow us to get back to level three sooner. And then we can get back to work.”
– Caitlin Crisp, designer
The first thing Dame Pieter and her team had to do, on announcement of the lockdown on Tuesday night, was turn back the big truck-and-trailer unit loaded with a full-sized Keith Hay Home, ready to be deposited in front of the Town Hall as a centrepiece of the week-long event.
“That’s how close we were at 6 o’clock when we got the message. Most of our partners already had their tickets for their shows; the designers have done their planning; the plotting for the lighting of every show is done; everything is ready to go. It couldn’t have been closer,” she said.
“It’s disappointing for our designers who have put so much work into the shows to be presented next week, buyers, production teams, models, partners and all New Zealanders that we’ve had to postpone New Zealand Fashion Week because of the immediate lockdown.
“Of course, health and safety must come first and we respect the decision made by our Government.”
“The reality is, we were always alert to the likelihood of another lockdown and are now actively working through the options of hosting this iconic event as soon as possible,” Dame Pieter said. “We will be in a position to share further details once we have made a decision.”
Dame Pieter urged New Zealanders to show their support for the affected New Zealand designers, by going online to buy their clothings and accessories.
One such designer is Caitlin Crisp, 25, who told Newsroom she had been working from six in the morning till late at night preparing for her first independent show at NZ Fashion Week. Many of the New Zealand retailers who stock her designs had planned to fly to Auckland for Fashion Week, and to visit her showroom in Eden Terrace to check out her next season’s range.
“It’s such a blow,” she said. “With what we do, so much of it is important to see and feel and touch the fabric in real life. That’s the thing really upsetting me – we had our winter retail collection ready to sell. Instead, we’ll have to do it all online.”
In alert level 4, she can’t go to her studio to dispatch online orders, or cut and sew clothes. So on Tuesday night, she and her boyfriend Andrew loaded her big 60kg industrial sewing machine onto the back of his Ford Ranger ute and drove it down to his home in Karaka, where they are locked down for the duration.
But to get her business back on track, she needs to get back in her studio.
“So that’s how you can support New Zealand designers and retailers and other small businesses – stay home, follow the rules at level four, and that will allow us to get back to level three sooner. And then we can get back to work.”
Another designer who was meant to be showing at NZ Fashion Week is Benjamin Alexander, 26, a friend of Crisp’s from when they both competed on the design reality TV show Project Runway.
Alexander won the series, and it proved a step on the way to his aspiration to produce his own brand. He was looking forward to showing his new season collection at a small off-site show above Amano restaurant in Britomart, with Auckland harbour as the stunning backdrop. As well as potential buyers, he was excited to have friends and family attending – and especially his mum.
That won’t now happen – but like Crisp, he was upbeat about finding alternative ways to present his collection to the world. “I’m not too sure it if will go ahead now,” he said. “But if Fashion Week does get cancelled, or rescheduled for a date that doesn’t work for us, we have full control to put on our own show.
“I’m not going to say I’m disappointed, because I understand the severity of the situation. I’ll be speaking to everyone who is involved, and we’ll just put it all on hold and pick a new date at some stage. It’s not the end of the world.”
– Benjamin Alexander, designer
“There are times it is stressful, if things fall through or if things don’t work out, or if you go over-budget, and all that stuff,” he said. “This has happened but, at the end of the day, I work f—ing hard, I know what I want, and I’m going to get what I want. I want to put on a f—ing cool show.
“I’m not going to say I’m disappointed, because I understand the severity of the situation. I’ll be speaking to everyone who is involved, and we’ll just put it all on hold and pick a new date at some stage. It’s not the end of the world.”
Earlier this year, Dame Pieter sold the business to Feroz Ali, the owner of Whitecliffe College design and technology training institute in central Auckland.
Ali, 48, built his career in Auckland but has been based in Canada for the past five years. Last week he flew back into New Zealand in the expectation of attending Fashion Week’s final days; he spoke to Newsroom from managed isolation at Rotorua’s Ibis Hotel.
He criticised the rate of New Zealand’s vaccine rollout, saying there was a lack of understanding of the real threat posed by the Delta variant. Realistically, he said, there would be too much uncertainty to risk rescheduling NZ Fashion Week prematurely.
If it went ahead at all, it would more likely be late this year or early next year, once the vaccine rollout was complete and there could be greater certainty that it wouldn’t again be disrupted. “Given the variants we’re dealing with, I think New Zealand is yet to embrace the worst before we see the good,” he said. “Unfortunately we’ve got a very, very significantly low vaccination rate, and the dependency on one vaccine – I’m being realistic, not pessimistic.
“If we rush to pencil in a date in, say, the end of September or early October, and this things happens again, we shouldn’t be playing with these designers’ lives like that. We’d rather take a cautious approach.”
“Covid’s not going anywhere. We need to make sure it’s at a tolerable level so events like this can happen, whether it’s a rugby event, whether it’s a fashion event, whether it’s the America’s Cup. Things like this will need to happen because society needs to move on.”
– Feroz Ali, NZ Fashion Week owner
But despite his doubts about the vaccination programme, Ali entirely backed the Government’s decision to lock down the country – even though it’s enormously disappointing and costly to his new business. Instead of meeting Dame Pieter and her team at the glitzy culmination of Fashion Week, he would emerge from MIQ next week to spend a fortnight staying with his mum in Auckland.
In an interview published earlier this week, Dame Pieter had hoped the event she founded 20 years ago would be around in another 20 years. “The event will continue to evolve just as it’s evolved every single year since it started, but in 20 years’ time who knows what it will be like? It’s hard to say,” she told FashioNZ.
Ali told Newsroom he fervently shared that hope. He would inject more capital into the business, if that was necessary to see it through these difficult times. “We will do whatever is required to preserve the business, and its momentum to go forward.
“Covid’s not going anywhere. We need to make sure it’s at a tolerable level so events like this can happen, whether it’s a rugby event, whether it’s a fashion event, whether it’s the America’s Cup. Things like this will need to happen because society needs to move on.”
* Ticket holders seeking a refund on tickets purchased should contact iTicket directly.
