NZ Fashion Week Kahuria 2026 opens with Josh Emett, Lorraine Downes and Melodownz on runway

A rapper, a chef and an art dealer walk on to a runway – it must be opening night at New Zealand Fashion Week Kahuria. All the world’s a stage and that included an underground carpark on Auckland’s Great North Rd where restaurateur Josh Emett modelled a Crane Brothers tuxedo Chef and restaurateur Josh Emett wears Crane Brothers tuxedo jacket, shirt and trousers on the runway at the NZFW opening show. Photo / Dean PurcellFashion Week’s opening show, The Art of Style: The Performance of Dressing, mixed shoppable and past season’s designer fashion with historic costume pieces from the Royal New Zealand Ballet and NZ Opera (think Captain Hook’s embroidered coat and a corset from Peter Pan paired with jeans, and fashion legend Doris de Pont who walked in her own labels – and a tutu from The Nutcracker).Fashion historian and designer Doris de Pont wears Doris de Pont x Gregory O'Brien jacket (2006), DNA fingerless gloves (2002) and tattoo tights (2004), tutu from the RNZB's The Nutcracker (2018) by Patricia Barker, Margo Barton Millinery hibiscus and feather printed acrylic hat (2004). Photo / Dean PurcellBut before the show, speeches. Mayor Wayne Brown referenced the days when he owned a surf brand, claiming he had never been fashionable like his wife.Brown went on to call Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson the “council’s queen of brands”, prompting laughter from guests.“My wife’s telling me to shut up, but I’m excited,” Brown said.NZFW owner and chairman Feroz Ali praised the industry for “coming together and just pushing forward”, while Giltrap Group chief executive Steve Kenchington welcomed guests by joking he had “never seen so many prospects in a Bentley showroom ever”.“Fashion and automotives share many of the same motives and challenges,” Kenchington said.All up, 56 models trekked the circuitous route around the Giltrap Group’s headquarters. Other runway names synonymous with Aotearoa fashion included 1983’s Miss Universe Lorraine Downes in a Knuefermann dress. (Her daughter, Jasmine Mexted appeared wearing Harris Tapper and Liz Mitchell collar.Lorraine Downes walks the runway at the New Zealand Fashion Week Kahuria's opening show The Art of Style. Photo / Dean PurcellGuests were asked to wear flat shoes to navigate the steep incline down to the basement runway. Among those who ignored instructions were the Deputy Mayor and government minister Louise Upston.The room thudded with a soundtrack heavy on creative references – Lady Gaga’s Art Pop, CSS’s Art Bitch and quote of the night from director David Cronenburg’s monologue on Charli XCX’s Music, Fashion, Film album: “I wasn’t thinking about art as endurance, as immortality . . . they are dead, they are gone, no one lasts forever.”Auckland Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson and Minister for Social Development and Employment, Tourism and Hospitality, Louise Upston, pictured at the New Zealand Fashion Week Kahuria opening night event at Giltrap Group on Great North Road. Photo / Dean PurcellDan Ahwa, NZFW creative director and stylist, said the opening night show was less focused on the archival (“I didn’t want to reheat the nachos”) and more on the performance and humanity of getting dressed.“How does clothing shape our identity in a world where algorithms can predict and shape our tastes before we’ve had the chance to experiment?“This show is a celebration of personal style – the way a skewwhiff shirt sits untucked under a sweater, or how a cigarette burn in a silk dress is a reminder of one of the best nights of your life. Fashion for life, not a screen.”A model wearing an archival Vinka Lucas gown at NZFW opening night runway show. Photo / Dean PurcellPoet Tayi Tibble wearing a design from Miriama Grace Smith. Photo / Dean PurcellArtist and curator Jade Townsend. Photo / Dean PurcellAesthetic references included southern Gothics, impressionist painters and the work of significant Māori and Pacific artists. But it was not about “perfect” taste, said Ahwa.“Personally, I prefer bad taste.”Earlier in the week, he told Viva “it’s a show that is very much about styling, rather than the clothes themselves, if that makes sense? And there’s always that question of whether fashion is art”.Black Grace founder and choreographer Neil leremia ONZM wears Doris de Pont x John Pule shirt (2004), and his own denim lavalava. Photo / Dean PurcellOn the opening night runway, art and fashion collisions included both the literal – Kate Sylvester’s 2019 collection featuring Frances Hodgkins textile designs, and a Doris du Pont collaboration with artist John Pule, for example – and the political.Look to gallery exhibition notes for an explanation of Rosanna Raymond’s Backhand Maiden. The artist, poet, cultural commentator (and fashion model in the 1980s) has previously explained her open-backed Edwardian-style barkcloth dress as “a trojan horse, as a lady she can go places I can’t, but once she is in . . . ”Artist and poet Rosanna Raymond on the runway at the New Zealand Fashion Week Kahuria. Photo / Dean PurcellMore art-meets-fashion? Ahwa and associate stylist Courtney Joe sourced one-off sculptural draping from Christchurch label and conceptual art project 6 x 4, and screen printed mesh from Rosin Dubh, a designer Bizarre Bazaar has called “New Zealand’s Jean Paul Gaultier”.When an embellished A-line skirt by Heather Brennan Evans (one of eight designers on Wednesday’s Future of Fashion schedule) came out paired with a 1970s enamelled copper top from longtime Otago fashion academic Margot Raymond, it felt like a gift to the viewer – fashion as history; history made by the way we choose to wear that fashion. New Zealand Fashion Week 2026 continues until August 22. Tuesday’s schedule includes Caitlin Crisp, Yu Mei, Elle & Riley, Juliette Hogan, NOM*d & Plume, Taylor and Khadi Beyond Borders.Fashion designer Rory William Docherty, pictured at the New Zealand Fashion Week Kahuria opening night event at Giltrap Group on Great North Road. Photo / Dean PurcellDame Julie Christie, centre, pictured with her daughter Lexi Jones, left, and Judith Collins, at the New Zealand Fashion Week Kahuria opening night event at Giltrap Group on Great North Road. Photo / Dean Purcell New Zealand Fashion Week Kahuria opening night event at Giltrap Group on Great North Road. Photo / Dean Purcell Fashion influencer Jess Molina and Auckland councillor Richard Hills at the New Zealand Fashion Week Kahuria opening night event at Giltrap Group on Great North Road. Photo / Dean PurcellWith additional reporting from Imogene BedfordMore on New Zealand Fashion