PMN Summer Series: 'We've always been here' - Pacific fashion at NZFW

Welcome to PMN's Summer Series, where we republish some of our best and most popular stories from the last 12 months or so.

Sights and sounds of Poly pride strutted in the first solo Pacific segment at New Zealand Fashion Week.​

But not without a challenge to the mainstream industry to not count out Pacific fashion.

Pacific Fusion Fashion Show (PFFS) founder Nora Swann says Pasifika fashion has been contributing to New Zealand's fashion industry for decades.

"We've come into this space and they've been like, 'oh, how great that you're here', and I'm thinking, a lot of us are thinking, 'we've always been here'.

"Obviously we are here to make a statement to say that Pasifika Fashion is here, we're not going away."

PFFS featured nine Pacific Aotearoa based designers; KQTA, kea, Cherish, Kokoru, OHN, Lipo, Momo Aotearoa, Funk N' Soul97, and Peni Taehia. Each showcasing their unique twist and flair of patterns, texture and colour including a few head turning pieces that stretched the concept of traditional norms of Pacific wear.

Swann says the tides are turning.

"It was all about the right moment to take that step to come into this space, things are slowly starting to change. So we're starting to feel more accepted in mainstream.

"Really proud of my team, really proud of the designers and our Pasifika models."

​Pacific contribution finally acknowledged

Creative Producer Mario Faumui, who created the visual trailer​​ for the PFFS showcase, says Pacific recognition at such a premium event has been a long time coming.

​"It's long overdue. I feel like Pacific people have set the trend for New Zealand fashion. Not only locally but globally as well. When I think of fashion I think of Lindah Lepou, Sammy Salsa, Parris Goebel.

"It's not just a material or physical thing it's always an attitude and a swag. I feel like that's what Pasifika bring to the table."

​Pacific Fusion Fashion Show on it's own accord has been running annual fashion events for eight years and has always promoted Pacific contributors.​

Swann says New Zealand's fashion industry can be biased and Pacific designers and creators have been contributing to the wider industry for decades.

"We can't change the past but we can definitely control what's gonna happen in the future and Pasifika fashion is part of that future, especially if it's New Zealand Fashion Week as well."

After making massive fashion statement​ of his own in Parliament, former Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio was in the crowd.

"The arts always inspires and it opens up the mind to thinking about the possibilities and I've never been let down attending Nora Swann and her team."

MPP Support

Fashionistas attending the show included Secretary for Pacific Peoples Gerardine Clifford-Lidstone, who says the fresh young talent is daring and inspiring.

"You look for the ones that you can wear and that kind of thing, so the naked ones ... while I love the promotion of it, can't quite see myself in that, but big ups to that!"

Aupito wore a black ie faitaga with the colours of his tufuga and adorned with jewellery of personal value.

"My rings; one is from my American Navajo family [which] I got many years ago, and this one," he says while pointing to a square pounamu set in a sterling silver band, "was my parting gift from Parliament".

Nora Swann acknowledges the support of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples and says Aupito has particularly had a presence in the Pacific fashion community.

"He's seen our struggles, he's seen our successes. For me ... it was important he was here to honour him as well."

Creative collective

Faumui co-curated with fashion designer Sammy Salsa for the show's music arrangement where the audience listened to unapologetically Pasifika music. Hearing the likes of SWIDT's 'Bunga'​ and Savage ft. Aaradhna 'They don't know'​.

"As part of that theme of past, present, future with fashion, we incorporated that with some of our Pasifika musical icons to support the amazing fashion that went down."​

Faumui says Pacific fashion isn't just skin deep.

"It's not just a material or physical thing it's always an attitude and a swag. I feel like that's what Pasifika bring to the table."​

Leading female dance collective Ura Tabu opened and closed the event honouring the cultural dances of Moana, Oceania.

Swann says Creative Director of Ura Tabu Charlene Tedrow always exudes Pacific excellence.

"She's done so much for the Pacific dance community and I think they're one of the best in the industry. We wanted to come and bring the best and we knew it was Ura Tabu."​

What's next for PFFS

​The Pacific Fusion Fashion Show 2023 aims to explore the creative realms of designers and their cultural ideologies, uncovering how their origins influence and manifest through their work.​

​Nora Swann says what was showcased at NZFW 2023 is a glimpse into the largest high-end Pacific fashion event in New Zealand happening this December - adding that it will take place in South Auckland.

"We've been around forever, Pacific Fashion right? But we had to come into a mainstream space and say 'this is what we're made of' and this is only a snippet of what's to come."

With 24 designers locally in Aotearoa and from the Pasifika region including iconic brands like Mena and Tav, Swann says the event will be worth waiting for.