New Zealand Fashion Week Kahuria 2026: Day 6 - The Shelter, Viva Presents Greatest Hits

The Viva team reports live from New Zealand Fashion Week Kahuria, with coverage of the major shows on the schedule. It’s the final day of NZFW and there are still some big highlights on the schedule. The day started over breakfast at The Shelter, Vicki Taylor’s contemporary department store, and The ShelterOne theme crystallised throughout two hours of mingling, speeches and croissants-for-breakfast at The Shelter: resourcefulness. Up-and-coming Aotearoa designers don’t cut corners on their way to success. They’re often quite literally cutting fabric, sewing buttonholes and hand-dying their own garments.Finn Mora-Hill, designer from local label Fringes, at The Shelter breakfast as part of New Zealand Fashion Week Kahuria 2026.Take Finn Mora-Hill of Fringes. He couldn’t remember how many buttons were on his hand-crafted jacket, but he says that, when worn with the matching pants, there are 6000 in total. He sewed every one by hand.The Shelter’s creative director Vicki Taylor has become something of a fashion godmother to the New Zealand designers she stocks. When she started Taylor Boutique in 1999, there were 45 businesses she could source fabric from in New Zealand. Today, there are just five. She’s painfully aware of how tough the market is for young designers.Moderating the live panel of up-and-coming designers, Vicki recalled how Julianna Jung, the designer behind Outerlines, first arrived at The Shelter as an intern. Vicki Taylor hosted a breakfast panel Q&A at her contemporary department store The Shelter as part of NZFW.“We were so impressed that we asked ourselves, ‘How do we get to keep her?’” she said. She called Jacob Coutie of J’ake Studios’ work “exquisite”, while describing basketballer-come-denim designer Oscar Clive Darling as “multitalented”.The perceived glamour of the industry was also playfully scoffed at. Jojo Ross summed it up: “I don’t think it’s a glamorous job at all. I hold a baby and have three rolls of fabric under my arm and have heels on. We’re glamorous when we come here, but total chaos elsewhere.”Laughing, Mora-Hill agreed. “My studio has holes in it, so it’s the same temperature as outside. In the winter, making this collection really sucked.”The message was clear: design is a labour of love, and for the industry to thrive, it needs support.Winnie Solomon, accepting the Helping Kiwis Fly award for her lable Winnie Catherine at The Future of Fashion NZ Fashion Week show. Photo / Corey Fleming When Winnie Catherine, winner of the Giltrap Group Helping Kiwis Fly award at this week’s Future of Fashion show, was asked how Kiwis can help, she had a simple answer: share designers’ work, attend their events and tell them when you like what they make. Chloe Giles of Anthurium jewellery agreed: “Every single designer pours their heart and soul into what they make, so if you buy something local and support the industry, it’s really meaningful.”Designs from Anthurium. Photo / Corey Fleming Designs from Anthurium. Photo / Corey Fleming Giles was thrilled that fashion is increasingly collaborating with the rest of the art world. “I’ve really enjoyed watching this shift of how we integrate the wider arts and culture into fashion. Even this week we saw so many dancers and artists incorporated into these shows. “As artists, we take inspiration from everything; we all talk and we all try to collaborate, so I’ve really enjoyed seeing this wave of recognising that fashion really is art.” William Fitzgerald of Jung-Ying captured the optimism: “There’s a lot of hope in New Zealand; there’s a really wonderful community here. We have a small market that allows you to be yourself.” More on New Zealand Fashion Week Kahuria 2026