How young designers are challenging the fashion industry

Diversity and sustainability are hitting the catwalk at New Zealand Fashion Week this year, with young designers increasingly incorporating socially responsible themes into their clothing.

Designers such as Towa's Mima Osawa are embracing the slow fashion movement in an attempt to minimise waste, which has been the norm within the fashion industry for decades. Her passion for natural fibres and biodegradable materials arose after she visited a Japanese factory and was shocked by the amount of waste that was created.

"I hope that we can inspire everyone else to really make smarter choices."

Osawa says it's been valuable to connect with other designers with a similar ethos.

"I think we all have the same purpose of wanting to support the slow fashion movement, wanting to utilise more sustainable methods in our business models."

These include some Next Gen designers, making their NZFW debuts on Thursday, who are also doing their part to reduce waste in fashion.

Nicole van Vuuren was similarly inspired to champion sustainability in her work after she noticed the amount of waste produced in the sample room.

"Exploring ways to use small offcuts of fabric, which is such an abundant thing in the industry... I wanted to put them to use," she said.

"I wanted to start exploring processes like patching and quilting and putting these small pieces together to make new textiles and garments out of the textiles."

Fellow Next Gen designer Nicole Hadfield, makes items from her Oosterom collection to order, allowing her to be more creative in her work.

"What pains me is seeing the amount of clothing that's not sold, or that is sold on sale because it has to be," she said.

"In my mind, it also allows me to create a more diverse collection because I'm not worried about it not selling.

"So if something is a bit more expressive or maybe not as commercial, I'm not nervous to produce it because I know that I don't have to make a lot of them."

Their mission is fully endorsed by NZ Fashion Week, with sustainability promoted as one of the main initiatives at this year's event.

NZFW general manager Yasmin Farry says the work to reduce the fashion industry's footprint is happening both on and off the runway.

"We're also doing education pieces, panel workshops to try and educate our consumers, as well as talking to our designers about building more sustainable businesses."

The idea of fashion being more than just an outfit, but a vessel to promote meaningful social change, is something many designers incorporated into their runway looks for the 2023 event.

Closing out Fashion Week this year is Maesteal Collective, a group of 10 Tamaki Makaurau creatives, who are looking to challenge gender norms in fashion with their androgynous, absurdist show.

One of the collective's designers, Copper Maesteal, says the looks were inspired the origins of the word "queer", which has recently been reclaimed by the rainbow community after historically being used as a derogatory term.

"A lot of what we do is try to take those professional gendered silhouettes and turn them on their head."

He wants to celebrate the "abnormal, strange, and bizarre" designs, and hopes Saturday night's show will spark a wider conversation about queerness in fashion.

"I hope that it leaves people questioning their perspectives on how they view professionalism, how they view the queer community, how they kind of view alienation, and how they just treat people in general."

Fellow designer Ange Maesteal wants the audience to leave with more questions than answers.

"Questions like: 'Why was this uncomfortable to me? Why was this part anxious to me? Why did i feel this emotion when i saw it?'"

Farry says NZFW is "absolutely" behind emerging designers entering the fashion world who are trying to make a difference with their trailblazing concepts.

"I love that because fashion is for everyone, for all humans, no matter who you are or where you come from and I personally love seeing the diversity on the runway," she said.

"It's been really fantastic and heartwarming."