"Twenty-Five Years In, Plenty Left to Say": Frame's NZFW Wrap-Up
This year's NZFW Kahuria marked 25 years, and it felt like it — six days of shows, a proper city-wide off-site programme, and no shortage of big moments. Here's our take on the week: the shows, the street style, and where we think the industry actually stands.
On the runway
Opening night set the tone before a single look had even hit the runway. Staged in an underground car park on Great North Road and titled The Art of Style, the show blurred fashion into theatre — mixing shoppable, current-season pieces with archival costume from the Royal New Zealand Ballet and NZ Opera. The cast read like a guest list rather than a model call: restaurateur Josh Emett in a Crane Brothers tuxedo, musician Melodownz, poet Tayi Tibble, choreographer Neil Ieremia among them.
From there, the week built steadily toward its headline acts:
Caitlin Crisp took the coveted first solo designer slot, eight years on from her NZFW graduate debut — and sent six twirling ballet dancers down the runway alongside her models, trading the usual stony-faced procession for models high-fiving each other on their way past. Kathryn Wilson, Australian fashion journalist Patty Huntington and a surprise cameo from content creator Ellie Haines were all clocked in the crowd.
twenty-seven names marked 20 years in business with what everyone's calling a masterclass of a show, their first solo outing on the main schedule since 2018.
Juliette Hogan delivered the week's first genuine "wow" — literally, courtesy of stylist Levi Tan, who couldn't help himself every time a new look came out — closing on the designer's first-ever bridal gown. Word backstage beforehand was that she'd been "very secretive at the showroom."
The Studio, a brand-new addition to 2026's schedule, gathered 17 of the country's most interesting contemporary labels — Harris Tapper, Claudia Li, Penny Sage, Sylvester and more — under one roof.
Kathryn Wilson took a rare double-bill slot, while Claudia Li staged an off-site show at the Northern Club, all soft romance and elegant restraint.
The Graduate Collections proved once again why it's one of the most-anticipated shows of the week — Whitecliffe, Massey and Otago Polytechnic students pushing into oversized silhouettes and dramatic draping.
By Kai marked the Fashion Week debut of Makaira Lee, a decade in the making after years working behind the scenes as a stylist and art director. She walked out hand in hand with her mum and scooped up her five-year-old son on the way backstage — not a dry eye in the house.
Future of Fashion, driven by Giltrap Group, gave the week its dose of what's-next energy.
Kāhui Collective brought together eight Aotearoa-based Māori and Pasifika labels alongside eight international Indigenous brands, with Stan Walker performing live — easily one of the most moving shows of the week.
And Zambesi closed out the off-site calendar at Okahu Bay Wharf. Founded by Elisabeth and Neville Findlay back in 1979, it's one of the country's most enduring labels, and there was something fitting about seeing it out on the water instead of under Shed 10's roof.
Off the runway
NZFW has really leaned into being a city-wide event this year, not just a Shed 10 one. Yu Mei's exhibition, Elle & Riley's NZFW debut as they mark a decade in business, NOM*d and Plume's invite-only salon-style show at Hotel Britomart, and Vicki Taylor's showcase for her label taylor all ran alongside the main schedule.
Street style
Ask anyone who's spent the week ducking between shows and they'll tell you: the street style outside Shed 10 is its own event. Opening night went bold and bright, day two settled into something sharper — wide-leg trousers, structured blazers, a serious amount of black, cut through with the occasional floral nod to Juliette Hogan's own aesthetic. Big sunglasses and fearless colour have been the throughline all week, proof Kiwi style doesn't dim for a bit of Auckland weather.
Our favourite moment: Karen Walker
If one show has owned the week's conversation, it's Karen Walker's. A year on from her joyful, obstacle-course comeback with adidas — a show still doing the rounds on group chats twelve months later — Walker returned with something already being called her "chaotic Grand Tour," an off-site presentation at Auckland Art Gallery. Rather than professional models, she cast familiar faces: Thomasin and Davida McKenzie, Benee and iconic model Lorraine Downes alongside her daughter Jasmine Mexted. Different tone to last year, same instinct to do things entirely her own way — proof a homegrown icon can keep reinventing her own comeback and still leave a room stunned.
How's the industry actually doing?
Here's the part that matters as much to us as the frocks do. It's no secret local fashion and textile businesses are trading through real pressure — rising costs, and the particular squeeze of competing against ultra-fast fashion landing at a fraction of the price. Juliette Hogan, speaking as chair of industry group Fashion & Textiles NZ, has been candid about it: producing locally simply costs more, and local labels are absorbing that difference daily.
But the mood inside NZFW this week has been anything but defeated. If anything, the pressure seems to have pulled the industry closer together — more collaboration, more shared belief, more reasons to show up for each other. There's real institutional weight behind that optimism, too: NZFW secured Government backing through the Events Boost Fund for the first time in 15 years, alongside continued support from Tātaki Auckland Unlimited and presenting partner Giltrap Group. Add in the ongoing work from Mindful Fashion NZ around circularity and local manufacturing, and the picture is one of an industry actively reinvesting in its own future, not just weathering the moment.
For us at Frame, that's precisely the industry we love showing up for — full of talent, ambition and no shortage of creative nerve, even when the numbers are tight. Twenty-five years in, NZFW Kahuria is proving Aotearoa fashion still has plenty left to say.
*****This article reflects our understanding of the Human Rights Act 1993 and current Employment New Zealand guidance at the time of writing. It is not a substitute for legal advice — given how often guidance in this area shifts, confirm any specific decision against current Employment New Zealand resources or a qualified employment lawyer.
